Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(set on fire). A small portable vessel of copper (Num. 16:39; Lev. 16:12), or gold (1 Kings 7:50; Heb. 9:4), for carrying the coals on which incense was burned.
Concise Bible Dictionary:
A small vessel made of metal, to contain burning coals from the altar, on which incense was sprinkled by the priest, that a cloud of incense might arise therefrom (Lev. 10:1; Lev. 16:12). Solomon made some of gold (1 Kings 7:50; 2 Chron. 4:22; Heb. 9:4; Rev. 8:3,5). The same word is used when the company of Korah, Dathan and Abiram were put to the test; the censers were probably hastily constructed ones, for 250 were needed. Aaron ran with a censer and incense between the living and the dead, and the plague was stayed (Num. 16:6-48). The same Hebrew word is translated “fire-pan” (Ex. 27:3; Ex. 38:3; 2 Kings 25:15; Jer. 52:19).
From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Hebrews 9:3-4. After the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the holiest of all; which had the golden censer.
Commentators are perplexed as to the meaning of θυμιατήριον, rendered “censer” in this text. Some suppose the golden altar of incense is meant; but it is difficult to reconcile this opinion with the fact that this altar was not in the Most Holy Place. Others refer it to the censer which the high-priest used on the Great Day of Atonement. This utensil, however, is not said to have been made of gold. On the contrary, Exodus 27:3,19, indicate that it was made of brass. Reference seems to be made to a special vessel of gold which remained perpetually in the Most Holy Place of the Mosaic Tabernacle. It is not alluded to in any other part of the Bible.
Meyer, in his Bibeldeutungen, has an essay discussing this subject, in which he advances the opinion that there were two kinds of incense used in the Tabernacle; the first described in Exodus 30:7-8 and the second in Exodus 30:34-36. “The first or holy incense was used daily for burning on the coals; but the other, or most holy incense, that which was hallowed, was used cold, like our smelling-salts, and was set in the Most Holy Place before the Ark of the Covenant, diffusing a perpetual fragrance. In order that the mixture might accomplish the end designed it was pulverized, and possibly some other chemical process was added, (verse 35). That it might remain before the Testimony, the place where it was positively ordered to be it was proper that there should be a vessel, a thumiaterion, an open perfume dish or cup; this vessel was undoubtedly of gold, as were the other vessels of the Most Holy Place” (Bibeldeutungen, pp. 7-8).
Meyer thinks he has thus discovered the meaning of the word. “censer” in the text. His explanation is certainly plausible, and not liable to the difficulties which beset the others.
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