CENSER, in Antiquity, a vase containing incense to be used in sacrifices. Censer is chiefly used in speaking of the Jewish worship. Among the Greeks and Romans it is more frequently called thuribulum, ἡσάντις, and acerra.
The Jewish censer was a small sort of chafing dish, covered with a dome, and suspended by a chain. Josephus tells us that Solomon made twenty thousand golden censers for the temple of Jerusalem, to offer perfumes in, and fifty thousand others to carry fire in.