1And you shall make an altar, a place for burning incense; you shall make it of acacia wood. 2It shall be a cubit in length and a cubit in width; it shall be square. And its height shall be two cubits, its horns from itself. 3And you shall overlay it with pure gold, its top, and its walls all around, and its horns. And you shall make a wreath of gold for it all around. 4And you shall make two rings of gold for it under its wreath; you shall make its two corners on its two sides; and they shall be housings for poles, to lift them up by it. 5And you shall make the poles of acacia wood; and you shall overlay them with gold. 6And you shall put it in front of the veil which is beside the ark of the testimony; in front of the mercyseat which is over the testimony, there where I meet you. 7And Aaron shall burn incense of perfume on it morning by morning; when he dresses the lamps he shall burn it. 8And when Aaron sets up the lamps between the evenings he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before the face of Jehovah for your generations. 9You shall not offer up strange incense on it, and burnt offering and food offering; and you shall not pour out a drink offering, to go up on it. 10And Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once in a year; from the blood of the sin offering of the atonement once in the year he shall make atonement on it for your generations; it is most holy to Jehovah. 11And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, 12When you lift up the head of the sons of Israel, of those numbered, each one shall give the ransom of his soul to Jehovah when numbering them; and there shall not be a plague among them when numbering them. 13They shall give this, everyone passing over to those numbered: half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary, twenty gerahs being a shekel; half a shekel as an offering to Jehovah. 14Every one passing over to those numbered, from a son of twenty years and upward, shall give the offering of Jehovah. 15The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, to give the offering of Jehovah, to make atonement for your souls. 16And you shall take the silver of atonement from the sons of Israel and you shall give it to the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; and it shall be for the sons of Israel for remembrance before the face of Jehovah, to make atonement for your souls. 17And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, 18And you shall make a bronze laver for washing, and its base bronze. And you shall put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar; and you shall put water there. 19And Aaron and his sons shall wash from it, their hands and their feet; 20as they go into the tabernacle of the congregation they shall wash with water, and shall not die; or as they draw near to the altar to minister, to burn a fire offering to Jehovah. 21And they shall wash their hands and their feet, and shall not die. And it shall be a never ending statute to them, to him and to his seed for their generations. 22And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, 23And you take spices for yourself, the best, five hundred of pure myrrh, and its half of spicy cinnamon, two hundred and fifty shekels, and two hundred and fifty of aromatic calamus; 24and five hundred of cassia, by the shekel of the sanctuary; and a hin of olive oil. 25And you shall make it an oil of holy anointing, ointment compound, the work of a perfumer, an oil of holy anointing it shall be. 26And you shall anoint with it the tabernacle of the congregation and the ark of the testimony, 27and the table and all its vessels and the altar of incense, 28and the altar of burnt offering, and all its vessels, and the laver and its base. 29And you shall sanctify them, and they shall become most holy; everything touching them shall become holy. 30And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and you shall consecrate them to minister as priests to Me. 31And you shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, This shall be a holy anointing oil for Me for your generations. 32It shall not be poured on the flesh of man, and you shall not make any like it in its proportion; it is holy. It shall be holy to you. 33If a man prepares any like it, or who gives from it to a stranger, he shall be cut off from his people. 34And Jehovah said to Moses, Take perfumes for yourself, spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum, spices, and pure frankincense, a part shall be for a part. 35And you shall make it incense, an ointment, a work of a perfumer, salted, pure and holy. 36And you shall grind some of it fine, and put some of it in front of the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I meet you. It shall be most holy to you. 37And the incense which you make, in its proportion, you shall not make for yourselves; it shall be holy to you for Jehovah. 38If a man makes any like it, to smell of it, he shall be cut off from his people.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 THE ALTAR OF INCENSE. (Exo. 30:1-38)
thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon, &c.--Its material was to be like that of the ark of the testimony, but its dimensions very small [
Exod 25:10].
2 foursquare--the meaning of which is not that it was to be entirely of a cubical form, but that upon its upper and under surface, it showed four equal sides. It was twice as high as it was broad, being twenty-one inches broad and three feet six inches high. It had "horns"; its top or flat surface was surmounted by an ornamental ledge or rim, called a crown, and it was furnished at the sides with rings for carriage. Its only accompanying piece of furniture was a golden censer or pan, in which the incense was set fire to upon the altar. Hence it was called the altar of incense, or the "golden altar" [
Exod 39:38;
Exod 40:26], from the profuse degree in which it was gilded or overlaid with the precious metal. This splendor was adapted to the early age of the church, but in later times, when the worship was to be more spiritual, the altar of incense is prophetically described as not of gold but of wood, and double the size of that in the tabernacle, because the church should be vastly extended (
Mal 1:11).
6 thou shalt put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony--which separated the holy from the most holy place. The altar was in the middle between the table of showbread and the candlestick next the holy of holies, at equal distances from the north and south walls; in other words, it occupied a spot on the outside of the great partition veil, but directly in front of the mercy seat, which was within that sacred enclosure; so that although the priest who ministered at this altar could not behold the mercy seat, he was to look towards it, and present his incense in that direction. This was a special arrangement, and it was designed to teach the important lesson that, though we cannot with the eye of sense, see the throne of grace, we must "direct our prayer to it and look up" [
Ps 5:3] (compare
2Cor 3:14;
Heb 10:20;
Rev 4:1).
7 Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense--literally, "incense of spices"--Strong aromatic substances were burnt upon this altar to counteract by their odoriferous fragrance the offensive fumes of the sacrifices; or the incense was employed in an offering of tributary homage which the Orientals used to make as a mark of honor to kings; and as God was Theocratic Ruler of Israel, His palace was not to be wanting in a usage of such significancy. Both these ends were served by this altar--that of fumigating the apartments of the sacred edifice, while the pure lambent flame, according to Oriental notions, was an honorary tribute to the majesty of Israel's King. But there was a far higher meaning in it still; for as the tabernacle was not only a palace for Israel's King, but a place of worship for Israel's God, this altar was immediately connected with a religious purpose. In the style of the sacred writers, incense was a symbol or emblem of prayer (
Ps 141:2;
Rev 5:8;
Rev 8:3). From the uniform combination of the two services, it is evident that the incense was an emblem of the prayers of sincere worshippers ascending to heaven in the cloud of perfume; and, accordingly, the priest who officiated at this altar typified the intercessory office of Christ (
Luke 1:10;
Heb 7:25).
every morning . . . at even--In every period of the national history this daily worship was scrupulously observed.
8 Aaron shall burn incense--seemingly limiting the privilege of officiating at the altar of incense to the high priest alone, and there is no doubt that he and his successors exclusively attended this altar on the great religious festivals. But "Aaron" is frequently used for the whole priestly order, and in later times, any of the priests might have officiated at this altar in rotation (
Luke 1:9).
9 Ye shall offer no strange incense--that is, of a different composition from that of which the ingredients are described so minutely.
11 When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel, &c.--Moses did so twice, and doubtless observed the law here prescribed. The tax was not levied from women, minors, old men (
Num 1:42,
Num 1:45), and the Levites (
Num 1:47), they being not numbered. Assuming the shekel of the sanctuary to be about half an ounce troy, though nothing certain is known about it, the sum payable by each individual was two and four pence. This was not a voluntary contribution, but a ransom for the soul or lives of the people. It was required from all classes alike, and a refusal to pay implied a wilful exclusion from the privileges of the sanctuary, as well as exposure to divine judgments. It was probably the same impost that was exacted from our Lord (
Matt 17:24-
Matt 17:27), and it was usually devoted to repairs and other purposes connected with the services of the sanctuary.
18 Thou shalt . . . make a laver of brass--Though not actually forming a component part of the furniture of the tabernacle, this vase was closely connected with it; and though from standing at the entrance it would be a familiar object, it possessed great interest and importance from the baptismal purposes to which it was applied. No data are given by which its form and size can be ascertained; but it was probably a miniature pattern of Solomon's--a circular basin.
his foot--supposed not to be the pedestal on which it rested, but a trough or shallow receptacle below, into which the water, let out from a cock or spout, flowed; for the way in which all Eastern people wash their hands or feet is by pouring upon them the water which falls into a basin. This laver was provided for the priests alone. But in the Christian dispensation, all believers are priests, and hence the apostle exhorts them how to draw near to God (
John 13:10;
Heb 10:22).
23 Take thou also . . . principal spices, &c.--Oil is frequently mentioned in Scripture as an emblem of sanctification, and anointing with it a means of designating objects as well as persons to the service of God. Here it is prescribed by divine authority, and the various ingredients in their several proportions described which were to compose the oil used in consecrating the furniture of the tabernacle.
myrrh--a fragrant and medicinal gum from a little known tree in Arabia.
sweet cinnamon--produced from a species of laurel or sweet bay, found chiefly in Ceylon, growing to a height of twenty feet: this spice is extracted from the inner bark, but it is not certain whether that mentioned by Moses is the same as that with which we are familiar.
sweet calamus--or sweet cane, a product of Arabia and India, of a tawny color in appearance; it is like the common cane and strongly odoriferous.
24 cassia--from the same species of tree as the cinnamon--some think the outer bark of that tree. All these together would amount to one hundred twenty pounds, troy weight.
hin--a word of Egyptian origin, equal to ten pints. Being mixed with the olive oil--no doubt of the purest kind--this composition probably remained always in a liquid state, and the strictest prohibition issued against using it for any other purpose than anointing the tabernacle and its furniture.
34 the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices--These were:
stacte--the finest myrrh;
onycha--supposed to be an odoriferous shell;
galbanum--a gum resin from an umbelliferous plant.
frankincense--a dry, resinous, aromatic gum, of a yellow color, which comes from a tree in Arabia, and is obtained by incision of the bark. This incense was placed within the sanctuary, to be at hand when the priest required to burn on the altar. The art of compounding unguents and perfumes was well known in Egypt, where sweet-scented spices were extensively used not only in common life, but in the ritual of the temples. Most of the ingredients here mentioned have been found on minute examination of mummies and other Egyptian relics; and the Israelites, therefore, would have the best opportunities of acquiring in that country the skill in pounding and mixing them which they were called to exercise in the service of the tabernacle. But the recipe for the incense as well as for the oil in the tabernacle, though it receives illustration from the customs of Egypt, was peculiar, and being prescribed by divine authority, was to be applied to no common or inferior purpose.