Exodus 30

The Altar of Incense// Exodus 37:25–29

¹“You are also to make an altar of acacia wood for the burning of incense. ²It is to be square, 18 inches long, 18 inches wide, and 36 inches high. Its horns must be of one piece. ³Overlay with pure gold the top and all the sides and horns, and make a molding of gold around it. ⁴And make two gold rings below the molding on opposite sides to hold the poles used to carry it. ⁵Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.

⁶Place the altar in front of the veil that is before the ark of the Testimony—before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony—where I will meet with you. ⁷And Aaron is to burn fragrant incense on it every morning when he tends the lamps. ⁸When Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he must burn the incense perpetually before Yahweh for the generations to come. ⁹On this altar you must not offer unauthorized incense or a burnt offering or grain offering; nor are you to pour a drink offering on it.

¹⁰Once a year Aaron shall make atonement on the horns of the altar. Throughout your generations he shall make atonement on it annually with the blood of the sin offering of atonement. The altar is most holy to Yahweh.”

The Census Offering// 2 Samuel 24:1–9; 1 Chronicles 21:1–6

¹¹Then Yahweh said to Moses, ¹²“When you take a census of the Israelites to number them, each man must pay Yahweh a ransom for his life when he is counted. Then no plague will come upon them when they are numbered. ¹³Everyone who crosses over to those counted must pay a fifth of an ounce, weighed by the sanctuary standard. This fifth of an ounce is an offering to Yahweh.

¹⁴Everyone twenty years of age or older who crosses over must give this offering to Yahweh. ¹⁵In making the offering to Yahweh to atone for your lives, the rich shall not give more than a fifth of an ounce, nor shall the poor give less. ¹⁶Take the atonement money from the Israelites and use it for the service of the Tent of Meeting. It will serve as a memorial for the Israelites before Yahweh to make atonement for your lives.”

The Bronze Basin// Exodus 38:8

¹⁷And Yahweh said to Moses, ¹⁸“You are to make a bronze basin with a bronze stand for washing. Set it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it, ¹⁹with which Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet. ²⁰Whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting or approach the altar to minister by presenting a food offering to Yahweh, they must wash with water so that they will not die. ²¹Thus they are to wash their hands and feet so that they will not die; this shall be a permanent statute for Aaron and his descendants for the generations to come.”

The Anointing Oil

²²Then Yahweh said to Moses, ²³“Take the finest spices: 12½ pounds of liquid myrrh, half that amount (6¼ pounds) of fragrant cinnamon, 6¼ pounds of kaneh bosem, ²⁴12½ pounds of cassia—all weighed by the sanctuary standard—and a gallon of olive oil. ²⁵Prepare from these a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer; it will be a sacred anointing oil.

• EX 30:23[NOTABLE]The recipe for the holy anointing oil. Most English Bibles call the third spice calamus, sweet cane or fragrant cane, but the Hebrew root words are kaneh bosem, which means fragrant reed. In 1936 a Polish scholar named Sula Benet pointed this out and made the case that kaneh bosem may have really been cannabis, the word she believed cannabis came from. The scholarly consensus is that it was not cannabis but a sweet smelling reed like calamus or lemongrass.

²⁶Use this oil to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Testimony, ²⁷the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and its utensils, the altar of incense, ²⁸the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the basin with its stand. ²⁹You are to consecrate them so that they will be most holy. Whatever touches them shall be holy. ³⁰Anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them to serve Me as priests.

³¹And you are to tell the Israelites, ‘This will be My sacred anointing oil for the generations to come. ³²It must not be used to anoint an ordinary man, and you must not make anything like it with the same formula. It is holy, and it must be holy to you. ³³Anyone who mixes perfume like it or puts it on an outsider shall be cut off from his people.’”

The Incense

³⁴Yahweh also said to Moses, “Take fragrant spices—gum resin, onycha, galbanum, and pure frankincense—in equal measures, ³⁵and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy. ³⁶Grind some of it into fine powder and place it in front of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. ³⁷You are never to use this formula to make incense for yourselves; you shall regard it as holy to Yahweh. ³⁸Anyone who makes something like it to enjoy its fragrance shall be cut off from his people.”

• EX 30:34[NOTABLE]The recipe for the holy incense, burned on the gold altar inside the tent every morning and evening, 30:7 to 8. Some point out that three of the four ingredients may be psychoactive, which means God was literally telling the Levite priests to light it up under a tent. Lab studies back this for frankincense, whose smoke acted on the brain in mice in a 2008 study, and for myrrh, a likely match for the gum resin, which eased pain in mice in 1996. Most scholars say the incense was a sweet smell picturing prayer rising to God, Psalm 141:2, and its effect on people is not proven.