Exodus 30 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~1446 BC on the earlier dating, or ~1260 BC on the later one, while Moses is still on the mountain
Location
Mount Sinai, with instructions covering the remaining furnishings of the tent sanctuary
Audience
The people of Israel, including every adult male who would pay the sanctuary tax
Situation
God gives plans for the gold incense altar, a half shekel payment from every man counted in the census, a bronze basin where priests washed their hands and feet, and precise recipes for the anointing oil and the incense. Both mixtures are reserved for sanctuary use, and copying them for personal use is forbidden.
Key Background
Incense was burned in temples throughout Egypt and Mesopotamia, valued both as a fragrant offering and for masking the smell of animal sacrifice, and its rising smoke was widely understood as prayer going up. The census payment was identical for rich and poor, which cut against the usual practice of taxing by wealth and made the point that no one's standing before God could be bought at a higher rate. The listed spices, myrrh, cinnamon, cassia, frankincense and others, were expensive long-distance trade goods carried from Arabia and further east, so the ban on reproducing the blends was partly about keeping something genuinely costly set apart rather than turned into perfume.
Yahweh said to Moses, "Build an out of for burning
Make it square — eighteen inches long, eighteen inches wide, and three feet tall. Its should be carved from the same piece of wood.
Cover the top surface, all four sides, and the horns with pure gold, and run a gold border around the edge.
Make two gold rings and attach them below the border on two opposite sides — these will hold the carrying poles.
Make the poles from acacia wood and cover them with gold.
Place the altar in front of the curtain that hangs before the the of the — in front of the over the — where I will meet with you.
will burn fragrant incense on it every morning when he takes care of the lamps.
And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he'll burn incense again. This regular incense offering to Yahweh must continue through every generation.
Don't offer any on this altar, and don't use it for burnt offerings, grain offerings, or drink offerings.
Once a year, Aaron must perform a on the altar's horns using the blood from the that makes things right. This annual must continue through every generation. This altar to
Yahweh told Moses,
"When you take a of the Israelites, each person counted must pay Yahweh a for his life. Do this so that no disaster strikes them during the count.
Everyone who is counted must give a measured by the at where a shekel equals twenty gerahs. This is a to Yahweh.
Everyone twenty years old and above who is counted must give this contribution to Yahweh.
The wealthy shouldn't give more and the poor shouldn't give less than the half-shekel when making this contribution to Yahweh to pay the ransom for your lives.
Take the ransom money from the Israelites and use it for the service of the It will stand as a reminder before Yahweh on behalf of the Israelites — a ransom for your lives."
Yahweh told Moses,
"Make a bronze with a bronze stand for washing. Place it between the meeting tent and the altar, and fill it with water.
Aaron and his sons must wash their hands and feet from it.
Whenever they enter the meeting tent or approach the altar to serve — to burn an offering made by fire to Yahweh — they must wash with water so they
They must wash their hands and feet so they don't die. This is a for Aaron and his descendants throughout every generation."
Yahweh told Moses,
"Gather the finest spices: twelve and a half pounds of liquid half that amount — six and a quarter pounds — of six and a quarter pounds of
twelve and a half pounds of all measured by the at and a gallon of olive oil.
Have a skilled perfumer blend these into an for a carefully crafted fragrant blend. This will be the for
Use it to anoint the meeting tent, the chest containing the terms of the agreement,
the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and its equipment, the incense altar,
the burnt offering altar and all its utensils, and the basin with its stand.
them for and they will belong to him completely, so that anything touching them belongs to him too.
Then anoint Aaron and his sons and set them apart to serve me as
Tell the Israelites: 'This will be my anointing oil, kept for me alone, for every generation.
It must never be poured on an ordinary person's body, and you must never make anything with the same recipe. It to and you must treat it that way.
Anyone who blends something like it, or puts it on an outsider, must be from their
Yahweh told Moses, "Take these fragrant materials — stacte, — along with pure in equal amounts,
and have a perfumer blend them into incense, pure, and kept for God.
Grind some of it into a fine powder and place it in front of the chest containing the terms of the agreement in the meeting tent, where I will meet with you. Treat it as belonging completely to God.
Never make incense for yourselves with this recipe. Treat it as belonging to Yahweh alone.
Anyone who makes incense like it just to enjoy its smell must be cut off from their people."