1 “You are also to make an altar of acacia wood for the burning of incense. 2 It is to be square, a cubit long, a cubit wide, and two cubits high. Its horns must be of one piece. 3 Overlay with pure gold the top and all the sides and horns, and make a molding of gold around it. 4 And make two gold rings below the molding on opposite sides to hold the poles used to carry it. 5 Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 6 Place 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. 7 And Aaron is to burn fragrant incense on it every morning when he tends the lamps. 8 When Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he must burn the incense perpetually before the LORD for the generations to come. 9 On 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. 10 Once 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 the LORD.” 11 Then the LORD said to Moses, 12 “When you take a census of the Israelites to number them, each man must pay the LORD a ransom for his life when he is counted. Then no plague will come upon them when they are numbered. 13 Everyone who crosses over to those counted must pay a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs. This half shekel is an offering to the LORD. 14 Everyone twenty years of age or older who crosses over must give this offering to the LORD. 15 In making the offering to the LORD to atone for your lives, the rich shall not give more than a half shekel, nor shall the poor give less. 16 Take 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 the LORD to make atonement for your lives.” 17 And the LORD 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, 19 with which Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet. 20 Whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting or approach the altar to minister by presenting an offering made by fire to the LORD, they must wash with water so that they will not die. 21 Thus 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.” 22 Then the LORD said to Moses, 23 “Take the finest spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half that amount (250 shekels) of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of fragrant cane, 24 500 shekels of cassia —all according to the sanctuary shekel—and a hin of olive oil. 25 Prepare from these a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer; it will be a sacred anointing oil. 26 Use this oil to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Testimony, 27 the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and its utensils, the altar of incense, 28 the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the basin with its stand. 29 You are to consecrate them so that they will be most holy. Whatever touches them shall be holy. 30 Anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them to serve Me as priests. 31 And you are to tell the Israelites, ‘This will be My sacred anointing oil for the generations to come. 32 It 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. 33 Anyone who mixes perfume like it or puts it on an outsider shall be cut off from his people.’” 34 The LORD also said to Moses, “Take fragrant spices—gum resin, onycha, galbanum, and pure frankincense—in equal measures, 35 and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy. 36 Grind 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. 37 You are never to use this formula to make incense for yourselves; you shall regard it as holy to the LORD. 38 Anyone who makes something like it to enjoy its fragrance shall be cut off from his people.”
Exodus · Berean Standard Bible
Exodus 30 Berean Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Aaron
Moses' brother and spokesman, Israel's first high priest.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 4–40; Leviticus 8–10
Moses
Drawn from the Nile, he led Israel out of Egypt and received God's Law.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 2–Deuteronomy 34
Cross references (33)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Revelation 8:3; Exodus 37:25–28; Leviticus 4:7; Exodus 40:5; Exodus 30:7–8
- 2 Exodus 27:2
- 3 Exodus 25:24; Exodus 25:11
- 4 Exodus 25:27; Exodus 26:29; Exodus 27:7; Exodus 27:4; Exodus 25:14
- 5 Exodus 25:13; Exodus 25:27
- 6 Exodus 25:21–22; Matthew 27:51; Exodus 30:36; Exodus 26:31–35; Exodus 40:26
- 7 1 Samuel 2:28; Luke 1:9; Exodus 27:20–21; 1 Chronicles 23:13; Exodus 30:34
- 8 Hebrews 9:24; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Exodus 12:6; Hebrews 7:25; Romans 8:34
- 9 Leviticus 10:1
- 10 Leviticus 16:18; Hebrews 9:22–23; Exodus 29:36–37; Leviticus 16:29–30; Hebrews 9:25
- 12 Numbers 31:50; Exodus 38:25–26; 1 Peter 1:18–19; 1 Chronicles 27:24; Matthew 20:28
- 13 Leviticus 27:25; Numbers 3:47; Ezekiel 45:12; Matthew 17:24; Exodus 38:26
- 14 Numbers 1:20; Numbers 26:2; Numbers 32:11; Numbers 14:29; Numbers 1:18
- 15 Numbers 31:50; Exodus 30:12; Job 34:19; Ephesians 6:9; Leviticus 17:11
- 16 Nehemiah 10:32–33; Numbers 16:40; Exodus 12:14; Exodus 38:25–31; Luke 22:19
- 18 Exodus 40:7; Exodus 38:8; 2 Chronicles 4:14–15; 1 Kings 7:23; Exodus 40:30–32
- 19 Isaiah 52:11; Psalm 26:6; Exodus 40:31–32; Hebrews 10:22; Hebrews 9:10
- 20 Leviticus 10:1–3; 1 Samuel 6:19; Leviticus 16:1–2; Psalm 89:7; Acts 5:5
- 21 Exodus 28:43; Exodus 27:21
- 23 Song of Songs 4:14; Ezekiel 27:19; Ezekiel 27:22; Jeremiah 6:20; Psalm 45:8
- 24 Psalm 45:8; Exodus 29:40; Ezekiel 45:12; Numbers 3:47; Leviticus 19:36
- 25 Exodus 37:29; Psalm 89:20; Exodus 40:9; 1 Chronicles 9:30; Psalm 133:2
- 26 Numbers 7:1; 1 John 2:20; Isaiah 61:1; Leviticus 8:10–12; 1 John 2:27
- 29 Exodus 29:37; Matthew 23:19; Leviticus 6:18; Matthew 23:17
- 30 Leviticus 8:12; Exodus 28:3; Leviticus 8:30; Numbers 3:3; Exodus 40:15
- 31 Leviticus 8:12; Psalm 89:20; Exodus 37:29; Leviticus 21:10
- 32 Exodus 30:25; Leviticus 21:10; Matthew 7:6; Exodus 30:37–38
- 33 Exodus 30:38; Genesis 17:14; Exodus 12:15; Exodus 12:19; Leviticus 17:9
- 34 Exodus 37:29; Exodus 30:23; Leviticus 2:15; Exodus 25:6; Song of Songs 3:6
- 35 Leviticus 2:13; Exodus 30:25; John 12:3; Song of Songs 1:3; Song of Songs 3:6
- 36 Exodus 25:22; Leviticus 16:2; Exodus 16:34; Exodus 29:42–43; Exodus 30:6
- 37 Exodus 29:37; Exodus 30:32–33; Leviticus 2:3
- 38 Exodus 30:33
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
Perhaps it escaped the notice of the Saviour, or, while their Mother was sleeping, the Demiurge of himself gave instructions as to its weight; and on this account it is out of harmony with their Pleroma, consisting, as it did, of five hundred shekels of myrrh, five hundred of cassia, two hundred and fifty of cinnamon, two hundred and fifty …
… of harmony with their Pleroma, consisting, as it did, of five hundred shekels of myrrh, five hundred of cassia, two hundred and fifty of cinnamon, two hundred and fifty of calamus, and oil in addition, so that it was composed of five ingredients. The incense also, in like manner, [was compounded] of stacte, onycha, galbanum, mint, and frankincense, all which …