The Bible

Exodus Chapter 30

¹Make an altar to burn incense on. Make it of acacia wood. ²It will be a cubit long, and a cubit wide. It is to be square, and two cubits high. Its horns are to be of one piece with it. ³Overlay it with pure gold, its top, its sides around it, and its horns; and make a gold molding around it. ⁴Make two golden rings for it under its molding; on its two ribs, make them on its two sides; they'll be places for poles to carry it with. ⁵Make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. ⁶Put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you. ⁷Aaron must burn incense of sweet spices on it every morning. He should burn it when he tends the lamps. ⁸Aaron must burn it when he lights the lamps at evening, a perpetual incense in Yahweh's presence throughout your generations. ⁹Don't offer strange incense on it, nor burnt offerings, nor meal offerings; and don't pour any drink offerings on it. ¹⁰Aaron is to make atonement on its horns once every year. He must make atonement for it with the blood of the sin offering of atonement, once every year throughout your generations. It is most holy to Yahweh."

¹¹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ¹²When you take a census of the children of Israel, according to those who are counted among them, then each man is to give a ransom for his soul to Yahweh when you count them, that there be no plague among them when you count them. ¹³Everyone who passes over to those who are counted must give this, half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs); half a shekel as an offering to Yahweh. ¹⁴Everyone who passes over to those who are counted, from twenty years old and older, will give the offering to Yahweh. ¹⁵The rich will not give more, and the poor will not give less, than the half shekel, when they give Yahweh's offering, to make atonement for your souls. ¹⁶Take the atonement money from the children of Israel, and appoint it for the service of the Tent of Meeting; that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel in Yahweh's presence, to make atonement for your souls."

¹⁷Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁸Also make a bronze basin to wash in, with a bronze base. Put it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it. ¹⁹Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and their feet in it. ²⁰When they go into the Tent of Meeting, they must wash with water, so they don't die; also when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to Yahweh. ²¹So they must wash their hands and their feet, so they don't die. This will be a statute for them forever, to him and to his descendants throughout their generations."

²²Furthermore Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²³Also take fine spices: of liquid myrrh, five hundred shekels; and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, even two hundred and fifty; and of fragrant cane, two hundred and fifty; ²⁴and of cassia five hundred, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil. ²⁵Make it into a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded according to the art of the perfumer; it is to be a holy anointing oil. ²⁶Use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the testimony, ²⁷the table and all its articles, the lampstand and its accessories, the incense altar, ²⁸the burnt offering altar with all its utensils, and the basin with its base. ²⁹Sanctify them, so they'll be most holy. Whatever touches them will be holy. ³⁰Anoint Aaron and his sons, and sanctify them, so they can minister to me in the priest's office. ³¹Tell the children of Israel, saying, 'This is to be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations. ³²It must not be poured on man's flesh, and you mustn't make any like it, according to its composition. It is holy. It will be holy to you. ³³Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of it on a stranger, let him be cut off from his people.'"

³⁴Yahweh said to Moses, "Take sweet spices, gum resin, onycha and galbanum: sweet spices with pure frankincense. There is to be an equal weight of each. ³⁵Make incense from it, a perfume according to the art of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy. ³⁶Beat some of it very small, and put some of it in front of the testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It will be most holy to you. ³⁷You mustn't make this incense according to this composition for yourselves: it will be holy to Yahweh for you. ³⁸Whoever makes any like it to smell it, let him be cut off from his people."