CHAPTER 30

¹“And you shall make an altar for burning incense, acacia wood you shall make it. ²A cubit its length and a cubit its width, it shall be square, and two cubits its height; from the same piece its horns. ³And you shall overlay it with pure gold—its roof and its walls all around and its horns, and you shall make for it a golden molding all around. ⁴And two golden rings you shall make for it beneath its molding on its two flanks, you shall make on its two opposite sides, and they shall be housings for the poles with which to carry it. ⁵And you shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. ⁶And you shall set it before the curtain that is near the Ark of the Covenant in front of the cover that is over the Ark of the Covenant where I shall meet you. ⁷And Aaron shall burn upon it the aromatic incense morning after morning, when he tends the lamps he shall burn it. ⁸And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before the LORD for your generations. ⁹You shall not offer up on it unfit incense, nor burnt offering nor grain offering, and no libation shall you pour upon it. ¹⁰And Aaron shall atone on its horns once a year with the blood of the offense offering of atonement, once a year he shall atone on it for your generations. It is holy of holies to the LORD.”

¹¹And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ¹²“When you count heads for the Israelites according to their numbers, every man shall give ransom for his life to the LORD when they are counted, that there be no scourge among them when they are counted. ¹³This shall each who undergoes the count give: half a shekel by the shekel of the sanctuary—twenty gerahs to the shekel—half a shekel, a donation to the LORD. ¹⁴Whosoever undergoes the count from twenty years old and up shall give the LORD’s donation. ¹⁵The rich man shall not give more and the poor man shall not give less than half a shekel to atone for their lives. ¹⁶And you shall take the atonement money from the Israelites and set it for the service of the Tent of Meeting, and it shall be a remembrance for the Israelites before the LORD to atone for their lives.” ¹⁷And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁸“And you shall make a laver of bronze and a stand of bronze for washing and place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and place water there. ¹⁹And Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet from it. ²⁰When they come into the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water, that they do not die, or when they approach the altar to serve, to burn a fire offering to the LORD. ²¹And they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they do not die, and it shall be for them a perpetual statute, for him and for his seed, for their generations.”

²²And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ²³“And you, take you choice spices: five hundred weight wild myrrh, and aromatic cinnamon, half of that, two hundred fifty weight, and aromatic cane, two hundred fifty weight. ²⁴And cassia, five hundred weight by the shekel of the sanctuary, and olive oil, a hin. ²⁵And you shall make of it oil for sacred anointing, a perfumer’s compound, perfumer’s work, sacred anointing oil it shall be. ²⁶And you shall anoint with it the Tent of Meeting and its furnishings and the Ark of the Covenant, ²⁷and the table and all its furnishings and the lamp stand and its furnishings and the altar for incense, ²⁸and the altar for burnt offering and all its furnishings, and the laver and its stand. ²⁹And you shall consecrate them, and they shall be holy of holies, whoever touches them shall be consecrated. ³⁰And Aaron and his sons you shall anoint, and you shall consecrate them to be priests to Me. ³¹And to the Israelites you shall speak, saying, ‘Oil for sacred anointing this shall be to Me for your generations. ³²On a person’s flesh it shall not be poured, and in its proportions you shall make nothing like it. It is holy, it shall be holy for you. ³³The man who compounds its like and who puts it on an unfit person shall be cut off from his people.’” ³⁴And the LORD said to Moses, “Take you the fragrances balsam and onycha and galbanum, fragrances, and clear frankincense, equal part for part it shall be. ³⁵And you shall make of it incense, a perfume compound, perfumer’s work, tinctured with salt, pure, sacred. ³⁶And you shall pound it to fine powder and place some of it before the Ark of the Covenant in the Tent of Meeting where I shall meet you. Holy of holies it shall be to you. ³⁷And the incense that you will make, in its proportions you shall not make for yourselves, holy it shall be for you to the LORD. ³⁸The man who makes its like to smell it shall be cut off from his people.”