Exodus 30:1

And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon,.... The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan call it incense of spices, properly enough, for it was made of various spices; of which see Exodus 30:34 and

And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim wood shalt thou make it. Thou shalt make an altar ... Its material was to be like that of the ark of the testimony, but its dimensions very small.

EXODUS CHAPTER 30 He commands to make an altar for incense, and of what, . The length and breadth of it, . The form of it, . Whereon the priest was to kindle incense every morning, being commanded, . All the children of Israel to bring half a shekel for their souls, . A laver of brass, ,18; wherein Aaron and his sons wash their hands and their feet, . The making the oil of holy ointment, . Its use, . None might make the like, ,33. The composition of the perfume, . Incense signifies the prayers of God’ s people, ; which are not acceptable to God except they be offered upon the true altar, Christ. This incense also was useful to correct the bad smell of the sacrifices, which were offered on another altar not far from it. Yea, some sacrifices were offered upon this altar, as appears from . But here only the principal and constant use of it is noted.

Exodus 30:1 And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: [of] shittim wood shalt thou make it.Ver. 1. An altar to burn incense upon.] Shadowing Christ, as perfuming and presenting the prayers of saints, and obtaining answer thereto "from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God."

XXX. THE ALTAR OF INCENSE.(1) Thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon.—Why the directions concerning the altar of incense were delayed until this place, instead of being given when the rest of the furniture of the holy place was described (Exodus 25), it is impossible to say. But there is certainly no reason to suspect a dislocation of the text. The mode in which Aaron is spoken of in Exodus 30:7-10 implies a previous mention of his consecration to the high priesthood. That incense would be among the offerings which God would require to be offered to Him had appeared already in Exodus 25:6. Its preciousness, its fragrance, and its seeming to mount in cloud after cloud to heaven, gave it a natural place in the symbolism of worship, and led to its employment in the religious rites of a variety of nations. Egyptian priests continually appear on the monuments with censers in their hands, in which presumably incense is being offered, and the inscriptions mention that it was imported from Arabia, and used largely in the festivals of Ammon (Records of the Past, vol. x., pp. 14-19). Herodotus tells us that the Babylonians consumed annually a thousand talents’ weight of it at the feast of Belus (i. 183). The employment of it by the Greeks and Romans in their sacrifices is well known. Here again, as so often in the Mosaical dispensation. God sanctioned in His worship an innocent rite, which natural reason had pointed out to man as fitting and appropriate, not regarding its employment in false religions as debarring it from adoption into the true. Of shittim wood shalt thou make it.—Of the same main material as “the brazen altar” (Exodus 27:1), but covered differently.

CHAPTER XXX The altar of burnt incense, 1. Dimensions, 2. Golden crown, 3. Rings and staves, 4, 5. Where placed, 6, 7. Use, 8-10. The ransom price of half a shekel, 11-13. Who were to pay it, 14. The rich and the poor to pay alike, 15. The use to which it was applied, 16. The brazen laver, and its uses, 17-21. The holy anointing oil, and its component parts, 22-25. To be applied to the tabernacle, ark, golden table, candlestick, altar of burnt-offerings, and the laver, 26-29. And to Aaron and his sons, 30. Never to be applied to any other uses, and none like it ever to be made, 31-33. The perfume, and how made, 34, 35. Its use, 36. Nothing similar to it ever to be made, 37, 38. NOTES ON CHAP. XXX Verse 1. Altar to burn incense] The Samaritan omits the ten first verses of this chapter, because it inserts them after the 32d verse of chap. xxvi. See Clarke on Exodus 26:32. Shittim wood] The same of which the preceding articles were made, because it was abundant in those parts, and because it was very durable; hence everywhere the Septuagint translation, which was made in Egypt, renders the original by ξυλονασηπτον, incorruptible wood.

1–10. The Altar of incense: its construction and place (vv. 1–6), and its use (vv. 7–10). 1–6 (cf. Exodus 37:25-28, Exodus 40:26). The altar of incense was to be of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, a cubit (1½ ft.) broad and long, and 2 cubits (3 ft.) high; at its upper corners were to be four horns (cf. Exodus 27:2); a rim or moulding of gold was to run round it, probably near its top; and close under this moulding, on two of the opposite sides, there were to be two gold rings to receive the poles for carrying it. It was to stand in the Holy place, directly in front of the mercy-seat. A remarkable incense-altar, decorated with lions and composite animal figures, has been found at Taanach (see the writer’s Schweich Lectures, p. 84 f., with an illustration); but it bears no resemblance to the altar here described.

Exodus 37:25-28; Exodus 40:26-27. The altar of incense was to be a casing of boards of shittim wood Exodus 25:5, Exodus 25:18 inches square and three feet in height (taking the cubit as 18 inches),

THE ALTAR OF INCENSE, Exodus 30:1-10. 1. An altar to burn incense upon — This was to be one of the pieces of furniture belonging to the holy place, (Exodus 30:6,) and the description of it would have