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Exodus 30:34
Verse
Context
The Incense
33Anyone who mixes perfume like it or puts it on an outsider shall be cut off from his people.’”34The LORD also said to Moses, “Take fragrant spices—gum resin, onycha, galbanum, and pure frankincense—in equal measures,35and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy.
Sermons
Chuck Smith
K.P. Yohannan
Walter Beuttler
J.R. Miller
John F. Walvoord
T. Austin-SparksSummary
Commentary
- Adam Clarke
- Keil-Delitzsch
- Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
- John Gill
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
Take unto thee sweet spices - The holy perfume was compounded of the following ingredients: Stacte - נטף nataph, supposed to be the same with what was afterwards called the balm of Jericho. Stacte is the gum which spontaneously flows from the tree which produces myrrh. See Clarke's note on Exo 30:23. Onycha - שחלת shecheleth, allowed by the best critics to be the unguis odoriferans described by Rumph, which is the external crust of the shell-fish purpura or murex, and is the basis of the principal perfumes made in the East Indies. Galbanum - חלבנה chelbenah, the bubon gummiferum or African ferula; it rises with a ligneous stalk from eight to ten feet, and is garnished with leaves at each joint. The top of the stock is terminated by an umbel of yellow flowers, which are succeeded by oblong channelled seeds, which have a thin membrane or wing on their border. When any part of the plant is broken, there issues out a little thin milk of a cream color. The gummy resinous juice which proceeds from this plant is what is commonly called galbanum, from the chelbench of the Hebrews. Pure frankincense - לבנה זקה lebonah zaccah. Frankincense is supposed to derive its name from frank, free, because of its liberal or ready distribution of its odours. It is a dry resinous substance, in pieces or drops of a pale yellowish white color, has a strong smell, and bitter acrid taste. The tree which produces it is not well known. Dioscorides mentions it as gotten in India. What is called here pure frankincense is no doubt the same with the mascula thura of Virgil, and signifies what is first obtained from the tree - that which is strongest and most free from all adventitious mixtures. See Clarke's note on Exo 30:7. The Israelites were most strictly prohibited, on the most awful penalties, from making any anointing oil or perfume similar to those described in this chapter. He that should compound such, or apply any of this to any common purpose, even to smell to, Exo 30:38, should be cut off, that is, excommunicated from his people, and so lose all right, title, and interest in the promises of God and the redemption of Israel. From all this we may learn how careful the Divine Being is to preserve his own worship and his own truth, so as to prevent them from being adulterated by human inventions; for he will save men in his own way, and upon his own terms. What are called human inventions in matters of religion, are not only of no worth, but are in general deceptive and ruinous. Arts and sciences in a certain way may be called inventions of men, for the spirit of a man knoweth the things of a man - can comprehend, plan, and execute, under the general influence of God, every thing in which human life is immediately concerned; but religion, as it is the gift, so it is the invention, of God: its doctrines and its ceremonies proceed from his wisdom and goodness, for he alone could devise the plan by which the human race may be restored to his favor and image, and taught to worship him in spirit and in truth. And that worship which himself has prescribed, we may rest assured, will be most pleasing in his sight. Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before the Lord; and their destruction by the fire of Jehovah is recorded as a lasting warning to all presumptuous worshippers, and to all who attempt to model his religion, according to their own caprice, and to minister in sacred things without that authority which proceeds from himself alone. The imposition of hands whether of pope, cardinal, or bishop can avail nothing here. The call and unction of God alone can qualify the minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary
The Holy Incense was also to be made of four ingredients, viz., (1) nataph (στακτή, stacte), i.e., not the resinous myrrh, or sap obtained from the fragrant myrrh and dried, but a kind of storax gum resembling myrrh, which was baked, and then used, like incense, for fumigating; - (2) shecheleth (ὄνυξ, ungius odoratus), the shell of a shell-fish resembling the purpura, of an agreeable odour; - (3) chelbenah (χαλβάνη), a resin of a pungent, bitter flavour, obtained, by means of an incision in the bark, from the ferula, a shrub which grows in Syria, Arabia, and Abyssinia, and then mixed with fragrant substances to give greater pungency to their odour; - and (4) lebonah (λίβανος or λιβανωτός), frankincense, a resin of a pleasant smell, obtained from a tree in Arabia Felix or India, but what tree has not been discovered. זכּה pure, i.e., unadulterated. The words יהיה בּבד בּד "part for part shall it be," are explained by the lxx as meaning ἴσον ἴσῳ ἔσται, Vulg. aequalis ponderis erunt omnia, i.e., with equal parts of all the different substances. But this is hardly correct, as בּד literally means separation, and the use of ב in this sense would be very striking. The explanation given by Aben Ezra is more correct, viz., "every part shall be for itself;" that is to say, each part was to be first of all prepared by itself, and then all the four to be mixed together afterwards. Exo 30:35 Of this Moses was to make incense, spicework, etc. (as in Exo 30:25), salted, seasoned with salt (ממלּח, a denom. from מלח salt), like the meat-offering in Lev 2:13. The word does not mean μεμιγμένον, mixtum (lxx, Vulg.), or rubbed to powder, for the rubbing or pulverizing is expressed by שׁחקתּ־הרק in the following verse. Exo 30:36 Of this incense (a portion) was to be placed "before the testimony in the tabernacle," i.e., not in the most holy place, but where the altar of incense stood (cf. Exo 30:6 and Lev 16:12). The remainder was of course to be kept elsewhere. Exo 30:37-38 There is the same prohibition against imitating or applying it to a strange use as in the case of the anointing oil (Exo 30:32, Exo 30:33). "To smell thereto," i.e., to enjoy the perfume of it.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices--These were: stacte--the finest myrrh; onycha--supposed to be an odoriferous shell; galbanum--a gum resin from an umbelliferous plant. frankincense--a dry, resinous, aromatic gum, of a yellow color, which comes from a tree in Arabia, and is obtained by incision of the bark. This incense was placed within the sanctuary, to be at hand when the priest required to burn on the altar. The art of compounding unguents and perfumes was well known in Egypt, where sweet-scented spices were extensively used not only in common life, but in the ritual of the temples. Most of the ingredients here mentioned have been found on minute examination of mummies and other Egyptian relics; and the Israelites, therefore, would have the best opportunities of acquiring in that country the skill in pounding and mixing them which they were called to exercise in the service of the tabernacle. But the recipe for the incense as well as for the oil in the tabernacle, though it receives illustration from the customs of Egypt, was peculiar, and being prescribed by divine authority, was to be applied to no common or inferior purpose. Next: Exodus Chapter 31
John Gill Bible Commentary
And the Lord said unto Moses,.... In a continued discourse, or some time after the former, though more probably at the same time; since it concerns the incense to be offered on the altar of incense, about which directions are given in the former part of the chapter: take unto thee sweet spices: which are as follow, "stacte", "onycha", and "galbanum"; the former of these has its name from dropping; and of the same signification is the Hebrew word "Nataph", here used. Pancirollus says (a), myrrh is a drop or tear distilling from a tree in Arabia Felix; and stacte is a drop of myrrh, which is extracted from it, and yields a most precious liquor: and so Pliny (b) relates, that myrrh trees sweat out of their own accord, before they are cut, what is called stacte, to which nothing is preferable: though some naturalists, as Theophrastus and Dioscorides (c) speak of this as flowing from it when it is cut; however, all agree it is a liquor that drops from myrrh; though the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem interpret it "balsam" or "rosin"; as does Jarchi on the place, and Maimonides (d): the second of these, "onycha", has its name from being of the colour of a man's nail, as the onyx stone is, and is the same with the "unguis odorata" or "blatta byzantia". Jarchi says it is the root of a spice, smooth and shining like a man's nail. It is by some"understood of "laudanum" or "balellium"; but the greatest part of commentators explain it by the "onyx", or the odoriferous shell, which is a shell like to that of the shell fish called "purpura": the onyx is fished for in watery places of the Indies, where grows the "spica nardi", which is the food of this fish, and what makes its shell so aromatic: they go to gather these shells when the heat has dried up the marshes. The best onyx is found in the Red sea, and is white and large, the Babylonian is black and smaller; this is what Dioscorides says of it (e).''And the best being found in the Red sea, it may be reasonably supposed it was what Moses was bid to take. In all India, it is the principal thing in all perfumes, as the aloe is in pills (f); the Targum of Jonathan interprets it by "costus"; and the Jerusalem Targum by spike of myrrh, meaning perhaps spikenard. The last of these, "galbanum", what now goes by that name, is of a very ill smell, and therefore cannot be thought to be one of these sweet spices; but another is meant, and which, by its name "Chelbanah", was of a fat and unctuous nature; though Jarchi says, galbanum, whose smell is ill, is put among the spices; and Maimonides (g) and Kimchi (h) describe it like black honey, and of an offensive smell; but it must be something odoriferous, and therefore most likely to be the galbanum Pliny (i) speaks of as growing on Mount Areanus in Syria, which he mentions along with several sorts of balsams, and as a sort of frankincense; and the Vulgate Latin version, to distinguish it, calls it "galbanum" of a "good smell": these sweet spices with pure frankincense; for which Sabaea in Arabia Felix was very famous, and was called the thuriferous country, as Pliny (k) says; who observes that there were in it two times of gathering the frankincense, the one in autumn, that which was white, and the purest, the other in the spring, which was reddish, and not to be compared with the former: of each shall there be a like weight; just as much of one as of the other: in the Hebrew text it is, "alone by alone"; and the sense may be, that each spice was beaten alone, and after that mixed, as Aben Ezra, or weighed alone, and then put together. (a) Rer. Memorab. & Deperd. par. 1. tit. 12. p. 32. (b) Nat. Hist. l. 12. c. 15. (c) Apud Dalechamp. in Plin. ib. (d) Cele Hamikdash, c. 2. sect. 4. (e) Calmet's Dictionary on the word "Onycha". (f) Vid. Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. vol. 2. p. 243. (g) Cele Hamikdash, c. 2. sect. 4. (h) Sepher Shorash. Rad. (i) Nat. Hist. l. 12. c. 15. (k) Ib. c. 14.
Exodus 30:34
The Incense
33Anyone who mixes perfume like it or puts it on an outsider shall be cut off from his people.’”34The LORD also said to Moses, “Take fragrant spices—gum resin, onycha, galbanum, and pure frankincense—in equal measures,35and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy.
- Scripture
- Sermons
- Commentary
(Through the Bible) Leviticus 16-20
By Chuck Smith1.8K1:05:24EXO 30:10EXO 30:34LEV 18:22LEV 19:2LEV 20:22LEV 23:27LEV 26:30In this sermon, the preacher discusses the moral decay and corruption in society, particularly in relation to the portrayal of sinful acts in movies. He emphasizes that God's people are called to be pure and separate from the world. The preacher warns that when a nation reaches a point of moral decay, it can no longer exist and will crumble. He highlights the importance of obeying God's commandments and laments the forsaking of God's ways in the United States, which he believes is close to the point of collapse.
Obedience and Love
By K.P. Yohannan67728:11ObedienceEXO 30:34In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of understanding the spiritual realm beyond rational explanation. He encourages the audience to read the Bible with a mindset of seeking deeper understanding and asking questions. The theme of the sermon is love and obedience, and the preacher admits that he has not found a satisfactory explanation for love in any book except through personal experiences. He also discusses the significance of the season of Lent and encourages individuals to embark on a personal journey of spiritual growth and reflection. The sermon concludes with the reminder that worship is not limited to external rituals but encompasses the entirety of one's being - body, soul, and spirit.
Study Notes - the Tabernacle
By Walter Beuttler1EXO 25:9EXO 27:9EXO 29:43EXO 30:34LEV 1:4JHN 6:35HEB 7:25HEB 8:5HEB 9:4HEB 10:11PE 2:5REV 1:6Walter Beuttler preaches on the purpose and typology of the tabernacle, highlighting how God used offerings and rituals to mend the broken fellowship with sinful man. The tabernacle symbolizes Christ, the Church, and the believer, showcasing God's desire to meet, accept, forgive, reveal, dwell, speak, and receive from sinners. The construction, names, and position of the tabernacle emphasize divine design, material, and location, reflecting God's redemptive plan and the believer's pilgrimage and access to God's presence.
The Sweet Fragrance of Prayer
By J.R. Miller0The Power of PrayerIntercession of ChristPSA 56:8EXO 30:34REV 5:8J.R. Miller emphasizes that true prayer is a sweet fragrance to God, likening it to the golden incense offered in the Old Testament, which symbolizes the heartfelt supplications of believers. He illustrates that our prayers are preserved in heaven, akin to golden bowls filled with incense, demonstrating God's attentive care for our desires and sorrows. Miller reassures that no prayer is lost, and while answers may be delayed, they are treasured by God and will be answered in due time. He also highlights the necessity of approaching God through the atonement of Christ, as our prayers are made acceptable only through His sacrifice. Ultimately, Miller conveys that sincere prayers, even when imperfect, are transformed into beautiful fragrances by Christ's intercession.
The Seventh Seal and the Beginning of the Trumpets
By John F. Walvoord0EXO 9:18EXO 15:23EXO 19:19EXO 30:34PSA 19:1REV 8:1REV 8:7REV 8:10REV 8:12John F. Walvoord delves into the opening of the seventh seal in Revelation, signifying the beginning of the prophetic judgments of God. The seventh seal encompasses the subsequent events leading to Christ's second coming, including the seven trumpets and the seven bowls of God's wrath. The silence in heaven for half an hour before the seventh seal is opened indicates the gravity of the impending events. The introduction of the seven angels with trumpets and the angel offering incense with the prayers of the saints symbolize the preparation for divine judgments. The sounding of the first four trumpets brings devastating physical judgments upon the earth, sea, waters, and heavenly bodies, serving as warnings of more severe judgments to come.
The Divine Basis of All Acceptable Prayer
By T. Austin-Sparks0The Nature of PrayerCo-operation with GodEXO 30:34T. Austin-Sparks emphasizes the divine foundation of acceptable prayer, highlighting that true prayer is rooted in the moral excellencies of Jesus Christ, which must be present in our prayers for them to be effective. He explains that prayer encompasses five aspects: communion, submission, petition, co-operation, and conflict, with communion being the foundational element akin to respiration in our spiritual lives. Submission is described as an active alignment with God's will, while petition involves asking with faith and assurance. Co-operation with God is presented as the ultimate purpose of prayer, ensuring that our requests align with His divine plan. Sparks warns against the dangers of mechanical prayer and the importance of maintaining a living relationship with God through prayer.
- Adam Clarke
- Keil-Delitzsch
- Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
- John Gill
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
Take unto thee sweet spices - The holy perfume was compounded of the following ingredients: Stacte - נטף nataph, supposed to be the same with what was afterwards called the balm of Jericho. Stacte is the gum which spontaneously flows from the tree which produces myrrh. See Clarke's note on Exo 30:23. Onycha - שחלת shecheleth, allowed by the best critics to be the unguis odoriferans described by Rumph, which is the external crust of the shell-fish purpura or murex, and is the basis of the principal perfumes made in the East Indies. Galbanum - חלבנה chelbenah, the bubon gummiferum or African ferula; it rises with a ligneous stalk from eight to ten feet, and is garnished with leaves at each joint. The top of the stock is terminated by an umbel of yellow flowers, which are succeeded by oblong channelled seeds, which have a thin membrane or wing on their border. When any part of the plant is broken, there issues out a little thin milk of a cream color. The gummy resinous juice which proceeds from this plant is what is commonly called galbanum, from the chelbench of the Hebrews. Pure frankincense - לבנה זקה lebonah zaccah. Frankincense is supposed to derive its name from frank, free, because of its liberal or ready distribution of its odours. It is a dry resinous substance, in pieces or drops of a pale yellowish white color, has a strong smell, and bitter acrid taste. The tree which produces it is not well known. Dioscorides mentions it as gotten in India. What is called here pure frankincense is no doubt the same with the mascula thura of Virgil, and signifies what is first obtained from the tree - that which is strongest and most free from all adventitious mixtures. See Clarke's note on Exo 30:7. The Israelites were most strictly prohibited, on the most awful penalties, from making any anointing oil or perfume similar to those described in this chapter. He that should compound such, or apply any of this to any common purpose, even to smell to, Exo 30:38, should be cut off, that is, excommunicated from his people, and so lose all right, title, and interest in the promises of God and the redemption of Israel. From all this we may learn how careful the Divine Being is to preserve his own worship and his own truth, so as to prevent them from being adulterated by human inventions; for he will save men in his own way, and upon his own terms. What are called human inventions in matters of religion, are not only of no worth, but are in general deceptive and ruinous. Arts and sciences in a certain way may be called inventions of men, for the spirit of a man knoweth the things of a man - can comprehend, plan, and execute, under the general influence of God, every thing in which human life is immediately concerned; but religion, as it is the gift, so it is the invention, of God: its doctrines and its ceremonies proceed from his wisdom and goodness, for he alone could devise the plan by which the human race may be restored to his favor and image, and taught to worship him in spirit and in truth. And that worship which himself has prescribed, we may rest assured, will be most pleasing in his sight. Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before the Lord; and their destruction by the fire of Jehovah is recorded as a lasting warning to all presumptuous worshippers, and to all who attempt to model his religion, according to their own caprice, and to minister in sacred things without that authority which proceeds from himself alone. The imposition of hands whether of pope, cardinal, or bishop can avail nothing here. The call and unction of God alone can qualify the minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary
The Holy Incense was also to be made of four ingredients, viz., (1) nataph (στακτή, stacte), i.e., not the resinous myrrh, or sap obtained from the fragrant myrrh and dried, but a kind of storax gum resembling myrrh, which was baked, and then used, like incense, for fumigating; - (2) shecheleth (ὄνυξ, ungius odoratus), the shell of a shell-fish resembling the purpura, of an agreeable odour; - (3) chelbenah (χαλβάνη), a resin of a pungent, bitter flavour, obtained, by means of an incision in the bark, from the ferula, a shrub which grows in Syria, Arabia, and Abyssinia, and then mixed with fragrant substances to give greater pungency to their odour; - and (4) lebonah (λίβανος or λιβανωτός), frankincense, a resin of a pleasant smell, obtained from a tree in Arabia Felix or India, but what tree has not been discovered. זכּה pure, i.e., unadulterated. The words יהיה בּבד בּד "part for part shall it be," are explained by the lxx as meaning ἴσον ἴσῳ ἔσται, Vulg. aequalis ponderis erunt omnia, i.e., with equal parts of all the different substances. But this is hardly correct, as בּד literally means separation, and the use of ב in this sense would be very striking. The explanation given by Aben Ezra is more correct, viz., "every part shall be for itself;" that is to say, each part was to be first of all prepared by itself, and then all the four to be mixed together afterwards. Exo 30:35 Of this Moses was to make incense, spicework, etc. (as in Exo 30:25), salted, seasoned with salt (ממלּח, a denom. from מלח salt), like the meat-offering in Lev 2:13. The word does not mean μεμιγμένον, mixtum (lxx, Vulg.), or rubbed to powder, for the rubbing or pulverizing is expressed by שׁחקתּ־הרק in the following verse. Exo 30:36 Of this incense (a portion) was to be placed "before the testimony in the tabernacle," i.e., not in the most holy place, but where the altar of incense stood (cf. Exo 30:6 and Lev 16:12). The remainder was of course to be kept elsewhere. Exo 30:37-38 There is the same prohibition against imitating or applying it to a strange use as in the case of the anointing oil (Exo 30:32, Exo 30:33). "To smell thereto," i.e., to enjoy the perfume of it.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices--These were: stacte--the finest myrrh; onycha--supposed to be an odoriferous shell; galbanum--a gum resin from an umbelliferous plant. frankincense--a dry, resinous, aromatic gum, of a yellow color, which comes from a tree in Arabia, and is obtained by incision of the bark. This incense was placed within the sanctuary, to be at hand when the priest required to burn on the altar. The art of compounding unguents and perfumes was well known in Egypt, where sweet-scented spices were extensively used not only in common life, but in the ritual of the temples. Most of the ingredients here mentioned have been found on minute examination of mummies and other Egyptian relics; and the Israelites, therefore, would have the best opportunities of acquiring in that country the skill in pounding and mixing them which they were called to exercise in the service of the tabernacle. But the recipe for the incense as well as for the oil in the tabernacle, though it receives illustration from the customs of Egypt, was peculiar, and being prescribed by divine authority, was to be applied to no common or inferior purpose. Next: Exodus Chapter 31
John Gill Bible Commentary
And the Lord said unto Moses,.... In a continued discourse, or some time after the former, though more probably at the same time; since it concerns the incense to be offered on the altar of incense, about which directions are given in the former part of the chapter: take unto thee sweet spices: which are as follow, "stacte", "onycha", and "galbanum"; the former of these has its name from dropping; and of the same signification is the Hebrew word "Nataph", here used. Pancirollus says (a), myrrh is a drop or tear distilling from a tree in Arabia Felix; and stacte is a drop of myrrh, which is extracted from it, and yields a most precious liquor: and so Pliny (b) relates, that myrrh trees sweat out of their own accord, before they are cut, what is called stacte, to which nothing is preferable: though some naturalists, as Theophrastus and Dioscorides (c) speak of this as flowing from it when it is cut; however, all agree it is a liquor that drops from myrrh; though the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem interpret it "balsam" or "rosin"; as does Jarchi on the place, and Maimonides (d): the second of these, "onycha", has its name from being of the colour of a man's nail, as the onyx stone is, and is the same with the "unguis odorata" or "blatta byzantia". Jarchi says it is the root of a spice, smooth and shining like a man's nail. It is by some"understood of "laudanum" or "balellium"; but the greatest part of commentators explain it by the "onyx", or the odoriferous shell, which is a shell like to that of the shell fish called "purpura": the onyx is fished for in watery places of the Indies, where grows the "spica nardi", which is the food of this fish, and what makes its shell so aromatic: they go to gather these shells when the heat has dried up the marshes. The best onyx is found in the Red sea, and is white and large, the Babylonian is black and smaller; this is what Dioscorides says of it (e).''And the best being found in the Red sea, it may be reasonably supposed it was what Moses was bid to take. In all India, it is the principal thing in all perfumes, as the aloe is in pills (f); the Targum of Jonathan interprets it by "costus"; and the Jerusalem Targum by spike of myrrh, meaning perhaps spikenard. The last of these, "galbanum", what now goes by that name, is of a very ill smell, and therefore cannot be thought to be one of these sweet spices; but another is meant, and which, by its name "Chelbanah", was of a fat and unctuous nature; though Jarchi says, galbanum, whose smell is ill, is put among the spices; and Maimonides (g) and Kimchi (h) describe it like black honey, and of an offensive smell; but it must be something odoriferous, and therefore most likely to be the galbanum Pliny (i) speaks of as growing on Mount Areanus in Syria, which he mentions along with several sorts of balsams, and as a sort of frankincense; and the Vulgate Latin version, to distinguish it, calls it "galbanum" of a "good smell": these sweet spices with pure frankincense; for which Sabaea in Arabia Felix was very famous, and was called the thuriferous country, as Pliny (k) says; who observes that there were in it two times of gathering the frankincense, the one in autumn, that which was white, and the purest, the other in the spring, which was reddish, and not to be compared with the former: of each shall there be a like weight; just as much of one as of the other: in the Hebrew text it is, "alone by alone"; and the sense may be, that each spice was beaten alone, and after that mixed, as Aben Ezra, or weighed alone, and then put together. (a) Rer. Memorab. & Deperd. par. 1. tit. 12. p. 32. (b) Nat. Hist. l. 12. c. 15. (c) Apud Dalechamp. in Plin. ib. (d) Cele Hamikdash, c. 2. sect. 4. (e) Calmet's Dictionary on the word "Onycha". (f) Vid. Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. vol. 2. p. 243. (g) Cele Hamikdash, c. 2. sect. 4. (h) Sepher Shorash. Rad. (i) Nat. Hist. l. 12. c. 15. (k) Ib. c. 14.