1And you are to make an altar for the burning of perfume; of hard wood let it be made. 2The altar is to be square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high, and its horns are to be made of the same. 3It is to be plated with the best gold, the top of it and the sides and the horns, with an edging of gold all round it. 4Under the edge on the two opposite sides, you are to make two gold rings, to take the rods for lifting it. 5And make these rods of the same wood, plating them with gold. 6And let it be placed in front of the veil before the ark of the law, before the cover which is over the law, where I will come face to face with you. 7And on this altar sweet spices are to be burned by Aaron every morning when he sees to the lights. 8And every evening, when he puts the lights up in their places, the spices are to be burned, a sweet-smelling smoke going up before the Lord from generation to generation for ever. 9No strange perfume, no burned offering or meal offering, and no drink offering is to be offered on it. 10And once every year Aaron is to make its horns clean: with the blood of the sin-offering he is to make it clean once every year from generation to generation: it is most holy to the Lord. 11And the Lord said to Moses, 12When you are taking the number of the children of Israel, let every man who is numbered give to the Lord a price for his life, so that no disease may come on them when they are numbered. 13And this is what they are to give; let every man who is numbered give half a shekel, by the scale of the holy place: (the shekel being valued at twenty gerahs:) this money is an offering to the Lord. 14Everyone who is numbered, from twenty years old and over, is to give an offering to the Lord. 15The man of wealth is to give no more and the poor man no less than the half-shekel of silver, when the offering is made to the Lord as the price for your lives. 16And you are to take this money from the children of Israel to be used for the work of the Tent of meeting, to keep the memory of the children of Israel before the Lord and to be the price of your lives. 17And the Lord said to Moses, 18You are to make a brass washing-vessel, with a brass base; and put it between the Tent of meeting and the altar, with water in it; 19That it may be used by Aaron and his sons for washing their hands and feet; 20Whenever they go into the Tent of meeting they are to be washed with water, to keep them from death; and whenever they come near to do the work of the altar, or to make an offering by fire to the Lord, 21Their hands and feet are to be washed. so that they may be safe from death: this is an order to them for ever; to him and his seed from generation to generation. 22And the Lord said to Moses, 23Take the best spices, five hundred shekels' weight of liquid myrrh, and of sweet cinnamon half as much, that is, two hundred and fifty shekels, and two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet calamus, 24And of cassia, five hundred shekels' weight measured by the scale of the holy place, and of olive oil a hin: 25And make these into a holy oil, a perfume made by the art of the perfume-maker; it is to be a holy oil. 26This oil is to be put on the Tent of meeting, and on the ark of the law, 27And on the table and all its vessels, and on the support for the lights, with its vessels, and on the altar for burning spices, 28And on the altar of burned offerings with its vessels, and on the washing-vessel and its base. 29And you are to make them most holy; anything touching them will become holy. 30And put the oil on Aaron and his sons, making them holy to do the work of priests to me. 31And say to the children of Israel, This is to be the Lord's holy oil, from generation to generation. 32It is not to be used for man's flesh, and no other is to be made like it: holy it is, and you are to keep it holy. 33Whoever makes any like it, or puts it on one who is not a priest, will be cut off from his people. 34And the Lord said to Moses, Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, with the best frankincense, in equal weights; 35And make from them a perfume, such as is made by the art of the perfume-maker, mixed with salt, and clean and holy. 36And put some of it, crushed very small, in front of the ark in the Tent of meeting, where I will come face to face with you; it is to be most holy. 37You are not to make any perfume like it for yourselves: it is to be kept holy to the Lord. 38Whoever makes any like it, for its sweet smell, will be cut off from his people.
Matthew Henry's Commentary
The altar of incense. (1-10) The ransom of souls. (11-16) The brazen laver. (17-21) The holy anointing oil, The perfume. (22-38) 1-10 The altar of incense represented the Son of God in his human nature, and the incense burned thereon typified his pleading for his people. The continual intercession of Christ was represented by the daily burning of incense thereon, morning and evening. Once every year the blood of the atonement was to be applied to it, denoting that the intercession of Christ has all its virtue from his sufferings on earth, and that we need no other sacrifice or intercessor but Christ alone. 11-16 The tribute was half a shekel, about fifteen pence of our money. The rich were not to give more, nor the poor less; the souls of the rich and poor are alike precious, and God is no respecter of persons, #Ac 10:34; Job 34:19|. In other offerings men were to give according to their wordly ability; but this, which was the ransom of the soul, must be alike for all. The souls of all are of equal value, equally in danger, and all equally need a ransom. The money raised was to be used in the service of the tabernacle. Those who have the benefit, must not grudge the necessary charges of God's public worship. Money cannot make atonement for the soul, but it may be used for the honour of Him who has made the atonement, and for the maintenance of the gospel by which the atonement is applied. 17-21 A large vessel of brass, holding water, was to be set near the door of the tabernacle. Aaron and his sons must wash their hands and feet at this laver, every time they went in to minister. This was to teach them purity in all their services, and to dread the pollution of sin. They must not only wash and be made clean, when first made priests, but must wash and be kept clean, whenever they went to minister. It teaches us daily to attend upon God, daily to renew our repentance for sin, and our looking to the blood of Christ for remission; for in many things we daily offend. 22-38 Directions are here given for making the holy anointing oil, and the incense to be used in the service of the tabernacle. To show the excellency of holiness, there was this spiced oil in the tabernacle, which was grateful to the sight and to the smell. Christ's name is as ointment poured forth, #So 1:3|, and the good name of Christians is like precious ointment, #Ec 7:1|. The incense burned upon the golden altar was prepared of sweet spices. When it was used, it was to be beaten very small; thus it pleased the Lord to bruise the Redeemer, when he offered himself for a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour. The like should not be made for any common use. Thus God would keep in the people's minds reverence for his own services, and teach us not to profane or abuse any thing whereby God makes himself known. It is a great affront to God to jest with sacred things, and to make sport with his word and ordinances. It is most dangerous and fatal to use professions of the gospel of Christ to forward wordly interests.