Exoduschapter 30
38 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · The Law
Everyone who crosses over to those counted must pay a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs. This half shekel is an offering to the LORD.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Exodus Overview.
This chapter finishes the furnishings of the tabernacle with five items the earlier plans left out. Each is introduced as a fresh word from the LORD to Moses. Some of it is furniture, some is money and some is a recipe. Listen for the altar that stands closest to the veil, and for the one price paid by rich and poor alike. Listen also for the two mixtures no Israelite was allowed to copy at home, and for the penalty attached.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, rich and poor alike paying the same half shekel
- What
- The altar of incense, the half shekel paid at a census, the bronze basin, and the recipes for the anointing oil and the incense.
- Where
- The summit of Mount Sinai, where Moses received the pattern while the camp waited at the foot of the mountain.
- When
- The forty days Moses spent on Sinai after the covenant was sealed, about 1446 BC on the early date this site follows.
- Why
- To complete the sanctuary's service and to mark as holy what belonged to the LORD alone.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to the law Exodus says Moses wrote at God's command, recorded at 17:14, at 24:4 and at 34:27, while he was going up and down the mountain between God and the people. The critical reading takes the legal sections for a later compilation from several sources, a position argued by Julius Wellhausen and the tradition following him, and the site states no verdict on it.
Show the rest of the historical context, 8 more paragraphs
The chapter supplies five things left out of the survey of chapters 25 to 27, and four of them open with the LORD speaking to Moses again.
A first hearer knew the trade behind the incense, since aromatic gums came up the Arabian routes at real expense and frankincense and myrrh were freight worth guarding.
John Currid records that Egyptian temple service burned incense at fixed hours in the same way.
He knew what a head count was for, since counts elsewhere were taken for taxation and conscription and were widely dreaded.
Here the payment is a flat half shekel by the sanctuary weight, called a ransom for the life, and the rich give no more and the poor no less.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold this to be probably the same impost exacted from our Lord at Matthew 17:24 to 27.
Copying either of the two recipes for private use carries the penalty of being cut off, and John Wesley reports that the holy oil was absent from the second temple.
Adam Clarke records that the Samaritan Pentateuch omits the first ten verses here and inserts them after Exodus 26:32.
Significance
The same price from every man was a statement about standing. In the count that mattered, a wealthy Israelite and a poor one weighed exactly the same.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The smell of the sanctuary was made unrepeatable on purpose, so that the fragrance meant one thing and one place.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The half shekel commanded in this chapter became the yearly Temple tax, and the payment of it shaped the month before Passover. The Mishnah records that the money changers' tables were set up in the Temple itself from the twenty fifth of the month Adar (Mishnah Shekalim 1:3). The exchange was needed because the tax was paid in approved silver rather than in Roman coin. This site carries that record and its citation at src/lib/hebraic/feasts.ts, on the money changers a Christian reader meets in John 2.
How it is read
The chapter gives the golden altar, the half shekel, the laver, the oil and the incense. Rashi marks the golden altar off from the bronze one by its top, since the altar of burnt offering was filled with earth at each camp (Rashi on Exodus 30:3:1). He fixes its place exactly in front of the ark and outside the veil (Rashi on Exodus 30:6:1). The trimming of the lamps is the cleaning of the bowls each morning from the ashes of the wicks that burned through the night (Rashi on Exodus 30:7:1). On the census he reads the command as a rule against counting heads. Each man gives half a shekel, and the coins are counted instead (Rashi on Exodus 30:12:1). The best known traditional insight on this chapter is his next line. God showed Moses "a kind of fiery coin the weight of which was half a shekel" and said that they should give like it (Rashi on Exodus 30:13:1, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 9). The age of twenty is read as the age of the army and of the count (Rashi on Exodus 30:14:1). The atonement of the fifteenth verse he takes two ways. It guards against plague at a census, and it atones for sin, with three heave offerings alluded to in the wording (Rashi on Exodus 30:15:1). The priests washed hands and feet together, the right hand laid on the right foot and the left on the left (Rashi on Exodus 30:19:1, citing Zevachim 19b). Rashi is quoted from the Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition of 1929 to 1934, public domain. His comment at Exodus 30:16:1 stands in the corpus as a reference, because the text fetch returned nothing for it. Ibn Ezra comments at Exodus 30:2:1, 30:5:1, 30:17:1 and 30:22:1 under a licence that keeps his text off this page.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty places where the Midrash and the Talmud draw on this chapter, cited here by reference. The half shekel and the census are read in the Jerusalem Talmud at Megillah 1:5:5 and Taanit 1:1:18, and in Bekhorot 50a:3. Bamidbar Rabbah reads them at 10:1, and the altar and the laver at 6:3, 12:13, 14:10, 14:19 and 14:21. It reads the oil at 15:17 and 18:9. The washing of hands and feet stands in the Jerusalem Talmud at Yoma 2:1:9 and 3:6:3, at Challah 1:6:1 and at Arakhin 19b:5. The anointing oil and the incense are read at Makkot 14b:2 and Bava Batra 75a:2, and in the Jerusalem Talmud at Makkot 2:6:1, Shekalim 4:3:1 and 4:4:2. Chullin 139b:12 reads the spices, and Ein Yaakov, Keritot 1:3 the incense. Sifra reads the anointing at Tzav, Chapter 1 11, and Sifrei Devarim at 76:8. Avot DeRabbi Natan 1:2 reads the priesthood of the thirtieth verse.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Exodus 30:1 to 30:25, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain, and Rashi on Exodus 30:16:1 cited by reference, 1040 to 1105; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Exodus 30:2:1, 30:5:1, 30:17:1 and 30:22:1, cited by reference, CC-BY-NC, 1089 to 1164; Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 9, as Rashi cites it; Mishnah, Shekalim 1:3, the money changers' tables in the Temple from the twenty fifth of Adar, carried at src/lib/hebraic/feasts.ts, about AD 200; Babylonian Talmud, Zevachim 19b, as Rashi cites it, and Bekhorot 50a:3 and Makkot 14b:2, cited by reference; Jerusalem Talmud, Megillah 1:5:5, Taanit 1:1:18, Yoma 2:1:9 and Shekalim 4:3:1, cited by reference; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/exodus/30.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026; MannaFest, the commentators and their dates, src/app/featured/the-jewish-writings/page.tsx, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Altar of Incense
The golden altar is described here rather than with the table and the candlestick in chapter 25, after the priests have been consecrated in chapter 29. It carries horns like the brazen altar of Exodus 27:2 and rings and staves like the ark of Exodus 25:13, so the instrument of prayer is built to travel with the camp. Hebrews 9:4 places a golden censer with the holiest of all rather than with the holy place, and readers have long divided over whether the writer means this altar or the censer carried in on the day of atonement.
Exodus 30:1
“Exo 37:25-28; Exo 40:26-27. The altar of incense was to be a casing of boards of shittim wood Exo 25:5, Exo 25:18 inches square and three feet in height (taking the cubit as 18 inches), entirely covered with plates of gold. Four “horns” were to project upward at the corners like those of the altar of burnt-offering Exo 27:2. A crown or moulding of gold was to run round the top. On each of two opposite sides there was to be a gold ring through which the staves were to be put when it was moved from place to place.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Exodus 30:1
“And David applies this type specially to prayer, when he says: "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense." (Psalm 131:2.) Therefore, as the other altar of which we have been hearing, was devoted to the victims for the purpose of propitiating God, so also this altar perfumed the sacrifices with the odor of its incense, that they might be acceptable to God.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
ConnectionsHebrews 7:25
Exodus 30:2
“Four-square - That is, on the upper or under surface, as it showed four equal sides; but it was twice as high as it was broad, being twenty-one inches broad, and three feet six inches high. It was called, not only the altar of incense, but also the golden altar, Num 4:11. For the crown, horns, staves, etc., see on the altar of burnt-offering, Exo 27:1 (note), etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 30:5
“And thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood,.... Of the same wood the altar itself was made: and overlay them with gold; as that was; these rings and staves may be an emblem of the precious ordinances of Christ, in which he grants his presence; and where he is held forth in different ages and places as the interceding high priest of his people, their advocate with the Father, pleading continually his propitiatory sacrifice in their favour.”
The altar stands outside the vail and its smoke goes over it, so the incense reaches where the priest may not. Burning it is tied to the lamps rather than given an hour of its own, once when the lamps are dressed and once when they are lit, which makes the light and the incense one daily duty. Luke 1:9-10 has Zacharias at this altar while the whole multitude prayed outside at the hour of incense, and Revelation 5:8 calls the odours the prayers of saints.
Exodus 30:6
“Before the mercy-seat that is over the testimony - These words in the original are supposed to be a repetition, by mistake, of the preceding clause; the word הפרכת happarocheth, the veil, being corrupted by interchanging two letters into הכפרת haccapporeth, the mercy-seat; and this, as Dr. Kennicott observes, places the altar of incense before the mercy-seat, and consequently In the holy of holies! Now this could not be, as the altar of incense was attended every day, and the holy of holies entered only once in the year.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 30:6
“This altar typified the mediation of Christ: the brazen altar in the court was a type of Christ dying on earth; the golden altar in the sanctuary was a type of Christ interceding in heaven. This altar was before the mercy- seat, for Christ always appears in the presence of God for us; and his intercession is unto God of a sweet smelling savour.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Exodus 30:7
“As by the offerings on the brazen altar satisfaction was made for what had been done displeasing to God, so, by the offering on this, what they did well was, as it were, recommended to the divine acceptance; for our two great concerns with God are to be acquitted from guilt and accepted as righteous in his sight.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 30:8
“But "Aaron" is frequently used for the whole priestly order, and in later times, any of the priests might have officiated at this altar in rotation (Lu 1:9).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 30:8
“The devotions of sanctified souls are well-pleasing to God, of a sweet-smelling savour; the prayers of saints are compared to sweet odours ( Rev. v. 8 ), but it is the incense which Christ adds to them that makes them acceptable ( Rev. viii. 3 ), and his blood that atones for the guilt which cleaves to our best services.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Four things are forbidden on this altar and every one of them belongs on the altar in the court, so the two altars are held to separate work. The single exception is blood, put on its horns once a year with the sin offering of atonements, which ties the golden altar to the day Leviticus 16 sets out. Leviticus 10:1 records the first breach of the rule, when Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire in the week the priesthood began.
Exodus 30:9
“No strange incense - None made in any other way. Nor burnt-sacrifice - It should be an altar for incense, and for no other use.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 30:10
Therefore, if I should consider how the true "high priest," my Lord Jesus Christ, having indeed been placed in the flesh, was with the people all year, that year about which he himself says, "He sent me to proclaim good news to the poor and to announce the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of forgiveness," I perceive how "once" in this "year" on the Day of Atonement he enters into "the Holy of Holies."
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9:8-9patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 30:10
“Although this was only done once a year, yet it was daily to be called to mind, in order that they might offer the death of Christ by faith and prayer, and yet might know that their prayers had no sweet savor, unless in so far as they were sprinkled with the blood of atonement. __________________________________________________________________ A.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
The Half-Shekel Ransom
This opens the second of the seven speeches that build the tabernacle, which fall at 25:1, here, 30:17, 30:22, 30:34, 31:1 and 31:12. What it commands is a ransom paid at a census, half a shekel from every man counted, so that there be no plague among them, and 2 Samuel 24 records a later numbering that ended in one. The phrase shekel of the sanctuary occurs here for the first time in Scripture and fixes the weight against a standard kept at the sanctuary rather than in the market.
Exodus 30:11
“WILL you kindly open your Bibles to Exodus 30, for I must commence my discourse by expounding that passage. When the account was taken of the number of the children of Israel, the Lord commanded that every male over 20 years of age should pay half a shekel as Redemption money, confessing that he deserved to die, acknowledging that he was in debt to God and bringing the sum demanded as a type of a great Redemption which would, by-and-by, be paid for the souls of the sons of men.”
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 30:11
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Continued his discourse; or, there being some intermission, reassumed it: saying; as follows.”
Exodus 30:12
“The Ransom of Souls. - Exo 38:25-28. On comparing these words with those of Num 1:1-3, we may perhaps infer that the first passage relates to a mere counting of the adult Israelites at the time when the money was taken from each, and that what the latter passage enjoins was a formal enrolment of them according to their genealogies and their order of military service.”
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 30:12
“WILL you kindly open your Bibles to Exodus 30, for I must commence my discourse by expounding that passage. When the account was taken of the number of the children of Israel, the Lord commanded that every male over 20 years of age should pay half a shekel as Redemption money, confessing that he deserved to die, acknowledging that he was in debt to God and bringing the sum demanded as a type of a great Redemption which would, by-and-by, be paid for the souls of the sons of men.”
Exodus 30:13
“It was required from all classes alike, and a refusal to pay implied a wilful exclusion from the privileges of the sanctuary, as well as exposure to divine judgments. It was probably the same impost that was exacted from our Lord (Mt 17:24-27), and it was usually devoted to repairs and other purposes connected with the services of the sanctuary.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less, which makes this the one offering in the book with no scale in it, because a ransom is priced by what is redeemed rather than by what the payer holds. Exodus 38:27 follows the money and says where it went, a hundred talents cast into a hundred silver sockets at a talent apiece. The boards of the dwelling place therefore stand in atonement money, and Charles Spurgeon preached that point from these verses in Silver Sockets, Redemption the Foundation.
Exodus 30:14
“Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above,.... Even Levites, Israelites, proselytes, and servants freed, but not women, bond servants, or children (x): shall give an offering to the Lord; the half shekel before mentioned. (x) Misn. Shekalim, c. 1. sect. 1, 3.”
Exodus 30:15
“In Christ and his ordinances rich and poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker, the Lord Christ is the Redeemer of them both, Prov. xxii. The Jews say, "If a man refused to pay this tribute, he was not comprehended in the expiation." 2. this tribute was to be paid as a ransom of the soul, that there might be no plague among them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 30:16
“Thus we must honour the Lord with our substance, and reckon that best laid out which is laid out in the service of God. Money indeed cannot make an 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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The Bronze Basin for Washingvv. 17-21
The third speech gives the only piece of the tabernacle whose size the text never fixes, since the laver is described by its metal and its use and by nothing else. Exodus 38:8 says what the brass came from, the looking glasses of the women assembling at the door of the tent. Aaron and his sons were already washed once at their consecration in Exodus 29:4, and this is a different thing, a washing of hands and feet repeated at every approach, with the reason given twice as that they die not. John 13:10 sets a bathed man needing only his feet washed.
Exodus 30:17
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Again, at another time, and upon another subject: saying, as follows.”
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 30:17
“But many of the Jewish writers, and others from them, are of opinion that it was to be an annual tribute, only it was begun when Moses first numbered the people. This was that tribute-money which Christ paid, for fear of offending his adversaries ( Matt. xvii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 30:18
“A laver of brass - כיור kiyor sometimes signifies a caldron, 1Sa 2:14; but it seems to signify any large round vessel or basin used for washing the hands and feet. There were doubtless cocks or spigots in it to draw off the water, as it is not likely the feet were put into it in order to be washed. The foot of the laver must mean the pedestal on which it stood.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
ConnectionsTitus 3:5
Exodus 30:19
“For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat.”
Exodus 30:20
“They shall wash with water, that they die not - This was certainly an emblematical washing; and as the hands and the feet are particularly mentioned, it must refer to the purity of their whole conduct. Their hands - all their works, their feet - all their goings, must be washed - must be holiness unto the Lord. And this washing must be repeated every time they entered into the tabernacle, or when they came near to the altar to minister.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 30:20
“When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water,.... The laver standing near the door of the tabernacle, they washed at it as soon as they entered; and no man, we are told (c), entered into the court before he washed, even though he was clean; though he had contracted no filthiness, and even though he had washed his hands and feet at home, he was obliged to do it when he went into the tabernacle, before he attempted to perform any service.”
Exodus 30:21
“And it shall be a statute for ever - To continue, in its literal meaning, as long as the Jewish economy lasted, and, in its spiritual meaning, to the end of time. What an important lesson does this teach the ministers of the Gospel of Christ!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The Holy Anointing Oil
The fourth speech opens with a different formula, Moreover the Lord spake, which is why the set in chapters 25 to 31 counts as seven speeches rather than seven occurrences of one phrase. The weights are reckoned by the shekel of the sanctuary named at verse 13, so the standard set for the ransom money governs the apothecary as well. Every spice in the recipe reaches the wilderness by trade, and Exodus 35:28 says the people brought the spice for the anointing oil out of their own hands.
Exodus 30:22
“Moreover, the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Some little time afterwards, while he was yet with him on the mount: saying; as follows.”
Exodus 30:23
“Take - unto thee principal spices - From this and the following verse we learn that the holy anointing oil was compounded of the following ingredients: - Pure myrrh, מר דרור mar deror, 500 shekels Sweet cinnamon, קנמן בשם kinnemon besem, 250 shekels. (probably from Arabia) Sweet calamus, קנה בשם keneh bosem, or sweet 250 shekels. cane, Jer 6:20 - Calamus aromaticus. Cassia, קדה kiddah, (cassia lignea), brought 500 shekels. Also from Arabia. Olive oil, שמן זית shemen sayith, one hin, about 5 quarts.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 30:23
“Take thou also unto thee principal spices,.... To make the anointing oil with, and are as follow: of pure myrrh five hundred shekels; it is strange that Saadiah, and so Maimonides (f), should take this for musk, which comes from a beast, and is confuted by Aben Ezra from Son 5:1 from whence it plainly appears to be what comes from a tree; and the word "mor", here used, gives the tree the name of myrrh almost in all languages.”
Exodus 30:24
“And of cassia five hundred shekels,.... Or two hundred and fifty ounces: after the shekel of the sanctuary; according to the standard weight kept there. This "cassia" was not the "cassia solutiva", which is of a purgative nature, and now in use in physic, but the "cassia odorata", or the sweet smelling "cassia": which, Pancirollus (s) says, some take to be the nard, out of which a most sweet oil is pressed; and Servius (t) says, that cassia is an herb of a most sweet smell.”
Exodus 30:25
“After the art of the apothecary - The original, רקח rokeach, signifies a compounder or confectioner; any person who compounds drugs, aromatics, etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The oil goes on the tent and on every vessel in it before it goes on any man, so the place is set apart ahead of the priesthood that will work there. The result is stated as a graded thing, that they may be most holy, and that whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy. Haggai 2:11-13 puts the matching question to the priests, whether holiness carries by contact the way uncleanness does, and the answer given there is that it does not.
Exodus 30:28
“And the altar of burnt offering, with all its vessels,.... Pans, shovels, basins, &c. and this altar particularly was sprinkled with it seven times, Lev 8:10, and the laver, and his foot; the laver of brass for the priests to wash their hands and feet in, and the foot or base of it on which it stood, see Exo 30:18.”
Anoint Aaron and his sons: Aaron and his sons come last, after the tent and the furniture, and the word anoint first occurs in Scripture at Exodus 28:41 in this same connection. Two prohibitions close the paragraph, that the oil is not poured on ordinary flesh and that no one compounds anything like it, with cutting off named as the penalty. Psalm 133 takes the picture up and makes the oil running down Aaron's beard the figure for brethren dwelling together in unity.
Exodus 30:30
“Thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons - For the reason of this anointing, see Clarke’s note on Exo 29:7. It seems that this anointing oil was an emblem of Divine teaching, and especially of those influences by which the Church of Christ was, in the beginning, guided into all truth; as is evident from the allusion to it by St. John: “Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 30:31
“To show the excellency of holiness, there was that in the tabernacle which was in the highest degree grateful both to the sight and to the smell. Christ's name is said to be as ointment poured forth ( Cant. i. 3 ), and the good name of Christians better than precious ointment, Eccl. vii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 30:32
“It is a great affront to God to jest with sacred things, particularly to make sport with the word and ordinances of God, or to treat them with lightness, Matt. xxii. That which is God's peculiar must not be used as a common thing.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The Sacred Incense
The fifth speech supplies what burns on the altar of verse 1, four ingredients in equal weight, beaten small and set before the testimony. The chapter therefore ends where it opened, and the altar built in its first verse has nothing to offer until this last speech gives it. The anointing oil is called holy and the incense is called most holy, which is the same grading the chapter applied to the furniture at verse 29.
Exodus 30:34
“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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 30:34
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The perfume ends with the same fence as the oil, that a man may not compound it for himself, and the reason given is smelling to it for his own pleasure. What is withheld is private use rather than public use, which is the line the chapter has been drawing since it forbade strange incense at verse 9. Chapter 31 follows at once with Bezalel, the first man in Scripture said to be filled with the Spirit of God, and the filling is for cutting stone, working metal and carving wood.
Exodus 30:37
“And as for the perfume which thou shalt make,.... As above directed: ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof; that is, for their own use, for the scenting of their rooms, or to snuff up, or smell to, as in the next verse: it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord; separated entirely for his service, to be burned upon his altar, and to be no otherwise used.”
Exodus 30:38
“Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto,.... A man might make a perfume of the same ingredients, and of the same weight, and exactly like it, but not to burn for his own delight and pleasure; but if he made it and sold it to the congregation, as Jarchi observes, he was not guilty; but if it was for his own private use and pleasure, then he shall even be cut off from his people; See Gill on Exo 30:33.”
How this psalm is built
The form: Building instruction in five separate speeches, each opening with the LORD speaking to Moses, as Barnes classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Then the LORD said to Moses, said five times | The chapter is built of five speeches, each opening with the same formula. Verse 11 opens the census money, verse 17 the basin, verse 22 the anointing oil and verse 34 the incense. The incense altar of verses 1 to 10 stands before the first of them. Counted in the Berean text of the chapter, the formula stands at verses 11, 17, 22 and 34. | Exodus 30:11, Exodus 30:17, Exodus 30:22, Exodus 30:34 |
| Anyone who makes anything like it shall be cut off | Verse 33 says that anyone who mixes perfume like the anointing oil, or puts it on an outsider, shall be cut off from his people. Verse 38 says that anyone who makes incense like this to enjoy its fragrance shall be cut off from his people. The two prohibitions are stated in the same shape at the end of each recipe. | Exodus 30:32, Exodus 30:33, Exodus 30:37, Exodus 30:38 |
| So that they will not die, said twice about the same washing | Verse 20 says the priests must wash with water so that they will not die. Verse 21 says the same sentence again, that they are to wash their hands and feet so that they will not die. The instruction for the basin is bracketed by one consequence stated twice in three verses. | Exodus 30:20, Exodus 30:21 |
| The rich no more and the poor no less | Verse 15 fixes the ransom at exactly half a shekel for every man, and says the rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less. The same offering is required from both ends of the scale, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read a refusal to pay as a wilful exclusion from the privileges of the sanctuary.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Exodus 30:13. | Exodus 30:13, Exodus 30:15 |
The chapter's placing has been noticed since antiquity, because the incense altar arrives after the curtains, the veil and the furniture rather than with the other pieces in chapter 25. The weekly Jewish reading cuts the chapter in two at the same point, Tetzaveh ending at verse 10 and Ki Tisa beginning at verse 11. The incense altar goes with the priestly chapters and the census with the golden calf.
17 more paragraphs on the patterns
The census money of verses 11 to 16 is collected at Exodus 38:25 to 28, which Albert Barnes points to, and a second numbering with genealogies and military order follows at Numbers 1:1 to 3. Barnes reads the first as a counting taken when the money was paid and the second as the formal enrolment.
The witnesses
Adam Clarke records a difference in the Samaritan Pentateuch at the head of this chapter. That text omits the first ten verses here and inserts them after Exodus 26:32, which puts the incense altar with the veil it stands before. The received Hebrew and the Berean that follows it keep the verses where they stand. The variant is an arrangement of the same material rather than a difference of wording, and it bears on the question of the altar's placing raised above.
The historical value
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown bring two outside observations. The art of compounding unguents and perfumes was well known in Egypt, where sweet scented spices were used both in ordinary life and in the ritual of the temples. And the half shekel of verse 13 was probably the same impost exacted from our Lord at Matthew 17:24 to 27, usually devoted to repairs and to the services of the sanctuary.
John Wesley reports that the holy oil was absent from the second temple, and attributes the lack to a view that it was unlawful to make it up again. He reads the absence as a providential want. John Gill records the disputed identification of the first spice, noting that Saadiah and Maimonides took mor for musk. Aben Ezra refuted them from Song of Songs 5:1, since the substance plainly comes from a tree.
The New Testament's use
The half shekel of verse 13 stands behind Matthew 17:24 to 27, where the collectors of the two drachma tax ask Peter whether his Teacher pays it. The coin comes out of a fish's mouth. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown make that identification.
The incense of verses 7 and 8 stands behind Revelation 8:3 and 4. There an angel is given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. Matthew Henry reads the prayers of saints as sweet odours by that verse, and adds that it is the incense Christ supplies that makes them acceptable.
The washing of verses 19 to 21 is read by Cyril of Jerusalem as a symbol of baptism, in his note on the laver at Exodus 29:4.
John Wesley and Matthew Henry both read this altar against the altar of Ezekiel's temple at Ezekiel 41:22, which is twice the size and made of wood. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add Malachi 1:11 on incense offered in every place. All three read the change as the worship becoming plainer and wider.
The debated reading
Why the incense altar is given here rather than in chapter 25 is the chapter's standing question, and the evidence on it is textual. Adam Clarke reports the Samaritan Pentateuch moving the verses to follow Exodus 26:32, which is where the veil is hung, and that placing would put the altar with the room it stands in. The received Hebrew keeps it here, after the priests have been given their clothes and their ordination. Neither arrangement changes a word of the instruction, and the estate states no verdict.
The second question is what the four spices of verse 34 were. John Gill sets out the dispute over the first of them and names both sides, Saadiah and Maimonides against Aben Ezra, with Aben Ezra's argument from the Song of Songs. The identification of onycha and galbanum is not settled in the commentaries the store carries, and nothing is claimed for them here.
The typological reading of the incense altar follows the pattern set out in the study of chapter 25. John Wesley and Matthew Henry both read the bronze altar in the court as Christ dying on earth and the golden altar in the sanctuary as Christ interceding in heaven. John Calvin reads the yearly atonement of verse 10 as something to be called to mind daily. Prayers have no sweet savour, on his account, except as they are sprinkled with the blood of atonement. Those readings are theirs.
Where to go deeper
The two altars stand at the altar, and the basin at the bronze laver. The ransom of verse 12 stands at the ransom, and the sanctuary shekel at weights and measures. The oil stands at the anointing. The prayers offered with incense stand at worship. The tabernacle as a whole has no page yet and is owed.
Keep studying
Studies8
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Exodus 30:2 and Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Exodus 30:12.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon 1581: Silver Sockets, Redemption the Foundation; Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews.