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Exodus 30:9

in Exodus 30

On this altar you must not offer unauthorized incense or a burnt offering or grain offering; nor are you to pour a drink offering on it.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt-offering, nor meal-offering; and ye shall pour no drink-offering thereon.

KJV

Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering; neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon.

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This verse in Exodus 30

Commentary

4 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

no strange incense thereon

on Exodus 30:9-10

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.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

God will have his own service done according to his own appointment, and not otherwise. That this altar should be purified with the blood of the sin-offering put upon the horns of it, every year, upon the day of atonement,

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

No strange incense - None made in any other way. Nor burnt-sacrifice - It should be an altar for incense, and for no other use.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

On the tenth day of the seventh month. 29 The Day of Atonement.
Ibn Ezra: Spain, 1089–1167 · Ibn Ezra on Exodus 30:10:1, via Sefaria, Ibn Ezra's commentary on the Pentateuch, tran. and annot. by H. Norman Strickman and Arthur M. Silver. Menorah Pub., 1988-2004
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Aharon shall make atonement on its horn-like elevations once each year.
Targum · Onkelos Exodus 30:10, via Sefaria, Metsudah Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009 [with Onkelos translation]

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 2 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

11 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • לֹא־not

    lo'-H3808 →5168 times

  • תַעֲל֥וּyou must offer up

    taaluH5927 →890 times

  • עָלָ֛יוon it

    ʾalavH5921 →5755 times

  • קְטֹ֥רֶתincense

    ketoretH7004 →60 times

  • זָרָ֖הstrange

    zarahH2114 →77 times

  • וְעֹלָ֣הand a burnt offering

    veolahH5930 →287 times

  • וּמִנְחָ֑הand a grain offering

    uminchahH4503 →211 times

  • וְנֵ֕סֶךְand a drink offering

    venesekhH5262 →64 times

  • לֹ֥אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • תִסְּכ֖וּyou must pour out

    tisekhuH5258 →25 times

  • עָלָֽיו׃on it

    ʾalavH5921 →5755 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

The walk

5 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Leviticus 10:1

    Now Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense, and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to His command.

    it leads to

    • Numbers 26:61

      but Nadab and Abihu died when they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD.

    • Leviticus 16:12

      Then he must take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense, and take them inside the veil.

    • Deuteronomy 12:32

      See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.

    • Numbers 16:46

      Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, place fire from the altar in it, and add incense. Go quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, because wrath has come out from the…

    • Exodus 24:1

      Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD—you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders—and you are to worship at a distance.

Where this verse is studied

About Exodus

The Giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Exodus: the study guide →Read Exodus 30 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Exodus 30 →