Exodus 30

1And you shall make an altar for burning incense; you shall make it of acacia wood.

2Its length shall be a cubit, and its width a cubit; it shall be square, and its height shall be two cubits. Its horns shall be of one piece with it.

3You shall overlay it with pure gold—its top, its walls all around, and its horns—and you shall make for it a gold molding all around.

4And you shall make two gold rings for it under its molding; on its two side panels you shall make them, on its two sides, and they shall be holders for poles with which to carry it.

5And you shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.

6And you shall place it before the veil that is before the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you.

7Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it morning by morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn it.

8And when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it, a regular incense, before Yahweh throughout your generations.

9You shall not offer unauthorized incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering; and you shall not pour out a drink offering on it.

10Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year. With the blood of the sin offering of atonement he shall make atonement for it once a year throughout your generations. It is most holy to Yahweh.

11And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

12When you take a census of the sons of Israel according to those numbered among them, then each man shall give to Yahweh a ransom for his life when you number them, so that there will be no plague among them when you number them.

13This is what everyone who passes over to those who are numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the sanctuary shekel (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to Yahweh.

14Everyone who passes over to those who are counted, from twenty years old and upward, shall give Yahweh’s contribution.

15The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half-shekel, when giving the contribution to Yahweh to make atonement for your lives.

16You shall take the atonement money from the sons of Israel and give it for the service of the tent of meeting, and it shall be for the sons of Israel as a memorial before Yahweh, to make atonement for your lives.

17And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

18You shall make a bronze basin, with its stand of bronze, for washing; and you shall place it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water there.

19Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet from it.

20When they enter the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die; or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn a food offering to Yahweh,

21They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die. This shall be a permanent statute for them, for him and for his offspring throughout their generations.

22Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

23And you, take for yourself the finest spices: five hundred shekels of flowing myrrh, and half as much—two hundred fifty—of fragrant cinnamon, and two hundred fifty of fragrant cane,

24and cassia, five hundred shekels by the sanctuary shekel, and a hin of olive oil.

25And you shall make it a holy anointing oil, a perfume blended by the work of a perfumer; it shall be a holy anointing oil.

26With it you shall anoint the tent of meeting and the ark of the testimony.

27and the table and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense,

28and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin with its stand.

29You shall consecrate them, and they shall be most holy. Whatever touches them shall become holy.

30And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and you shall consecrate them to serve as priests to me.

31And you shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘This shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations.’

32It shall not be poured on human flesh, and in its composition you shall not make any like it. It is holy; it shall be holy to you.

33Whoever compounds any like it, or puts any of it on a stranger, shall be cut off from his people.

34Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Take for yourself spices: stacte and onycha and galbanum, spices, and pure frankincense; they shall be in equal parts.”

35And you shall make it into incense, a perfume blended by the work of a perfumer, salted, pure, holy.

36And you shall grind some of it very fine, and put some of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy for you.

37And the incense that you make according to its composition, you shall not make for yourselves; it shall be holy to you for Yahweh.

38Whoever makes any like it to smell it shall be cut off from his people.