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Exodus 30

Exodus 30 establishes God’s terms for worship, marking priestly service and holy materials with boundaries that carry grave consequences.

YHWH tells Moses how to prepare the incense altar and other provisions for worship at the Tent of Meeting. Aaron must burn incense morning and evening and make atonement for the altar once a year. Each man counted in a census must pay the same ransom, whether rich or poor. Priests must wash before serving, and the anointing oil and incense must follow precise recipes, reserved for YHWH’s service.

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1“You shall make an altar to burn incense on. You shall make it of acacia wood.
3You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top, its sides around it, and its horns; and you shall make a gold molding around it.
4You shall make two golden rings for it under its molding; on its two ribs, on its two sides you shall make them; and they shall be for places for poles with which to bear it.
5You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.
6You shall put it before the veil that is by the ark of the covenant, before the mercy seat that is over the covenant, where I will meet with you.
7Aaron shall burn incense of sweet spices on it every morning. When he tends the lamps, he shall burn it.
8When Aaron lights the lamps at evening, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.
9You shall offer no strange incense on it, nor burnt offering, nor meal offering; and you shall pour no drink offering on it.
10Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once in the year; with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once in the year he shall make atonement for it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the LORD.”
12“When you take a census of the children of Israel, according to those who are counted among them, then each man shall give a ransom for his soul to the LORD when you count them, that there be no plague among them when you count them.
13They shall give this, everyone who passes over to those who are counted, half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs); half a shekel for an offering to the LORD.
14Everyone who passes over to those who are counted, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the offering to the LORD.
15The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when they give the offering of the LORD, to make atonement for your souls.
16You shall take the atonement money from the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the Tent of Meeting; that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before the LORD, to make atonement for your souls.”
18“You shall also make a basin of bronze, and its base of bronze, in which to wash. You shall put it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it.
19Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in it.
20When they go into the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water, that they don’t die; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to the LORD.
23“Also take fine spices: of liquid myrrh, five hundred shekels; and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, even two hundred and fifty; and of fragrant cane, two hundred and fifty;
24and of cassia five hundred, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; and a hin of olive oil.
25You shall make it into a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer: it shall be a holy anointing oil.
26You shall use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the covenant,
29You shall sanctify them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them shall be holy.
30You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and sanctify them, that they may minister to me in the priest’s office.
31You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘This shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations.
32It shall not be poured on man’s flesh, and do not make any like it, according to its composition. It is holy. It shall be holy to you.
33Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of it on a stranger, he shall be cut off from his people.’”
34The LORD said to Moses, “Take to yourself sweet spices, gum resin, onycha, and galbanum: sweet spices with pure frankincense. There shall be an equal weight of each.
35You shall make incense of it, a perfume after the art of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy.
36You shall beat some of it very small, and put some of it before the covenant in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be to you most holy.
37You shall not make this incense, according to its composition, for yourselves: it shall be to you holy for the LORD.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Exodus 30:1The command to build an incense altar begins instructions for worship near the place where God will meet with Moses.
Exodus 30:7Aaron’s morning incense offering joins the tending of the lamps to an enduring pattern of service before YHWH.
Exodus 30:23The measured spices begin a prescribed recipe for anointing oil whose composition is reserved for holy use.
Where this chapter reaches

Leviticus shares the practices of priestly washing, anointing, and atonement, while Numbers also connects census taking with Israel’s obligations at the sanctuary. Hebrews discusses sanctuary furnishings and priestly access to God, and Psalm links incense with prayer offered before God.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What do the washing requirements and restrictions on incense show you about approaching God?

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What stands out to you about the equal ransom required from rich and poor?

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Questions people ask about Exodus 30

Why did everyone pay half a shekel in Exodus 30?

Each man aged twenty or older who was counted had to give half a sanctuary shekel as a ransom, so that no plague would strike during the census. Rich and poor owed the same amount. The money supported the Tent of Meeting and served as a memorial before YHWH.

Why was copying the anointing oil and incense forbidden?

God reserved these mixtures for holy use. The oil consecrated the sanctuary furnishings and priests; the incense belonged before him at the Tent of Meeting. Making copies for unauthorized use crossed that boundary. The threatened penalty was being cut off from the people, though this chapter does not explain how that penalty was carried out.

Why did Aaron and his sons have to wash their hands and feet?

The bronze basin stood between the Tent of Meeting and the altar so Aaron and his sons could wash before entering or serving at the altar. God made this a lasting requirement for their priestly service. The repeated warning about death shows the seriousness of approaching him without the cleansing he required.

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What the Bible says about worship →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).