Exodus 30: The altar of incense, the census money, the basin, the oil and the incense

In plain English: "Make an altar for burning incense. Make it of acacia wood.

In plain English: It is to be a cubit long and a cubit wide, square, and two cubits high. Its horns are to be of one piece with it.

In plain English: Overlay it with pure gold: its top, its sides all around, and its horns. Make a gold molding around it.

In plain English: Make two gold rings for it under its molding, on its two ribs, on its two sides. Make them as places for the poles with which to carry it.

In plain English: Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.

In plain English: Put it before the veil that is by the ark of the covenant (literally: the testimony), before the mercy seat that is over the covenant (the testimony), where I will meet with you.

Good to know: "Mercy seat" is explained at Exodus 25:17.

In plain English: Aaron is to burn incense of sweet spices on it every morning. When he tends the lamps, he is to burn it.

In plain English: When Aaron lights the lamps at evening (literally: between the two evenings), he is to burn it, a perpetual incense before Yahweh throughout your generations.

In plain English: Do not offer strange incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a meal offering, and do not pour a drink offering on it.

In plain English: Aaron is to make atonement on its horns once in the year. With the blood of the sin offering of atonement, once in the year, he is to make atonement for it throughout your generations. It is most holy to Yahweh."

In plain English: Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

In plain English: "When you take a census of the Israelites, according to those who are counted among them, each man is to give a ransom for his soul (or: life) to Yahweh when you count them, so that there is no plague among them when you count them.

The Hebrew words: "Ransom" is kofer, the word explained at Exodus 21:30. In Exodus it is in only those 2 verses. "Plague" is negeph, which the dictionary gives as "a trip (of the foot); figuratively, an infliction (of disease)".

Good to know: The verse does not say why counting the people could bring a plague. The only other verse in Exodus that uses negeph is Exodus 12:13: "no plague will be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt."

In plain English: This is what they are to give, everyone who passes over to those who are counted: half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs). The half shekel is an offering to Yahweh.

Good to know: A shekel is a unit of weight, and the word is explained at Exodus 21:32. This verse says the shekel of the sanctuary is twenty gerahs, so a half shekel is ten gerahs. The dictionary gives gerah as "a gerah or small weight (and coin)". It is in only 5 verses of the Bible, and this is the only one in Exodus. The text does not say how heavy a gerah is.

In plain English: Everyone who passes over to those who are counted, from twenty years old and up, is to give the offering to Yahweh.

In plain English: The rich are not to give more, and the poor are not to give less, than the half shekel when they give the offering to Yahweh, to make atonement for your souls (or: lives).

In plain English: Take the atonement money from the Israelites and give it for the service of the Tent of Meeting, so that it is a memorial (a reminder) for the Israelites before Yahweh, to make atonement for your souls (or: lives)."

In plain English: Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

In plain English: "Also make a basin of bronze, with a base of bronze, for washing. Put it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it.

In plain English: Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and their feet in it.

In plain English: When they go into the Tent of Meeting, they are to wash with water so that they do not die. They are to wash also when they come near to the altar to serve, to burn an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

In plain English: So they are to wash their hands and their feet, so that they do not die. This is to be a statute (a lasting rule) forever for them, for him and for his descendants throughout their generations."

In plain English: Yahweh also spoke to Moses, saying,

In plain English: "Also take fine spices: five hundred shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much (two hundred and fifty) of fragrant cinnamon, and two hundred and fifty of fragrant cane,

In plain English: and five hundred of cassia, by the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil.

In plain English: Make it into a holy anointing oil, a perfume blended in the way a perfumer works. It is to be a holy anointing oil.

In plain English: Use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the covenant (literally: the testimony),

In plain English: the table and all its articles, the lamp stand and its accessories, the altar of incense,

In plain English: the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin with its base.

In plain English: Make them holy (set them apart), so that they are most holy. Whatever touches them will be holy.

In plain English: Anoint Aaron and his sons, and make them holy, so that they may serve me in the priest's office.

In plain English: Speak to the Israelites and say, 'This is to be a holy anointing oil for me throughout your generations.

In plain English: It is not to be poured on man's flesh (a person's body), and do not make any like it, in the same proportions (literally: according to its composition). It is holy. It is to be holy to you.

In plain English: Whoever mixes any like it, or puts any of it on a stranger, is to be cut off from his people.'"

Good to know: The verse does not say what "cut off from his people" means. The same verb is used in verse 38 and in Exodus 31:14, where the verse also says "put to death". Exodus 12 says of anyone who eats leavened bread during the feast that he "shall be cut off" (12:15, 12:19).

In plain English: Yahweh said to Moses, "Take sweet spices for yourself: gum resin, onycha, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense. There is to be an equal weight of each.

In plain English: Make incense of it, a perfume blended in the way a perfumer works, seasoned with salt, pure and holy.

In plain English: Beat some of it very small and put some of it before the covenant (literally: the testimony) in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It is to be most holy to you.

In plain English: Do not make this incense for yourselves in the same proportions (literally: according to its composition). It is to be holy to you, for Yahweh.

In plain English: Whoever makes any like it, to smell it, will be cut off from his people."