30:1  AND YOU shall make an altar to burn incense upon; of acacia wood you shall make it.

30:2  A cubit shall be its length and a cubit its breadth; its top shall be square and it shall be two cubits high. Its horns shall be of one piece with it.

30:3  And you shall overlay it with pure gold, its top and its sides round about and its horns, and you shall make a crown (a rim or molding) of gold around it.

30:4  You shall make two golden rings under the rim of it, on the two ribs on the two opposite sides of it; and they shall be holders for the poles with which to carry it.

30:5  And you shall make the poles of acacia wood, overlaid with gold.

30:6  You shall put the altar [of incense] in front {and} outside of the veil that screens the ark of the Testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony (the Law, the tables of stone), where I will meet with you.

30:7  And Aaron shall burn on it incense of sweet spices; every morning when he trims {and} fills the lamps he shall burn it.

30:8  And when Aaron lights the lamps in the evening, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.

30:9  You shall offer no unholy incense on the altar nor burnt sacrifice nor cereal offering; and you shall pour no libation (drink offering) on it.

30:10  Aaron shall make atonement upon the horns of it once a year; with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once in the year shall he make atonement upon {and} for it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.

30:11  And the Lord said to Moses,

30:12  When you take the census of the Israelites, every man shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord when you number them, that no plague may fall upon them when you number them.

30:13  This is what everyone shall give as he joins those already numbered: a half shekel, in terms of the sanctuary shekel, a shekel being twenty gerahs; a half shekel as an offering to the Lord.

30:14  Everyone from twenty years old and upward, as he joins those already numbered, shall give this offering to the Lord.

30:15  The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel when [you] give this offering to the Lord to make atonement for yourselves.

30:16  And you shall take the atonement money of the Israelites and use it [exclusively] for the service of the Tent of Meeting, that it may bring the Israelites to remembrance before the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves.

30:17  And the Lord said to Moses,

30:18  You shall also make a laver {or} large basin of bronze, and its base of bronze, for washing; and you shall put it [outside in the court] between the Tent of Meeting and the altar [of burnt offering], and you shall put water in it;

30:19  There Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet.

30:20  When they go into the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to the Lord,

30:21  So they shall wash their hands and their feet, lest they die; it shall be a perpetual statute for [Aaron] and his descendants throughout their generations.

30:22  Moreover, the Lord said to Moses,

30:23  Take the best spices: of liquid myrrh 500 shekels, of sweet-scented cinnamon half as much, 250 shekels, of fragrant calamus 250 shekels,

30:24  And of cassia 500 shekels, in terms of the sanctuary shekel, and of olive oil a hin.

30:25  And you shall make of these a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer; it shall be a sacred anointing oil.

30:26  And you shall anoint the Tent of Meeting with it, and the ark of the Testimony,

30:27  And the [showbread] table and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense,

30:28  And the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver [for cleansing] and its base.

30:29  You shall sanctify (separate) them, that they may be most holy; whoever {and} whatever touches them must be holy (set apart to God).

30:30  And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons and sanctify (separate) them, that they may minister to Me as priests.

30:31  And say to the Israelites, This is a holy anointing oil [symbol of the Holy Spirit], sacred to Me alone throughout your generations.

30:32  It shall not be poured upon a layman's body, nor shall you make any other like it in composition; it is holy, and you shall hold it sacred.

30:33  Whoever compounds any like it or puts any of it upon an outsider shall be cut off from his people.

30:34  Then the Lord said to Moses, Take sweet spices--stacte, onycha, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense, an equal amount of each--

30:35  And make of them incense, a perfume after the perfumer's art, seasoned with salt {and} mixed, pure and sacred.

30:36  You shall beat some of it very small and put some of it before the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you; it shall be to you most holy.

30:37  And the incense which you shall make according to its composition you shall not make for yourselves; it shall be to you holy to the Lord.

30:38  Whoever makes any like it for perfume shall be cut off from his people.