Exodus 30

1You are to make an altar for burning incense, and you are to make it from acacia wood. 2Make it square, about 18 inches on each side and about 3 feet high, with its horns of one piece with it. 3Overlay it with pure gold: the top, the sides all the way around, and the horns. Then run a gold molding around it. 4Make two gold rings for it below the molding, on its two opposite sides, to hold the poles that it is carried with. 5Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 6Set it in front of the curtain that hangs before the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that covers the testimony, where I will meet with you. 7Each morning, as he sets the lamps in order, Aaron is to burn sweet-smelling incense on it. 8And when he lights the lamps at dusk he is to burn it again. This is to be the regular incense offered before the LORD, generation after generation. 9Never burn unauthorized incense on it. It is not for burnt offerings or grain offerings, and no drink offering may be poured out on it. 10Aaron is to make atonement on its horns one time each year, using blood from the sin offering of atonement. Once every year, generation after generation, atonement is to be made on it. It is most holy to the LORD.”

11The LORD said to Moses, 12“Whenever you take a census of the Israelites and enroll them, every man is to give the LORD a ransom for his life at his enrollment. That way no plague will fall on them while the count is being made. 13Each one who crosses over to join those already counted is to give this: about 1/5 ounce of silver, weighed by the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs. This silver is a contribution to the LORD. 14All who cross over to the counted, from twenty years old and up, are to give this contribution to the LORD. 15When you bring the contribution to the LORD to make atonement for your lives, the rich are not to give more than the 1/5 ounce, nor the poor less. 16Collect the atonement money from the Israelites and put it toward the work of the tent of meeting. It will be a reminder before the LORD on behalf of the Israelites, making atonement for your lives.”

17The LORD said to Moses, 18“Make a basin of bronze on a bronze stand, to be used for washing. Set it between the tent of meeting and the altar and fill it with water. 19From it Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and their feet. 20Each time they enter the tent of meeting, they must wash with water, so that they do not die. The same is true when they come near the altar to serve by burning an offering by fire to the LORD: 21they must wash their hands and feet, so that they do not die. This is a statute for all time, for Aaron and his descendants, generation after generation.”

22The LORD said to Moses, 23“Take for yourself the choicest spices: about 12 1/2 pounds of free-flowing myrrh; half that amount, about 6 1/4 pounds, of sweet-smelling cinnamon; about 6 1/4 pounds of fragrant cane; 24and about 12 1/2 pounds of cassia, all weighed by the shekel of the sanctuary; and about a gallon of olive oil. 25Out of these, prepare a holy oil for anointing, blended with a perfumer’s skill. It is to be the holy anointing oil. 26Use it to anoint the tent of meeting, the ark of the testimony, 27the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and its utensils, the altar of incense, 28the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the basin with its stand. 29In this way you are to consecrate them, and they will be most holy. Anything that touches them will become holy. 30Anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them to serve me as priests. 31Tell the Israelites, ‘This is to be my holy anointing oil, generation after generation. 32It must not be poured on ordinary human flesh, and you must not make any oil like it by the same recipe. It is holy, and you are to treat it as holy. 33Whoever blends any like it, or puts any of it on someone who is not a priest, is to be cut off from their people.’”

34The LORD said to Moses, “Take fragrant spices, stacte, onycha and galbanum, spices together with pure frankincense, an equal weight of each. 35Blend them into incense as a skilled perfumer would. It is to be seasoned with salt, pure and holy. 36Pound some of it into fine powder and set some before the testimony in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with you. You are to regard it as most holy. 37As for the incense you are to make, you must never make any by the same recipe for yourselves. You are to count it holy, belonging to the LORD. 38Whoever makes any like it for the pleasure of its scent is to be cut off from their people.”