Exodus 30:3-6

30:3 You are to overlay it with pure gold – its top, ¹  its four walls, ²  and its horns – and make a surrounding border of gold for it. ³  30:4 You are to make two gold rings for it under its border, on its two flanks; you are to make them on its two sides. ⁴  The rings ⁵  will be places ⁶  for poles to carry it with. 30:5 You are to make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.

30:6 “You are to put it in front of the curtain that is before the ark of the testimony (before the atonement lid that is over the testimony), where I will meet you.

¹ tn Heb “roof.”

² tn Heb “its walls around.”

³ tn Heb “and make for it border gold around.” The verb is a consecutive perfect. See Exod 25:11, where the ark also has such a molding.

⁴ sn Since it was a small altar, it needed only two rings, one on either side, in order to be carried. The second clause clarifies that the rings should be on the sides, the right and the left, as you approach the altar.

⁵ tn Heb “And it”; this refers to the rings collectively in their placement on the box, and so the word “rings” has been used to clarify the referent for the modern reader.

⁶ tn Heb “for houses.”