2 Chronicles 26:16-18

26:16 But once he became powerful, his pride destroyed him. ¹  He disobeyed ²  the Lord his God. He entered the Lord’s temple to offer incense on the incense altar. 26:17 Azariah the priest and eighty other brave priests of the Lord followed him in. 26:18 They confronted ³  King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not proper for you, Uzziah, to offer incense to the Lord. That is the responsibility of the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who are consecrated to offer incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have disobeyed ⁴  and the Lord God will not honor you!”

Exodus 30:1-10

The Altar of Incense

30:1 ⁵ “You are to make an altar for burning incense; ⁶  you are to make it of ⁷  acacia wood. ⁸  30:2 Its length is to be a foot and a half ⁹  and its width a foot and a half; it will be square. Its height is to be three feet, ¹⁰  with its horns of one piece with it. ¹¹  30:3 You are to overlay it with pure gold – its top, ¹²  its four walls, ¹³  and its horns – and make a surrounding border of gold for it. ¹⁴  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. ¹⁵  The rings ¹⁶  will be places ¹⁷  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. 30:7 Aaron is to burn sweet incense ¹⁸  on it morning by morning; when he attends ¹⁹  to the lamps he is to burn incense. ²⁰  30:8 When Aaron sets up the lamps around sundown he is to burn incense on it; it is to be a regular incense offering before the Lord throughout your generations. 30:9 You must not offer strange incense on it, nor burnt offering, nor meal offering, and you must not pour out a drink offering on it. 30:10 Aaron is to make atonement on its horns once in the year with some of the blood of the sin offering for atonement; ²¹  once in the year ²²  he is to make atonement on it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.” ²³ 

Exodus 37:25-29

The Making of the Altar of Incense

37:25 He made the incense altar of acacia wood. Its length was a foot and a half and its width a foot and a half – a square – and its height was three feet. Its horns were of one piece with it. ²⁴  37:26 He overlaid it with pure gold – its top, ²⁵  its four walls, ²⁶  and its horns – and he made a surrounding border of gold for it. ²⁷  37:27 He also made ²⁸  two gold rings for it under its border, on its two sides, on opposite sides, ²⁹  as places ³⁰  for poles to carry it with. 37:28 He made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold.

37:29 He made the sacred anointing oil and the pure fragrant incense, the work of a perfumer.

Revelation 8:3

8:3 Another ³¹  angel holding ³²  a golden censer ³³  came and was stationed ³⁴  at the altar. A ³⁵  large amount of incense was given to him to offer up, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar that is before the throne.

Revelation 9:13

9:13 Then ³⁶  the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a single voice coming from the ³⁷  horns on the golden altar that is before God,

[26:16]  ¹ tn Heb “his heart was high [i.e., proud] to destroy.”

[26:16]  ² tn Or “was unfaithful to.”

[26:18]  ³ tn Heb “stood against.”

[26:18]  ⁴ tn Or “been unfaithful.”

[30:1]  ⁵ sn Why this section has been held until now is a mystery. One would have expected to find it with the instructions for the other furnishings. The widespread contemporary view that it was composed later does not answer the question, it merely moves the issue to the work of an editor rather than the author. N. M. Sarna notes concerning the items in chapter 30 that “all the materials for these final items were anticipated in the list of invited donations in 25:3-6” and that they were not needed for installing Aaron and his sons (Exodus [JPSTC], 193). Verses 1-10 can be divided into three sections: the instructions for building the incense altar (1-5), its placement (6), and its proper use (7-10).

[30:1]  ⁶ tn The expression is מִזְבֵּחַ מִקְטַר קְטֹרֶת (mizbeakh miqtar qÿtoret), either “an altar, namely an altar of incense,” or “an altar, [for] burning incense.” The second noun is “altar of incense,” although some suggest it is an active noun meaning “burning.” If the former, then it is in apposition to the word for “altar” (which is not in construct). The last noun is “incense” or “sweet smoke.” It either qualifies the “altar of incense” or serves as the object of the active noun. B. Jacob says that in order to designate that this altar be used only for incense, the Torah prepared the second word for this passage alone. It specifies the kind of altar this is (Exodus, 828).

[30:1]  ⁷ tn This is an adverbial accusative explaining the material used in building the altar.

[30:1]  ⁸ sn See M. Haran, “The Uses of Incense in Ancient Israel Ritual,” VT 10 (1960): 113-15; N. Glueck, “Incense Altars,” Translating and Understanding the Old Testament, 325-29.

[30:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “a cubit.”

[30:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “two cubits.”

[30:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “its horns from it.”

[30:3]  ¹² tn Heb “roof.”

[30:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “its walls around.”

[30:3]  ¹⁴ 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.

[30:4]  ¹⁵ 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.

[30:4]  ¹⁶ 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.

[30:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for houses.”

[30:7]  ¹⁸ tn The text uses a cognate accusative (“incense”) with the verb “to burn” or “to make into incense/sweet smoke.” Then, the noun “sweet spices” is added in apposition to clarify the incense as sweet.

[30:7]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew is בְּהֵיטִיבוֹ (bÿhetivo), a Hiphil infinitive construct serving in a temporal clause. The Hebrew verb means “to make good” and so in this context “to fix” or “to dress.” This refers to cleansing and trimming the lamps.

[30:7]  ²⁰ sn The point of the little golden altar of incense is normally for intercessory prayer, and then at the Day of Atonement for blood applied atonement. The instructions for making it show that God wanted his people to make a place for prayer. The instructions for its use show that God expects that the requests of his people will be pleasing to him.

[30:10]  ²¹ tn The word “atonements” (plural in Hebrew) is a genitive showing the result or product of the sacrifice made.

[30:10]  ²² sn This ruling presupposes that the instruction for the Day of Atonement has been given, or at the very least, is to be given shortly. That is the one day of the year that all sin and all ritual impurity would be removed.

[30:10]  ²³ sn The phrase “most holy to the Lord” means that the altar cannot be used for any other purpose than what is stated here.

[37:25]  ²⁴ tn Heb “from it were its horns,” meaning that they were made from the same piece.

[37:26]  ²⁵ tn Heb “roof.”

[37:26]  ²⁶ tn Heb “its walls around.”

[37:26]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and he made for it border gold around.”

[37:27]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and he made.”

[37:27]  ²⁹ sn Since it was a small altar, it needed only two rings, one on either side, in order to be carried. The second mention of their location clarifies that they should be on the sides, the right and the left, as one approached the altar.

[37:27]  ³⁰ tn Heb “for houses.”

[8:3]  ³¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[8:3]  ³² tn Grk “having.”

[8:3]  ³³ sn A golden censer was a bowl in which incense was burned. The imagery suggests the OT role of the priest.

[8:3]  ³⁴ tn The verb “to station” was used to translate ἑστάθη (Jestaqh) because it connotes the idea of purposeful arrangement in English, which seems to be the idea in the Greek.

[8:3]  ³⁵ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[9:13]  ³⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[9:13]  ³⁷ tc ‡ Several key mss (Ì⁴⁷ א¹ A 0207 1611 2053 2344 pc lat sy^h co) lack the word τεσσάρων (tessarwn, “four”) before κεράτων (keratwn, “horns”). The word seems to have been added by scribes because a “horned” altar (described in the OT [Exod 30:2, 10]) could have only four “horns” or projections at the corners. NA²⁷ includes the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.