Discovery BoxExodus 30:23
Context30:23 “Take 1 choice spices: 2 twelve and a half pounds 3 of free-flowing myrrh, 4 half that – about six and a quarter pounds – of sweet-smelling cinnamon, six and a quarter pounds of sweet-smelling cane,
Exodus 30:34
Context30:34 The Lord said to Moses: “Take 5 spices, gum resin, 6 onycha, 7 galbanum, 8 and pure frankincense 9 of equal amounts 10
Leviticus 2:1-2
Context2:1 “‘When a person presents a grain offering 11 to the Lord, his offering must consist of choice wheat flour, 12 and he must pour olive oil on it and put frankincense 13 on it. 2:2 Then he must bring it to the sons of Aaron, the priests, and the priest 14 must scoop out from there a handful of its choice wheat flour and some of its olive oil in addition to all of its frankincense, and the priest must offer its memorial portion 15 up in smoke on the altar – it is 16 a gift of a soothing aroma to the Lord.
Leviticus 6:15
Context6:15 and the priest 17 must take up with his hand some of the choice wheat flour of the grain offering 18 and some of its olive oil, and all of the frankincense that is on the grain offering, and he must offer its memorial portion 19 up in smoke on the altar 20 as a soothing aroma to the Lord. 21
Numbers 7:14
Context7:14 one gold pan weighing 10 shekels, full of incense;
Numbers 7:86
Context7:86 The twelve gold pans full of incense weighed 10 shekels each, according to the sanctuary shekel; all the gold of the pans weighed 120 shekels.
Psalms 45:8
Context45:8 All your garments are perfumed with 22 myrrh, aloes, and cassia.
From the luxurious palaces 23 comes the music of stringed instruments that makes you happy. 24
Malachi 1:11
Context1:11 For from the east to the west my name will be great among the nations. Incense and pure offerings will be offered in my name everywhere, for my name will be great among the nations,” 25 says the Lord who rules over all.
Revelation 5:8
Context5:8 and when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders threw themselves to the ground 26 before the Lamb. Each 27 of them had a harp and golden bowls full of incense (which are the prayers of the saints). 28
[30:23] 1 tn The construction uses the imperative “take,” but before it is the independent pronoun to add emphasis to it. After the imperative is the ethical dative (lit. “to you”) to stress the task to Moses as a personal responsibility: “and you, take to yourself.”
[30:23] 2 tn Heb “spices head.” This must mean the chief spices, or perhaps the top spice, meaning fine spices or choice spices. See Song 4:14; Ezek 27:22.
[30:23] 3 tn Or “500 shekels.” Verse 24 specifies that the sanctuary shekel was the unit for weighing the spices. The total of 1500 shekels for the four spices is estimated at between 77 and 100 pounds, or 17 to 22 kilograms, depending on how much a shekel weighed (C. Houtman, Exodus, 3:576).
[30:23] 4 sn Myrrh is an aromatic substance that flows from the bark of certain trees in Arabia and Africa and then hardens. “The hardened globules of the gum appear also to have been ground into a powder that would have been easy to store and would have been poured from a container” (J. Durham, Exodus [WBC], 3:406).
[30:34] 5 tn The construction is “take to you,” which could be left in that literal sense, but more likely the suffix is an ethical dative, stressing the subject of the imperative.
[30:34] 6 sn This is from a word that means “to drip”; the spice is a balsam that drips from a resinous tree.
[30:34] 7 sn This may be a plant, or it may be from a species of mollusks; it is mentioned in Ugaritic and Akkadian; it gives a pungent odor when burnt.
[30:34] 8 sn This is a gum from plants of the genus Ferula; it has an unpleasant odor, but when mixed with others is pleasant.
[30:34] 9 tn The word “spice is repeated here, suggesting that the first three formed half of the ingredient and this spice the other half – but this is conjecture (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 400).
[30:34] 10 tn Heb “of each part there will be an equal part.”
[2:1] 11 sn The “grain offering” ( מִנְחָה[minkhah]; here קָרְבַּן מִנְחָה, [qorbban minkhah], “an offering of a grain offering”) generally accompanied a burnt or peace offering to supplement the meat with bread (the libation provided the drink; cf. Num 15:1-10), thus completing the food “gift” to the
[2:1] 12 tn The Hebrew term for “choice wheat flour” (סֹלֶת, selet) is often translated “fine flour” (cf. KJV, NAB, NIV, NCV), but it refers specifically to wheat as opposed to barley (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 10). Moreover, the translation “flour” might be problematic, since the Hebrew term may designate the “grits” rather than the more finely ground “flour” (see J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:179 as opposed to Levine, 10, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 30).
[2:1] 13 sn This is not just any “incense” (קְטֹרֶת, qÿtoret; R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 3:913-16), but specifically “frankincense” (לְבֹנָה, lÿvonah; R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:756-57).
[2:2] 14 tn Heb “and he”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. The syntax is strange here and might suggest that it was the offerer who scooped out a handful of the grain offering for the memorial portion (G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 66), but based on v. 9 below it should be understood that it was the priest who performed this act (see, e.g., NRSV “After taking from it a handful of the choice flour and oil…the priest shall…”; see also J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:177, 181 and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 30).
[2:2] 15 sn The “memorial portion” (אַזְכָרָה, ’azkharah) was the part of the grain offering that was burnt on the altar (see the previous clause), as opposed to the remainder, which was normally consumed by the priests (v. 3; see the full regulations in Lev 6:14-23[7-16]). It was probably intended to call to mind (i.e., memorialize) before the
[2:2] 16 tn The words “it is” have been supplied. See the notes on Lev 1:9 and 2:3. There is no text critical problem here, but the syntax suggests the same translation.
[6:15] 17 tn Heb “and he”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. The “he” refers to the officiating priest. A similar shift between singular and plural occurs in Lev 1:7-9, but see the note on Lev 1:7 and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 89 for the possibility of textual corruption.
[6:15] 18 tn Heb “shall take up from it with his hand some of the choice wheat flour of the grain offering.”
[6:15] 19 sn See the note on Lev 2:2.
[6:15] 20 tc Smr reading, which includes the locative ה (hey, translated “on” the altar), is preferred here. This is the normal construction with the verb “offer up in smoke” in Lev 1-7 (see the note on Lev 1:9).
[6:15] 21 tn Heb “and he shall offer up in smoke [on] the altar a soothing aroma, its memorial portion, to the
[45:8] 22 tn The words “perfumed with” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[45:8] 23 tn Heb “the palaces of ivory.” The phrase “palaces of ivory” refers to palaces that had ivory panels and furniture decorated with ivory inlays. Such decoration with ivory was characteristic of a high level of luxury. See 1 Kgs 22:39 and Amos 3:15.
[45:8] 24 tn Heb “from the palaces of ivory stringed instrument[s] make you happy.”
[1:11] 25 sn My name will be great among the nations. In what is clearly a strongly ironic shift of thought, the
[5:8] 26 tn Grk “fell down.” BDAG 815 s.v. πίπτω 1.b.α.ב. has “fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion or humility, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”
[5:8] 27 tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
[5:8] 28 sn This interpretive comment by the author forms a parenthesis in the narrative.
