Exodus 30:7-8

30:7 Aaron is to burn sweet incense ¹  on it morning by morning; when he attends ²  to the lamps he is to burn incense. ³  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.

Numbers 16:40

16:40 It was a memorial for the Israelites, that no outsider who is not a descendant of ⁴  Aaron should approach to burn incense before the Lord, that he might not become like Korah and his company – just as the Lord had spoken by the authority ⁵  of Moses.

Numbers 16:46

16:46 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take the censer, put burning coals from the altar in it, place incense on it, and go quickly into the assembly and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord – the plague has begun!”

Numbers 16:1

The Rebellion of Korah

16:1 ⁶ Now Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth, who were Reubenites, ⁷  took men ⁸ 

Numbers 2:28

2:28 Those numbered in his division are 41,500.

Numbers 2:2

2:2 “Every one ⁹  of the Israelites must camp ¹⁰  under his standard with the emblems of his family; ¹¹  they must camp at some distance ¹²  around the tent of meeting. ¹³ 

Numbers 26:18

26:18 These were the families of the Gadites according to those numbered of them, 40,500. ¹⁴ 

Luke 1:9-10

1:9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, ¹⁵  to enter ¹⁶  the holy place ¹⁷  of the Lord and burn incense. 1:10 Now ¹⁸  the whole crowd ¹⁹  of people were praying outside at the hour of the incense offering. ²⁰ 

Hebrews 7:25

7:25 So he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Hebrews 9:24

9:24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands – the representation ²¹  of the true sanctuary ²²  – but into heaven itself, and he appears now in God’s presence for us.

Revelation 8:3-5

8:3 Another ²³  angel holding ²⁴  a golden censer ²⁵  came and was stationed ²⁶  at the altar. A ²⁷  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. 8:4 The ²⁸  smoke coming from the incense, ²⁹  along with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. 8:5 Then ³⁰  the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth, and there were crashes of thunder, roaring, ³¹  flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

[30:7]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ 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.

[16:40]  ⁴ tn Heb “from the seed of.”

[16:40]  ⁵ tn Heb “hand.”

[16:1]  ⁶ sn There are three main movements in the story of ch. 16. The first is the rebellion itself (vv. 1-19). The second is the judgment (vv. 20-35). Third is the atonement for the rebels (vv. 36-50). The whole chapter is a marvelous account of a massive rebellion against the leaders that concludes with reconciliation. For further study see G. Hort, “The Death of Qorah,” ABR 7 (1959): 2-26; and J. Liver, “Korah, Dathan and Abiram,” Studies in the Bible (ScrHier 8), 189-217.

[16:1]  ⁷ tc The MT reading is plural (“the sons of Reuben”); the Smr and LXX have the singular (“the son of Reuben”).

[16:1]  ⁸ tn In the Hebrew text there is no object for the verb “took.” The translation presented above supplies the word “men.” However, it is possible that the MT has suffered damage here. The LXX has “and he spoke.” The Syriac and Targum have “and he was divided.” The editor of BHS suggests that perhaps the MT should be emended to “and he arose.”

[2:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “a man by his own standard.”

[2:2]  ¹⁰ tn The imperfect tense is to be taken in the nuance of instruction.

[2:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “of/for the house of their fathers.”

[2:2]  ¹² tn The Hebrew expression מִנֶּגֶד (minneged) means “from before” or “opposite; facing” and “at some distance” or “away from the front of” (see BDB 617 s.v. נֶגֶד 2.c.a; DCH 5:603-4 s.v. 3.b).

[2:2]  ¹³ sn The Israelites were camping as a military camp, each tribe with the standards and emblems of the family. The standard was the symbol fastened to the end of a pole and carried to battle. It served to rally the tribe to the battle. The Bible nowhere describes these, although the serpent emblem of Numbers 21:8-9 may give a clue. But they probably did not have shapes of animals in view of the prohibition in the Decalogue. The standards may have been smaller for the families than the ones for the tribes. See further K. A. Kitchen, “Some Egyptian Background to the Old Testament,” TynBul 5 (1960): 11; and T. W. Mann, Divine Presence and Guidance in Israelite Tradition, 169-73.

[26:18]  ¹⁴ sn The Gadites decreased from 45,650 to 40,500.

[1:9]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “according to the custom of the priesthood it fell to him by lot.” The order of the clauses has been rearranged in the translation to make it clear that the prepositional phrase κατὰ τὸ ἔθος τῆς ἱερατείας (kata to eqo" th" Jierateia", “according to the custom of the priesthood”) modifies the phrase “it fell to him by lot” rather than the preceding clause.

[1:9]  ¹⁶ tn This is an aorist participle and is temporally related to the offering of incense, not to when the lot fell.

[1:9]  ¹⁷ tn Or “temple.” Such sacrifices, which included the burning of incense, would have occurred in the holy place according to the Mishnah (m. Tamid 1.2; 3.1; 5-7). A priest would have given this sacrifice, which was offered for the nation, once in one’s career. It would be offered either at 9 a.m. or 3 p.m., since it was made twice a day.

[1:10]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “And,” but “now” better represents the somewhat parenthetical nature of this statement in the flow of the narrative.

[1:10]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “all the multitude.” While “assembly” is sometimes used here to translate πλῆθος (plhqo"), that term usually implies in English a specific or particular group of people. However, this was simply a large group gathered outside, which was not unusual, especially for the afternoon offering.

[1:10]  ²⁰ tn The “hour of the incense offering” is another way to refer to the time of sacrifice.

[9:24]  ²¹ tn Or “prefiguration.”

[9:24]  ²² tn The word “sanctuary” is not in the Greek text at this point, but has been supplied for clarity.

[8:3]  ²³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[8:3]  ²⁴ tn Grk “having.”

[8:3]  ²⁵ sn A golden censer was a bowl in which incense was burned. The imagery suggests the OT role of the priest.

[8:3]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁷ 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.

[8:4]  ²⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[8:4]  ²⁹ tn The expression τῶν θυμιαμάτων (twn qumiamatwn) is taken as a “genitive of producer,” i.e., the noun in the genitive produces the head noun.

[8:5]  ³⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[8:5]  ³¹ tn Or “sounds,” “voices.” It is not entirely clear what this refers to. BDAG 1071 s.v. φωνή 1 states, “In Rv we have ἀστραπαὶ καὶ φωναὶ καὶ βρονταί (cp. Ex 19:16) 4:5; 8:5; 11:19; 16:18 (are certain other sounds in nature thought of here in addition to thunder, as e.g. the roar of the storm?…).”