Exodus 27:17

27:17 All the posts around the courtyard are to have silver bands; ¹  their hooks are to be ²  silver, and their bases bronze.

Exodus 28:36

28:36 “You are to make a plate ³  of pure gold and engrave on it the way a seal is engraved: ⁴  “Holiness to the Lord.” ⁵ 

Exodus 30:35

30:35 and make it into an incense, ⁶  a perfume, ⁷  the work of a perfumer. It is to be finely ground, ⁸  and pure and sacred.

Exodus 37:29

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

[27:17]  ¹ tn The text uses the passive participle here: they are to “be filleted with silver” or “bound round” with silver.

[27:17]  ² tn Here the phrase “are to be” has been supplied.

[28:36]  ³ tn The word צִּיץ (tsits) seems to mean “a shining thing” and so here a plate of metal. It originally meant “flower,” but they could not write on a flower. So it must have the sense of something worn openly, visible, and shining. The Rabbinic tradition says it was two fingers wide and stretched from ear to ear, but this is an attempt to give details that the Law does not give (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 818).

[28:36]  ⁴ tn Heb “the engravings of a seal”; this phrase is an adverbial accusative of manner.

[28:36]  ⁵ sn The engraving was a perpetual reminder of the holiness that was due the Lord (Heb “Yahweh”), that all the clothing, the furnishings, and the activities were to come under that description. This corresponded to the symbolism for the whole nation of binding the law between the eyes. It was to be a perpetual reminder of commitment.

[30:35]  ⁵ tn This is an accusative of result or product.

[30:35]  ⁶ tn The word is in apposition to “incense,” further defining the kind of incense that is to be made.

[30:35]  ⁷ tn The word מְמֻלָּח (mÿmullakh), a passive participle, is usually taken to mean “salted.” Since there is no meaning like that for the Pual form, the word probably should be taken as “mixed,” as in Rashi and Tg. Onq. Seasoning with salt would work if it were food, but since it is not food, if it means “salted” it would be a symbol of what was sound and whole for the covenant. Some have thought that it would have helped the incense burn quickly with more smoke.