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.

Exodus 30:10

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; ⁴  once in the year ⁵  he is to make atonement on it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.” ⁶ 

Exodus 37:25-28

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. ⁷  37:26 He overlaid it with pure gold – its top, ⁸  its four walls, ⁹  and its horns – and he made a surrounding border of gold for it. ¹⁰  37:27 He also made ¹¹  two gold rings for it under its border, on its two sides, on opposite sides, ¹²  as places ¹³  for poles to carry it with. 37:28 He made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold.

Exodus 40:5

40:5 You are to put ¹⁴  the gold altar for incense in front of the ark of the testimony and put the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle.

Leviticus 4:7

4:7 The priest must put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before the Lord in the Meeting Tent, and all the rest of the bull’s blood he must pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of the Meeting Tent.

Leviticus 4:18

4:18 He must put some of the blood on the horns of the altar ¹⁵  which is before the Lord in the Meeting Tent, and all the rest of the blood he must pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of the Meeting Tent.

Leviticus 4:1

Sin Offering Regulations

4:1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: ¹⁶ 

Leviticus 6:20

6:20 “This is the offering of Aaron and his sons which they must present to the Lord on the day when he is anointed: a tenth of an ephah ¹⁷  of choice wheat flour ¹⁸  as a continual grain offering, half of it in the morning and half of it in the evening.

Leviticus 6:2

6:2 “When a person sins and commits a trespass ¹⁹  against the Lord by deceiving his fellow citizen ²⁰  in regard to something held in trust, or a pledge, or something stolen, or by extorting something from his fellow citizen, ²¹ 

Leviticus 26:16

26:16 I for my part ²²  will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. ²³  You will sow your seed in vain because ²⁴  your enemies will eat it. ²⁵ 

Revelation 8:3

8:3 Another ²⁶  angel holding ²⁷  a golden censer ²⁸  came and was stationed ²⁹  at the altar. A ³⁰  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.

[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.

[30:10]  ⁴ tn The word “atonements” (plural in Hebrew) is a genitive showing the result or product of the sacrifice made.

[30:10]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “from it were its horns,” meaning that they were made from the same piece.

[37:26]  ⁸ tn Heb “roof.”

[37:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “its walls around.”

[37:26]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he made for it border gold around.”

[37:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he made.”

[37:27]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Heb “for houses.”

[40:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “give” (also four additional times in vv. 6-8).

[4:18]  ¹⁵ sn See v. 7, where this altar is identified as the altar of fragrant incense.

[4:1]  ¹⁶ sn The quotation introduced here extends from Lev 4:2 through 5:13, and encompasses all the sin offering regulations. Compare the notes on Lev 1:1 above, and 5:14 and 6:1 [5:20 HT] below.

[6:20]  ¹⁷ sn A tenth of an ephah is about 2.3 liters, one day’s ration for a single person (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:306).

[6:20]  ¹⁸ tn For the rendering “choice wheat flour” see the note on Lev 2:1.

[6:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “trespasses a trespass” (verb and direct object from the same Hebrew root מַעַל, ma’al). See the note on 5:15.

[6:2]  ²⁰ tn Or “neighbor” (ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NASB “companion”; TEV “a fellow-Israelite.”

[6:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “has extorted his neighbor”; ASV “oppressed”; NRSV “defrauded.”

[26:16]  ²² tn Or “I also” (see HALOT 76 s.v. אַף 6.b).

[26:16]  ²³ tn Heb “soul.” These expressions may refer either to the physical effects of consumption and fever as the rendering in the text suggests (e.g., J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 452, 454, “diminishing eyesight and loss of appetite”), or perhaps the more psychological effects, “which exhausts the eyes” because of anxious hope “and causes depression” (Heb “causes soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] to pine away”), e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 185.

[26:16]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have causal force here.

[26:16]  ²⁵ tn That is, “your enemies will eat” the produce that grows from the sown seed.

[8:3]  ²⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[8:3]  ²⁷ tn Grk “having.”

[8:3]  ²⁸ sn A golden censer was a bowl in which incense was burned. The imagery suggests the OT role of the priest.

[8:3]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ 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.