Exodus 37:19-29

37:19 Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms were on the first branch, and three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms were on the next ¹  branch, and the same ²  for the six branches that were extending from the lampstand. 37:20 On the lampstand there were four cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms, 37:21 with a bud under the first two branches from it, and a bud under the next two branches from it, and a bud under the third two branches from it; according to the six branches that extended from it. ³  37:22 Their buds and their branches were of one piece; ⁴  all of it was one hammered piece of pure gold. 37:23 He made its seven lamps, its trimmers, and its trays of pure gold. 37:24 He made the lampstand ⁵  and all its accessories with seventy-five pounds of pure gold.

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. ⁶  37:26 He overlaid it with pure gold – its top, ⁷  its four walls, ⁸  and its horns – and he made a surrounding border of gold for it. ⁹  37:27 He also made ¹⁰  two gold rings for it under its border, on its two sides, on opposite sides, ¹¹  as places ¹²  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.

[37:19]  ¹ tn Heb “the one branch.” But the repetition of “one…one” means here one after another, or the “first” and then the “next.”

[37:19]  ² tn Heb “thus for six branches….”

[37:21]  ³ tn As in Exod 26:35, the translation of “first” and “next” and “third” is interpretive, because the text simply says “under two branches” in each of three places.

[37:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “were from it.”

[37:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the lampstand) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[37:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “from it were its horns,” meaning that they were made from the same piece.

[37:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “roof.”

[37:26]  ⁸ tn Heb “its walls around.”

[37:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “and he made for it border gold around.”

[37:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he made.”

[37:27]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “for houses.”