The altar of incense
1Make an altar for burning incense; make it of acacia wood. 2It shall be a cubit long and a cubit wide — square — and two cubits high; its horns shall be of one piece with it. 3Overlay it with pure gold — its top, its sides all around, and its horns — and make a gold molding around it. 4Make two gold rings for it below the molding, on two opposite sides, to hold the poles used to carry it. 5Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 6Put the altar in front of the veil that is before the ark of the testimony, in front of the atonement cover that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you. 7Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it every morning when he tends the lamps. 8He shall burn incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight, so that there is incense before Yahweh continually, generation after generation. 9You shall not offer unauthorized incense on it, nor a burnt offering, nor a grain offering, and you shall not pour out a drink offering on it. 10Once a year Aaron shall make atonement on its horns; with the blood of the sin offering of atonement he shall make atonement on it once a year, generation after generation. It is most holy to Yahweh.
The atonement money and the bronze basin
11Yahweh spoke to Moses: 12When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one shall pay Yahweh a ransom for his life at the time he is counted, so that no plague comes on them at the counting. 13Everyone included in the count shall pay half a shekel, by the sanctuary shekel — twenty gerahs to the shekel — half a shekel as a contribution to Yahweh. 14Everyone included in the count, twenty years old and up, shall give this contribution to Yahweh. 15The rich shall not pay more, and the poor shall not pay less, than half a shekel, when the contribution is given to Yahweh to make atonement for your lives. 16Take the atonement money from the Israelites and use it for the service of the tent of meeting; it shall be a reminder for the Israelites before Yahweh, to make atonement for your lives. 17Yahweh spoke to Moses: 18Make a bronze basin, with a bronze stand, for washing, and put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it. 19Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and feet at it. 20Whenever they enter the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water so that they do not die; and whenever they approach the altar to serve, to burn a fire offering to Yahweh, 21they shall wash their hands and feet so that they do not die. This shall be a lasting statute for them — for Aaron and his descendants — generation after generation.
The anointing oil and the incense
22Yahweh spoke to Moses: 23Take the finest spices — five hundred shekels of liquid myrrh, half that amount, two hundred and fifty shekels, of fragrant cinnamon, two hundred and fifty shekels of fragrant cane, 24five hundred shekels of cassia, by the sanctuary shekel, and a hin of olive oil. 25Make of these a holy anointing oil, a blended perfume, the work of a perfumer; it shall be a holy anointing oil. 26Anoint with it the tent of meeting and the ark of the testimony, 27the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and its utensils, the altar of incense, 28the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin with its stand. 29Consecrate them, and they will be most holy; whatever touches them will become holy. 30Anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them, so that they may serve me as priests. 31Say to the Israelites: This shall be my holy anointing oil, generation after generation. 32It must not be poured on the body of an ordinary person, and you must not make anything like it, with the same proportions; it is holy, and it shall be holy to you. 33Whoever blends perfume like it, or puts any of it on an outsider, shall be cut off from his people. 34Yahweh said to Moses: Take fragrant spices — stacte, onycha, and galbanum — these fragrant spices together with pure frankincense, in equal amounts, 35and make of them incense, a blend, the work of a perfumer, salted, pure, holy. 36Grind some of it very fine, and put it before the testimony in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with you; it shall be most holy to you. 37As for the incense you make, you shall not make any for yourselves with the same proportions; it shall be holy to you, for Yahweh. 38Whoever makes any like it to enjoy its fragrance shall be cut off from his people.
