“You are also to make an altar of acacia wood for the burning of incense.
Parallel translations
- WEB “You shall make an altar to burn incense on. You shall make it of acacia wood.
- KJV And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim wood shalt thou make it.
- NKJV “You shall make an altar to burn incense on; you shall make it of acacia wood.
- NASB “Now you shall make an altar as a place for burning incense; you shall make it of acacia wood.
- NLT “Then make another altar of acacia wood for burning incense.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God commands an altar of acacia wood for burning incense. Worship included the regular offering of fragrant incense before God.
Overview
The incense altar stood in the Holy Place, distinct from the bronze altar of sacrifice outside. Its incense represented worship and prayer ascending to God. Scripture later interprets such incense as a picture of the prayers of God's people (Psalm 141:2; Revelation 5:8), all of which are made acceptable through Christ our mediator.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Rev 8:3Then another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne.
- Exod 37:25–28He made the altar of incense out of acacia wood. It was square, a cubit long, a cubit wide, and two cubits high. Its horns were of one piece.
- Lev 4:7The priest must then put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before the LORD in the Tent of Meeting. And he is to pour out the rest of the bull’s blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
- Exod 40:5Place the gold altar of incense in front of the ark of the Testimony, and hang the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle.
- Lev 4:18He is also to put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is before the LORD in the Tent of Meeting, and he must pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
- 1 Kgs 6:20The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar.
- 2 Chr 26:16But when Uzziah grew powerful, his arrogance led to his own destruction. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, for he entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.
- Exod 30:10Once a year Aaron shall make atonement on the horns of the altar. Throughout your generations he shall make atonement on it annually with the blood of the sin offering of atonement. The altar is most holy to the LORD.”
- Exod 30:7–8And Aaron is to burn fragrant incense on it every morning when he tends the lamps.
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 30:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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