Глава 30

1–10. Arrangement of the altar of incense. 11–16. Sacred tribute. 17–21. About the arrangement of the washbasin. 22–33. Oil of anointing. 34–36. Sacred incense. Exodus 30:1. And thou shalt make an altar for offering incense, of shittim wood thou shalt make it: Exodus 30:2. the length of it is a cubit, and the breadth of it is a cubit; it must be quadrangular; and the height of it is two cubits; its horns shall come out of it; The name of the altar of incense is an altar, i.e. the same name, which was adopted by the altar for the offering of sacrificial animals, clearly shows that the offerings offered on the incense altar were also a sacrifice to the Most High. The horns of the incense altar came out of it and formed one whole with it (Ex. 27.12). Exodus 30:3. overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof, the sides thereof, and the horns thereof; and make a golden crown around it; Exodus 30:4. under his crown, at its two corners, make two rings of [pure] gold; make them on both sides of it; and they will be sheaths for poles to carry him on; Exodus 30:5. Make the poles of shittim wood and overlay them with gold. The entire altar was overlaid with gold, not copper (Ex. 27.2), except for the lower side facing the ground. The crown, placed at the upper edge of the altar, was, in all likelihood, slightly higher than its top board. Exodus 30:6. And you shall place him before the veil that is before the ark of the testimony, opposite the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony, where I will reveal myself to you. The exact definition of the location of the altar of incense is given in the words: “before the veil, against the lid.” The last expression indicates that the altar should be placed in front of the middle of the veil, so that it stands directly opposite the ark of the testimony, at the same distance from both the north and south sides of the sanctuary. Exodus 30:7. On it Aaron will burn sweet incense; every morning, when he prepares the lamps, he will smoke with them; Exodus 30:8. and when Aaron lights the lamps in the evening, he will incense with them: this is the everlasting incense before the Lord throughout your generations. The time of burning incense on the incense altar coincides with the time of performing the daily morning and evening burnt offerings (Ex. 29.39, 41), and its burning is also obligatory for all future times of the existence of the Old Testament church, like the daily sacrifices of lambs (Ex. 29.38). Exodus 30:9. You shall not offer any other incense on it, nor burnt offerings, nor grain offerings, nor pour out any drink offerings on it. Exodus 30:10. And Aaron shall make atonement for its horns once a year; with the blood of the sin offering he will make atonement for it once a year throughout your generations. This is a great shrine to the Lord. Added to the speech about the construction and purpose of the incense altar is a command for Aaron and any future high priest once a year, on the day of atonement (Lev. 16), to perform cleansing over his horns with the blood of a cleansing sacrifice. By name: “great shrine,” the altar of incense is equated to the Holy of Holies, the altar of the court (Ex. 29.37), the table and lamp (Ex. 30.29). Exodus 30:11. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Exodus 30:12. When you number the children of Israel when they are numbered, let each one give a ransom for his soul to the Lord when he numbers them, and there will be no destructive plague among them when they are numbered; Exodus 30:13. everyone who enters the number must give half a shekel, the shekel of the sanctuary; There are twenty gerahs in a shekel: half a shekel is an offering to the Lord; Exodus 30:14. everyone who is counted twenty years old and above must give an offering to the Lord; Exodus 30:15. the rich shall give no more, and the poor no less, half a shekel as an offering to the Lord, as a ransom for your souls; Exodus 30:16. And take the ransom money from the children of Israel, and use it for the service of the tabernacle of meeting; And it shall be for the children of Israel for a memorial before the Lord, for the ransom of your souls. About the sacred tax. The command to bring in the sacred tax interrupts the speech about the arrangement of the furnishings of the tabernacle. This happened not only because the sacred tax provided the means for their preparation (Ex. 30:16, Neh. 10.33–34), which is why speaking about it is quite appropriate when talking about the items on which it is spent, but also because the speech about the incense altar is concluded with the command to cleanse it. And the sacred tribute had a purifying meaning. Inclusion in the census meant inclusion in the list of men of age capable of bearing arms (Num. 1.3), defenders of the freedom and independence of the Jewish people. The greater the number of these defenders, the more reliable the protection of people's freedom and independence. But one can only hope for this protection with the mercy of God towards the defenders of the people, because their very life is in the hands of God. As evidence of constant dependence in being itself on God, those who are counted must give a gift to God for the redemption of the soul, i.e. of your life. This gift, brought with the consciousness of complete dependence on God, had the meaning of a propitiatory and cleansing sacrifice, turning away the wrath of the Lord. Half of the sacred shekel, the amount of tax, is equal to forty or forty-three kopecks. Men were to be included in the census starting from the age of twenty and above, but it was not said at what period. It can be assumed that the right to exclusion from the list was given by reaching the age of 50 (Numbers 4.3, 23, 30, 35, 39, 43, 47, cf. Josephus, Jude Anc. 3:8, 2). The silence in the law on the annual contribution, the silence on the annual compilation of the census and the testimony of Prince. Nehemiah about the voluntary imposition on themselves by the Jews who returned from captivity to pay 1/3 of a shekel annually for the needs of the tabernacle gives reason to think that the sacred contribution to the tabernacle should be a one-time payment. The collection has the meaning of a cleansing and propitiatory sacrifice, and therefore its size is the same for rich and poor. The Almighty will not forget by His mercy those included in the census, He will spare their lives. Exodus 30:17. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Exodus 30:18. make a brass laver for washing, and a brass base thereof, and place it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and pour water into it; As can be seen from the text, the laver consisted of two parts: a container for water and a foot; some indications of the structure of the first part are given by Ref. 38.8 (see interpretation at this place). The laver was located between the tabernacle and the altar, in a straight line from the latter to the entrance to the sanctuary. Exodus 30:19. and Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet from it; Exodus 30:20. when they must enter into the tabernacle of meeting, they shall be washed with water, lest they die; or when they must approach the altar to serve, to offer sacrifices to the Lord, Exodus 30:21. let them wash their hands and their feet in water, lest they die; and it shall be an everlasting statute for them, for him and for his descendants throughout their generations. A reverent attitude towards the holiness of the place: “when they must enter the tabernacle of meeting,” and to the holiness of the action: “when they must approach the altar” (in connection with the speech, to the altar of incense), requires physical purity. Neglect of it, a manifestation of an irreverent attitude towards the shrine, is punishable by death. Exodus 30:22. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Exodus 30:23. take for yourself the best fragrant substances: pure myrrh five hundred [shekels], fragrant cinnamon half as much as that, two hundred and fifty, fragrant cane two hundred and fifty, The oil appointed for anointing the tabernacle, its accessories, Aaron and his sons (Ex. 30:26, etc.) was prepared by Bezalel. It included “gravity myrrh”, i.e. the resin of the myrrh bush, which naturally appears in drops at different places on the trunk of this bush. The quantity of this resin is indicated by the word: “five hundred”, without indicating the measure. But as can be seen from the remark of Exodus 30:24: “according to the holy shekel”, the “holy shekel” served as the measure; 500 holy shekels are equal to almost 16 pounds. Cinnamon, i.e. the bark from the cinnamon tree, which is still found in India and on the island of Ceylon, should be taken in the amount of 250 shekels, i.e. eight pounds. Incense reed, which has fragrant roots, was known to the ancients as one of the most fragrant substances. Exodus 30:24. five hundred shekels of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil; Cassia is an aromatic bark from the Laurus cassia tree. Gin was equal to a fourth and a small fraction of a bucket. Exodus 30:25. and make of this myrrh for sacred anointing, a compound ointment, by the art of making the ointment: this will be myrrh for sacred anointing; What was the method of preparing the world, whether in a special preparation of each of the fragrant substances before combining it with the rest, or in a special preparation of the entire mixture, it is not known exactly. Exodus 30:26. and you shall anoint with it the tabernacle of the congregation and the ark [of the tabernacle] of the testimony, Exodus 30:27. and the table and all its utensils, and the lamp and all its utensils, and the altar of incense, Exodus 30:28. and the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the laver and its stool; Exodus 30:29. and sanctify them, and they will be greatly holy: everything that touches them will be sanctified; The anointing of the objects listed in the previous verses with myrrh distinguished them from the circle of ordinary everyday things. It served as a visible sign of the fulfillment of God’s will to impart to anointed objects such a meaning and such a power that they could not have on their own. Exodus 30:30. anoint both Aaron and his sons and consecrate them to be priests to Me. The anointing of Aaron, like the anointing of the accessories of the tabernacle, set him and his sons apart from the rest of the people and made him mediators between God and people. Exodus 30:31. And say to the children of Israel: This will be my holy anointing ointment throughout your generations; Exodus 30:32. the bodies of other people should not be anointed with it, and in terms of its composition do not make [yourself] like it; it is a shrine: it must be a shrine to you; Exodus 30:33. whoever makes something similar to him, or whoever anoints a stranger with it, will be cut off from his people. The sacred oil is withdrawn from ordinary human use; Anyone who violates this decree is punished by death (Gen. 17.14). Exodus 30:34. And the Lord said to Moses: Take for yourself fragrant substances: stakti, onycha, fragrant halvana and pure frankincense, half in all, The substances included in incense smoking are not exactly known. The Hebrew word stakt, literally meaning “drop, dripping,” does not refer to the substance itself, but to its emergence from the plant drop by drop. By “onych” we mean either a growth on the shell, or the shell itself of one of the breeds of snails found in the waters of India and the Red Sea. The name of the third substance "halwan" refers to its white color, similar to the color of milk. By “halwan” we mean a resin extracted from a shrub growing in Syria and Persia. The remark “fragrant” indicates that the halvan was fragrant and unfragrant. The fourth incense, “Lebanon,” is the resin of a plant from the Terebinth species, found in southern Arabia. The addition of the word “pure” to the name of this substance indicates either the absence of any impurity that would be advantageous to mix into the composition of this valuable item, or the method of collecting the resin. It is to obtain completely pure resin that a litter is spread around the plant, onto which its drops fall. Only the same amount of each of the substances that were included in smoking was determined. Exodus 30:35. and make of them, by the art of the composition of the ointment, an incense composition, erased, pure, holy, The method of preparing incense remains unknown. Exodus 30:36. and cut it finely, and thou shalt lay it before the ark of the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will make myself known to thee: it shall be a great sanctuary unto you; The command: “pulverize it finely” does not indicate the method of preparing the incense, but the form in which the prepared incense should be laid in the tabernacle of meeting. Having taken part of the prepared incense, it was necessary to finely grind it and use it in this form. From Ex. 40.5 clearly shows that the incense was to be laid on the altar, which stood in the sanctuary opposite the ark of the covenant, which was behind the veil in the Holy of Holies. You might be interested in: