Exodus 30:1-6
Before the veil that is by the ark
Position is the whole description. Everything about this altar is stated in terms of how close to the ark it is allowed to stand.
Objects of the Bible
The altar of incense
The smallest altar, the closest to the veil, and the one thing that was never allowed to carry anything else.
A cubit square and two cubits high, shittim wood overlaid with pure gold, with horns and a crown and rings and staves. It stands before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, which puts it as close to the most holy place as anything on the outside gets. Aaron burns sweet incense on it every morning when he dresses the lamps and every evening when he lights them, a perpetual incense before the LORD.
Scroll down to the story
The movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of The altar of incense
- 01
- 02
Exodus 30:7-9
A perpetual incense before the LORD
The burning is tied to the lamps, morning and evening, and four things are named that may never be offered on it.
- 03
Exodus 30:34-38
Ye shall not make to yourselves
The recipe is specific and then fenced. Making it for personal use carries the same penalty as the worst offences in the book.
- 04
Leviticus 10:1-2
They offered strange fire before the LORD
Two sons of Aaron put incense on fire that had not come from the altar, and the account gives the consequence in a single verse.
- 05
Luke 1:8-11
The whole multitude were praying without
A priest is chosen by lot to burn incense, and an angel stands on the right side of the altar while the people wait outside.
Why it matters
The restrictions are unusually tight. Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering, nor drink offering. It is not a general-purpose altar. The recipe for the incense is given and then protected: whosoever shall make like unto it, to smell thereto, shall be cut off. And the object outlives the tent as a picture. Luke opens his gospel with a priest at this altar and a multitude praying outside, and Revelation puts the prayers of the saints in a golden censer at one.
3 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
