1 AND YOU shall make an altar to burn incense upon; of acacia wood you shall make it. 2 A cubit shall be its length and a cubit its breadth; its top shall be square and it shall be two cubits high. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. 3 And you shall overlay it with pure gold, its top and its sides round about and its horns, and you shall make a crown (a rim or molding) of gold around it. 4 You shall make two golden rings under the rim of it, on the two ribs on the two opposite sides of it; and they shall be holders for the poles with which to carry it. 5 And you shall make the poles of acacia wood, overlaid with gold. 6 You shall put the altar [of incense] in front and outside of the veil that screens the ark of the Testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony (the Law, the tables of stone), where I will meet with you. 7 And Aaron shall burn on it incense of sweet spices; every morning when he trims and fills the lamps he shall burn it. 8 And when Aaron lights the lamps in the evening, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations. 9 You shall offer no unholy incense on the altar nor burnt sacrifice nor cereal offering; and you shall pour no libation (drink offering) on it. 10 Aaron shall make atonement upon the horns of it once a year; with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once in the year shall he make atonement upon and for it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.
11 And the Lord said to Moses, 12 When you take the census of the Israelites, every man shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord when you number them, that no plague may fall upon them when you number them. 13 This is what everyone shall give as he joins those already numbered: a half shekel, in terms of the sanctuary shekel, a shekel being twenty gerahs; a half shekel as an offering to the Lord. 14 Everyone from twenty years old and upward, as he joins those already numbered, shall give this offering to the Lord. 15 The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel when [you] give this offering to the Lord to make atonement for yourselves. 16 And you shall take the atonement money of the Israelites and use it [exclusively] for the service of the Tent of Meeting, that it may bring the Israelites to remembrance before the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves.
17 And the Lord said to Moses, 18 You shall also make a laver or large basin of bronze, and its base of bronze, for washing; and you shall put it [outside in the court] between the Tent of Meeting and the altar [of burnt offering], and you shall put water in it; 19 There Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet. 20 When they go into the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to the Lord, 21 So they shall wash their hands and their feet, lest they die; it shall be a perpetual statute for [Aaron] and his descendants throughout their generations.
22 Moreover, the Lord said to Moses, 23 Take the best spices: of liquid myrrh 500 shekels, of sweet-scented cinnamon half as much, 250 shekels, of fragrant calamus 250 shekels, 24 And of cassia 500 shekels, in terms of the sanctuary shekel, and of olive oil a hin. 25 And you shall make of these a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer; it shall be a sacred anointing oil. 26 And you shall anoint the Tent of Meeting with it, and the ark of the Testimony, 27 And the [showbread] table and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense, 28 And the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver [for cleansing] and its base. 29 You shall sanctify (separate) them, that they may be most holy; whoever and whatever touches them must be holy (set apart to God). 30 And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons and sanctify (separate) them, that they may minister to Me as priests. 31 And say to the Israelites, This is a holy anointing oil [symbol of the Holy Spirit], sacred to Me alone throughout your generations. 32 It shall not be poured upon a layman's body, nor shall you make any other like it in composition; it is holy, and you shall hold it sacred. 33 Whoever compounds any like it or puts any of it upon an outsider shall be cut off from his people.
34 Then the Lord said to Moses, Take sweet spices--stacte, onycha, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense, an equal amount of each-- 35 And make of them incense, a perfume after the perfumer's art, seasoned with salt and mixed, pure and sacred. 36 You shall beat some of it very small and put some of it before the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you; it shall be to you most holy. 37 And the incense which you shall make according to its composition you shall not make for yourselves; it shall be to you holy to the Lord. 38 Whoever makes any like it for perfume shall be cut off from his people.