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.