Exodus 30 includes instructions essential to priestly service in the tabernacle: making the gold incense altar for the tent of meeting (vv. 1–10); collecting the tabernacle census tax (vv. 11–16); making the bronze basin for the courtyard (vv. 17–21); the anointing oil ingredients (vv. 18–33); and the incense recipe (vv. 34–38).

30:22–33 Producing the anointing oil required large amounts of fine spices: . . . liquid myrrh, . . . cinnamon, . . . fragrant cane, . . . and cassia. The Lord’s recipe called for a total of fifteen hundred shekels (approx. 38 pounds) of spices and one hin of olive oil (perhaps six quarts). “Myrrh” is a resin from the sap of a shrub of southern Arabia (commiphora). “Fragrant cane” is produced from an aromatic reed (calamus). “Cassia” is a type of cinnamon.

The priest…