Instructions: Incense Altar, Money, Water, Anointing Oil, and Incense: 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).

30:1–10 The small gold incense altar (one cubit square, two cubits high) was for the continuous burning of incense in the holy place. The description of its construction exactly follows the rubric for the table of the bread of presence (25:23–28) that was located in the same room. The text presents the deta…