1 And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim wood shalt thou make it.God certainly is a gold-digger. The way he wants his tributes decorated with the stuff makes him a regular Auric Goldfinger.
2 A cubit shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof; foursquare shall it be: and two cubits shall be the height thereof: the horns thereof shall be of the same.
3 And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof, and the sides thereof round about, and the horns thereof; and thou shalt make unto it a crown of gold round about.
4 And two golden rings shalt thou make to it under the crown of it, by the two corners thereof, upon the two sides of it shalt thou make it; and they shall be for places for the staves to bear it withal.
5 And thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold.
6 And thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee.
7 And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it.
8 And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.
9 Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering; neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon.
10 And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the LORD.
11 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
12 When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them.
13 This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the LORD.
14 Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the LORD.
15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls.
16 And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls.
17 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
18 Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein.
19 For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat:
20 When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the LORD:
21 So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations.
22 Moreover the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
23 Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels,
24 And of cassia five hundred shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of oil olive an hin:
25 And thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy anointing oil.
26 And thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation therewith, and the ark of the testimony,
27 And the table and all his vessels, and the candlestick and his vessels, and the altar of incense,
28 And the altar of burnt offering with all his vessels, and the laver and his foot.
29 And thou shalt sanctify them, that they may be most holy: whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy.
30 And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office.
31 And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, This shall be an holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generations.
32 Upon man's flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall ye make any other like it, after the composition of it: it is holy, and it shall be holy unto you.
33 Whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger, shall even be cut off from his people.
34 And the LORD said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight:
35 And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy:
36 And thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy.
37 And as for the perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof: it shall be unto thee holy for the LORD.
38 Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto, shall even be cut off from his people.
The Lord craves shittim wood, too. Does Ian Fleming have a character named Scatty Shitfinger? Just askin'.
There are rules about what you can do on the altar, including "no strange incense," etc. They wouldn't want anything untoward to happen around a place where they spray animal blood for god-knows-what reason.
Verse #10 speaks of annual atonements, using "blood of the sin offering" (which would be an excellent name for a goth band). Atonement for what, pray tell?
In verse #12-16, the real gold-digging comes in. Count the (20 yrs+) children well, and make 'em pay to pray, to keep the plague away.
Holy Steve Forbes, it's the ultimate flat tax: "The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less...."
And make those check out to "The Children of Israel," to memorialize them and "to make an atonement for your souls." A "ransom" for your souls, if you can't take a hint.
It's not always gold with God, though. He wants a brass sink — a worthy idea for any cult slaughterhouse.
Later we hear that washing will make them "die not," but I'm not sure that holds up over the long haul. Especially since the all-knowing deity doesn't suggest using soap. Also, maybe a sign that says "Employees must wash hands after animal sacrifices." That might be good.
So, why is it that antibacterial cleansers and antibiotics aren't next to godliness? Could it be that God didn't know about germs until Semmelweis figured it out? Nah, couldn't be that.
Finally, we hear about the price of spice and advice about what to oil up with God's special sauces, and where not to use them.
Does anyone (other than Moses) make a Commandments perfume? Could be the ultimate sinful scent.
The restrictions on the use of Yahweh juice — oil and perfume, that is — seem like an early-times equivalent to DRM. Except if you break this law, you're cut off. Ouch.
8 comments:
Unsurprisingly, this is still the Priestly Source, specifically the later accretions added (by other Aaronids) to the original version of the Priestly Source; this chapter, and the next, are some of the latest accretions, newer than the preceeding chapters.
Gold. An important chemical feature of gold, and the main reason it has historically been valued, is that it doesn't set alight when you burn a fire on top of it, and that it doesn't seem to rust, and doesn't seem to get stained. All this gold has a practical purpose too.
Shittim is Acacia. Shittim is no more connected to "Shit" than "Mandrake" is to "Tits/Breasts" (the latter words sound the same in Hebrew - which is why Mandrake root was considered an aphrodisiac by the Israelites).
"Strange Incense" means any incense that isn't the one precisely described in the regulations. Note the Incense Altar, there was only one altar before - "THE altar", now there are two; how did that happen? why are there suddenly two altars? Why mention the altar here rather than in the earlier list of things that should be built? Answer - its a later addition to the text, added when the incense altar was actually built, to justify it being there; some passages we'll get to later will describe rituals as if the incense altar doesn't exist. In fact, in the Septuagint version of the parts of Exodus we'll get to later, where it describes all the stuff described so far actually being made, the incense altar doesn't get made at all.
Atonement is for "sin". That's the Jewish concept of "sin", which really refers to "ritual impurity". The best place to cover the subject of annual atonements is when we get to the bit about Yom Kippur (translation: "Day of Atonements").
The tax was used for the sanctuary's upkeep. The phrase "shekel of the sanctuary" means the royal shekel; shekel is a unit of weight, based on the babylonian/sumerian system, and the measurement system was rejigged at one point, meaning that the new shekel was worth a different amount, with the "royal shekel" being the older version. Its a bit like when the UK went decimal in money; 5 "new pence" was worth 12 "old pence" (both of which equalled a "shilling"). But, it only makes sense for the bible to use the phrase "shekel of the sanctuary" AFTER the change occurred (there wasn't a difference before); ie. any passage using the phrase cannot have been written pre-1000BC (the exact date of the change is a few centuries even later, but I forget it exactly), so cannot have been dictated to Moses (even if the biblical Moses existed, which is doubtful).
Note the repetitive nature of the phrasing - for example, "after their number, ...., when thou numberest them; ..., when thou numberest them" (verse 12) - its a very characteristic feature of this writer in the Priestly Source (and you may very well get sick of it by the time you get to Numbers 11).
The brass laver is more like a bath than a sink. In the Book of Kings, the temple is described as having 10 brass lavers, and a "molten sea". Its not for washing afterwards. its for washing BEFORE the sacrifices; its for ritual purification (more on that subject in Leviticus) of the priests - they were to wash their hands and feet, and sometimes themselves and their clothes, BEFORE performing the rituals. Performing a ritual sacrifice without being ritually pure would have been an absolutely huge taboo violation, hence the threat of death ("that they die not" is a threat against them failing to do it, rather than strictly being an argument in support of it).
Bearing in mind who wrote this part of the text - the Aaronid Priesthood - its a little bit corrupt, don't you think? "God says you must bring me really expensive high quality perfume, which only I am allowed to use".
"Cut off" = Excommunicated. In a country dominated by theocracy, this was an absolutely huge and powerful punishment; no-one would talk to anyone that had been excommunicated, nor aid them, basically bringing about the risk of starvation and the total destruction of social life. Excommunication still had great power in medieval europe.
Anon,
With my modern eyes and juvenile sense of humor, the risible potential of "shittim" is irresistible. I don't actually expect that there's an etymological, scatological, or eschatological connection.
Ditto for "cut off" and Lorena Bobbitt humor. As I note in my 15-point guide to religion, the threat of informal kinds of ex-communication remain incredibly powerful. How many people have baptized their kids or had a church wedding strictly because Aunt Battle-ax would have their head if they didn't?
Washing up before, and only before, slaughtering animals seems pretty errant to me.
You might find this link interesting :
http://www.ecmarsh.com/lxx-kjv/Exodus/exo_037.htm
It's the (english translation of the) Septuagint for Exodus 37 compared to the Masoretic for the same verses (septuagint on left, masoretic on right). The Septuagint for Exodus 36-40 is, rather oddly, in a different order to the Masoretic text, but more importantly, if you look through 36-40, you'll find the altar of incense mentioned by the masoretic, but not by the septuagint.
The Septuagint is the older of the two (despite being in Greek). The Masoretic was compiled in the medieval era (from earlier Hebrew texts), the Septuagint in the 2nd Century BC. The earliest surviving predecessors of the Masoretic text are the Dead Sea Scrolls, but they agree more with the Septuagint.
Anon,
Thx for the link. I'll check it out after I do that chapter, as I'm aiming to reach each one "cold" (without the influence of other interpretations).
The thing about Exodus 36-40 is that you have ALREADY read them. You'll see what I mean when you get there.
Anon,
Oy-veh!
I'm glad I'm not in the business of rationalizing how a book full of redundancies and inconsistencies is infallible. On the other hand, apologetics seems to be quite the growth industry.
But could there be a reason in the redundancy? I'm not sure there inconsistencies as much as they are more in depth.
m-p
Yes, the reason for the redundancy is that the redundant part was written by a later editor from the same "school" as the original writer of the Priestly Source; ie. another pro-Aaronid priest. The reason they did that is that they wanted to make a political point about the Incense Altar.
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