1. Thu: Galatians 4-6
  2. Fri: Ezekiel 34-35
  3. Sat: Psalms 37-41
Sunday · Week 19
The Books of the Law

Exodus 29-30

Week 19 · about 15 min
  1. Mon: Mark 14-16
  2. Tue: Isaiah 49-50
  3. Wed: 2 Samuel 7-12

Instructions for ordaining the priests, the daily offerings, the incense altar, and the bronze basin.

Blood on the Ear, Thumb, and Toe

And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.

Exodus 29:45 (KJV)

The priests’ ordination took seven days. Blood from a ram was put on Aaron’s right ear, right thumb, and right big toe. What he heard, what he did, and where he went all belonged to God. A lamb was offered every morning and every evening, and incense burned in front of the veil. Chapter 30 describes a half shekel paid by every man as a ransom: “The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less.” Everyone was valued the same before God. Priests washed at a bronze basin before they served. All of it leads to the key verse. God wanted to live among his people.

Reflect: Are your ears, hands, and feet set apart for God this week?

Exodus 29

1And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto me in the priest’s office: take one young bullock and two rams without blemish,

2and unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened mingled with oil, and wafers unleavened anointed with oil: of fine wheaten flour shalt thou make them.

3And thou shalt put them into one basket, and bring them in the basket, with the bullock and the two rams.

4And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tent of meeting, and shalt wash them with water.

5And thou shalt take the garments, and put upon Aaron the coat, and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the cunningly woven band of the ephod:

6and thou shalt set the mitre upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the mitre.

7Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him.

8And thou shalt bring his sons, and put coats upon them.

9And thou shalt gird them with girdles, Aaron and his sons, and bind headtires on them: and they shall have the priesthood by a perpetual statute: and thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons.

10And thou shalt bring the bullock before the tent of meeting: and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the bullock.

11And thou shalt kill the bullock before the LORD, at the door of the tent of meeting.

12And thou shalt take of the blood of the bullock, and put it upon the horns of the altar with thy finger; and thou shalt pour out all the blood at the base of the altar.

13And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul upon the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn them upon the altar.

14But the flesh of the bullock, and its skin, and its dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the camp: it is a sin offering.

15Thou shalt also take the one ram; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the ram.

16And thou shalt slay the ram, and thou shalt take its blood, and sprinkle it round about upon the altar.

17And thou shalt cut the ram into its pieces, and wash its inwards, and its legs, and put them with its pieces, and with its head.

18And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it is a burnt offering unto the LORD: it is a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

19And thou shalt take the other ram; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the ram.

20Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of its blood, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.

21And thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon the garments of his sons with him: and he shall be hallowed, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons’ garments with him.

22Also thou shalt take of the ram the fat, and the fat tail, and the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul of the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and the right thigh; for it is a ram of consecration:

23and one loaf of bread, and one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer, out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before the LORD:

24and thou shalt put the whole upon the hands of Aaron, and upon the hands of his sons; and shalt wave them for a wave offering before the LORD.

25And thou shalt take them from their hands, and burn them on the altar upon the burnt offering, for a sweet savour before the LORD: it is an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

26And thou shalt take the breast of Aaron’s ram of consecration, and wave it for a wave offering before the LORD: and it shall be thy portion.

27And thou shalt sanctify the breast of the wave offering, and the thigh of the heave offering, which is waved, and which is heaved up, of the ram of consecration, even of that which is for Aaron, and of that which is for his sons:

28and it shall be for Aaron and his sons as a due for ever from the children of Israel: for it is an heave offering: and it shall be an heave offering from the children of Israel of the sacrifices of their peace offerings, even their heave offering unto the LORD.

29And the holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him, to be anointed in them, and to be consecrated in them.

30Seven days shall the son that is priest in his stead put them on, when he cometh into the tent of meeting to minister in the holy place.

31And thou shalt take the ram of consecration, and seethe its flesh in a holy place.

32And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, at the door of the tent of meeting.

33And they shall eat those things wherewith atonement was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them: but a stranger shall not eat thereof, because they are holy.

34And if aught of the flesh of the consecration, or of the bread, remain unto the morning, then thou shalt burn the remainder with fire: it shall not be eaten, because it is holy.

35And thus shalt thou do unto Aaron, and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded thee: seven days shalt thou consecrate them.

36And every day shalt thou offer the bullock of sin offering for atonement: and thou shalt cleanse the altar, when thou makest atonement for it; and thou shalt anoint it, to sanctify it.

37Seven days thou shalt make atonement for the altar, and sanctify it: and the altar shall be most holy; whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy.

38Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually.

39The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even:

40and with the one lamb a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering.

41And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and shalt do thereto according to the meal offering of the morning, and according to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

42It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tent of meeting before the LORD: where I will meet with you, to speak there unto thee.

43And there I will meet with the children of Israel; and the Tent shall be sanctified by my glory.

44And I will sanctify the tent of meeting, and the altar: Aaron also and his sons will I sanctify, to minister to me in the priest’s office.

45And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.

46And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the LORD their God.

Exodus 30

1And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: of acacia wood shalt thou make it.

2A 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 one piece with it.

3And 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.

4And two golden rings shalt thou make for it under the crown thereof, upon the two ribs thereof, upon the two sides of it shalt thou make them; and they shall be for places for staves to bear it withal.

5And thou shalt make the staves of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.

6And thou shalt put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy-seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee.

7And Aaron shall burn thereon incense of sweet spices: every morning, when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn it.

8And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.

9Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt offering, nor meal offering; and ye shall pour no drink offering thereon.

10And Aaron shall make atonement upon the horns of it once in the year: with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once in the year shall he make atonement for it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the LORD.

11And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

12When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel, according to those that are numbered of them, 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.

13This they shall give, every one that passeth over unto them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (the shekel is twenty gerahs:) half a shekel for an offering to the LORD.

14Every one that passeth over unto them that are numbered, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the offering of the LORD.

15The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when they give the offering of the LORD, to make atonement for your souls.

16And thou shalt take the atonement money from the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tent of meeting; that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before the LORD, to make atonement for your souls.

17And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

18Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and the base thereof of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein.

19And Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat:

20when 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 unto the LORD:

21so 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.

22Moreover the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

23Take thou also unto thee the chief spices, of flowing myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty,

24and of cassia five hundred, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil an hin:

25and thou shalt make it an holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer: it shall be an holy anointing oil.

26And thou shalt anoint therewith the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony,

27and the table and all the vessels thereof, and the candlestick and the vessels thereof, and the altar of incense,

28and the altar of burnt offering with all the vessels thereof, and the laver and the base thereof.

29And thou shalt sanctify them, that they may be most holy: whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy.

30And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and sanctify them, that they may minister unto me in the priest’s office.

31And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, This shall be an holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generations.

32Upon the flesh of man shall it not be poured, neither shall ye make any like it, according to the composition thereof: it is holy, and it shall be holy unto you.

33Whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger, he shall be cut off from his people.

34And the LORD said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight;

35and thou shalt make of it incense, a perfume after the art of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy:

36and thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy.

37And the incense which thou shalt make, according to the composition thereof ye shall not make for yourselves: it shall be unto thee holy for the LORD.

38Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto, he shall be cut off from his people.

Revised Version (RV). Revised Version (RV), 1885, public domain.