Exodus 30:34

_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:_ Take unto thee sweet spices. These were stacte, the finest myrrh; onycha, supposed to be an odoriferous shell; galbanum, a gum-resin from an umbelliferous plant. FRANKINCENSE - a dry resinous aromatic gum of a yellow colour, which comes from a tree in Arabia, and is obtained by incision of the bark. This incense was placed within the sanctuary, to be at hand when the priest required to burn on the altar. The art of compounding unguents and perfumes was well-known in Egypt, where sweet scented spices were extensively used, not only in common life, but in the ritual of the temples. Most of the ingredients here mentioned have been found on minute examination of mummies and other Egyptian relics; and the Israelites,...

34._Take unto thee sweet spices. _This oblation might have been noticed with the others, yet, since it merely describes the composition of the incense, which is connected with the altar of incense, and in fact is but an appendage to it, I have seen no reason why I should separate them. Let the curious subtilely discuss, if they please, the ingredients themselves; it is enough for me that they were chosen at God’s will to make a very sweet smell. For I know not whether it is likely, as some suppose, that galbanum (154) is of a strong and disagreeable savor, and, since they only offer this conjecture in an unknown matter, they deserve little credit. My conviction is that it was sweet, which the words of Moses himself a little further on confirm, where he denounces the penalty of death upon those who should use such perfume for their private gratification; for this prohibition would have be...

22-38 Directions are here given for making the holy anointing oil, and the incense to be used in the service of the tabernacle. To show the excellency of holiness, there was this spiced oil in the tabernacle, which was grateful to the sight and to the smell. Christ's name is as ointment poured forth, Song of Solomon 1:3, and the good name of Christians is like precious ointment, Ecclesiastes 7:1. The incense burned upon the golden altar was prepared of sweet spices. When it was used, it was to be beaten very small; thus it pleased the Lord to bruise the Redeemer, when he offered himself for a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour. The like should not be made for any common use. Thus God would keep in the people's minds reverence for his own services, and teach us not to profane or abuse any thing...

Verse Exodus 30:34. _TAKE UNTO THEE SWEET SPICES_] The holy _perfume_ was compounded of the following ingredients: _STACTE_] נטף _nataph_, supposed to be the same with what was afterwards called the _balm of Jericho_. _Stacte_ is the gum which spontaneously flows from the tree which produces _myrrh_. Exodus 30:23. _ONYCHA_] שחלת _shecheleth_, allowed by the best critics to be the _unguis odoriferans_ described by _Rumph_, which is the external crust of the shell-fish _purpura_ or _murex_, and is the basis of the principal perfumes made in the East Indies. _GALBANUM_] חלבנה _chelbenah_, the _bubon gummiferum_ or African _ferula_; it rises with a ligneo

Exodus 37:29. The incense, like the anointing oil, consisted of four aromatic ingredients. STACTE - supposed to be either the gum of the Storax tree (Styrax officinale) found in Syria and the neighboring countries, or the gum known as Benzoin, or Gum Benjamin, which is an important ingredient in the incense now used in churches and mosques, and is the produce of another storax tree (Styrax benzoin) that grows in Java and Sumatra. ONYCHA - , a perfume perhaps made from the cap of the strombus, or wing-shell, which abounds in the Red Sea. GALBANUM - , a gum of a yellowish brown color, in the form of either grains or masses. It is imported from India, Persia, and Africa; but the plant from which it comes is not yet certainly known....

EXPOSITION THE HOLY INCENSE. It remained to give directions concerning the composition of the incense, which, according to Exodus 30:7, was to be burnt upon the altar of gold. That it was to be of one and one only peculiar kind had been already implied in the prohibition to burn "strange incense" (Exodus 30:9). Moses is now told exactly how it was to be composed. As the oil was to contain four spices, so was the incense to be made of a like number—stacte, onycha, galbanum, and frankincense—of each the same quantity (Exodus 30:34). The art of the apothecary was to be called in for making it up ...

AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES,.... In a continued discourse, or some time after the former, though more probably at the same time; since it concerns the incense to be offered on the altar of incense, about which directions are given in the former part of the chapter: TAKE UNTO THEE SWEET SPICES: which are as follow, "stacte", "onycha", and "galbanum"; the former of these has its name from dropping; and of the same signification is the Hebrew word "Nataph", here used. Pancirollus says a, myrrh is a drop or tear distilling from a tree in Arabia Felix; and stacte is a drop of myrrh, which is extracted from it, and yields a most precious liquor: and so Pliny b relates, that myrrh trees sweat out of their own accord, before they are cut, what is called stacte, to which nothing is preferable: though some naturalists, as Theophrastus and Dioscorides c speak of this as flowing from it when it is...

FRANKINCENSE Frankincense is not to be confounded with incense (to which it was to be added), as it is often used apart from incense. We are told what composed the incense -- never in Scripture what the frankincense was. All speaks of Christ -- the sweet spices of those perfections which we may apprehend, the frankincense of that which God saw in Jesus ineffable....

CHAPTER 30 THE ALTAR OF INCENSE AND THE WORSHIPPERS _ 1. The altar (Exodus 30:1)_ 2. The atonement money (Exodus 30:11) 3. The brazen laver and the unction of the Spirit (Exodus 30:22) 4. The incense (Exodus 30:34) This is a beautiful chapter, filled with blessed lessons. We have before us instructions concerning true, priestly worship. The brazen altar was of shittim wood, but this altar is of shittim wood covered with pure gold. The altar of brass tells of the work of Christ on the cross when judgment fell upon Him. There we learn in faith that our sins and guilt were fully met. The golden alta

EXODUS 30-31. P S. PRIESTLY SUPPLEMENTS. These two Chapter s form an appendix to Exodus 25-29. The golden incense altar finds no place in Exodus 25 or Exodus 26:33 or Leviticus 16 (where the annual rite of Exodus 30:10 is ignored). Instead we hear of censers in Leviticus 16:12 and Numbers 16:6 f., while the great altar in the court is called the altar, as if no other were recognised. Similarly Exodus 30:30, requiring the unction of Aaron's sons, betrays itself as later than the series of passages in which the High Priest alone receives it, being often