Essay su Esodo 30:41

This altar, which is not mentioned again, is seen by some as a later interpolation (DeVaux 1965): here it links up with what has gone before through the theme of purging (purification), in v. 10. For more on the incense itself, see vv. 22ff., below.

Returning to the familiar stylistic pattern of the Tabernacle account, “You are to make …,” we are told of the basin in which the priests washed. Yet this brief aside links up with the motif of protection from death that was encountered earlier (see 28:35).

“Holy” is once again heard as a key word, both in the sense of making something sacred and in the sense of being reserved for special use only. Oil was used in many ancient cultures for positive purposes; elsewhere in the Bible, of course, it played its role in the anointing of kings and prophets, as well as the courteous treatment of guests and after bathing. Oil, then, carried with it connotations of brightness (see Ps. 104:15) and life itself.