Instructions for Making the Incense Altar

30 “And you will make an altar for burning incense; you will make it of acacia wood, 2 a cubit its length and a cubit its width—it will be square—and two cubits its height, its horns ⌊of one piece with it⌋.a 3 And you will overlay it with pure gold, its top and its sides all around and its horns, and you will make for it a gold molding all around. 4 And you will make two gold rings for it; under its molding ⌊on two opposite sides⌋b you will make them as ⌊holders⌋c for poles to carry it with them. 5 You will make the poles of acacia wood, and you will overlay them with gold. 6 And you will put it before the curtain that is upon the ark of the testimony, before the atonement cover, which is on the testimony, there where I will meet with you.

7 “And on it Aaron will turn fragrant incense into smoke; ⌊each morning⌋d when he tends the lamps, he will turn it into smoke. 8 And when Aaron sets up the lamps ⌊at twilight⌋,e he will turn it into smoke—incense of continuity—before Yahweh throughout your generations. 9 You will not offer on it strange incense or a burnt offering or a grain offering, and you will not pour a libation on it. 10 And Aaron will make atonement on its horns one time in the year from the blood of the sin offering of the atonement; one time in the year he will make atonement on it throughout your generations; it is a most holy thing for Yahweh.”

Instructions for Numbering the People

11 And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 12 “⌊When you take a census of⌋f the ⌊Israelites⌋g to count them, they will each give the ransom of his life for Yahweh when counting them, and a plague will not be among them when counting them. 13 This they will give, ⌊everyone who is counted⌋,h the half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, which is twenty gerahs per shekel. The half shekel is a contribution for Yahweh. 14 ⌊Everyone who is counted⌋i from ⌊twenty years old⌋j and above will give the contribution of Yahweh. 15 The rich will not give more, and the poor will not give less than the half shekel to give the contribution of Yahweh to make atonement for their lives. 16 And you will take the atonement money from the ⌊Israelites⌋k and give it to the service of the tent of assembly, and it will be as a memorial for the ⌊Israelites⌋l before Yahweh to make atonement for your lives.”