Exodus 30:29

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

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

30:22-38 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, So 1:3, and the good name of Christians is like precious ointment, Ec 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 whereby God makes himself known. It is a great affront to God to jest with sacred things, and to make sport with his word and ordinances. It is most dangerous and fatal to use professions of the gospel of Christ to forward wordly interests.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

An oil of holy ointment - Rather, a holy anointing oil.

After the art of the apothecary - According to Jewish tradition, the essences of the spices were first extracted, and then mixed with the oil. The preparation of the anointing oil, as well as of the incense, was entrusted to Bezaleel Exodus 37:29, and the care of preserving it to Eleazar, the son of Aaron Numbers 4:16. In a later age, it was prepared by the sons of the priests 1 Chronicles 9:30.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. cassia—from the same species of tree as the cinnamon—some think the outer bark of that tree. All these together would amount to one hundred twenty pounds, troy weight.

hin—a word of Egyptian origin, equal to ten pints. Being mixed with the olive oil—no doubt of the purest kind—this composition probably remained always in a liquid state, and the strictest prohibition issued against using it for any other purpose than anointing the tabernacle and its furniture.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And thou shalt sanctify them, that they may be most holy,.... By anointing them, and so be set apart for sacred uses only; as by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the people of God, the vessels of mercy, are really sanctified, and made meet for the master's use; and therefore it is called the sanctification of the Spirit, which is true holiness, in opposition to typical or ceremonial holiness, here intended; and if this holy anointing oil made those things most holy that were anointed with it, how much more must the grace of the Spirit those who partake of it; and though it is at present imperfect, it will be perfected, and become complete holiness, without which no man can see the Lord:

whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy; as is said of the most holy altar; see Gill on Exodus 29:37. The Targum of Jonathan interprets it of persons that approach these holy places, and things so anointed and sanctified, paraphrasing the words thus;"whosoever cometh unto them of the priests shall be holy, but of the rest of the tribes shall be burnt with flaming fire before the Lord.''

Geneva Study Bible

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

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

29. The effect of the anointing is to sanctify the objects to which the process is applied (cf. Exodus 29:36).

most holy] See on Exodus 29:37.

shall become holy] i.e. be forfeited to the sanctuary, or, if a person (marg.), be given over to the Deity, that He may deal with him as He pleases. See further on Exodus 29:37.

Anointing1[213], in a religious sense, is in the OT. a symbolical act, denoting (1) the divine appointment, or consecration, of a person for a particular purpose, esp. a king (1 Samuel 10:1 and often), the high priest (Exodus 29:7), later also the ordinary priests (see on v. 30), and, at least once, a prophet, 1Ki Exo 19:16 b (cf., in a fig. sense, Isaiah 61:1); it is followed by, and is sometimes a figure of, the outpouring of the Spirit upon the person anointed (1 Samuel 10:6, cf. v. 1, Exodus 16:13; Isaiah 61:1 (Luke 4:18), Acts 4:27; Acts 10:38, 2 Corinthians 1:21, 1 John 2:20; 1 John 2:27): (2) the consecration of a thing, viz. a sacred stone, Genesis 31:13 (see Exodus 28:18), Exodus 35:14 (so among the Greeks; see the writer’s Genesis, p. 267), the Tabernacle and its appurtenances (see on vv. 26–28), a future Altar of burnt-offering, Daniel 9:24 (see the note in the Camb. Bible). The practice of anointing is widely diffused in the world: the unguent—originally fat, regarded in primitive thought as an important seat of life—was regarded, it seems, at least primitively, as a vehicle transferring to the person or object anointed a Divine life or potency. See art. Anointing (Crawley and Jastrow) in Hastings’ Encycl. of Rel. and Ethics, i. (1908), 549–557, esp. 550, 554, 556 (cf. EB. s.v. i. 175); and for the anointing of priests, p. 552b, and of temples and other sacred objects, p. 553 f.

[213] Heb. mâshaḥ (whence ‘Messiaḥ’), to be carefully distinguished from anointing the head or person for the toilet (Heb. sûk) Deuteronomy 28:40, 2 Samuel 14:2 al. In NT. χρίω (fig., never lit.) corresponds to the former, and ἀλείφω (e.g. Matthew 6:17) to the latter.

Exodus 30:29

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(see at Leviticus 8:10.). This anointing oil was holy, either because it was made from the four fragrant substances according to the proportions commanded by Jehovah, or because God declared this kind of mixture and preparation holy (cf. Exodus 30:32), and forbade for all time, on pain of death (Exodus 30:31), not only the use of ointment so prepared for any ordinary anointings, but even an imitation of it. "Upon man's flesh shall it not be poured," i.e., it is not to be used for the ordinary practice of anointing the human body (Exodus 30:32). "Man," i.e., the ordinary man in distinction from the priests. בּמתכּנתּו according to its measure, i.e., according to the proportions prescribed for its manufacture. זר (Exodus 30:33) a stranger, is not only the non-Israelite, but laymen or non-priests in general. On the expression, "cut off from his people," see at Genesis 17:14.