The Altar for Burning Incense

(Exodus 37.25-28)

The Lord said to Moses:

30 Build an altar of acacia wood where you can burn incense. ² Make it 45 centimeters square and 90 centimeters high, and make each of its four corners stick up like the horn of a bull. ³ Cover it with pure gold and put a gold edging around it. ⁴ Then below the edging on opposite sides attach two gold rings through which you can put the poles for carrying the altar. ⁵ These poles are also to be made of acacia wood covered with gold.

⁶ Put the altar in front of the inside curtain of the sacred tent. The chest with the place of mercy^[a] is kept behind that curtain, and I will talk with you there.

The Sacred Chest

(Exodus 37.1-9)

The Lord said to Moses:

¹⁰ Tell the people to build a chest of acacia wood 110 centimeters long, 66 centimeters wide, and 66 centimeters high. ¹¹ Cover it inside and out with pure gold and put a gold edging around the lid. ¹² Make four gold rings and attach one of them to each of the four legs of the chest. ¹³ Make two poles of acacia wood. Cover them with gold ¹⁴ and put them through the rings, so the chest can be carried by the poles. ¹⁵ Don't ever remove the poles from the rings. ¹⁶ When I give you the Ten Commandments written on two flat stones, put them inside the chest.

^33 (A) Then Moses told Aaron, “Put some manna in a jar and store it in the place of worship for future generations to see.”

^8 (A) The next day when Moses went into the tent, flowers and almonds were already growing on Aaron's stick. ⁹ Moses brought the twelve sticks out of the tent and showed them to the people. Each of the leaders found his own and took it.

¹⁰ But the Lord told Moses, “Put Aaron's stick back! Let it stay near the sacred chest as a warning to anyone who might think of rebelling. If these people don't stop their grumbling about me, I will wipe them out.”

¹⁶ When I give you the Ten Commandments written on two flat stones, put them inside the chest.

³ So I made a chest out of acacia wood, and I chiseled two flat stones like the ones I broke. Then I carried the stones up the mountain, ⁴ where the Lord wrote the Ten Commandments on them, just as he had done the first time. The commandments were exactly what he had announced from the fire, when you were gathered at the mountain.

After the Lord returned the stones to me, ⁵ I took them down the mountainside and put them in the chest, just as he had commanded. And they are still there.