30:34 The Lord said to Moses: “Take 5 spices, gum resin, 6 onycha, 7 galbanum, 8 and pure frankincense 9 of equal amounts 10
1 tn “Gold” is an adverbial accusative of material.
2 tn Heb “will be from it.”
3 tn Heb “a talent.”
4 tn The text has “he will make it” or “one will make it.” With no expressed subject it is given a passive translation.
5 tn The construction is “take to you,” which could be left in that literal sense, but more likely the suffix is an ethical dative, stressing the subject of the imperative.
6 sn This is from a word that means “to drip”; the spice is a balsam that drips from a resinous tree.
7 sn This may be a plant, or it may be from a species of mollusks; it is mentioned in Ugaritic and Akkadian; it gives a pungent odor when burnt.
8 sn This is a gum from plants of the genus Ferula; it has an unpleasant odor, but when mixed with others is pleasant.
9 tn The word “spice is repeated here, suggesting that the first three formed half of the ingredient and this spice the other half – but this is conjecture (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 400).
10 tn Heb “of each part there will be an equal part.”
11 tn Or “molding.”
12 tn Heb “were from it.”
13 tn Possibly meaning “pure gold lampstand.”