Exodus 30:31-33
30:31 And you are to tell the Israelites: ‘This is to be my sacred anointing oil throughout your generations.
30:32 It must not be applied 1 to people’s bodies, and you must not make any like it with the same recipe. It is holy, and it must be holy to you.
30:33 Whoever makes perfume like it and whoever puts any of it on someone not a priest 2 will be cut off 3 from his people.’”
1 tn Without an expressed subject, the verb may be treated as a passive. Any common use, as in personal hygiene, would be a complete desecration.
2 tn Heb “a stranger,” meaning someone not ordained a priest.
3 sn The rabbinic interpretation of this is that it is a penalty imposed by heaven, that the life will be cut short and the person could die childless.