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.

Verse 24 - Cassia. The modern cassia is the inner bark of a tree distinct from the cinnamon tree, known to botanists as Cinnamo-mum cassia, which is a native of India, Java, and the Malay peninsula. In taste and scent, it "bears a strong resemblance to cinnamon, but is more pungent and of coarser texture" (Cook). It is uncertain, however, if this is the spice here indicated. The Hebrew word used is kiddah, not ketsioth (as in Psalm 45:8); and it is very doubtful whether the two are identical On the shekel of the sanctuary. see the comment on ver. 13; and on the kin, see Exodus 29:40.

And of cassia five hundred shekels,.... Or two hundred and fifty ounces:

after the shekel of the sanctuary; according to the standard weight kept there. This "cassia" was not the "cassia solutiva", which is of a purgative nature, and now in use in physic, but the "cassia odorata", or the sweet smelling "cassia": which, Pancirollus (s) says, some take to be the nard, out of which a most sweet oil is pressed; and Servius (t) says, that cassia is an herb of a most sweet smell. Pliny (u) speaks of it along with cinnamon; and Galen says, when cinnamon was wanting, it was usual to put in its stead a double quantity of cassia (w); Leo Africanus speaks of trees in Africa bearing cassia, and which chiefly grew in Egypt (x):

and of oil olive an hin; containing twelve logs: according to Godwin (y), it was of our measure three quarts; but, as Bishop Cumberland has more exactly calculated it, it held a wine gallon, a quart, and a little more: this was the purest and best of oil, and most fit and proper to be a part of this holy anointing oil.

(s) Ut supra, (Rer. Memorab. sive Deperd. par. 1.) Titus 11. p. 30. (t) In Virgil. Bucol. Eclog. 2.((u) Ut supra, (Nat. Hist. l. 12.) c. 19. (w) Apud Dalechamp in Plin. ib. (x) Descriptio Africae, l. 9. p. 752. (y) Moses & Aaron, l. 6. c. 9.

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.

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