Exodus 30:10 - Exposition

Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in the year. Once in the year, on the great day of atonement—the tenth day of the seventh month—the high priest, after burning incense within the veil, and sprinkling the blood of a bullock and a ram towards the mercy seat, was to take of the blood, and put it on the horns of the altar of incense "to make an atonement for it—to cleanse it and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel" (Le Exodus 16:18 , Exodus 16:19 ). This was not making it an altar of expiation, but merely expiating it. There was, however, another use for the altar, where it seems to have served for an altar of expiation. When the high priest had sinned in his official character, and offered a sin-offering for his cleansing (Le Exodus 4:3-12 ), or when the whole congregation had committed an offence through inadvertence, and did the same (Le Exodus 4:13-21 ), the high priest was to put of the blood of the sacrifice on the horns of the altar of incense, "for the expiation of his own sin and the sin of the people" (Keil). In these two cases, the altar of incense served the purpose of the altar of burnt-offering, on which was put the blood of private sin-offerings (Le Exodus 4:22 -35). It is most holy . There seems to be sufficient reason for considering the altar of incense as, next to the ark and mercy seat, the most sacred object in the furniture of the tabernacle. This precedence indicates the extreme value which God sets upon prayer.