Keluaran 27:20-21

Offering the Oil

27:20 “You are to command the Israelites that they bring ¹  to you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, so that the lamps ²  will burn ³  regularly. ⁴  27:21 In the tent of meeting ⁵  outside the curtain that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons are to arrange it from evening ⁶  to morning before the Lord. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for generations to come. ⁷ 

Keluaran 27:1

The Altar

27:1 “You are to make the ⁸  altar of acacia wood, seven feet six inches long, ⁹  and seven feet six inches wide; the altar is to be square, ¹⁰  and its height is to be ¹¹  four feet six inches.

1 Samuel 2:28

2:28 I chose your ancestor ¹²  from all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer sacrifice on my altar, to burn incense, and to bear the ephod before me. I gave to your ancestor’s house all the fire offerings made by the Israelites.

1 Samuel 3:3

3:3 and the lamp of God had not yet been extinguished. Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord as well; the ark of God was also there.

1 Samuel 3:1

The Call of Samuel

3:1 Now the boy Samuel continued serving the Lord under Eli’s supervision. ¹³  Word from the Lord was rare in those days; revelatory visions were infrequent.

1 Samuel 23:13

23:13 So David and his men, who numbered about six hundred, set out and left Keilah; they moved around from one place to another. ¹⁴  When told that David had escaped from Keilah, Saul called a halt to his expedition.

Lukas 1:9

1:9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, ¹⁵  to enter ¹⁶  the holy place ¹⁷  of the Lord and burn incense.

Kisah Para Rasul 6:4

6:4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

[27:20]  ¹ tn The form is the imperfect tense with the vav showing a sequence with the first verb: “you will command…that they take.” The verb “take, receive” is used here as before for receiving an offering and bringing it to the sanctuary.

[27:20]  ² tn Heb “lamp,” which must be a collective singular here.

[27:20]  ³ tn The verb is unusual; it is the Hiphil infinitive construct of עָלָה (’alah), with the sense here of “to set up” to burn, or “to fix on” as in Exod 25:37, or “to kindle” (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 370).

[27:20]  ⁴ sn The word can mean “continually,” but in this context, as well as in the passages on the sacrifices, “regularly” is better, since each morning things were cleaned and restored.

[27:21]  ⁵ tn The LXX has mistakenly rendered this name “the tent of the testimony.”

[27:21]  ⁶ sn The lamps were to be removed in the morning so that the wicks could be trimmed and the oil replenished (30:7) and then lit every evening to burn through the night.

[27:21]  ⁷ sn This is the first of several sections of priestly duties. The point is a simple one here: those who lead the worship use the offerings of the people to ensure that access to God is illumined regularly. The NT will make much of the symbolism of light.

[27:1]  ⁸ tn The article on this word identifies this as the altar, meaning the main high altar on which the sacrifices would be made.

[27:1]  ⁹ tn The dimensions are five cubits by five cubits by three cubits high.

[27:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “four”; this refers to four sides. S. R. Driver says this is an archaism that means there were four equal sides (Exodus, 291).

[27:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and three cubits its height.”

[2:28]  ¹² tn Heb “him”; the referent (Eli’s ancestor, i.e., Aaron) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “before Eli.”

[23:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they went where they went.”

[1:9]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “according to the custom of the priesthood it fell to him by lot.” The order of the clauses has been rearranged in the translation to make it clear that the prepositional phrase κατὰ τὸ ἔθος τῆς ἱερατείας (kata to eqo" th" Jierateia", “according to the custom of the priesthood”) modifies the phrase “it fell to him by lot” rather than the preceding clause.

[1:9]  ¹⁶ tn This is an aorist participle and is temporally related to the offering of incense, not to when the lot fell.

[1:9]  ¹⁷ tn Or “temple.” Such sacrifices, which included the burning of incense, would have occurred in the holy place according to the Mishnah (m. Tamid 1.2; 3.1; 5-7). A priest would have given this sacrifice, which was offered for the nation, once in one’s career. It would be offered either at 9 a.m. or 3 p.m., since it was made twice a day.