1. The incense employed in the service of the taber- nacle was distinguished as O'laSil riilbp (ketureth has-sammim ; Exod. xxv, 6, incense of the uromas ; Sept. t) avv^KTiQ Tov Bvixid/iaTOQ ; Vulg. thjmiamata boni odores ; A. V. " sweet incense"). The ingredients of the sacred incense are enumerated with great precision in Exod. XXX, 34, 35 : " Take unto thee sweet spices, stac- tc (wjaS, nataph), and onycha (rpJl'J, shecheletli), and galbanum (ln325n^ chelhenah~) ; these sweet spices with pure frankincense (MShb, lehonah) : of each shall there be a like weight. And thou shalt make of it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy." See each of these ingredients in its alphabetical place. All incense which was not made of these ingredients was called n"iT nii:;p {ke- toruh zuruh), " strange incense," Exod. xxx, 9, and Avas forbidden to be offered. According to Rashi on Exod. xxx, 34, the above-mentioned perfumes were mixed in equal proportions, seventy manehs being taken of each. They were compounded by the skill of the apothecary, to whose use, according to Rabbinical tradition, was de- voted a portion of the Temple, called, from the name of the family whose especial duty it was to prepare the incense, " the house of Abtincs." So in the large tem- ples of India "is retained a man whose chief business it is to distil sweet waters from flowers, and to extract oil from wood, flowers, and other substances" (Roberts, Ori- ental Illust. p. 82). The priest or Levite to whose care the incense was intrusted was one of the fifteen DiSllsa
(memunnini), or prefects of the Temple. Constant watch was kept in tlie house of Abtines that the incense might always be in readiness (Buxtorf, Lexicon Talmud, s. v. D3"^:33X). In addition to the four ingredients already mentioned, Jarchi enumerates seven others, thus making eleven, which the Jewish doctors affirm were commmii- cated to Moses on Mount Sinai. Josephus {War, v, 5, 5) mentions thirteen. The proportions of the addi- tional spices are given by Maimonides {Ctle hammik- dash, ii, 2, § 3) as follows : of myrrh, cassia, spikenard, and saffron, sixteen manehs each ; of costus. twelve ma- nehs ; cinnamon, nine manehs ; sweet bark, three ma- nehs. The weight of the whole confection was 308 ma- nehs. To these was added the fourth part of a cab of salt of Sodom, with amber of Jordan, and an herb caUed "the smoke-raiser" {'(OH tl^"^, maaleh uslidn), 'known only to the cunning in such matters, to whom the secret descended by tradition. In the ordinary daily service one maneh was used, half in the morning and half in the evening. Allowing, then, one maneh of incense for each day of the solar j'ear, the three manehs which re- mained were again pomided, and used l)y the high- priest on the day of atonement (Lev. xvi, 12). A store of it was constantly kept in the Temple (Joseph. War, vi, 8, 3). The further directions are that this precious compound should be made or broken up into minute particles, and that it should be deposited, as a very holy tiling, in the tabernacle " before the testimony" (or ark). As the ingredients are so minutety specified, there was nothing to prevent wealthy persons from liaving a sim- ilar perfume for private use : this, therefore, was for- bidden under pain of excommmiication : " Ye shall not make to j'ourselves according to the composition there- of: it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord. Whoso- ever shall make like mito that, to smell thereto, shall even be cut off from his people" (ver. 37, 38). So in some part of India, according to IMichaelis {Mosaisches Recht, art. 249), it was considered high treason for any person to make use of the best sort of calambak, which was for the service of the king alone. The word which describes the various ingredients as being "tempered together" literally means salted (llsTC^, memidlach'). The Chaldee and Greek versions, however, have set the example of renderiiit;- ii l.y ini.n ,1 or tempered, as if their idea was that the iWiW icnt in^icilients were to be mixed together, just as salt is niixeil with any substance over which it is sjmnkled. Ainsworth contends for the lit- eral meaning, inasmuch as the law (Lev. ii, 13) express- ly says, " With all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt." In support of this he cites INIaimonides, who affirms that there was not anything offered on the altar without salt, except the wine of the drink-offering, and the blood, and the wood ; and of the incense he says, still more expressly, that " they added to it a cab of salt." In accordance with this, it is supposed, our Saviour says. " Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt" (JNIark ix, 49). Ainsworth further remarks: "If our speech is to be always with grace, seasoned with salt, as the apos- tle teaches (Col. iv, 6), how much more should our in- cense, our prayers unto God, be therewith seasoned 1" It is difficult, however, to see how so anomalous a sub- stance as salt could well be combined in the prepara- tion ; and if it was used, as we incUne to think that it was, it was probably added in the act of offering. See Salt. The expression 123 "13 {bad bebad), Exod. xxx, 34, is interpreted by the Chaldee "weight by weight," that is, an equal weight of each (comp. Jarchi, ad loc.) ; and this rendering is adopted by our version. Others, however, and among them Aben-Ezra and INIai- monides, consider it as signifying that each of the spices was separatelj' prepared, and that all were afterwards mixed.