Moreover the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Take thou also ... Oil is frequently mentioned in Scripture as an emblem of sanctification (cf. Zechariah 4:1-14), and anointing with it a symbolical means of designating objects as well as persons to the service of God. The anointing of the tabernacle therefore was an outward and visible representation of the impartation of the Spirit of God to the Church. Here it is prescribed by divine authority, and the various ingredients in their several proportions described which were to compose the oil used in consecrating the furniture of the tabernacle.
Myrrh - a fragrant and medicinal gum from a little-known tree in Arabia.
Sweet cinnamon - produced from a species of laurel or sweet bay, found chiefly in Ceylon, growing to a height of 20 feet. This spice is extracted from the inner bark; but it is not certain whether that mentioned by Moses is the same as that with which we are familiar. х Qinmaan (H7076); Septuagint, kinnamon, is derived from the Cingalese kakyn nama, sweet wood.]
Sweet calamus - or sweet cane, a product of Arabia and India, of a tawny colour. In appearance it is like the common cane, and strongly odoriferous cassia-from the same species of tree as the cinnamon: some think the outer bark of that tree. All these together would amount to 120 lbs. troy weight; and as they are not native products of Egypt, but most of them grow in Arabia, while the cinnamon was imported from India, it is evident that the Israelites must have trafficked with the trading caravans which brought spicery from these remote regions.
Hin - a word of Egyptian origin, equal to ten pints. According to Leeman, quoted by Hengstenberg ('Egypt and Books of Moses'), it was originally the general name for a vessel, which was then transferred by the Hebrews and Egyptians to a certain measure of variable compass. Being mixed with the olive oil-no doubt of the purest kind-this composition probably remained always in a liquid state; and in order to separate what was sacred from common application either for food or luxury, the strictest prohibition issued against using it for any other purpose than anointing the tabernacle and its furniture. There is no record of the temple being anointed as the tabernacle was. According to Jewish tradition, there was no holy oil in the second temple; and the formal ceremony of anointing was probably omitted at the dedication of the first (or Solomon's) temple in consequence of the removal from the tabernacle to that permanent building, of the sacred vessels which had been previously anointed.