Exodus 30:9 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering; neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon.

Ye shall offer no strange incense - i:e., of a different composition from that of which the ingredients are described so minutely. The perpetual incense which the priests were to offer was a condiment of which pure frankincense was a necessary ingredient. It has been ascertained by the researches of modern botanists that the frankincense tree, Boswellia serrata, in Sanskrit, Kunduru, was a native of India, whence it is now generally believed that the frankincense burnt in the Jewish tabernacle was obtained (Dr. Kay). But there was a thuriferous district, Oman, in Arabia, under the mountains of the Asabi, near the Cattabani (Ptolemy, 'Geography,' p. 154). (See a description of this district, and of the frankincense tree of Arabia, in No. 11 of the 'Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,' by Dr. H.J. Carter, Bombay Establishment.)

Exodus 30:9

9 Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering; neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon.