Exodus 30:33

Whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger, shall even be cut off from his people.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

30:22-38 Directions are here given for making the holy anointing oil, and the incense to be used in the service of the tabernacle. To show the excellency of holiness, there was this spiced oil in the tabernacle, which was grateful to the sight and to the smell. Christ's name is as ointment poured forth, So 1:3, and the good name of Christians is like precious ointment, Ec 7:1. The incense burned upon the golden altar was prepared of sweet spices. When it was used, it was to be beaten very small; thus it pleased the Lord to bruise the Redeemer, when he offered himself for a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour. The like should not be made for any common use. Thus God would keep in the people's minds reverence for his own services, and teach us not to profane or abuse any thing whereby God makes himself known. It is a great affront to God to jest with sacred things, and to make sport with his word and ordinances. It is most dangerous and fatal to use professions of the gospel of Christ to forward wordly interests.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A stranger - See Exodus 29:33.

Cut off from his people - See Exodus 31:14.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. cassia—from the same species of tree as the cinnamon—some think the outer bark of that tree. All these together would amount to one hundred twenty pounds, troy weight.

hin—a word of Egyptian origin, equal to ten pints. Being mixed with the olive oil—no doubt of the purest kind—this composition probably remained always in a liquid state, and the strictest prohibition issued against using it for any other purpose than anointing the tabernacle and its furniture.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The word stranger is commonly used to note the Gentiles, or such as were not of Israel’s race; but sometimes it notes those that are not of the priestly race, as Exodus 29:33 Leviticus 22:12,13; and so it seems to be here. And if any of the kings were anointed with this oil, it was done by God’s special appointment, who may dispense with his own laws.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Whosoever compoundeth any like it,.... For his own use, or for any other than what God appointed it for: or

whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger; meaning not a Gentile, an alien from the commonwealth of israel; though Japhet interprets it of such a stranger who was not of the children of Israel; this Aben Ezra says is not right, but he says it means one that is not of the seed of Aaron; and so the Targum of Jonathan,"upon a profane person (or a common person, a laic) that is not of the sons of Aaron:''though the kings of Israel seem to be an exception to this, which might be by a special order from the Lord; yet it is a question whether it was with this, or with common oil, that they were anointed: indeed, the oil with which Solomon was anointed was taken out of the tabernacle, 1 Kings 1:39.

shall even be cut off from his people; either by death, by the immediate hand of God inflicting some disease upon him, or by excommunication from the congregation of Israel, or by not favouring him with any posterity, to keep up his name in the nation.

Geneva Study Bible

Whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon {q} a stranger, shall even be cut off from his people.

(q) Either a stranger or an Israelite, save only the priests.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

33. a stranger] i.e. one not authorized to be anointed with it = one not of the seed of Aaron: cf. on Exodus 29:33.

shall be cut off, &c.] a formula signifying emphatically the Divine disapproval: see on Exodus 12:15.

from his father’s kin] The word, though it is externally the same as the ordinary Heb. word for ‘a people,’ is plural: as it is impossible to speak of a man’s ‘peoples,’ the word, when it is so used, must have some different meaning; and this is shewn by Arabic (where ‘am means both patruus and patruelis) to be father’s kin (cf. EB. iii. 3289). The word, in this sense, is almost entirely confined to P: with to be cut off from it occurs in it 12 times, and with to be gathered to (Genesis 25:8 al.) 9 times.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 33- Upon a stranger. A "stranger" here means any one not of the family of Aaron. Compare Exodus 29:33. Exodus 30:33

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(see at Leviticus 8:10.). This anointing oil was holy, either because it was made from the four fragrant substances according to the proportions commanded by Jehovah, or because God declared this kind of mixture and preparation holy (cf. Exodus 30:32), and forbade for all time, on pain of death (Exodus 30:31), not only the use of ointment so prepared for any ordinary anointings, but even an imitation of it. "Upon man's flesh shall it not be poured," i.e., it is not to be used for the ordinary practice of anointing the human body (Exodus 30:32). "Man," i.e., the ordinary man in distinction from the priests. בּמתכּנתּו according to its measure, i.e., according to the proportions prescribed for its manufacture. זר (Exodus 30:33) a stranger, is not only the non-Israelite, but laymen or non-priests in general. On the expression, "cut off from his people," see at Genesis 17:14.