Topic

Incense

Passages from across the Bible

Passages on this topic

From Nave’s Topical Bible (1896), a historical reference index. The groupings are Nave’s; the verses are shown in the text used across this site.

Formula for compounding

  • Exodus 30:34–35 The LORD also said to Moses, “Take fragrant spices — gum resin, onycha, galbanum, and pure frankincense — in equal measures, and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy.

Uses of

  • Exodus 30:36–38 Grind some of it into fine powder and place it in front of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. You are never to use this formula to make incense for yourselves; you shall regard it as holy to the LORD. Anyone who makes something like it to…
  • Leviticus 16:12 Then he must take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense, and take them inside the veil.
  • Numbers 16:17 Each man is to take his censer, place incense in it, and present it before the LORD— 250 censers. You and Aaron are to present your censers as well.”
  • Numbers 16:40 just as the LORD commanded him through Moses. This was to be a reminder to the Israelites that no outsider who is not a descendant of Aaron should approach to offer incense before the LORD, lest he become like Korah and his followers.
  • Numbers 16:46 Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, place fire from the altar in it, and add incense. Go quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, because wrath has come out from the LORD; the plague has begun.”
  • Deuteronomy 33:10 He will teach Your ordinances to Jacob and Your law to Israel; he will set incense before You and whole burnt offerings on Your altar.

Compounded by Bezaleel

  • Exodus 37:29 He also made the sacred anointing oil and the pure, fragrant incense, the work of a perfumer.

By priests

Offered morning and evening

  • Exodus 30:7–8 And Aaron is to burn fragrant incense on it every morning when he tends the lamps. When Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he must burn the incense perpetually before the LORD for the generations to come.
  • 2 Chronicles 13:11 Every morning and every evening they present burnt offerings and fragrant incense to the LORD. They set out the rows of showbread on the ceremonially clean table, and every evening they light the lamps of the gold lampstand. We are carrying out the requirements of the LORD our God, while you have f…

On the golden altar

  • Exodus 30:1–7 “You are also to make an altar of acacia wood for the burning of incense. It is to be square, a cubit long, a cubit wide, and two cubits high. Its horns must be of one piece. Overlay with pure gold the top and all the sides and horns, and make a molding of gold around it. And make two gold rings be…
  • Exodus 40:5 Place the gold altar of incense in front of the ark of the Testimony, and hang the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle.
  • Exodus 40:27 and he burned fragrant incense on it, just as the LORD had commanded him.
  • 2 Chronicles 2:4 Behold, I am about to build a house for the Name of the LORD my God to dedicate to Him for burning fragrant incense before Him, for displaying the showbread continuously, and for making burnt offerings every morning and evening as well as on the Sabbaths, New Moons, and appointed feasts of the LORD…
  • 2 Chronicles 32:12 Did not Hezekiah himself remove His high places and His altars and say to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before one altar, and on it you shall burn sacrifices’?

In making atonement

  • Leviticus 16:12–13 Then he must take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense, and take them inside the veil. He is to put the incense on the fire before the LORD, and the cloud of incense will cover the mercy seat above the Testimony, so that h…
  • Numbers 16:46–47 Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, place fire from the altar in it, and add incense. Go quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, because wrath has come out from the LORD; the plague has begun.” So Aaron took the censer as Moses had ordered and ran into the midst of the assembly…
  • Luke 1:10 And at the hour of the incense offering, the whole congregation was praying outside.

Offered by Nadab and Abihu in an unauthorized manner

  • Leviticus 10:1–2 Now Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense, and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to His command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died in the presence of the LORD.

Korah, Dathan, and Abiram

  • Numbers 16:16–35 And Moses said to Korah, “You and all your followers are to appear before the LORD tomorrow— you and they and Aaron. Each man is to take his censer, place incense in it, and present it before the LORD— 250 censers. You and Aaron are to present your censers as well.” So each man took his censer, put…

By Uzziah

  • 2 Chronicles 26:16–21 But when Uzziah became powerful, his arrogance led to his own destruction. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, for he entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. Then Azariah the priest, along with eighty brave priests of the LORD, went in after him. They took their s…

Offered in idolatrous worship

  • 1 Kings 12:23 “Tell Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and the rest of the people
  • Jeremiah 41:5 eighty men who had shaved off their beards, torn their garments, and cut themselves came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria, carrying grain offerings and frankincense for the house of the LORD.
  • Ezekiel 8:11 Before them stood seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising.

Presented by the wise men to Jesus

  • Matthew 2:11 On coming to the house, they saw the Child with His mother Mary, and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

See ALTAR OF INCENSE

Figurative

Of prayer

  • Psalm 141:2 May my prayer be set before You like incense; my uplifted hands, like the evening offering.

Of praise

  • Malachi 1:11 For My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place, incense and pure offerings will be presented in My name, because My name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD of Hosts.

Of an acceptable sacrifice

  • Ephesians 5:2 and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.

Symbolical

Of the prayers of saints

  • Revelation 5:8 When He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
  • Revelation 8:3–4 Then another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, rose up before God from the hand of t…

Word study: the Hebrew and Greek words behind “incense” →

Scripture text: Berean Standard Bible.