Basic HTML Version
voices) or beings that have a “glowing” quality about them. One of the
ministered to Isaiah by bringing a glowing coal from the altar.
TO BURN INCENSE
A. Verb.
%
(
+
, 6999), “to burn incense, cause to rise up in smoke.” The primary stem
of this verb appears in Akkadian. Related forms appear in Ugaritic, Arabic, Phoenician,
and postbiblical Hebrew. The use of this verb in biblical Hebrew is never in the primary
stem, but only in the causative and intensive stems (and their passives).
The first biblical occurrence of
%
is in Exod. 29:13: “And thou shalt take all the
fat that covereth the inwards, and caul that is above the liver, and the two kidneys, and
the fat that is upon them, and
77
$
on the altar.” Technically this verb
means “offering true offerings” every time it appears in the causative stem (cf. Hos. 4:13;
11:2), although it may refer only to the “burning of incense” (2 Chron. 13:11). Offerings
are burned in order to change the thing offered into smoke (the ethereal essence of the
offering), which would ascend to God as a pleasing or placating savor. The things
sacrificed were mostly common foods, and in this way Israel offered up to God life itself,
their labors, and the fruit of their labors.
Such offerings represent both the giving of the thing offered and a vicarious
substitution of the offering for the offerer (cf. John 17:19; Eph. 5:2). Because of man’s
sinfulness (Gen. 8:21; Rom. 5:12), he was unable to initiate a relationship with God.
Therefore, God Himself told man what was necessary in order to worship and serve Him.
God specified that only the choicest of one’s possessions could be offered, and the best of
the offering belonged to Him (Lev. 4:10). Only His priests were to offer sacrifices (2
Kings 16:13). All offerings were to be made at the designated place; after the conquest,
this was the central sanctuary (Lev. 17:6).
Some of Israel’s kings tried to legitimatize their idolatrous offerings, although they
were in open violation of God’s directives. Thus the causative stem is used to describe,
for example, Jeroboam’s idolatrous worship: “So he offered upon the altar which he had
made in Beth-el the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had
devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered
upon the altar, and burnt incense” (1 Kings 12:33; cf. 2 Kings 16:13; 2 Chron. 28:4).
The intensive stem (occurring only after the Pentateuch) always represents “false
worship.” This form of
%
may represent the “total act of ritual” (2 Chron. 25:14).
Such an act was usually a conscious act of idolatry, imitative of Canaanite worship (Isa.
65:7). Such worship was blasphemous and shameful (Jer. 11:17). Those who performed
this “incense-burning” were guilty of forgetting God (Jer. 19:4), while the practice itself
held no hope for those who were involved in it (Jer. 11:12). Amos ironically told
Israelites to come to Gilgal and Bethel (idolatrous altars) and “offer” a thank offering.
This irony is even clearer in the Hebrew, for Amos uses
%
in the intensive stem.
B. Nouns.
%
(
"
+
, 7004), “incense.” The first biblical occurrence of
%
is in Exod.
25:6, and the word is used about 60 times in all. The word represents “perfume” in Prov.
27:9.
+
means “incense.” This word appears once in the Old Testament, in Jer.