2. Make it forty-five centimetres square and ninety centimetres high, and make each of its four corners stick up like the horn of a bull.
3. Cover it with pure gold and put a gold edging around it.
4. Then below the edging on opposite sides attach two gold rings through which you can put the poles for carrying the altar.
5. These poles are also to be made of acacia wood covered with gold.
6. Put the altar in front of the inside curtain of the sacred tent. The chest with the place of mercy is kept behind that curtain, and I will talk with you there.
7-8. From now on, when Aaron tends the lamp each morning and evening, he must burn sweet-smelling incense to me on the altar.
9. Burn only the proper incense on the altar and never use it for grain sacrifices or animal sacrifices or drink offerings.
10. Once a year Aaron must purify the altar by smearing on its four corners the blood of an animal sacrificed for sin, and this practice must always be followed. The altar is sacred because it is dedicated to me.
11. The Lord said to Moses:
12. Find out how many grown men there are in Israel and require each of them to pay me to keep him safe from danger while you are counting them.
13-15. Each man over nineteen, whether rich or poor, must pay me the same amount of money, weighed according to the official standards.
16. This money is to be used for the upkeep of the sacred tent, and because of it, I will never forget my people.
17. The Lord said to Moses: