Exodus 30:38

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Whoever shall make any like that, to smell of it, he shall be cut off from his people."

World English Bible · Public Domain

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לְהָרִ֣יחַ

rûwach

H7306

“to smell”

Preposition + Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Construct

Appears 11× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 8:21

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 2131

(Hiphil) to smell, scent, perceive odour, accept - of horse - of delight (metaphorically)

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

8: words
7: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is לְהָרִ֣יחַ to smell H7306 — appearing just 11 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

לְהָרִ֣יחַ to smell H7306 occurs in 11 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
2 nouns
2 prepositions
1 particle

Verb forms

יַעֲשֶׂ֥ה Qal · Imperfect
לְהָרִ֣יחַ Hiphil · Infinitive Construct
וְנִכְרַ֖ת Niphal · Sequential Perfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 18 words from the Hebrew and 17 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 8 Hebrew tokens and 13 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Exodus 30:38 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 30:33 Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of it on a stranger, he shall be cut off from his people.'"

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Exodus 30:38 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

אִ֛ישׁ אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂ֥ה כָמ֖וֹהָ לְהָרִ֣יחַ בָּ֑הּ וְנִכְרַ֖ת מֵעַמָּֽיו

Whoever shall make any like that, to smell of it, he shall be cut off from his people."

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Exodus 30:38 Septuagint · lemma form

ὅς ἄν ποιέω ὡσαύτως ὥστε ὀσφραίνομαι ἐν αὐτός ἀποὀλλύω ἐκ ὁ λαός αὐτός

Whosoever shall make any in like manner, so as to smell it, shall perish from his people.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

גְבַר דִיַעְבֵּד דִכְוָתַהּ לַאֲרָחָא בַהּ וְיִשְׁתֵּצֵי מֵעַמֵּהּ:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

גְּבַר דְּיַעֲבֵיד דִּכְוָותֵיהּ לְאָרָחָא בָהּ וְיִשְׁתְּצֵי מֵעַמֵּיהּ

the man who maketh the like of it to smell thereto shall be destroyed from his people.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Exodus 30:38 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

38. cut off from his father’s kin] See on v. 33.

The use of incense in religious ceremonies is very widespread, and many different substances have been used for the purpose—woods, barks, dried flowers, grasses, seeds, resins, gums (Enc. Brit. ed. 9, xii. 718). On Egyptian monuments the references to incense are numerous (Wilk.-B. iii. 398 f., with illustr. of censers,—bronze cups supported by long handles); large quantities of it were consumed in the temples (Erman, 300 f.,—with fabulous figures); and expeditions were constantly sent to the land of ‘Punt’ (Somali) to procure fragrant gums (ibid. 505–514). Plutarch (de Isid. et Osir. p. 383) describes the Eg. perfume called kyphi, which was used both for the toilet and as incense, consisting of sixteen ingredients (Erm. 232; Wilk.-B. iii. 398). There are also many references to incense (ḳuṭrinnu; cf. Heb. ḳeṭôreth) in Ass. and Bab. inscriptions. The use is also often alluded to by the classical writers. See further Incense in EB.; or, most fully, Atchley, Hist. of the use of Incense in Divine worship (1909), pp. 1–77 (on the pre- and non-Christian use of it).

The origin of this use of incense is uncertain. The Oriental has a partiality for aromatic odours: he enjoys them himself; he perfumes his person, his garments, and his house with them; and he offers them to guests and rulers whom he desires to honour (DB. ii. 468a; Lane, Mod. Eg. i. 175, 256: cf. Pro_7:17, Son_3:6, Psa_45:9). Men naturally believe that what is grateful to themselves is also pleasing to the deity. If, however, the use of incense originated in a primitive, or semi-primitive people, another motive may have contributed to its adoption: it may have been regarded as a means of driving away evil spirits (cf. Tob_6:7; Tob_8:2 f.) from the precincts of a sanctuary. Cf. Atchley, pp. 61–77. In Num_16:46 P (cf. Wis_18:21) an atoning efficacy is attributed to the burning of incense. And in later times incense, rising heavenwards in a cloud, came to be regarded as a spiritual symbol of prayer (Psa_141:2; Rev_8:3 f., Exo_5:8).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto,.... A man might make a perfume of the same ingredients, and of the same weight, and exactly like it, but not to burn for his own delight and pleasure; but if he made it and sold it to the congregation, as Jarchi observes, he was not guilty; but if it was for his own private use and pleasure, then he

shall even be cut off from his people; See Gill on Exo 30:33.

Next: Exodus Chapter 31

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Scofield Reference Notes

C. I. Scofield

smell

What is condemned here is making worship a mere pleasure to the natural man, whether sensuous, as in beautiful music to please the ear, or eloquence, merely to give delight to the natural mind. (Cf) Joh 4:23; Joh 4:24.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

להריח בה [WHOSOEVER SHALL MAKE LIKE UNTO THAT] TO SMELL THERETO [SHALL BE CUT OFF] — but you may make some according to these quantities of your own spices for the purpose of selling it to the community (cf. Keritot 5a).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Exodus, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 8 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is rûwach (“to smell”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “to smell” (rûwach) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Genesis 8:21 shares the word «to smell» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «יַעֲשֶׂ֥ה» is Qal Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and John Gill's Exposition read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 8 Hebrew ↔ 13 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 8 words in this verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.