Exodus 30:35
וְעָשִׂיתָ אֹתָהּ קְטֹרֶת רֹקַח מַעֲשֵׂה רוֹקֵחַ מְמֻלָּח טָהוֹר קֹֽדֶשׁ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְעָשִׂ֤יתָ אֹתָהּ֙ קְטֹ֔רֶת רֹ֖קַח מַעֲשֵׂ֣ה רוֹקֵ֑חַ מְמֻלָּ֖ח טָה֥וֹר קֹֽדֶשׁ׃
καὶ ποιήσουσιν ἐν αὐτῷ θυμίαμα μυρεψικὸν ἔργον μυρεψοῦ μεμιγμένον, καθαρὸν ἔργον ἅγιον.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
faciesque thymiama compositum opere unguentarii, mistum diligenter, et purum, et sanctificatione dignissimum.
Con estos ingredientes prepararás un incienso aromático, mezclado con el cuidado de un perfumista. Échale sal para que sea puro y sagrado.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y harás de ello una confección aromática de obra de perfumador, bien mezclada, pura y santa:
and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Exodus 30:35 continues the instructions for making sacred incense, specifying that it must be the work of a professional perfumer, treated with salt (or mixed, depending on the version), and both pure and holy. The verse closes a sequence of directions about the incense's composition and preparation.
Key words
- 'a.Si.ta ("you will make", H6213H) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain of instructions begun earlier in the passage; addressed to a second-person masculine singular subject.
- ke.To.ret ("incense", H7004) — feminine singular noun in construct state, meaning it is grammatically bound to what follows ("incense of...").
- ma.'a.Seh ("work of", H4639G) — masculine singular noun in construct state, forming the phrase "work of a perfumer."
- ro.Ke.ach ("a perfumer", H7543) — qal active participle, literally "one who perfumes/blends," describing the craftsman's role rather than naming a fixed profession.
- me.mu.Lach ("salted", H4414B) — pual (intensive passive) passive participle, indicating the incense has undergone the action of being salted.
What the text says
The verse is built as a chain of construct phrases stacked onto the noun ke.To.ret ("incense", H7004): "incense, perfume, work of a perfumer." Each noun in construct state binds to the next, creating a dense apposition that piles up descriptors for the same substance rather than forming separate clauses. This construct-chain style is typical of technical or ritual instruction lists in Biblical Hebrew, where qualifiers accumulate without connecting particles.
The participle ro.Ke.ach ("a perfumer", H7543) is not a title but a verbal form describing an activity — "the work of one who blends perfumes." Similarly, me.mu.Lach ("salted", H4414B) is a passive participle in the pual stem, meaning the incense is described as having been acted upon — salted — by an unspecified agent. The final two words, ta.Hor ("pure", H2889) and Ko.desh ("a holy thing", H6944G), are simple adjectival/nominal forms appended without a connecting vav, functioning as a final pair of qualities attributed to the incense: purity and holiness.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew participle me.mu.Lach (H4414B) derives from a root associated with salting. The LXX renders this as μεμιγμένον ("mixed"), and the Vulgate similarly gives mistum diligenter ("carefully mixed"). The Spanish RV1909 follows this same "mixed" tradition ("bien mezclada"), while the BSB retains "seasoned with salt," closer to the Hebrew root. The SBLIBRE splits the difference, describing both a "mixed" perfume and a separate instruction to "add salt" (Échale sal), treating these as two distinct actions rather than one participle.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.