And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the LORD; the plague is begun.

And Moses said unto Aaron, Take they censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and lay incense thereon, and carry it quickly unto the congregation, and make atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from Jehovah; the plague is begun.

Moses said to Aaron: Take the censer, and putting fire in it from the altar, put incense upon it, and go quickly to the people to pray for them: for already wrath is gone out from the Lord, and the plague rageth.

And Moses said to Aaron, Take the censer, and put fire thereon from off the altar, and lay on incense, and carry it quickly to the assembly, and make atonement for them; for there is wrath gone out from Jehovah: the plague is begun.

and Moses saith unto Aaron, 'Take the censer, and put on it fire from off the altar, and place perfume, and go, hasten unto the company, and make atonement for them, for the wrath hath gone out from the presence of Jehovah, the plague hath begun.'

And Moses said to Aaron, Take your vessel and put in it fire from the altar, and sweet spices, and take it quickly into the meeting of the people, and make them free from sin: for wrath has gone out from the Lord, and the disease is starting.

And Moses said unto Aaron: 'Take thy fire-pan, and put fire therein from off the altar, and lay incense thereon, and carry it quickly unto the congregation, and make atonement for them; for there is wrath gone out from the LORD: the plague is begun.'

Moses said to Aaron: "Take the censer, and draw fire into it from the altar; place incense upon it, and continue on, quickly, to the people, to pray for them. For already wrath has gone forth from the Lord, and the scourge rages."

Dixitque Moses ad Aharon, Cape acerram, et pone in ea ignem ex altari, et injice suffitum et perge cito ad congregationem, et expia eos: egressus est enim furor a facie Jehovae, coepitque percussio.

And Moses said unto Aaron. The expiation of so great a sin did not indeed depend on the incense-offering, nor are we to imagine that God is appeased by the savor of frankincense; but thus was a symbol set before this grosshearted people, whereby they might be alike aroused to repentance and faith; for however insensible they might be in their rebellion, yet the dignity of the priesthood was so conspicuous in the censer, that they ought to have been awakened by it to reverence. For who would not view his impiety with horror, when he is made conscious of having despised and violated that sanctity wherein the Divine power displays itself for life or death? The sight of the censer might have justly availed to subdue their hardness of heart, so that at last they might begin to condemn and detest their unrighteous act. The second warning which it gave them was no less profitable, i.e., that they might perceive that God was only propitiated towards them by virtue of a mediator; but., in so far as the actual state of things allowed, the visible type directed them to the absent Savior. Since, however, men corrupt and obscure the truth by their fond inventions, His majesty is asserted by the Divine institution of sacrifice. Whilst Aaron, the typical priest, stands forth, until the true, and only, and perpetual Mediator shall be revealed. The verb kphr, caphar, properly signifies, as I have said elsewhere, to reconcile God to men through the medium of an expiation (piaculum;) but, since here it refers to the people, the sense of Moses is rightly expressed by a single word, as one may say, to purge, or lustrate from pollution.

A censer - Rather, the censer. i. e. that of the high priest which was used by him on the great Day of Atonement: compare Leviticus 16:12; Hebrews 9:4.

The plague is begun - God now punished them by a secret blast, so as to put the matter beyond all dispute; his hand, and his alone, was seen, not only in the plague, but in the manner in which the mortality was arrested. It was necessary that this should be done in this way, that the whole congregation might see that those men who had perished were not the people of the Lord; and that God, not Moses and Aaron, had destroyed them.

And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the (r) altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the LORD; the plague is begun.
(r) For it was not lawful to take any other fire, but of the altar of burnt offering, (Leviticus 10:1).

And Moses said unto Aaron, take a censer,.... Which lay in the tabernacle:
and put fire therein from off the altar; the altar of burnt offering, from whence fire only was to be taken for burning incense; and lest Aaron in his hurry should forget to take it from thence, but elsewhere, and offer strange fire as his sons had done, Moses expresses the place from whence he should take it:
and put on incense: upon the fire, in the censer, which he was to do when he came into the camp, and not as soon as he took the fire from the altar: the censer with fire in it he carried in one hand, and the incense in the other; and when he was in the midst of the congregation, he put the incense on the fire, and burnt it, as appears from Numbers 16:47, this was an emblem of prayer, and a figure of the intercession and mediation of Christ, Psalm 141:2,
and go quickly unto the congregation; the case required haste:
and make an atonement for them; which was usually done by the sacrifice of a sin or trespass offering, but now there was no time for that, and therefore incense, which was of quicker dispatch, was used for that purpose instead of it:
for there is wrath gone out from the Lord; some token of it, some disease was inflicted, which Moses had information of from the Lord, and therefore expressly says:
the plague is begun; a pestilence was sent among the people.

Incense - Which was a sign of intercession, and was to be accompanied with it. Go unto the congregation - He went with the incense, to stir up the people to repentance and prayer, to prevent their utter ruin. This he might do upon this extraordinary occasion, having God's command for his warrant, though ordinarily incense was to be offered only in the tabernacle.