Albert Barnes Commentary Exodus 30:34-38

"And Jehovah said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight; and thou shalt make of it incense, a perfume after the art of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure [and] holy: and thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy. And the incense which thou shalt make, according to the composition thereof ye shall not make for yourselves: it shall be unto thee holy for Jehovah. Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereof, he shall be cut off from his people." — Exodus 30:34-38 (ASV)

(Exodus 37:29). The incense, like the anointing oil, consisted of four aromatic ingredients.

• Stacte - supposed to be either the gum of the Storax tree (Styrax officinale) found in Syria and the neighboring countries, or the gum known as Benzoin, or Gum Benjamin, which is an important ingredient in the incense now used in churches and mosques, and is the produce of another storax tree (Styrax benzoin) that grows in Java and Sumatra.
• Onycha - a perfume perhaps made from the cap of the strombus, or wing-shell, which abounds in the Red Sea.
• Galbanum - a gum of a yellowish brown color, in the form of either grains or masses. It is imported from India, Persia, and Africa; but the plant from which it comes is not yet certainly known.
• Pure frankincense - This was the most important of the aromatic gums. Like myrrh, it was regarded by itself as a precious perfume (Song of Solomon 3:6; Matthew 2:11), and it was used unmixed with other substances in some of the rites of the law. The tree from which it is obtained is not found in Arabia, and it was most likely imported from India by the Sabaeans, like Cinnamon, Cassia, and Calamus . The tree is now known as the Boswellia serrata, or B. thurifera, and grows abundantly in the highlands of India. The frankincense of commerce is a different substance, the resin of the spruce and of some other kinds of fir.

(Exodus 30:35) See Exodus 30:25.

Tempered together - The four substances were perhaps pounded and thoroughly mixed together, and then fused into a mass. This rendering is to be preferred to that in the margin.

(Exodus 30:36) See Exodus 30:6.

(Exodus 30:37–38) Compare Exodus 30:32-33.