<p>9:4 <i>This had the golden altar of incense- </i>This could be translated &quot;censer&quot; as AV. The censer was only in the most holy place on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:12), so perhaps that is the situation Paul is presenting here (see on :5). The incense altar was in the holy place, not the holy of holies (Ex. 31); and so &quot;censer&quot; is likely the correct translation option, although that was only in the most holy on the Day of Atonement. The argument will develop that we are now with the Lord Jesus in the Most Holy, for we are &quot;in Christ&quot;; and so Paul takes a picture, as it were, of the situation as it was on the Day of Atonement, the only time when the high priest entered the Most Holy.</p><p><i>And the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was a golden pot holding the manna and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant</i>- It has been complained that the golden pot of manna and Aaron's rod were not within the ark, but &quot;before the testimony&quot; (Ex. 16:34; Num. 17:10). I suggest that &quot;the testimony&quot; refered to the tables of the covenant, which were within the ark (Ex. 25:16). However, Israel were not obedient to this, for in Solomon's temple &quot;there was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone&quot; (1 Kings 8:9). The actual temple system never matched up to what it was supposed to be anyway, and Paul appears to be making this point. That manna symbolized the Lord Jesus, as did the budding rod, with its message of resurrection of the Messianic &quot;rod&quot;. But Judaism was without the awareness of these things.</p>