“... Nonpriests were strictly forbidden to offer incense (Num 17:5). The daily offering of incense on the altar was restricted to the high priest (Exod 30:7-8), but in the Second Temple it could be performed by any priest. [...] Incense rituals were extremely important in Egypt. [...] Egyptian priests burned incense in daily rituals at the temple. Following their purificatory bath they entered the temple gates at dawn. Once inside the temple proper the highest-ranking priest went into the sanctuary, prostrated himself before the effigy of the god, rose, chanted prayers, and infumed the air with incense. According to the Pyramid Texts, 376-78, incense burning was the “sympathetic agency by which, as the odorous vapor arises from earth to the gods, it bears aloft the fragrance of the king to mingle with that of the gods, and thus to draw them together in fellowship and association” (Breasted 1959: 126). In Israel, the ascent of the smoke of incense became the visible manifestation of prayer: “Let my prayer be counted as incense before thee, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice” (Ps 141:2)! ...”