Exodus 27 commentary

EXODUS 27 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
The Altar of Burnt Offering
1 “Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits[a]
high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five
cubits wide.[b]
BAR ES, "(Compare Exo_38:1-7.) The great altar which stood in the court
immediately in front of the tabernacle was commonly called the altar of burnt-offering,
because on it were burnt the whole burnt-offerings, and all those parts of the other
animal sacrifices which were offered to the Lord. It was also called the brazen altar,
because it was covered with bronze, in distinction from the golden altar or altar of
incense Exo_39:38-39; Exo_40:5-6.
CLARKE, "Thou shalt make an altar - ‫מזבח‬ mizbeach, from ‫זבח‬ zabach, to slay:
Septuagint, θυσιαστηριον, from θυσιαζω, to sacrifice or from θυω to kill, etc. See Clarke’s
note on Gen_8:20.
Four square - As this altar was five cubits long and five broad, and the cubit is
reckoned to be twenty-one inches, hence it must have been eight feet nine inches square,
and about five feet three inches in height, the amount of three cubits, taken at the same
ratio.
GILL, "And thou shall make an altar of shittim wood,.... This is a different altar
from that made of earth before the tabernacle was built, Exo_20:24 and from the altar of
incense, Exo_30:1 this was to offer burnt offerings on, and was placed at the door of the
tabernacle, in the court of the people, where they brought their sacrifices to the priests to
offer for them: it stood in the open air, as it was proper it should, that the smoke or the
sacrifices might ascend up and scatter. This altar was not typical of the altar of the heart;
though indeed all the saints are priests, and every sacrifice of theirs should come from
the heart, and particularly love, which is more than all burnt offerings; but the heart is
not this altar of brass to bear the fire of divine wrath, which none can endure; nor does it
sanctify the gift, it being itself impure: nor of the Lord's table, or the table on which the
Lord's supper is set; that is a table, and not an altar, a feast, and not a sacrifice; is not
greater than the gift, nor does it sanctify: nor of the cross or Christ, on which he died,

bore the sins or his people, and sanctified them by his blood; but of Christ himself, who
by his office as a priest, his human nature is the sacrifice, and his divine nature the altar;
and he is that altar believers in him have a right to eat of, Heb_13:10 his divine nature is
greater than the human, is the support of it, which sanctifies and gives it virtue as a
sacrifice, and which makes the sacrifices of all his people acceptable to God. This altar of
burnt offering is said to be made of "shittim wood", a wood incorruptible and durable;
Christ, as God, is from everlasting to everlasting; as man, though he once died, he now
lives for evermore, and never did or will see corruption; his priesthood is an
unchangeable priesthood, and passes not from one to another, and particularly his
sacrifice is of a continual virtue and efficacy:
five cubits long, and five cubits broad: the altar shall be square: as to the length
and breadth of it, which were alike, two yards and a half each, according to the common
notion of a cubit. The altars of the Heathens were made in imitation of this, they were
square as this was. Pausanias makes mention of an altar of Diana, that was τετραγωνος
"square", sensibly rising up on high. And this figure may denote the perfection of
Christ's sacrifice, and the permanency of it; though the altars in Solomon's temple, and
in the visions of Ezekiel, are much larger, and which also were square, 2Ch_4:1. Christ's
sacrifice is large and extensive, making satisfaction for all his people, and for all their
sins; and he is an altar large enough for all their sacrifices to be offered up to God with
acceptance:
and the height thereof shall be three cubits; a proper height for a man to minister
at; for as Aben Ezra observes, the height of a man is but four cubits ordinarily; so that a
man serving at the altar would be a cubit, or half a yard more above it, and would have
command of doing on it what he had to do.
HE RY 1-8, "As God intended in the tabernacle to manifest his presence among his
people, so there they were to pay their devotions to him, not in the tabernacle itself (into
that only the priests entered as God's domestic servants), but in the court before the
tabernacle, where, as common subjects, they attended. There an altar was ordered to be
set up, to which they must bring their sacrifices, and on which their priests must offer
them to God: and this altar was to sanctify their gifts. Here they were to present their
services to God, as from the mercy-seat he gave his oracles to them; and thus a
communion was settled between God and Israel. Moses is here directed about, 1. The
dimensions of it; it was square, Exo_27:1. 2. The horns of it (Exo_27:2), which were for
ornament and for use; the sacrifices were bound with cords to the horns of the altar, and
to them malefactors fled for refuge. 3. The materials; it was of wood overlaid with brass,
Exo_27:1, Exo_27:2. 4. The appurtenances of it (Exo_27:3), which were all of brass. 5.
The grate, which was let into the hollow of the altar, about the middle of it, in which the
fire was kept, and the sacrifice burnt; it was made of network like a sieve, and hung
hollow, that the fire might burn the better, and that the ashes might fall through into the
hollow of the altar, Exo_27:4, Exo_27:5. 6. The staves with which it must be carried,
Exo_27:6, Exo_27:7. And, lastly, he is referred to the pattern shown him, Exo_27:8.
Now this brazen altar was a type of Christ dying to make atonement for our sins: the
wood would have been consumed by the fire from heaven if it had not been secured by
the brass; nor could the human nature of Christ have borne the wrath of God if it had
not been supported by a divine power. Christ sanctified himself for his church, as their
altar (Joh_17:19), and by his mediation sanctifies the daily services of his people, who
have also a right to eat of this altar (Heb_13:10), for they serve at it as spiritual priests.

To the horns of this altar poor sinners fly for refuge when justice pursues them, and they
are safe in virtue of the sacrifice there offered.
JAMISO , "Exo_27:1-21. Altar for Burnt Offering.
altar of shittim wood — The dimensions of this altar which was placed at the
entrance of the sanctuary were nearly three yards square, and a yard and a half in height.
Under the wooden frame of this chest-like altar the inside was hollow, and each corner
was to be terminated by “horns” - angular projections, perpendicular or oblique, in the
form of horns. The animals to be sacrificed were bound to these (Psa_118:27), and part
of the blood was applied to them.
K&D 1-3, "The Altar of Burnt-Offering (cf. Exo_38:1-7). - “Make the altar (the altar
of burnt-offering, according to Exo_38:1) of acacia-wood, five cubits long, and five
cubits broad ( ַ‫בוּע‬ ָ‫ר‬ “foured,” i.e., four-sided or quadrangular), and three cubits high. At
its four corners shall its horns be from (out of) it,” i.e., not removable, but as if growing
out of it. These horns were projections at the corners of the altar, formed to imitate in all
probability the horns of oxen, and in these the whole force of the altar was concentrated.
The blood of the sin-offering was therefore smeared upon them (Lev_4:7), and those
who fled to the altar to save their lives laid hold of them (vid., Exo_21:14, and 1Ki_1:50;
also my commentary on the passage). The altar was to be covered with copper or brass,
and all the things used in connection with it were to be made of brass. These were, - (1)
the pans, to cleanse it of the ashes of the fat (Exo_27:3 : ‫ן‬ ֵ ִ , a denom. verb from ‫ן‬ ֶ‫שׁ‬ ֶ the
ashes of fat, that is to say, the ashes that arose from burning the flesh of the sacrifice
upon the altar, has a privative meaning, and signifies “to ash away,” i.e., to cleanse from
ashes); (2) ‫ים‬ ִ‫ע‬ָ‫י‬ shovels, from ‫ה‬ ָ‫ע‬ָ‫י‬ to take away (Isa_28:17); (3) ‫ּות‬‫ק‬ ָ‫ר‬ְ‫ז‬ ִ‫,מ‬ things used for
sprinkling the blood, from fzarq to sprinkle; (4) ‫ּות‬‫ג‬ ָ‫ל‬ְ‫ז‬ ִ‫מ‬ forks, flesh-hooks (cf. ‫ג‬ ֵ‫ל‬ְ‫ז‬ ַ‫מ‬ 1Sa_
3:13); (5) ‫ּת‬ ְ‫ח‬ ַ‫מ‬ coal-scoops (cf. Exo_25:38). ‫וגו‬ ‫יו‬ ָ‫ל‬ ֵⅴ‫ל־‬ ָ‫כ‬ ְ‫:ל‬ either “for all the vessels
thereof thou shalt make brass,” or “as for all its vessels, thou shalt make (them) of
brass.”
CALVI , "1.And thou shalt make an altar. The altar of whole burnt-offerings
(holocaustorum) is here described, which, however, it was called by synecdoche, for
not only entire victims were burnt there, but also parts of them only, as we shall see
in Leviticus. The burnt-offerings received their name from their ascending, (147)
whereby the Israelites were reminded that they had need to be purified, that they
might ascend to God; and at the same time were instructed that whatever
corruption there might be in the flesh did not prevent the sacrifices from being
acceptable and of a sweet savor to God. It is clear that from the first beginning of
the human race there were burnt-sacrifices, suggested by the secret inspiration of
God’s Spirit, since there was no written Law; nor can we doubt but that by this
symbol they were taught that the flesh must be burnt by the Spirit, in order that
men may duly offer themselves to God; and thus they acknowledged, under this
type, that the flesh of Christ must receive this from the divine power, so as to

become a perfect victim for the propitiation of God; thus, as the Apostle testifies, he
offered himself through the Spirit. (Hebrews 9:14.) But fuller mention of this
subject will be made elsewhere. The altar was so constructed that the sacrifices
might be cast upon a grate placed within it, and thus they were covered by its
external surface. The ashes were received into a pan, so that they should not fall
about upon the ground and be trodden under foot, but that reverence might be
inculcated even towards the very remnants of their holy things. (148) That the
victims were bound to the four horns, which stood out from the four corners, is
plain from the words of Psalms 118:27, “Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the
horns of the altar.” And this also is the beginning of a proper offering of spiritual
sacrifices, that all the lusts of the flesh should be subdued, and held captive as it
were unto the obedience of God. Wherefore even Christ, although in Him there was
nothing which was not duly regulated, was nevertheless bound, in order to prove
His obedience; as He had said, “ ot as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39.)
The altar was carried on staves, to obviate the necessity of having more than one;
else there would have been danger of their being compelled, by the very difficulty of
carrying it, to leave it behind after it was made, if they were setting about a long
journey; and this would have been the seed or ground of superstition, whilst no
other could be built which was not spurious.
BE SO , "Exodus 27:1. Thou shalt make an altar — As God intended in the
tabernacle to manifest his presence among his people, so there they were to pay their
devotions to him; not in the tabernacle itself, into that only the priests entered as
God’s domestic servants, but in the court before the tabernacle, where, as common
subjects, they attended. There an altar was ordered to be set up, to which they must
bring their sacrifices; and this altar was to sanctify their gifts; from hence they were
to present their services to God, as from the mercy-seat he gave his oracles to them:
and thus a communion was settled between God and Israel. This altar was placed at
the entrance of the sanctuary, and is termed the altar of burnt-offering, and the
great altar: it was almost three yards square, and above a yard and a half in height.
It was made of wood rather than of solid brass, that it might not be too heavy. But
notwithstanding that it was overlaid with brass, (Exodus 27:2,) had it been of
common wood, it must soon have been consumed to ashes by the continual heat:
hence Le Clerc conjectures that this shittim-wood might be the larch-tree, which
bears the fire like stone.
ELLICOTT, "THE ALTAR OF BUR T OFFERI G.
(1) Thou shalt make an altar.—Heb., the altar. It is assumed that a sanctuary must
have an altar, worship without sacrifice being unknown. (See Exodus 5:1-3; Exodus
8:25-28; Exodus 12:27; Exodus 18:12; Exodus 20:24-26, &c.)
Of shittim wood.—This direction seems at first sight to conflict with those given in
Exodus 20:24-25, where altars were required to be either of earth or of unhewn
stone. But the explanation of the Jewish commentators is probably correct, that
what was here directed to be made was rather an “altar-case” than an altar, and
that the true altar was the earth with which, at each halt in the wilderness, the

“case” of shittim wood covered with bronze was filled. (So Jarchi, Kalisch, and
others.)
Foursquare.—Ancient altars were either rectangular or circular, the square and the
circle being regarded as perfect figures. A triangular altar was discovered by Mr.
Layard in Mesopotamia, but even this had a circular top. In Hebrew architecture
and furniture curved lines were for the most part avoided, probably as presenting
greater difficulties than straight ones.
The height thereof . . . three cubits.—A greater height would have made it difficult
to arrange the victims upon the altar. Otherwise the notion of perfection in form
would probably have led to the altar being a cube.
COFFMA , "Verse 1
Exodus 27 details the instructions for the Great Bronze Altar that occupied the
prime position in the Court of the Tabernacle (Exodus 27:1-8), also the instructions
for the making of the court itself (Exodus 27:9-19), and finally the instructions for
the perpetual light in the Sanctuary, which could be none other than that provided
by the golden candlestick (Exodus 27:20-21).
THE GREAT BRO ZE ALTAR
"And thou shalt make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long, and five cubits
broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height thereof shall be three cubits.
And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof; and the horns
thereof shall be of one piece with it: and thou shalt overlay it with brass. And thou
shalt make its pots to take away its ashes, and its shovels, and its basins, and its
fleshhooks, and its firepans: all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass. And
thou shalt make for it a grating of network of brass; and upon the net shalt thou
make four brazen rings in the four corners thereof And thou shalt put it under the
ledge round the altar beneath, that the net may reach half way up the altar. And
thou shalt make staves for the altar, staves of acacia wood, and overlay them with
brass. And the staves thereof shall be put into the rings, and the staves shall be upon
the two sides of the altar, in bearing it. Hollow with planks shalt thou make it: as it
hath been showed thee in the mount, so shall thou make it."
The symbolism of this Great Bronze Altar has to do with the death of Christ as an
Atonement for the sins of the whole world; and although the exact location of it was
not here given, it evidently stood somewhere near the grand entrance into the court
of the tabernacle, being by far the most important thing that fell upon the eyes of
anyone entering the court.
"The bronze (brass) speaks of manifested divine judgment ( umbers 21:9; John
3:14; Revelation 1:15). At Calvary, Christ met the burning heat of divine justice
against sin. Upon this altar the burnt offering was completely consumed, portraying
Him who knew no sin, yet was `Made ... sin for us, enduring the full wrath of God (2
Corinthians 5:21).'"[1]

Dominating as it did the entrance area of that enclosure typifying the whole world,
it was an effective symbol of the sublime truth that Jesus Christ in his mission of
salvation for all men through his vicarious sacrificial death, dominates all human
history. o other event of like importance ever occurred. All of the correspondence,
publications, newspapers, treaties, and legal business of the whole world are dated
with reference to His birth; and this goes on and on without interruption in every
city of mankind! Behold the Sacrifice for our sin!
"Thou shalt make the altar ..." The Hebrew text here does not speak of "an altar"
but of the altar.[2] This was the "place where" the Lord recorded his name, and
here was where he promised to meet and to bless the people (Exodus 20:24).
"Five cubits ... three cubits ..." The dimensions of the ark in feet would have been 7
1/2 feet square by 4 1/2 feet in height.
"The horns of it ..." These were very unusual for an altar. In fact, "They seem to
have been peculiar to the Israelites."[3] This should be no surprise to us, because
God who designed this altar did not need to consult the pagan nations around Israel
for any element of its design. The speculations mentioned by Dummelow that, "The
horns of the altar had some connection with the worship of Jehovah in the form of a
bull,"[4] are the grossest type of superstition. There is absolutely nothing in the
Word of God to suggest that these "horns" of the sacred altar had any resemblance
or connection whatever with bulls' horns. These horns were nothing more than
turned up corners of the altar itself; and it is significant that in the Far East today
one may notice this same upward thrust of the corners of prominent buildings, and
that a religious meaning to this design is understood by Orientals to have been
involved in the origin of the custom. This custom, so widespread on earth, doubtless
had its origin in this altar. One native who explained this phenomenon to this writer
said, "Well, it is as if the building itself were praying to God for protection and
help." This is what the altar did, not only for Israel, but is what the Great Antitype
is still doing "in heaven interceding!" Horns were symbols also of power,
productivity, glory, strength, etc.
"Pots to take away the ashes ..." The Hebrew here carries the idea of "the ashes of
the fat,"[5] meaning the ashes that came from the burning of the fat. All of the tools
here were to be made of brass, the same being a common symbol of judgment
throughout the Bible. When Christ, the Judge of all people, appears as the Final
Judge in Revelation, "His feet were like unto burnished brass" (Revelation 1:15).
"A grating of network of brass ..." Keil thought this was a bench-like projection
going completely around the outside of the altar, about half way up the altar from
the ground, and that, "The priest stood upon this,"[6] when placing wood, or
arranging the offering. Leviticus 9:22 appears to confirm this view; but it cannot be
received as certain. Such an arrangement would have been, in the eyes of some, a
violation of God's requirement concerning "no steps" to his altar (Exodus 20:26).
Keil refuted that view by supposing that the level of the grating was reached by

means of an earthen ramp, and not steps.
"Staves ... overlay ... with brass ..." These were devices for carrying the altar, being
similar in all ways to the staves of the several articles of furniture within the
tabernacle itself, except that these were to be overlaid with brass. There was a
progression from that which is less precious to that which is more precious as the
worshipper moved from the entrance of the court to the Holy of Holies, as indicated
by the brass overlay here, and the gold overlay within.
"Hollow with planks shalt thou make it ..." These planks were covered over with
brass; and that fact coupled with God's instructions, "An altar of earth shalt thou
make unto me" (Exodus 20:25) have led to the conclusion that what is called "the
altar" here was actually the bronze overlaid box that was filled with earth to
provide the actual altar. We see nothing unreasonable in such an assumption.
COKE, "Verse 1
Exodus 27:1. And thou shalt make an altar of shittim-wood— The altar for the
common service of sacrifices is next described; which the use whereto it was
appointed rendered necessary to be formed of baser and stronger materials than the
ark and table before mentioned. Accordingly, though constructed of the same wood
with them, it was to be overlaid with brass, and all the furniture about it was to be
made of the same metal. It was to be four-square, five cubits long, and five broad,
and three cubits high; i.e. about three yards square at the top, and about five feet in
height, according to Bishop Cumberland's measure. There were to be four horns at
the four corners of it, which were designed, it is supposed, for fastening the sacrifice
to the altar before it was slain; an opinion, which the words of the Psalmist strongly
confirm: Bind the sacrifice with cords unto the horns of the altar, Psalms 118:27.
For the middle of it, a grate of net-work of brass was to be made; of the same
square, I conceive, with the altar itself; which grate was to have four rings in the
four corners of it, and which was to be inserted from below or the bottom, so as to
fill up the whole compass of the altar, Exodus 38:5 and to be placed in the middle of
it; that is, two feet and a half from the top; the rings being outward at the four
corners, and used for the purpose of carrying it, Exodus 38:7 for, that there were no
other rings to this altar than those which belonged to the net-work, is evident from
ch. Exodus 38:5; Exodus 38:7. This net-work, according to my idea, filling up the
whole compass of the altar, formed the bottom of that grate for the fire which the
upper half of the altar contained. The 8th verse shews us, that the altar was, as we
have described, hollow; and that it had nothing else in the middle but this grate of
net-work, upon which the fire was made: and, understanding it in this form, the
objections to its portableness, from the weight of brass, is removed; especially, if,
with Calmet, we suppose it to have stood upon feet which reached half up to the
grate of brass, with the four rings at each corner. Thus also, objections to its height
are taken off, which, upon this plan, was very convenient. In short, we may easily
conceive it as a large square stove, lined with thick brass, and with such a grate of
brass for its bottom, as would be absolutely necessary for fire to burn in such a
stove. This altar was to be furnished with pans (to receive the ashes falling through
the grate of the altar, to which there was no other bottom,) and shovels; with basons

to receive the blood of the sacrifices, Exodus 27:3 flesh-hooks for taking off the
pieces of the sacrifice from the fire, (see 1 Samuel 2:13-14.) and fire-pans, i.e.
censers, wherein the sacred incense was dissolved by the fire. The word is translated
censer very properly, Leviticus 10:1; Leviticus 16:12 in which last place,
particularly, the use of it just mentioned is specified. See also umbers 16:17. This
altar, says Witsius, by the consentient voice of all orthodox divines, denotes Christ;
so far as he sanctifies and renders acceptable to God, his own oblation of himself for
the sins of the whole world: to this the apostle is thought to allude, Hebrews 13:10.
The horns, the place of refuge for the guilty, 1 Kings 1:50 denote his strength and
all-sufficiency, who is the Horn of our salvation, 2 Samuel 22:3. Luke 1:69.
REFLECTIO S.—The brazen altar is here described, on which all the offerings of
the children of Israel are to be offered, and there accepted as a sweet-smelling
favour. It was the type of Christ, who is both altar and sacrifice; and who by one
oblation of himself once offered, has obtained eternal redemption for us. Our
sacrifices of prayer and praise are acceptable only as offered up through him, who is
the true Altar which sanctifieth the gift. And to him the sinner, under the
accusations of guilt and sin, must fly as the malefactor did to the horns of the altar,
and then he shall be safe.
CO STABLE, "Verses 1-8
The altar of burnt offerings27:1-8
The height of this altar was four and a half feet. This height has led some
commentators to suggest that a step-like bench or ledge may have surrounded it on
which the priests stood when they offered sacrifices. [ ote: E.g, Keil and Delitzsch,
2:186-87.] In view of the command prohibiting steps up to Israel"s altars ( Exodus
20:26), a ramp seems more probable (cf. Leviticus 9:22). However there may have
been neither a ramp nor steps. The altar had four horns ( Exodus 27:2), one on each
corner, to which the priests applied blood ritually ( Exodus 29:12). People
occasionally clung to this altar as a place of refuge (cf. 1 Kings 1:50-51; 1 Kings
2:28). The priests also bound some animals to these horns when they sacrificed them
( Psalm 118:27). There was a grate ( Exodus 27:4) halfway to the ground inside the
altar that allowed air to circulate under the sacrifices and ashes to fall to the ground
below. The "ledge" appears to have projected out from the altar about half way up
its sides. Perhaps the priests stood on this ledge while placing the offerings on the
altar, or the ledge may have been on the inside of the altar to hold the grate.
This altar received the offerings of the Israelites. God met the Israelite where he
was, in the courtyard, rather than where He was, within the veil. evertheless the
Israelite had to make a special effort to approach God by entering the courtyard to
present his offering (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:18-20).
"The position of the Altar just inside the entrance to the court made it as clear as
symbology could that the beginning of fellowship between God and man must be in
sacrifice." [ ote: Meyer, p349.]

The Book of Hebrews viewed this altar as a prototype of the better altar, which is
Jesus Christ ( Hebrews 13:10).
Verses 1-19
5. The tabernacle courtyard27:1-19
In this section Moses described the altar of burnt offerings, the courtyard itself, and
the oil for the lamps on the lampstand that the priests evidently prepared in the
courtyard.
EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMME TARY, "THE OUTER COURT.
Exodus 27:1-21
Before describing the tabernacle, its furniture was specified. And so, when giving
instructions for the court of the tabernacle, the altar has to be described: "Thou
shalt make the altar of acacia wood." The definite article either implies that an altar
was taken for granted, a thing of course; or else it points back to chap. Exodus
20:24, which said "An altar of earth shalt thou make." or is the acacia wood of
this altar at all inconsistent with that precept, it being really not an altar but an
altar-case, and "hollow" (Exodus 27:8)--an arrangement for holding the earth
together, and preventing the feet of the priests from desecrating it. At each corner
was a horn, of one piece with the framework, typical of the power which was there
invoked, and practically useful, both to bind the sacrifice with cords, and also for
the grasp of the fugitive, seeking sanctuary (Psalms 118:27; 1 Kings 1:50). This
arrangement is said to have been peculiar to Judaism. And as the altar was outside
the tabernacle, and both symbolism and art prescribed simpler materials, it was
overlaid with brass (Exodus 27:1-2). Of the same material were the vessels necessary
for the treatment of the fire and blood (Exodus 27:3). A network of brass protected
the lower part of the altar; and at half the height a ledge projected, supported by
this network, and probably wide enough to allow the priests to stand upon it when
they ministered (Exodus 27:4-5). Hence we read that Aaron "came down from
offering" (Leviticus 9:22). Lastly, there was the same arrangement of rings and
staves to carry it as for the ark and the table (Exodus 27:6-7).
It will be noticed that the laver in this court, like the altar of incense within, is
reserved for mention in a later chapter (Exodus 30:18) as being a subordinate
feature in the arrangements.
The enclosure was a quadrangle of one hundred cubits by fifty; it was five cubits
high, and each cubit may be taken as a foot and a half. The linen which enclosed it
was upheld by pillars with sockets of brass; and one of the few additional facts to be
gleaned from the detailed statement that all these directions were accurately carried
out is that the heads of all the pillars were overlaid with silver (Exodus 38:17). The
pillars were connected by rods (fillets) of silver, and a hanging of fine-twined linen
was stretched by means of silver hooks (Exodus 27:9-13). The entrance was twenty
cubits wide, corresponding accurately to the width, not of the tabernacle, but of

"the tent" as it has been described (reaching out five cubits farther on each side
than the tabernacle), and it was closed by an embroidered curtain (Exodus 27:14-
17). This fence was drawn firmly into position and held there by brazen tent-pins;
and we here incidentally learn that so was the tent itself (Exodus 27:19).
We are now in a position to ask what sentiment all these arrangements would
inspire in the mind of the simple and somewhat superstitious worshippers.
Approaching it from outside, the linen enclosure (being seven feet and a half high)
would conceal everything but the great roof of the tent, one uniform red, except for
the sealskin covering along the summit. A gloomy and menacing prospect, broken
possibly by some gleams, if the curtain of the gable were drawn back, from the gold
with which every portion of the shrine within was plated.
So does the world outside look askance upon the Church, discerning a mysterious
suggestion everywhere of sternness and awe, yet with flashes of strange splendour
and affluence underneath the gloom.
In this place God is known to be: it is a tent, not really "of the congregation," but
"of meeting" between Jehovah and His people: "the tent of meeting before the
Lord, where I will meet with you, ... and there I will meet with the children of
Israel" (Exodus 29:42-43). And so the Israelite, though troubled by sin and fear, is
attracted to the gate, and enters. Right in front stands the altar: this obtrudes itself
before all else upon his attention: he must learn its lesson first of all. Especially will
he feel that this is so if a sacrifice is now to be offered, since the official must go
farther into the court to wash at the laver, and then return; so that a loss of
graduated arrangement has been accepted in order to force the altar to the front.
And he will soon learn that not only must every approach to the sacred things
within be heralded by sacrifice upon this altar, but the blood of the victim must be
carried as a passport into the shrine. Surely he remembers how the blood of the
lamb saved his own life when the firstborn of Egypt died: he knows that it is written
"The life (or soul) of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the
altar to make atonement for your souls (or lives): for it is the blood that maketh
atonement by reason of the life (or soul)" (Leviticus 17:11).
o Hebrew could watch his fellow-sinner lay his hand on a victim's head, and
confess his sin before the blow fell on it, without feeling that sin was being, in some
mysterious sense, "borne" for him. The intricacies of our modern theology would
not disturb him, but this is the sentiment by which the institutions of the tabernacle
assuredly ministered comfort and hope to him. Strong would be his hope as he
remembered that the service and its solace were not of human devising, that God
had "given it to him upon the altar to make atonement for his soul."
Taking courage, therefore, the worshipper dares to lift up his eyes. And beyond the
altar he sees a vision of dazzling magnificence. The inner roof, most unlike the
sullen red of the exterior, is blazing with various colours, and embroidered with
emblems of the mysterious creatures of the sky, winged, yet not utterly afar from

human in their suggestiveness. Encompassed and looked down into by these is the
tabernacle, all of gold. If the curtain is raised he sees a chamber which tells what the
earth should be--a place of consecrated energies and resources, and of sacred
illumination, the oil of God burning in the sevenfold vessel of the Church. Is this
blessed place for him, and may he enter? Ah, no! and surely his heart would grow
heavy with consciousness that reconciliation was not yet made perfect, when he
learned that he must never approach the place where God had promised to meet
with him.
Much less might he penetrate the awful chamber within, the true home of deity.
There, he knows, is the record of the mind of God, the concentrated expression of
what is comparatively easy to obey in act, but difficult beyond hope to love, to
accept and to be conformed to. That record is therefore at once the revelation of
God and the condemnation of His creature. Yet over this, he knows well, there is
poised no dead image such as were then adored in Babylonian and Egyptian fanes,
but a spiritual Presence, the glory of the invisible God. or was He to be thought of
as in solitude, loveless, or else needing human love: above Him were the woven
seraphim of the curtain, and on either side a seraph of beaten gold--types, it may be,
of all the created life which He inhabits, or else pictures of His sinless creatures of
the upper world. And yet this pure Being, to Whom the companionship of sinful
man is so little needed, is there to meet with man; and is pleased not to look upon
His violated law, but to command that a slab, inestimably precious, shall interpose
between it and its Avenger. By whom, then, shall this most holy floor be trodden?
By the official representative of him who gazes, and longs, and is excluded. He
enters not without blood, which he is careful to sprinkle upon all the furniture, but
chiefly and seven times upon the mercy-seat.
Thus every worshipper carries away a profound consciousness that he is utterly
unworthy, and yet that his unworthiness has been expiated; that he is excluded, and
yet that his priest, his representative, has been admitted, and therefore that he may
hope. The Holy Ghost did not declare by sign that no way into the Holiest existed,
but only that it was not yet made manifest. ot yet.
This leads us to think of the priest.
PARKER, "Verses 1-21
The two chief objects within the Court were the Brazen Altar and the Tabernacle.
Sacrificial worship was old, but the local Sanctuary was quite new. The Tabernacle
is most frequently called the Tabernacle of the Congregation. A better rendering is
supposed to be, "The Tent of Meeting." The Tabernacle was also called "The Tent
of the Testimony," in allusion to the fact that it was the depositary of the Tables of
the Law. The highest meaning of the structure was expressed by the Ark, which
symbolised the constant presence of Jehovah. The Speaker"s Commentary says:
"We may regard the sacred contents of the Tabernacle as figuring what was
peculiar to the Covenant of which Moses was the Mediator, the closer union of God
with Israel, and their consequent election as "a kingdom of priests, an holy nation":

while the Brazen Altar in the Court not only bore witness for the old sacrificial
worship by which the Patriarchs had drawn nigh to God, but formed an essential
part of the Sanctuary, signifying by its now more fully developed system of
sacrifices in connection with the Tabernacle those ideas of Sin and Atonement which
were first distinctly brought out by the revelation of the Law and the sanctification
of the nation." In the Ark there was no image or symbol of God. The Ark of the
Covenant was never carried in a ceremonial procession. In all important particulars
it differed from Egyptian shrines. When the Tabernacle was pitched the Ark was
kept in solemn darkness. The staves were to remain always in the rings, whether the
Ark was in motion or at rest, that there might never at any time be a necessity for
touching the Ark itself or even the rings ( 2 Samuel 6:6-7). "The cherubims were not
to be detached images, made separately and then fastened to the mercy seat, but to
be formed out of the same mass of gold with the mercy seat, and so to be part and
parcel of it" The Holy of Holies was a square of fifteen feet, and the Holy place an
oblong thirty feet by fifteen. So far as known, "horns" were peculiar to Israelite
altars.
The Tabernacle
The specification for the building of the tabernacle purports to be Divinely dictated.
We can form some idea of the validity of such a claim, for we have the test of
creation by which to try it. We can soon find out discrepancies, and say whether this
is God"s work or an artificer"s. A revelation which bounds itself by the narrow
limits of an architect"s instruction admits of very close inquiry. Creation is too vast
for criticism, but a tabernacle invites it. Let us, then, see how the case stands,—
whether God is equal to himself, whether the God of the opening chapters of
Genesis is the God of the mount upon which, according to this claim, the tabernacle
was Divinely outlined in expressive cloud. ote, at the very outset, that the account
of making the tabernacle occupies far more space than the history of the creation of
the heavens and the earth. We soon read through what is given of the history of
creation, but how long we have had to travel through this region of architectural
cloud. It seemed as if the story would never end. This is a remarkable corroboration
of the authenticity of both accounts. A long account of creation would have been
impossible, presuming the creation to be the embodiment and form of the Divine
word executed without human assistance. That account could not have been long.
When there is nothing, so to say, between God"s word and God"s deed, there is no
history that can be recorded. The history must write itself in the infinite unfoldment
of those germs, or of that germ with which creation began. A short account of the
tabernacle would have been impossible, presuming that all the skins, colours, spices,
rings, staves, figures, dishes, spoons, bowls, candlesticks, knobs, flowers, lamps,
snuffers, and curtains, were Divinely described; that every tache, loop, hook, tenon,
and socket was on a Divine plan, and that human ingenuity had nothing whatever to
do with a structure which in its exquisite fashioning was more a thought than a
thing. So far, the God of Genesis is the God of Exodus: a subtle and massive
harmony unites the accounts, and a common signature authenticates the marvellous
relation. When God said, "Let there be light," he spake, and it was done. There is
no history to write, the light is its own history. Men are reading it still, and still the

reading comes in larger letters, in more luminous illustration. When God prescribed
lamps for the tabernacle he had to detail the form of the candlesticks, and to
prescribe pure olive oil, that the lamp might always burn. You require more space
in which to relate the making of a lamp than in which to tell of the creation of the
light; you spend more time in instructing a little child than in giving commands to
an army. God challenged Job along this very line. Said Hebrews , "Where wast thou
when I laid the foundations of the earth?" There was no Job between the Creator
and the creation; no Moses writing swiftly words Divine that had to be embodied at
the foot of the hill. "Where is the way where light dwelleth; and as for darkness,
which is the place thereof?" Mark well, therefore, the contrast of the accounts, and
the obvious reason for the amazing difference.
The next point of observation relates to the completeness of the specification as
corresponding with the completeness of creation. Lay the finger upon one halting
line and prove that the Divine Architect was weak in thought or utterance at this
point or at that. Find a gap in the statement and say, "He forgot at this point a small
loop, or tache, or ouche, and I, his listener, Moses, must fill in what he left out." We
do not know the meaning of great Gospel words until we read our way up to them
through all the introduction of the initial covenants. We read backwards, and thus
read ourselves out at the lower end of things, instead of reading in the order of the
Divine evolution and progress, upward from height to height, until speech becomes
useless, and silence must be called in to complete the ineffable eloquence. Could
there have been more care in the construction of a heaven than is shown, even upon
the page, without going into the question of inspiration, in the building of a
tabernacle? Is it not also the same in such little parts of creation as are known to us?
There is everywhere a wonderful completeness of purpose. God has set in his
creation working forces, daily ministries. ature is never done. When she sleeps she
moves; she travels night and day; her force is in very deed persistent. So we might,
by a narrow criticism, charge nature here and there with want of completeness; but
it would be as unjust to seize the blade from the ear, and, plucking these, say, "Here
we have sign and proof of incompleteness." We protest against that cruelty and
simple injustice. There may be a completeness of purpose when there has not yet
been time for a completeness of execution. But in the purpose of this greater
tabernacle—creation—there is the same completeness that there is in the
specification of this beauteous house which the Lord appointed to be built in the
grim wilderness.
Consider, too, that the temporary character of the tabernacle was no excuse for
inferior work. The tabernacle, as such, would be but for a brief time. Why not
hasten its construction—invent some rough thing that would do for the immediate
occasion? Why, were it made to be taken up to heaven for the service of the angels it
could not be wrought out with a tenderer delicacy, with a minuter diligence, as to
detail and beauty. But to God everything is temporary. The creation is but for a day.
It is we who are confused by distinction as between time and eternity. There is no
time to God; there is no eternity to God. Eternity can be spelled; eternity can in
some dumb way be imagined and symbolised in innumerable ciphers multiplied
innumerable times by themselves till the mind thinks it can begin eternity. To God

there is no such reasoning. When, therefore, we speak of lavishing such care upon a
tabernacle, we mistake the infinity and beneficence of God. It is like him to bestow
as great care upon the ephemera that die in the sunbeam as upon the seraphim that
have burned these countless ages beside the eternal throne. We must not allow our
ignorance, incompleteness, and confusedness of mind to interfere with the
interpretation of these ineffable mysteries. But the tabernacle was built for eternity.
So again and again we stumble, like those who are blind, who are vainly trying to
pick their way through stony and dangerous places. The tabernacle was eternity let
down—an incarnation, so to say, of eternity, as a man shall one day be an
incarnation of God. We mistake the occasion utterly. We fall out of the pomp of its
music and the grandeur of its majesty by looking at the thing, and supposing that
the merely visible object, how lustrous and tender in beauty soever, is the
tabernacle. The tabernacle is within the tabernacle, the Bible is within the Bible, the
man is within the man. The tabernacle in the wilderness represented eternal
thoughts, eternal purposes of love. Everything is built for eternity: every insect,
every dog, every leaf—so frail, withering in its blooming. God builds for eternity in
the thought, and in the connection, and in the relation of the thing which is builded.
See how profound our iniquity in committing murder anywhere. "Thou shalt not
kill; thou shalt not steal." It is one life, one property, a sublime unity of idea, and
thought, and purpose. Do not segregate your life, or universe, and attempt a
classification which will only separate into unholy solitude what was meant by the
Divine mind to cohere in indivisible unity. We were built for eternity. Can God
build for less time? othing is lost. The greatest of economists is God. "The very
hairs of your head are all numbered "; " ot a sparrow falleth to the ground without
your Father." When we speak about the temporary, we know not what we say; or
we justly use that word, for the sake of convenience, as expressive of uses which
themselves perish in their own action. But, profoundly and vitally viewed, even
affliction is part of heaven; our sorrows are the beginning, if rightly accepted and
sanctified, of our supremest bliss.
Mark , too, how wonderfully the tabernacle and the human frame correspond in
perfection of detail and sublimity of purpose. It is not difficult to believe that he who
made the tabernacle made Adam. The tabernacle grows before our eyes and Adam
is growing still. The life which God is making is Man. Do not impoverish the mind
and deplete the heart of all Divine elements and suggestions by supposing that God
is a toymaker. God"s purpose is one, and he is still engaged in fashioning man in his
own image and likeness, and he will complete the duplicate. We must not fix our
mind upon our mutilated selves, and, by finding disease, and malformation, and
infirmity, and incongruity, charge the Maker with these misadventures. We must
judge the Divine purpose in the one case with the Divine purpose in the other. I am
aware that there are a few men who have—from my point of view blasphemously—
charged the Divine work, as we regard it, in creation with imperfection. There have
not been wanting daring men, having great courage on paper and great dauntless-
ness in privacy and concealment, and who have lived themselves into a well-
remunerated, respectable obscurity, who have said that the human eye is not ideally
perfect. So we do not speak in ignorance of the cross-line of thinking which seeks to
interrupt the progress of Christian science and philosophy. Is there not a lamp also

within the human tabernacle—a lamp that burns always, a lamp we did not light, a
lamp trimmed by the hand Divine, a lamp of reason, a lamp of conscience, a lamp
that sheds its light when the darkness without us is gathered up into one intense and
all-obstructing night? and are there not parables in nature which help us to believe
that this lamp, though it apparently flicker—yea, though it apparently vanish—
shall yet throw radiance upon heavenly scenes, and burn synchronously with the
glory of God"s own life? You say, "Look at old age and observe how the mind seems
to waver, and halt, and become dim and paralysed, and how it seems to expire like a
spark." o, as well say, "Look at the weary man at night-time, his eyelids heavy, his
memory confused, his faculties apparently paralysed, or wholly reluctant to respond
to every appeal addressed to them; behold how the body outlives and outweighs the
boasted mind." o, let him sleep; in the morning he will be young again. Sleep has
its ministry as well as wakefulness. God giveth his beloved sleep. So we may "by
many a natural parable find no difficulty in working ourselves up to contemplations
that fill us with ecstasy, religious and sublime, as we call ourselves "heirs of
immortality."
Did not Moses make the tabernacle? Yes; but who made Moses? That is the
question which has never yet been answered. Change the terms as you please, that
inquiry always starts up as the unanswerable demand. Your hand carved the
marble, but who carved the hand? Singular, if the marble was carved, but the hand
carved itself. Your tongue uttered the eloquence, but who made man"s mouth? Who
set within him a fountain of speech? Your mind planned the cathedral, but who
planned the mind? It would have been more difficult to believe—infinitely more
difficult to believe—that the mind made itself than that the cathedral fashioned its
own symmetry and roofed in its own inner music and meaning.
Thus perusing the specification for the building of the tabernacle, and reading the
account of the creation of the heavens, and of the earth, and of Prayer of Manasseh ,
I find between them a congruity self-confirming, and filled with infinite comfort to
the heart that yearns studiously over the inspired page in hope of finding the
footprints of God. The living Christian Church is more marvellous than the
tabernacle in this wilderness. The tabernacle was part of a development; the
tabernacle was only one point in the history. We must judge things by their final
purpose, their theological aspect and philosophy. What is the meaning of the
tabernacle?—the temple. What is the meaning of the temple?—the living Church.
So we find rude altars thrown together by careless hands, symbolising worship
addressed to the heavens; then the tabernacle; then the temple; then the living
fellowship. Know ye not that ye are the temples of the Holy Ghost? Know ye not
that there is a foundation laid in Zion, a corner stone, elect, precious; and that we
are built upon it, living stones; and that God is shaping the tabernacle of humanity
as he shaped the tabernacle in the wilderness? Know ye not that we are builded
together a holy house unto the Lord? Arrest not, even in theory, the Divine progress.
The line from the beginning up till now has taken one grand course. othing has
strayed away and left the Divine sovereignty. The wrath of man is still in the Divine
leash, and hell is no independent colony of the universe. There is one throne, one
crown; one increasing purpose runs through all we know. We wait patiently for the

Lord, and when he says from his throne what Christ said from the cross, "It is
finished," then we may be invited to say, in the terms which God himself used when
he viewed creation,—"Behold, it is very good."
PETT, "Verses 1-8
The Altar of Burnt Offering (Exodus 27:1-8).
The altar was to be covered with ‘brazen copper’, probably copper alloyed with tin
to make bronze. It was thus of inferior material compared with the gold and silver
in the sanctuary, and served to demonstrate that through it earth met with heaven.
It was the place where sin was dealt with. (There may also have been the practical
purpose of it being more weatherproof and fireproof).
On that altar would be offered all the offerings and sacrifices of Israel which would
result in forgiveness and mercy, pardon for sins, and the declaration of being made
righteous (that is, as seen as without guilt) through the death of a substitute and
representative offering, and would be the means by which they could offer
themselves to God in dedication and thanksgiving, in praise and in worship, until
the greater sacrifice came Who would offer Himself up once and for all (Hebrews
10:10).
We can analyse the passage as follows:
a The brazen alter was to be made of acacia wood overlaid with an alloy of
bronze and copper. It was to have horns (upward projections) on its corners and be
frousquare (Exodus 27:1-2).
b Its vessels to take away its ashes (literally ‘cleanse it from fat’), and its shovels and
its basins and its fleshhooks and its firepans (or ‘receptacles’), all its accoutrements,
were to be made with brazen copper (Exodus 27:3).
c They were to make a network grating of brass (copper), and on the net they were
to make four brazen rings in its four corners.
c They were to put the network grating under the ledge (or ‘band’) round the altar
beneath, that the network might reach halfway up the altar (Exodus 27:4-5).
b They were to make staves for the altar, staves of acacia wood, and overlay them
with brazen copper, and its staves were to be put into the rings, and the staves
would be on the two sides of the altar for carrying it.
a They were to make it hollow with boards as shown to Moses in the Mount.
ote that in ‘a’ how the brazen altar is to be constructed is described, and in the
parallel it is to be made hollow with boards as Moses had been shown in the mount.
In order for it to be used as an altar, earth or unhewn stone (Exodus 20:24-25)
would have to be put within it on which to build the fire. In ‘b’ we are informed
about the instruments to be available for use at the altar, and in the parallel how it
was to be carried. In ‘c’ we have the description of the grating at the bottom of the
altar and in the parallel the place where it was to be situated on the altar.
Exodus 27:1-2

“And you shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits broad.
The altar shall be foursquare, and its height shall be three cubits. And you shall
make its horns on its four corners. Its horns shall be one piece with it. And you shall
overlay it with brazen copper.”
The altar, which would be placed in the courtyard facing the Holy Place, was five by
five by three cubits (220 x 220 x133 centimetres or 7 feet by 7 feet by 4:5 feet). It was
made of acacia wood covered with brazen copper, (copper alloyed with tin. The
exact type of metal is not certain and copper would be better suited and equally
valuable) signifying God’s strength and glory, but of a lesser value than the gold
and silver within the sanctuary. But the brazen copper would be better placed to
take the heat than gold. However, as much else is of brazen copper in this part of the
Dwellingplace it is clear that it is intended to be an indication that the place was not
as holy as the inner sanctuary. (And there would be a limit to the amount of gold
available).
The setting of the altar outside the inner sanctuary would be necessary because of
the continual smoke that would arise from the altar. But it was probably also in
order to make it accessible to the people and to prevent any contact with sin from
entering the inner sanctuary. It was an indication that in approaching God the very
first step must be atonement.
Five was the number of covenant (compare the five words on each of the two tablets
of the Law), and five by five, making a foursquare altar (emphasised as indicating
its total compatability with its purpose), indicated the perfection of the covenant,
and of this means of atoning for breaches in the covenant. The height of three cubits
indicated completeness.
The four ‘horns’ were upward projections at each of the four corners of the altar as
found on the altars of other peoples discovered elsewhere. They may have been for
tying the sacrifices to the altar (they were used for this - Psalms 118:27), or they may
have indicated a pointing or reaching up to God. They may also have been intended
to simulate the horns of an animal and thus be indicative of strength and power. As
the altar of incense on which no sacrifices were offered also had these projections
upwards the latter two interpretations are more probable as the main significance.
Tying on the sacrifices was an added extra. This would suggest that the altar
indicated heavenward movement and strength and power.
The foursquareness emphasis its perfection, but also that it falls short of the Most
Holy Place which was a perfect cube. Compare also ‘the new Jerusalem’ which
represented the perfected people of God prepared as a bride for her Husband
(Revelation 21:2; Revelation 21:16-17).
The blood of offerings and sacrifices was smeared on the horn with the finger
(Exodus 29:12 - in the sanctifying of Aaron; Exodus 30:10 - in making atonement
for the people once a year; Leviticus 4:18; Leviticus 4:25; Leviticus 4:30 - for the
application of various sin offerings; Leviticus 8:15 - to purify it; Leviticus 9:9 - the
sin offering for Aaron; Leviticus 16:18 - on the day of atonement for all the people;

etc.), indicating that their significance was more than that of convenient projections
for tying sacrifices on. This would serve to confirm the idea that they pointed
upwards towards God.
The altar was seemingly a large hollow box, made hollow with planks (Exodus 27:8)
and it is probable that unhewn stones and earth were used to fill the box
preparatory to laying the wood for sacrifice (Exodus 20:24-25). These could be
emptied out when it had to be carried, with new innards made whenever they
became stationary at God’s command. It was ideal for wilderness travel. It was the
place where atonement was made (Leviticus 17:11). On it were offered the various
offerings and sacrifices required by the Law.
The use of the definite article with altar has been overemphasised by some. Quite
apart from the fact that the Hebrew definite article can simply mean ‘the one I am
talking about’ and nothing more, the making of a sanctuary would demand an altar
of sacrifice and the article could thus mean simply ‘the altar necessary for the
sanctuary’. It is not saying that there could not be an altar with a different
significance as in Exodus 30:1.
PULPIT, "THE ALTAR OF BUR T OFFERI G. From the description of the
tabernacle, or sacred tent in which worship was to be offered by the priests, it
followed in natural sequence, that directions should be given concerning the court,
or precinct, within which the tabernacle was to stand Ancient temples were almost
universally surrounded by precincts, which the Greeks called τεµένη, whereto a
sacred character attached; and this was particularly the case in Egypt, where the
temenos seems to have been a regular adjunct to the temple. Among the chief uses of
such an open space, was the offering of victims on altars, as these could not be
conveniently consumed elsewhere than in the open air, on account of the clouds of
smoke and the fumes of the sacrifices. As in the description of the tabernacle, the
furniture was first described, then the structure, so now the altar takes precedence
of the court which was to contain it.
Exodus 27:1
Thou shalt make an altar. Rather, "the altar." God had already declared that he
would have an altar made to him in the place where he should "record his name"
(Exodus 20:24). And, even apart from this, an altar would be regarded as so
essential an element in Divine worship, that no place of worship could be without
one. Of shittim wood. God had required (1. s. c.) that his altar should be "of earth,"
or else of unhewn stones (Exodus 20:25). The command now given was to make, not
so much an altar, as an altar-case (see Exodus 27:8). There can be no doubt that
Jarchi is right in supposing that, whenever the tabernacle for a time became
stationary, the hollow case of the altar was rifled up with earth, and that the victims
were burnt upon this. Four-square. Altars were commonly either square or round.
An Assyrian triangular one was found by Mr. Layard at ineveh; but even this had
a round top. The square shape is the most usual, and was preserved, probably in all
the Temple altars, certainly in those of Solomon (2 Chronicles 4:1) and Herod

(Joseph. Bell. Jud. 5.5, § 6).
BI 1-8, "An altar of shittim wood.
The altar of burnt-offering
I. The altar of burnt-offering was made partly of wood, and partly of brass. The wood
was incorruptible; and was therefore a lively type of the incorruptible humanity of Jesus.
II. The altar of burnt-offering, was not a golden altar; but a brazen altar. Brass is a
durable metal, and an emblem of strength. Christ was equal to His mighty work. “I have
laid help upon one that is mighty.” He is “mighty to save,” and strong to plead the cause
of His people.
III. The altar was foursquare. There were firmness, stability and strength. The purposes
of Divine love cannot be overturned. The atonement Christ has made is perfect and
complete. Our altar presents a bold front to the enemy. It is a solid mass of strength.
IV. It was a horned altar. In Christ we have sovereignty, protection, dignity and glory.
Horns in Scripture are almost invariably emblems of power—regal power. Christ is King
of kings and Lord of lords.
V. It was an anointed altar. The holy anointing oil was poured upon it, and thus it was
sanctified, and became most holy. Christ was anointed with the oil of gladness above His
fellows. The fulness of the Spirit was upon Him.
VI. The sanctified altar sanctified all that was laid upon it. “Whatsoever toucheth the
altar shall be holy.” The altar was therefore greater than the sacrifice. It is the altar that
sanctifieth the gift. The Divine nature of Christ sustained His human nature, and gave
efficacy to His sacrifice. Christ’s glorious Person is the only Altar on which we can offer
acceptable sacrifices to God.
VII. Christ is a spiritual altar, and on it we may offer spiritual sacrifices. To this Altar we
must bring our prayers. If we pray in the name of Jesus, we give wings to our feeble
breathings. To this Altar we must bring our praise. “By Him therefore let us offer the
sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His
name.” No service of song can be acceptable to God apart from Jesus Christ.
VIII. It was a sacrificial altar. On this altar was offered the daily sacrifice—a lamb every
morning, and a lamb every evening. “Behold the Lamb of God! “ Christ is the Lamb of
God’s providing.
IX. It was a burning altar. On the altar sacrifices were continually burning. The fire was
never to go out. Perfection was not to be found under the old dispensation. Christ’s
sacrifice was one; and it was offered but once. “Christ was once offered to bear the sins
of many.” “By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” At the
Jewish altar the fire consumed the sacrifices; but the sacrifice Christ offered consumed
the fire. “It is finished.”
X. The altar of burnt-offering was God’s altar (Psa_43:3-4). Jesus is the Christ of God.
He is God’s beloved Son. In coming to Christ we come to the altar of God’s providing; we
come to the altar of God’s appointment.
XI. It is the sinner’s altar. The altar was erected on purpose for the guilty; and Christ
came into the world to save sinners.
XII. It is a blood-stained altar. Where the blood is, it is safe for the sinner to go. Being

sprinkled with blood, it is a protecting altar.
XIII. The altar of brass was a nourishing altar. The priests had a portion of the sacrifices
for their food (1Co_9:13). “We have an altar”—the glorious Person of Christ—“whereof
they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle.” The old dispensation has passed
away. The present dispensation is spiritual. Having “the heavenly things themselves,” we
have no need of “the patterns.” In Christ we have all the “good things,” of which the
Tabernacle and its services were “shadows.” All believers are priests. All wait at the altar.
All live on Christ.
XIV. It was a conspicuous altar. No one could enter the court of the Tabernacle without
seeing the brazen altar. Christ must be the preacher’s theme. Christ is the only object of
saving faith, and Jesus only must be the subject of our ministry. (B. E. Sears.)
The size of the altar
It is observable in Scripture that Moses’ altar was but five cubits in length, and five in
breadth, and three in height (Exo_27:1); but Solomon’s altar was much larger (2Ch_
4:1). Now the reason hereof seems to be this, because Moses was in a warfare, in an
unsettled condition, in the wilderness, in continual travel, full of troubles, and could not
conveniently carry about an altar of that bigness; but Solomon was on his throne in a
tranquil state, settled in quiet possession of his kingdom, and as his name was, so was he
a true Solomon, that is, peaceable. Thus it ought to be with all good men, that when they
have more peace and prosperity than others, their service of God should be
proportionable. Solomon’s Temple must outstrip Moses’ Tabernacle in beauty and glory,
and Solomon’s altar must exceed the bigness of Moses’ altar. In their peace and plenty,
their holiness should outshine others that are in want and misery, when God lays not so
much sorrow upon them as upon others, they should lay the more duty upon
themselves. If God send them fewer crosses and more comforts, they are to return more
service and commit less evils. (J. Spencer.)
The altar of brass
The altar was four-square, and it had four horns. The animals offered in sacrifice were
horned animals, and were doubtless bound by their horns to the horns of the altar, and
then slain (Psa_118:27), so that the ground round about the altar would be always red
and wet with blood. Life is in the blood; to shed the blood is to sacrifice the life; and the
first thing that meets our eye as we enter the gate of the court, and look at the earth on
which we are walking, is blood—sacrificed life. To this altar the sinner came leading his
sin-offering. Here he stood before God, and his sins were confessed, and transferred or
imputed to the unblemished and innocent animal, which had then to suffer and to die
for sin, but not for its own sin. The innocent one died for the guilty one. These sacrifices
were typical of Christ’s sacrifice. He suffered, the Just for the unjust: on Him our sins
were laid; He bore them in His body on the tree. He was made sin, or a sin-offering, for
us, and by His stripes we are healed. His blood was shed for the remission of sins, and
now it cleanseth us from all sin (1Pe_3:18; Isa_53:5-6; 1Pe_2:24; 2Co_5:21; Mat_26:28;
1Jn_1:7). Christ is our Altar, our Sacrifice, and our Priest. He offered Himself for us. And
having met most fully all God’s claims, He now meets and supplies all the penitent
believing sinner’s need. Every saved sinner has come to this spot—has seen Jesus as the
Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world (Joh_1:29). We have seen Christ as

the Redeemer, and as the Gate or Way to God, and now we see Him as the Altar, Priest,
and Sacrifice. Here we stand with our hand of faith on His head, and we feel that as our
Sin-offering He has suffered for our sin, and has put it away. Our life was forfeited, but
Christ who loved us, and gave Himself for us, has sacrificed His own life to save us from
eternal death (Eph_5:25; Joh_10:11; Joh_10:15). (G. Rodgers.)
Significance of the altar of burnt-offering
In other cases an altar was said to be built, or elevated; but the portable structure used
as such in the Tabernacle is spoken of as made, or constructed, because it had a frame of
wood overlaid with copper. This frame was probably filled with earth to answer the
requirements of the general statute. There is no intimation of this, indeed, in the
writings of Moses; but neither does he mention any other expedient for holding the fire
in place. Copper as dug out of the ground, similar to it in colour, and inferior to that
metal which among metals represented celestial glory, was appropriately associated with
earth in an altar belonging to a permanent and yet portable institution. By the affinity of
the copper with the earth, this frame of an altar, which could be carried from place to
place, fulfilled the same end in the expression of thought, as an altar of earth. The wood
being, in the first place, designed for a frame on which the copper might be fastened so
as to give sufficient size and strength without too great weight, was of acacia for the
same reason which required this particular species of timber in the planks of the house,
and the pillars of the court. The Tabernacle being a place of life, acacia wood, on account
of its superiority to decay, was sought for every purpose which was to be answered with
wood, whether in the edifice or its furniture. Not only the frame, or wall of the altar, was
of acacia covered with copper, but also the horns; and this fact may help to determine
the significance of these projections. The horn is, in cornute animals, the instrument of
power, and thence becomes an emblem of strength, and as such is congruous with all the
other elements combined in the altar as a symbol. It has, accordingly, been commonly
understood that the horns of the altar represented the power of its ministrations. But
recently it has been suggested that among the metaphorical significations of the horn,
height was no less appropriate than strength as an attribute of an altar. The horn is the
highest part of the animal, carried aloft as a badge of power and the honour consequent
on power, and therefore used as a sign of elevation. To lift up the horn is to exalt, either
in the physical or in a figurative sense. The horns of an altar may be intended, therefore,
to symbolize still more emphatically the elevation of the earth on which the sacrifice is
offered toward heaven, the residence of the Being to whom it is presented. The copper
with which the horns were overlaid seems to countenance this interpretation. May not
both shades of meaning be comprehended in one and the same emblem? The horns
elevating the place of sacrifice nearer to heaven, the efficacy of the altar was especially
conspicuous in these symbols of elevation. (E. E. Atwater.)
The brazen altar
This altar of burnt-sacrifice, with the offerings presented upon it, stands before us as a
type of Christ and His cross. And the materials of which the altar was composed point
strikingly to His twofold nature. His humanity, if found alone, would have been
consumed by the fire of Divine justice, which blazed forth against Him when He stood as
our substitute and bore our sins in His own body on the tree. And then, on the other
hand, His Divinity, if found alone, like the altar, if all of brass, would have been too

oppressive for us. It would have made us afraid by its excellency, and would have
overwhelmed us by its majesty. But blended with the humanity, and tempered and
softened by its transmission through the vail of flesh, it meets our necessities in every
respect, and furnishes us with just the help and comfort that we need. (R. Newton, D.
D.)
Lessons
I. Look now at the position which God assigned to the altar of sacrifice in the Jewish
Tabernacle, that heaven-sketched symbol of the Church. Behold one of the marks of a
true Church. It will give great prominence to the altar, the cross of Christ, or the doctrine
of His atoning sacrifice.
II. The relation which it bore to every other part of the Tabernacle. It was the most
important part of the whole Tabernacle. Like the root to the tree, like the foundation to
the building, like the fountain to the stream, like the mainspring to the watch, like the
heart to the body, it was that, on which every other part of the sacred structure
depended, and from which it derived all its value. This altar represents the cross of
Christ. As we look at it from this point of view, we seem to see written on it as with a
sunbeam, the great practical truth, that the way to heaven—the only way by which any of
our ruined race can enter there—lies over Calvary. There is no pardon, no renewal, no
acceptance, no righteousness, no peace, no grace, no blessing, no salvation to any of
Adam’s children, but through the sacrifice once offered upon the cross. And this is true
not of our persons only, but of our services also. “Accepted in the beloved,” is the great
underlying doctrine of the gospel. Our prayers, our praises, our sighs, our tears, our
repentance, our faith, our words, our actions, our labours, our sufferings, our vows, our
alms-givings, our sermons, our sacraments—all things that may be crowded into the
entire circle of our services—have worth, or merit, not in themselves, but only as they
stand connected with the sacrifice which Jesus offered on the cross, and are sprinkled
with His atoning blood, in all its prevailing efficacy.
III. Our third lesson from this altar is suggested by the continuity of the offerings
presented upon it. There was to be no cessation, no suspension, or interruption of the
service here rendered. The sacrifice on the Jewish altar was an imperfect sacrifice, and
hence the necessity for its repetition. They were “sacrifices,” as St. Paul says, “offered
year by year continually, which could never make the comers thereunto perfect.” Our
sacrifice, offered upon the cross, is a perfect sacrifice, and therefore it needs no
repetition. It was offered “once for all”; and by this one offering, Jesus, our great High
Priest, “perfects for ever them that are sanctified “; i.e., all His believing people. The
offering was once made, but the merits, the influence, the efficacy of the offering, abide
continually. And because it thus abides, there needs no repetition of it.
IV. Our fourth lesson is taught us, when we consider the efficacy of the offerings
presented on the brazen altar. You may say, indeed, that we have just spoken of their
imperfection, and that is true. They were not intended to do for the Jews what the
sacrifice of Christ does for us. They were only types, or shadows of that sacrifice. Of
course they could only have a typical, or shadowy efficacy. This, however, they had in
perfection. And here the brazen altar points significantly to the cross of Christ. It speaks
to us, in eloquent tones, of the thorough efficacy, the absolute perfection of the sacrifice
He offered.
V. The fifth and last lesson taught us by this altar is seen, when we observe the extent of
its benefits. It was open to all. (R. Newton, D. D.)

The brazen altar of burnt-offering
In this we have a significant type of our Lord, regarded more particularly in His Divine
nature. This view “is supported by our Lord Himself, when He says that the altar is
greater than the sacrifice (Mat_23:19). Both sacrifice and altar were but shadows, and
derived their importance wholly from the reality to which they referred. But as a shadow
of Christ’s sacrifice, the importance of the legal victims was immeasurable; and yet our
Lord says the greatness to which the altar pointed transcends it. Then lies not the
thought very near, that the altar pointed to His Divinity? And still further is this
conclusion justifiable by the additional saying of our Lord, that the altar sanctifies the
sacrifice; for was it not the union of His Divine with His human nature which imparted
to the latter its majesty inconceivable, and to His sacrifice its miraculous and eternal
efficacy?” A remarkable confirmation of this view is found in the fact that the altar,
during removal, was covered with a purple cloth, which colour symbolized the
hypostatic union. The construction of the altar pointed another lesson. The outer
covering of brass concealed and protected an interior of wood. In fact, the altar was said
to be made of wood. Now in Hebrew, wood and tree are synonymous, and trees are
frequently spoken of in the Bible as emblematic of God’s saints. By the wood of the altar
was signified the members of Christ: “It was a visible parable of the mystical union
between Christ and His people. As the wood was hidden within the altar, so in God’s eye
were they hid in Him.” And the lesson thus taught by the altar was this: Rom_8:1. “The
altar was surmounted by four horns, the well-known emblems of power; and these horns
were deeply marked with sacrificial blood; and it fell from them as it fell from Him
whom the altar typified in the garden and on the cross. These horns were, therefore, at
once symbols of might and reconciliation, and were outstretched to the four corners of
the earth, to call men to flee unto Christ to be saved.” (E. F. Willis, M. A. , with
quotations from H. Douglas, M. A.)
The altar of burnt-offering
This altar was the foundation of all the Tabernacle worship. The priests could not enter
into the holy place except on the ground of sacrifice presented on the brazen altar. Nor
could the high priest on the great atonement day enter the holy of holies without having
first offered not only the ordinary sacrifice, but an additional sin-offering on the altar in
the court. Not only was the Shekinah glory within the vail impossible of access, but the
bread of the presence, the light of the lamps, the privileges of the altar of incense, were
all closed until a sacrifice had been offered upon the altar. Thus were the children of
Israel taught, and thus,too are we taught, that the first thing for the sinner to do, before
he can taste the heavenly bread, before he can see the heavenly light, before he can even
pray with acceptance, is to avail himself of the atonement which God has provided. The
altar was the people’s place of meeting with God. It was free to all. The call was
addressed to every child of Israel: “Come into His courts and bring an offering with you.”
The atonement which God provides is free to all without exception, and without
distinction. (J. M. Gibson, D. D.)

2 Make a horn at each of the four corners, so that
the horns and the altar are of one piece, and
overlay the altar with bronze.
BAR ES, "Exo_27:2
His horns shall be of the same - These horns were projections pointing upward in
the form either of a small obelisk, or of the horn of an ox. They were to be actually parts
of the altar, not merely superadded to it. On them the blood of the sin-offering was
smeared Exo_29:12; Lev_4:7; Lev_8:15; Lev_9:9; Lev_16:18. To take hold of them
appears to have been regarded as an emphatic mode of laying claim to the supposed
right of sanctuary (Exo_21:14 note; 1Ki_1:50).
CLARKE, "Thou shalt make the horns of it - The horns might have three uses:
1. For ornament.
2. To prevent carcasses, etc., from falling off.
3. To tie the victim to, previously to its being sacrificed.
So David: Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar; Psa_118:27. Horns
were much used in all ancient altars among the heathen, and some of them were entirely
constructed of the horns of the beasts that had been offered in sacrifice; but such altars
appear to be erected rather as trophies in honor of their gods. On the reverses of several
medals we find altars represented with horns at the corners. There is a medal of
Antoninus on the reverse of which is an altar, on which a fire burns, consecrated Divi
Pio, where the horns appear on each of the corners.
There is one of Faustina, on which the altar and its horns are very distinct, the legend
Pietas Augusta. All the following have altars with horns. One of Valerian, legend
Consecratio; one of Claudius Gothicus, same legend; one of Quintillus, same legend; one
of Crispina, with the legend Diis Genitalibus; and several others. See Numismatica
Antiq., a Musellio, under Consecratio, in the index.
Callimachus, in his Hymn to Apollo, line 60 introduces him constructing an altar of
the horns of the animals slain by Diana:
- πηξε δε βωµον
Εκ κεραων κ. τ. λ.
Martial has these words: Cornibus ara frequens.
GILL, "Which were either for ornament, or for keeping what was laid upon the altar

from falling off, or for the fastening of the sacrifice to them, and were what criminals fled
to for refuge, and laid hold on; and may denote the power of Christ, who is the horn of
salvation to preserve his people from a final falling away, and from ruin and destruction,
and his protection of those that fly to him for refuge; and these horns being at the
corners of the altar may respect the four parts of the world, from whence souls come to
Christ for everlasting salvation:
his horns shall be of the same; that is, made of the same wood as the altar itself and
so may lead to observe the like things: or "upwards out of it" (b), the altar; prominent
from it, as the Arabic version, and so the sacrifices could be bound to them, Psa_118:27,
and thou shalt overlay it with brass; with plates of brass, that it may endure the
fire, and preserve the wood from being burnt with it; this may denote not only the
brightness, lustre, and glory of Christ, like the shining brass, but his great strength in
bearing the sins of his people, and all the punishment due unto them, even the fire of
divine wrath, without being consumed by it. Jarchi observes, that it was overlaid with
brass, because it was to make atonement for the impudence of the forehead, which is as
brass, Isa_48:4.
BE SO , "Exodus 27:2. Thou shalt make the horns of it — Pinnacles or spires,
rising up at the corners, wrought out of the same wood; which was partly for
ornament, and partly for use. To them the animals were bound, and part of the
blood was applied, and to them malefactors fled for refuge.
ELLICOTT,"(2) The horns of it.—It is not true to say, as Kalisch does, that “the altars
of almost all ancient nations were frequently provided with horns.” On the contrary, horns
were, so far as is known, peculiar to Israelite altars. Originally, they would seem to have
been mere ornaments at the four upper corners, but ultimately they came to be regarded as
essential to an altar, and the virtue of the altar was thought to lie especially in them. The
victims were bound to them (Psalms 118:27); criminals clung to them (1 Kings 1:50; 1
Kings 2:28); and the blood of sin offerings was smeared upon them for purposes of
expiation (Exodus 29:12; Leviticus 8:15; Leviticus 9:9, &c.).
His horns shall be of the same—i.e., of one piece with the rest of the altar, not separate
portions attached by nails or soldering. (Comp. Exodus 25:19.)
Thou shalt overlay it with brass—i.e., with bronze. All the woodwork of the tabernacle
was overlaid with one metal or another. Here a metallic coating was especially necessary,
to prevent the wood from being burnt.
PULPIT, "Exodus 27:2
The horns of it. Literally, "its horns." Horns were not usual adjuncts of altars; indeed they
seem to have been peculiar to those of the Israelites. They were projections at the four top
comers, probably not unlike the horns of bulls, whence their name. Criminals clung to
them when they took sanctuary (1 Kings 1:50; 1 Kings 2:28); and the blood of sin-
offerings was smeared upon them (Exodus 29:12; Le Exodus 8:15; Exodus 9:9; Exodus

16:18, etc.). Victims also were sometimes, when about to be sacrificed, bound to them
(Psalms 118:27). According to Kalisch, "The horns were symbolical of power, of
protection and help; and at the same time of glory and salvation." His horns shall be of
the same. Part and parcel of the altar, that is, not extraneous additions. Thou shalt overlay
it with brass. A solid plating of bronze is no doubt intended, such as would protect the
shittim wood and prevent it from being burnt.
3 Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots to
remove the ashes, and its shovels, sprinkling
bowls, meat forks and firepans.
BAR ES, "Exo_27:3
Pans - Rather pots as in Exo_38:3; 1Ki_7:45. On the use to which these pots were put
in disposing of the ashes of the altar, see Lev_1:16.
Basons - Vessels used for receiving the blood of the victims and casting it upon the
altar (see Exo_24:6; Lev_1:5; etc.).
Fleshhooks - These were for adjusting the pieces of the victims upon the altar
(compare 1Sa_2:13).
Firepans - The same word is rendered snuffdishes, Exo_25:38; Exo_37:23 : censers,
Lev_10:1; Lev_16:12; Num_4:14; Num_16:6, etc. These utensils appear to have been
shallow metal vessels which were employed merely to carry burning embers from the
brazen altar to the altar of incense.
CLARKE, "Thou shalt make his pans - ‫סירתיו‬ sirothaiv, a sort or large brazen
dishes, which stood under the altar to receive the ashes that fell through the grating.
His shovels - ‫יעיו‬ yaaiv. Some render this besoms; but as these were brazen
instruments, it is more natural to suppose that some kind of fire-shovels are intended, or
scuttles, which were used to carry off the ashes that fell through the grating into the
large pan or siroth.
His basins - ‫מזרקתיו‬ mizrekothaiv, from ‫זרק‬ zarak, to sprinkle or disperse; bowls or
basins to receive the blood of the sacrifices, in order that it might be sprinkled on the
people before the altar, etc.
His flesh-hooks - ‫מזלגתיו‬ mizlegothaiu. That this word is rightly translated flesh-
hooks is fully evident from 1Sa_2:13, where the same word is used in such a connection

as demonstrates its meaning: And the priest’s custom with the people was, that when
any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant came, while the flesh was in the seething,
with a Flesh-Hook (‫מזלג‬ mazleg) of three teeth (prongs) in his hand, and he struck it into
the pan, etc.; all that the Flesh-Hook (‫מזלג‬ mazleg) brought up, the priest took for
himself. It was probably a kind of trident, or fork with three prongs, and these bent to a
right angle at the middle, as the ideal meaning of the Hebrew seems to imply
crookedness or curvature in general.
His fire-pans - ‫מחתתיו‬ machtothaiu. Bishop Patrick and others suppose that “this was
a larger sort of vessel, wherein, probably, the sacred fire which came down from heaven
(Lev_9:24) was kept burning, whilst they cleansed the altar and the grate from the coals
and the ashes; and while the altar was carried from one place to another, as it often was
in the wilderness.
GILL, "And thou shall make his pans to receive his ashes,.... Not to receive
them in as they fell, but to gather them up in, and carry them away; and this was done
every morning about cockcrowing, not much sooner nor later (c):
and his shovels; to throw up the ashes together to be put into the pans; Jarchi
describes this vessel to be like the cover of a brass pot, with a handle to it; the same we
call a fire shovel:
and his basins: to receive the blood of the sacrifice, and out of which it was sprinkled,
as the word signifies, and may be rendered sprinkling basins:
and his flesh hooks; not such as were used to take flesh out of the pot, 1Sa_2:13 for
there could be no use for such at the altar of burnt offering; but were, as Jarchi says, like
hooks recurved, with which they struck into the flesh, and turned it upon the coals to
hasten the burning of it; and with which very probably they kept the fire and the parts of
the sacrifices in good order, until they were consumed:
and his fire pans; which were a kind of censers in which coals of fire were
taken off from the altar of burnt offering, and carried to the altar of incense, as Jarchi
and Ben Gersom observe, see Lev_16:12 but as censers did not belong to the altar of
burnt offering, but to the altar of incense, Fortunatus Scacchus (d) is of opinion, that
these were a larger sort of vessels, wherein the fire which came down from heaven was
kept burning while the altar and grate were cleansed from the coals and ashes, and when
the altar was had from place to place:
all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass; as being fittest for the use of this
altar.
JAMISO , "shovels — fire shovels for scraping together any of the scattered ashes.
basons — for receiving the blood of the sacrifice to be sprinkled on the people.
fleshhooks — curved, three-pronged forks (1Sa_2:13, 1Sa_2:14).
fire-pans — A large sort of vessel, wherein the sacred fire which came down from
heaven (Lev_9:24) was kept burning, while they cleaned the altar and the grate from the
coals and ashes, and while the altar was carried from one place to another in the

wilderness [Patrick, Spencer, Le Clerc].
ELLICOTT, "(3) His pans to receive his ashes.—Scuttles, in which the ashes were
placed for removal from the sanctuary, are intended. The word translated “to
receive his ashes” is a rare one, and implies a mixture with the ashes of unburnt fat.
His shovels.—A right rendering. The “shovels” would be used in clearing away the
ashes from off the altar.
His basons.—Basins were needed to receive the blood of the victims (Exodus 24:6),
which was cast from basins upon the foot of the altar.
His fleshhooks.—Implements with three prongs, used for arranging the pieces of the
victim upon the altar. The priests’ servants sometimes applied them to a different
purpose (1 Samuel 2:13).
His firepans.—The word here used is elsewhere translated either “snuffdishes,” or
“censers.” Probably vessels employed in carrying embers from the brazen altar to
the altar of incense (Leviticus 16:12) are intended.
PETT, "Exodus 27:3
“And you shall make its vessels to take away its ashes (literally ‘cleanse it from fat’),
and its shovels and its basins and its fleshhooks and its firepans (or ‘receptacles’),
all its accoutrements you will make of brazen copper.”
The different accoutrements for the altar were also made of brazen copper. The
vessels for carrying away the ashes and remains of the fat, the shovels for shovelling
them, the basins for catching the blood (Exodus 24:6), the fleshhooks for
manoeuvring the sacrifices, and the firepans possibly for such tasks as carrying the
ashes from the altar to the altar of incense (Leviticus 16:12).
His pans to receive his ashes. Literally, "to cleanse it from fat'—i.e; to receive what
remained after burning the victims, which would be ashes mixed with a good deal of
fat. His shovels. Those would be used in removing the ashes from the altar, and
depositing them in the pans. His basins. Vessels for receiving the blood of the
victims and from which it was poured on the altar. Compare Exodus 24:6. His flesh
hooks. So the Septuagint, and our translators again in 1 Samuel 2:13. They would
seem by the latter passage to have been three-pronged forks, the proper use of
which was, no doubt, to arrange the various pieces, into which the victim was cut,
upon the altar. His fire-pans. The word used is generally translated "censers"
(Leviticus 10:1.; Leviticus 16:12; umbers 4:14 : umbers 16:6, umbers 16:17,
etc.), but sometimes "snuff-dishes" (Exodus 25:38; Exodus 37:23). It here perhaps
designates the vessels used for carrying burning embers from the altar of burnt-
offering, to the altar of incense on certain occasions (Le 1 Samuel 16:12).
Etymologically, it means simply "a receptacle.'' All the vessels thereof thou shalt

make of brass. Rather, "of bronze." Bronze was the usual material of utensils and
implements in Egypt. Copper was scarcely used without the alloy of tin which
converts it into bronze; and brass was wholly unknown. A trace of iron is sometimes
found in Egyptian bronze
4 Make a grating for it, a bronze network, and
make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of
the network.
CLARKE, "Thou shalt make for it a grate - Calmet supposes this altar to have
been a sort of box, covered with brass plates, on the top of which was a grating to supply
the fire with air, and permit the ashes to fall through into the siroth or pan that was
placed below. At the four corners of the grating were four rings and four chains, by
which it was attached to the four horns; and at the sides were rings for the poles of
shittim wood with which it was carried. Even on this there is a great variety of opinions.
GILL, "And thou shalt, make for it a grate of network of brass,.... Or "sieve", as
in Amo_9:9, it was a plate of brass with holes in it, to let through either the blood that
drained from the parts of the sacrifice, or the ashes of it; for this was the focus or hearth,
on which the sacrifice and the wood were laid and burnt: this, according to the Targum
of Jonathan on Exo_38:4 was to receive the coals and bones which fell from the altar:
and so may denote the purity of Christ's sacrifice, which was offered up without spot to
God, and the use of him as the altar to sanctify our gifts, and take away the sins of our
holy things:
and upon the net shalt thou make four brazen rings in the four corners
thereof; by which, with chains put into them, the grate was fastened to the four horns
of the altar, and the use of them was to let it down and hang in the middle of the altar,
and to take it up when there was occasion for it; though some think these rings were not
"in" the grate, but "by" it, as the particle may be rendered, a little lower than that, on the
sides of the altar; into which the staves after mentioned were put, and with which the
altar was carried when removed from place to place.
JAMISO , "a grate of network of brass — sunk latticework to support the fire.
four brazen rings — by which the grating might be lifted and taken away as
occasion required from the body of the altar.

K&D 4-5, "The altar was to have ‫ר‬ ָ ְ‫כ‬ ִ‫מ‬ a grating, ‫ת‬ ֶ‫שׂ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ‫ה‬ ֵ‫שׂ‬ ֲ‫ע‬ ַ‫מ‬ net-work, i.e., a covering of
brass made in the form of a net, of larger dimensions that the sides of the altar, for this
grating was to be under the “compass” (‫ּב‬ⅴ ְ‫ר‬ ַⅴ) of the altar from beneath, and to reach to
the half of it (half-way up, Exo_27:5); and in it, i.e., at the four ends (or corners) of it,
four brass rings were to be fastened, for the poles to carry it with. ‫ּב‬ⅴ ְ‫ר‬ ַⅴ (from ‫ב‬ ָⅴ ְ‫ר‬ ַⅴ
circumdedit) only occurs here and in Exo_38:4, and signifies a border (‫א‬ ָ‫ב‬ ְ‫ּב‬‫ס‬ Targums),
i.e., a projecting framework or bench running round the four sides of the altar, about
half a cubit or a cubit broad, nailed to the walls (of the altar) on the outside, and fastened
more firmly to them by the copper covering which was common to both. The copper
grating was below this bench, and on the outside. The bench rested upon it, or rather it
hung from the outer edge of the bench and rested upon the ground, like the inner chest,
which it surrounded on all four sides, and in which there were no perforations. It formed
with the bench or carcob a projecting footing, which caused the lower half of the altar to
look broader than the upper on every side. The priest stood upon this carcob or bench
when offering sacrifice, or when placing the wood, or doing anything else upon the altar.
This explains Aaron's coming down (‫ד‬ ַ‫ר‬ָ‫)י‬ from the altar (Lev_9:22); and there is no
necessity to suppose that there were steps to the altar, as Knobel does in opposition to
Exo_20:26. For even if the height of the altar, viz., three cubits, would be so great that a
bench half-way up would be too high for any one to step up to, the earth could be slightly
raised on one side so as to make the ascent perfectly easy; and when the priest was
standing upon the bench, he could perform all that was necessary upon the top of the
altar without any difficulty.
BE SO ,"Exodus 27:4. Thou shalt make for it a grate of net-work — This was the
principal part of the altar. It was let into the hollow about the middle of it, and here
the fire was kept, and the sacrifice burned. It was a broad plate of brass full of
holes, like a net or sieve, and partly hollow that the fire might burn the better, and
the ashes might fall through to the bottom of the altar, where there was a door on
the east side to open and take out the ashes.
ow this brazen altar was a type of Christ dying to make atonement for our sins.
Christ sanctified himself for his church as their altar, (John 17:19,) and by his
mediation sanctifies the daily services of his people. To the horns of this altar poor
sinners flee for refuge, and are safe in virtue of the sacrifice there offered.
ELLICOTT, "(4) A grate of network.—Rather, a grating of network. The position
of the grating is doubtful. According to one view, it reached from the middle of the
altar to its base, and protected the sides of the altar from the feet of the ministering
priests. According to another, it surrounded the upper part of the altar, and was
intended to catch any portions of the victims that accidentally fell off. There are no
sufficient data to enable us to determine between these views.
Upon the net shalt thou make four brasen rings.—The brazen altar, like the ark and
the table of shewbread, was to be carried by the priests when the Israelites changed
their camping-ground. It therefore required “rings,” like them (Exodus 25:12;

Exodus 25:26). These were, in the case of the altar, to be attached to the network,
which must have been of a very solid and substantial character.
PETT, "Exodus 27:4-5
“And you shall make for it a network grating of brass (copper), and on the net you
will make four brazen rings in its four corners. And you will put it under the ledge
(or ‘band’) round the altar beneath, that the network might reach halfway up the
altar.”
The network grating was in order to provide sufficient draught for the fire, and/or
it may have contained the ashes that fell through from above, or it may have been a
protection to prevent the actual altar being touched by the priests. The four rings
were to take the poles used for carrying the altar. There was clearly a ledge (or
band) round the altar midway between top and bottom, probably for the priests to
stand on as they ministered at the altar. It could be made accessible by a mound of
earth surrounding the altar. This would be why the priests wore special breeches.
The altar was not to be approached by steps (20:26). The priests would have been of
smaller stature than most of us and the altar would therefore be at head level.
Others have argued that the ledge or band was only for decoration and
strengthening.
Although overlaid with copper or brazen copper it will be quite apparent that this
altar could not by itself contain a continually burning fire. It is clear therefore that
some materials would have to be put within it on which the fire could be lit, which
would absorb the heat. These materials were probably the earth or unhewn stones
of Exodus 20:24-25. Thus did this permanent altar act in place of the altars built
temporarily in different places where Yahweh recorded His name.
Thou shalt make for it a grate. Rather, "a grating." This was probably a protection
for the lower part of the altar, and prevented it from being touched by the feet of the
ministrant priests. It was outside the altar, and had the rings attached to it, by
which the altar was carried when the Israelites journeyed.
5 Put it under the ledge of the altar so that it is
halfway up the altar.

Exodus 27 commentary

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Exodus 27 commentary