Exodus 27

1 "You are to make the altar of acacia-wood, seven-and-a-half feet long and seven-and-a-half feet wide - the altar is to be square and four-and-a-half feet high.

2 Make horns for it on its four corners; the horns are to be of one piece with it; and you are to overlay it with bronze.

3 "Make its pots for removing ashes, and its shovels, basins, meat-hooks and fire pans; all its utensils you are to make of bronze.

4 Make for it a grate of bronze netting; and on the four corners of the netting, make four bronze rings.

5 Put it under the rim of the altar, so that the netting reaches halfway up the altar.

6 Make poles of acacia-wood for the altar and overlay them with bronze.

7 Its poles are to be put into the rings; the poles are to be on both sides of the altar for carrying it.

8 The altar is to be made of planks and hollow inside. They are to make it just as you were shown on the mountain.

9 "Here is how you are to make the courtyard of the tabernacle. On the south side, facing southward, are to be tapestries for the courtyard made of finely woven linen, 150 feet for one side,

10 supported on twenty posts in twenty bronze sockets; the hooks on the posts and the attached rings for hanging are to be of silver.

11 Likewise, along the north side are to be tapestries 150 feet long, hung on twenty posts in twenty bronze sockets, with silver hooks and rings for the posts.

12 Across the width of the courtyard on the west side are to be tapestries seventy-five feet long, hung on ten posts in ten sockets.

13 The width of the courtyard on the east side, facing east, will be seventy-five feet.

14 The tapestries for one side [of the gateway] will be twenty-two-and-a-half feet long, hung on three posts in three sockets;

15 for the other side there will be tapestries twenty-two-and-a-half feet long on three posts in three sockets.

16 "For the gateway of the courtyard there is to be a screen thirty feet long made of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely woven linen. It should be in colors, the work of a weaver. It is to be on four posts in four sockets.

17 All the posts all the way around the courtyard are to be banded with silver and to stand in sockets of bronze.

18 The length of the courtyard is to be 150 feet and the width seventy-five feet everywhere; with the height seven-and-a-half feet. The tapestries and screen are to be of finely woven linen, and the sockets are to be of bronze.

19 "All the equipment needed for every kind of service in the tabernacle, as well as the tent pegs for the tabernacle and for the courtyard, are to be of bronze.

20 "You are to order the people of Isra'el to bring you pure oil of pounded olives for the light, and to keep a lamp burning continually.

21 Aharon and his sons are to put it in the tent of meeting, outside the curtain in front of the testimony, and keep it burning from evening until morning before ADONAI. This is to be a permanent regulation through all the generations of the people of Isra'el.

Exodus 27 Commentary

Chapter 27

The altar of burnt offerings. (1-8) The court of the tabernacle. (9-19) The oil for the lamps. (20,21)

Verses 1-8 In the court before the tabernacle, where the people attended, was an altar, to which they must bring their sacrifices, and on which their priests must offer them to God. It was of wood overlaid with brass. A grate of brass was let into the hollow of the altar, about the middle of which the fire was kept, and the sacrifice burnt. It was made of net-work like a sieve, and hung hollow, that the ashes might fall through. This brazen altar was a type of Christ dying to make atonement for our sins. The wood had 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 Divine power.

Verses 9-19 The tabernacle was enclosed in a court, about sixty yards long and thirty broad, formed by curtains hung upon brazen pillars, fixed in brazen sockets. Within this enclosure the priests and Levites offered the sacrifices, and thither the Jewish people were admitted. These distinctions represented the difference between the visible nominal church, and the true spiritual church, which alone has access to God, and communion with him.

Verses 20-21 The pure oil signified the gifts and graces of the Spirit, which all believers receive from Christ, the good Olive, and without which our light cannot shine before men. The priests were to light the lamps, and tend them. It is the work of ministers, by preaching and expounding the Scriptures, which are as a lamp, to enlighten the church, God's tabernacle upon earth. Blessed be God, this light is not now confined to the Jewish tabernacle, but is a light to lighten the gentiles, and for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 27

This chapter treats of the altar of burnt offering, and of all things relative to it, Ex 27:1-8, of the court of the tabernacle, its hangings on each side, with pillars, sockets, and hooks for them, Ex 27:9-19 and it is concluded with an order to the Israelites to bring oil olive for the lamp of the sanctuary, Ex 27:20,21.