Exodus 27

Instructions for Making the Bronze Altar

1 "And you will make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits wide; the altar will be square, and its height [will be] three cubits.

2 And you will make its horns on its four corners; its horns will be {of one piece with it}, and you will overlay it [with] bronze.

3 And you will make its pots for removing its fat-soaked ashes and its shovels and its sprinkling bowls and its forks and its fire pans; you will make all its equipment [with] bronze.

4 And you will make for it a grating, a work of bronze network, and you will make on the network four bronze rings on its four ends.

5 And you will put it under the ledge of the altar, below, and the network will be up to the middle of the altar.

6 And you will make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and you will overlay them [with] bronze.

7 And the poles will be put into the rings, and the poles will be on the two sides of the altar when carrying it.

8 You will make it hollow with boards. As it was shown you on the mountain, so they will do.

Instructions for Making the Courtyard

9 "You will make the courtyard of the tabernacle; for the {south} side [will be] hangings for the courtyard of finely twisted linen, one hundred cubits long for the one side.

10 And its twenty pillars and their twenty bases [will be] bronze; the hooks of the pillars and their bands [will be] silver.

11 And likewise for the north side along the length [will be] hangings one hundred cubits long; and its twenty pillars and their bases [will be] bronze; the hooks of the pillars and their bands [will be] silver.

12 And the width of the courtyard for the west side [will be] hangings of fifty cubits, their ten pillars and their ten bases.

13 And the width of the courtyard for the east side, toward sunrise, [will be] fifty cubits.

14 And hangings for the shoulder [will be] fifteen cubits [with] their three pillars and their three bases.

15 And fifteen cubits of hangings [will be] for the second shoulder [with] their three pillars and their three bases.

16 And for the gate of the courtyard [there will be] a screen of twenty cubits of blue and purple and crimson [yarns] and finely twisted linen, the work of an embroiderer; [with] their four pillars and their four bases.

17 "All the pillars of the courtyard all around will be banded [with] silver, [and] their hooks [will be] silver, and their bases [will be] bronze.

18 The length of the courtyard will be one hundred cubits and the width fifty [cubits] and the height five cubits, of finely twisted linen, [with] their bronze bases.

19 Bronze [will be] for all the equipment of the tabernacle in all its service and all its {pegs} and all the {pegs} of the courtyard.

Instructions for Making Oil for the Lampstand

20 "And you will command the {Israelites}, and they will bring to you pure, beaten olive oil for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually.

21 In the tent of assembly outside the curtain that [is] before the testimony, Aaron and his sons will arrange it, from evening until morning, before Yahweh [as] a lasting statute throughout their generations from the {Israelites}.

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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "from it"
• [b]. 1 Samuel 2:13 mentions a fork with "three teeth" used by priests
• [c]. Literally "south southward"
• [d]. Or "sea"
• [e]. Or "side," referring to the span on one side of the courtyard's entry
• [f]. Or "side," referring to the span on one side of the courtyard's entry
• [g]. Or "fifty with fifty." Some suggest that the word for cubits has been accidentally omitted and the number fifty repeated in the Hebrew text. Others suggest that repetition of the number is original and indicates that the two ends of the courtyard are the same size
• [h]. Literally "hands"
• [i]. Literally "hands"
• [j]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
• [k]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"

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.