Shemot 27:3

3 And thou shalt make its pots to receive its ashes, and its shovels, and its basins, and its meat forks, and its firepans; all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of nechoshet.

Shemot 27:3 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 27:3

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 F3:

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, ( 1 Samuel 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 ( Leviticus 16:12 ) but as censers did not belong to the altar of burnt offering, but to the altar of incense, Fortunatus Scacchus F4 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.


FOOTNOTES:

F3 Misn. Yoma, c. 1. sect. 8. & Maimon, in ib.
F4 Sacr. Elaeochrism. Myrothec. l. 2. c. 73. p. 676, 677.

Shemot 27:3 In-Context

1 7 And thou shalt build the Mizbe’ach of acacia wood, five cubits long, and five cubits wide; the Mizbe’ach shall be foursquare; and the height thereof shall be shalosh cubits.
2 And thou shalt make the karnot of it upon the four corners thereof; its karnot shall be of one piece with it; and thou shalt overlay it with nechoshet.
3 And thou shalt make its pots to receive its ashes, and its shovels, and its basins, and its meat forks, and its firepans; all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of nechoshet.
4 And thou shalt build for it a mikhbar (grate), a strainer reshet (mesh, netting) of nechoshet; and upon the meshwork shalt thou make four taba’ot (rings) of nechoshet in the four corners thereof.
5 And thou shalt put it under the karkov ([surrounding] border, ledge) of the Mizbe’ach from below, that the meshwork may be half the height of the Mizbe’ach.
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