Exodus 27:3

3 Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots to remove the ashes, and its shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks and firepans.

Exodus 27:3 in Other Translations

KJV
3 And thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basons, and his fleshhooks, and his firepans: all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass.
ESV
3 You shall make pots for it to receive its ashes, and shovels and basins and forks and fire pans. You shall make all its utensils of bronze.
NLT
3 Make ash buckets, shovels, basins, meat forks, and firepans, all of bronze.
MSG
3 Make buckets for removing the ashes, along with shovels, basins, forks, and fire pans. Make all these utensils from bronze.
CSB
3 Make its pots for removing ashes, and its shovels, basins, meat forks, and firepans; make all its utensils of bronze.

Exodus 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.

Exodus 27:3 In-Context

1 “Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide.
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.
3 Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots to remove the ashes, and its shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks and firepans.
4 Make a grating for it, a bronze network, and make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the network.
5 Put it under the ledge of the altar so that it is halfway up the altar.

Cross References 2

  • 1. Numbers 7:13; 1 Kings 7:40,45; 2 Kings 12:13
  • 2. Numbers 4:14; 1 Chronicles 28:17; Jeremiah 52:18
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