NOTE: Immediately after each capitalized KJV text is the lower- case text from the Contemporary English Version (CEV).
27:1-8, THE ALTAR FOR OFFERING SACRIFICES (This place for offer- ing victims would need to be in the open air because of the clouds of smoke and fumes of the sacrifices).
27:1 AND THOU SHALT MAKE AN ALTAR [OF] ACACIA WOOD, FIVE CUBITS LONG, AND FIVE CUBITS BROAD; THE ALTAR SHALL BE FOURSQUARE: AND THE HEIGHT THEREOF [SHALL BE] THREE CUBITS.
27:2 AND THOU SHALT MAKE THE HORNS OF IT UPON THE FOUR CORNERS THEREOF: HIS HORNS SHALL BE OF THE SAME: AND THOU SHALT OVERLAY IT WITH BRASS.
1-2, Use acacia wood to build an altar seven and a half feet square and four and a half feet high, and make each of the four top corners stick up like the horn of a bull. Then cover the whole altar with bronze, including the four horns.
A.This altar was called the brazen altar because it was overlaid with brass (or bronze).
B.HORNS: Projections at the four top corners, perhaps looking much like the horns of a bull. They seem to have been sym-bolical of power/protection/glory/salvation.
C.HIS HORNS SHALL BE OF THE SAME: That is, the horns were to be part of the altar, not additions to it.
27:3 AND THOU SHALT MAKE HIS PANS TO RECEIVE HIS ASHES, AND HIS SHOVELS, AND HIS BASINS, AND HIS FLESHHOOKS, AND HIS FIREPANS: ALL THE VESSELS THEREOF THOU SHALT MAKE [OF] BRASS.
3, All the equipment for the altar must also be made of bronze -- the pans for the hot ashes, the shovels, the sprinkling bowls, the meat forks, and the fire pans.
**FLESHHOOKS: These seem to have been three-pronged forks which were used to arrange the pieces to be burned - cf 1Sa 2:13 ("And the priests' custom with the people [was, that], when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came, while the flesh was in seething, with a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand").
27:4 AND THOU SHALT MAKE FOR IT A GRATE OF NETWORK [OF] BRASS; AND UPON THE NET SHALT THOU MAKE FOUR BRAZEN RINGS IN THE FOUR CORNERS THEREOF.
27:5 AND THOU SHALT PUT IT UNDER THE COMPASS OF THE ALTAR BENEATH, THAT THE NET MAY BE EVEN TO THE MIDST OF THE ALTAR.
4-5, Midway up the altar build a ledge around it, and cover the bottom half of the altar with a decorative bronze grating. Then attach a bronze ring beneath the ledge at the four corners of the altar.
**COMPASS (LEDGE): Either a bench on which the priests stood to offer sacrifices, or just a border as an ornament.
27:6 AND THOU SHALT MAKE STAVES FOR THE ALTAR, STAVES [OF] ACACIA WOOD, AND OVERLAY THEM WITH BRASS.
27:7 AND THE STAVES SHALL BE PUT INTO THE RINGS, AND THE STAVES SHALL BE UPON THE TWO SIDES OF THE ALTAR, TO BEAR IT.
7, Cover two acacia wood poles with bronze and put them through the rings for carrying the altar.
27:8 HOLLOW WITH BOARDS SHALT THOU MAKE IT: AS IT WAS SHEWED THEE IN THE MOUNT, SO SHALL THEY MAKE [IT].
8, Construct the altar in the shape of an open box, just as you were shown on the mountain.
A.The position of the altar (before the entrance to the Holy Place) would teach that the first need is to have sins paid for before one can enter the presence of God to worship.
B.The worshipper was to place his hand on the head of the ani-mal, thus admitting that he was a sinner who deserved to die, and also identifying himself with the one who was to die in his place -- Cf Lev 1:1-5 ("1 And the LORD called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the LORD, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, [even] of the herd, and of the flock. 3 If his offering [be] a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD. 4 And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. 5 And he shall kill the bullock before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that [is by] the door of the tabernacle of the congrega-tion"); Also see Lev 17:11 ("For the life of the flesh [is] in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it [is] the blood [that]
maketh an atonement for the soul"); And Heb 9:22 ("And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shed-ding of blood is no remission").
C.Each victim represented the Great Offering which was to come, and was a reminder of the punishment demanded for sin; So the altar represented the cross of Christ, where the Lamb of God offered Himself -- He was both priest and victim.
27:9-18, THE COURTYARD AROUND THE TABERNACLE.
27:9 AND THOU SHALT MAKE THE COURT OF THE TABERNACLE: FOR THE SOUTH SIDE SOUTHWARD [THERE SHALL BE] HANGINGS FOR THE COURT [OF] FINE TWINED LINEN OF AN HUNDRED CUBITS LONG FOR ONE SIDE:
27:10 AND THE TWENTY PILLARS THEREOF AND THEIR TWENTY SOCKETS [SHALL BE OF] BRASS; THE HOOKS OF THE PILLARS AND THEIR FILLETS [SHALL BE OF] SILVER.
27:11 AND LIKEWISE FOR THE NORTH SIDE IN LENGTH [THERE SHALL BE] HANGINGS OF AN HUNDRED [CUBITS] LONG, AND HIS TWENTY PILLARS AND THEIR TWENTY SOCKETS [OF] BRASS; THE HOOKS OF THE PILLARS AND THEIR FILLETS [OF] SILVER.
27:12 AND [FOR] THE BREADTH OF THE COURT ON THE WEST SIDE [SHALL BE] HANGINGS OF FIFTY CUBITS: THEIR PILLARS TEN, AND THEIR SOCKETS TEN.
27:13 AND THE BREADTH OF THE COURT ON THE EAST SIDE EASTWARD [SHALL BE] FIFTY CUBITS.
27:14 THE HANGINGS OF ONE SIDE [OF THE GATE SHALL BE] FIFTEEN CUBITS: THEIR PILLARS THREE, AND THEIR SOCKETS THREE.
27:15 AND ON THE OTHER SIDE [SHALL BE] HANGINGS FIFTEEN [CUBITS]: THEIR PILLARS THREE, AND THEIR SOCKETS THREE.
27:16 AND FOR THE GATE OF THE COURT [SHALL BE] AN HANGING OF TWENTY CUBITS, [OF] BLUE, AND PURPLE, AND SCARLET, AND FINE TWINED LINEN, WROUGHT WITH NEEDLEWORK: [AND] THEIR PILLARS [SHALL BE] FOUR, AND THEIR SOCKETS FOUR.
27:17 ALL THE PILLARS ROUND ABOUT THE COURT [SHALL BE] FILLETED WITH SILVER; THEIR HOOKS [SHALL BE OF] SILVER, AND THEIR SOCKETS [OF] BRASS.
27:18 THE LENGTH OF THE COURT [SHALL BE] AN HUNDRED CUBITS, AND THE BREADTH FIFTY EVERY WHERE, AND THE HEIGHT FIVE CUBITS [OF] FINE TWINED LINEN, AND THEIR SOCKETS [OF] BRASS.
9-18, Surround the sacred tent with a courtyard one hundred fifty feet long on the south and north and seventy-five feet wide on the east and west. Use twenty bronze posts on bronze stands for the south and north and ten for the west. Then hang a curtain
of fine linen on the posts along each of these three sides by using silver hooks and rods. Place three bronze posts on each side of the entrance at the east and hang a curtain seven and a half yards wide on each set of posts. Use four more of these posts for the entrance way, then hang on them an embroidered curtain of fine linen ten yards long and woven with blue, pur-ple, and red wool. The curtains that surround the courtyard must be two and a half yards high and are to be hung from the bronze posts with silver hooks and rods.
A.So the courtyard was a rectangle one hundred fifty feet by seventy-five feet. It was enclosed by curtains, hung on three sides on fifty pillars.
B.Midway on the east side (the front) there was an entrance thirty feet wide, with its own curtains and its own pillars.
C.Into this courtyard all Israel could enter; into the Holy Place only the priests; And into the Most Holy Place none but the High Priest.
27:19, THE VESSELS OF THE TABERNACLE.
27:19 ALL THE VESSELS OF THE TABERNACLE IN ALL THE SERVICE THEREOF, AND ALL THE PINS THEREOF, AND ALL THE PINS OF THE COURT, [SHALL BE OF] BRASS.
19, The rest of the equipment for the sacred tent must be made of bronze, including the pegs for the tent and for the curtain surrounding the courtyard.
27:20-21, THE OIL FOR THE LAMP IN THE HOLY PLACE.
27:20 AND THOU SHALT COMMAND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, THAT THEY BRING THEE PURE OIL OLIVE BEATEN FOR THE LIGHT, TO CAUSE THE LAMP TO BURN ALWAYS.
27:21 IN THE TABERNACLE OF THE CONGREGATION WITHOUT THE VEIL, WHICH [IS] BEFORE THE TESTIMONY, AARON AND HIS SONS SHALL ORDER IT FROM EVENING TO MORNING BEFORE THE LORD: [IT SHALL BE] A STATUTE FOR EVER UNTO THEIR GENERATIONS ON THE BEHALF OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL.
20-21, Command the people of Israel to supply you with the purest olive oil. Do this so the lamp will keep burning in front of the curtain that separates the holy place from the most holy place, where the sacred chest is kept. Aaron and his sons are responsible for keeping the lamp burning every night in the sacred tent. The Israelites must always obey this command.
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