Exodus 27: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

God gives Moses the plans for two more parts of the worship site: the bronze altar and the courtyard that surrounds the tabernacle. The altar is a square, hollow box of acacia wood covered with bronze, with horns at its corners, a bronze grating, carrying poles, and a set of bronze tools. The courtyard is marked out by linen hangings hung on posts, with an embroidered curtain at its gate on the east. The chapter ends with an instruction that the Israelites bring pure olive oil for the lamp, which Aaron and his sons are to tend from evening until morning.

Claim by Claim

1. 27:1
   • God commands that an altar be made of acacia wood
   • The altar is to be five cubits long
   • The altar is to be five cubits wide
   • The altar is to be square
   • The altar is to be three cubits high
2. 27:2
   • Horns are to be made on the four corners of the altar
   • The horns are to be of one piece with the altar
   • The altar is to be overlaid with bronze
3. 27:3
   • Pots are to be made for removing the altar's ashes
   • Shovels are to be made
   • Basins are to be made
   • Forks are to be made
   • Firepans are to be made
   • All the altar's vessels are to be made of bronze
4. 27:4
   • A grating of bronze network is to be made for the altar
   • Four bronze rings are to be made on the net
   • The four rings are to be at the net's four corners
5. 27:5
   • The grating is to be placed under the ledge of the altar, below
   • The net is to reach halfway up the altar
6. 27:6
   • Poles are to be made for the altar
   • The poles are to be of acacia wood
   • The poles are to be overlaid with bronze
7. 27:7
   • The poles are to be put into the rings
   • The poles are to be on the two sides of the altar when it is carried
8. 27:8
   • The altar is to be made hollow, with boards
   • The altar is to be made as it was shown to Moses on the mountain
9. 27:9
   • The court of the tabernacle is to be made
   • On the south side there are to be hangings for the court
   • The hangings are to be of fine twisted linen
   • The hangings for that one side are to be a hundred cubits long
10. 27:10
    • The pillars for that side are to be twenty
    • The sockets for that side are to be twenty and of bronze
    • The hooks of the pillars are to be of silver
    • The bands of the pillars are to be of silver
11. 27:11
    • The north side is likewise to have hangings a hundred cubits long
    • That side is to have twenty pillars
    • That side is to have twenty bronze sockets
    • The hooks of those pillars are to be of silver
    • The bands of those pillars are to be of silver
12. 27:12
    • The width of the court on the west side is to have hangings of fifty cubits
    • The west side is to have ten pillars
    • The west side is to have ten sockets
13. 27:13
    • The width of the court on the east side, toward the sunrise, is to be fifty cubits
14. 27:14
    • The hangings on one side of the entrance are to be fifteen cubits
    • That side is to have three pillars
    • That side is to have three sockets
15. 27:15
    • The hangings on the other side are to be fifteen cubits
    • That side is to have three pillars
    • That side is to have three sockets
16. 27:16
    • The gate of the court is to have a screen of twenty cubits
    • The screen is to be of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine twisted linen
    • The screen is to be the work of an embroiderer
    • The gate is to have four pillars
    • The gate is to have four sockets
17. 27:17
    • All the pillars around the court are to be banded with silver
    • Their hooks are to be of silver
    • Their sockets are to be of bronze
18. 27:18
    • The length of the court is to be a hundred cubits
    • The width of the court is to be fifty cubits throughout
    • The height is to be five cubits
    • The hangings are to be of fine twisted linen
    • Their sockets are to be of bronze
19. 27:19
    • All the vessels of the tabernacle used in all its service are to be of bronze
    • All the tabernacle's pegs are to be of bronze
    • All the pegs of the court are to be of bronze
20. 27:20
    • Moses is to command the children of Israel
    • The Israelites are to bring Moses pure beaten olive oil for the light
    • The oil is for keeping a lamp burning continually
21. 27:21
    • Aaron and his sons are to tend the lamp in the tent of meeting
    • The place of tending is outside the veil that is before the testimony
    • Aaron and his sons are to tend it from evening until morning
    • The tending is to be before the LORD
    • This is to be a perpetual statute throughout their generations
    • The statute is on behalf of the children of Israel

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

27:1

A cubit was about eighteen inches, roughly the length of a forearm from elbow to fingertip. The altar is therefore about seven and a half feet square and four and a half feet high. An altar was a raised structure on which animals and grain were burned as offerings; this one stood in the open courtyard, not inside the tent. Acacia is a hard, dense desert wood, the main timber available in Sinai.

27:2

The horns were four upward projections, one at each top corner, made from the same block as the corners rather than attached separately. Blood from offerings was smeared on them, and someone in danger of death could seek protection by taking hold of them. Bronze (an alloy of copper and tin, called "brass" in the King James) was the toughest common metal of the time and is used throughout for the outdoor fittings, where gold is used inside the tent.

27:3

The pots were for carrying away the greasy ash left by burnt offerings; the forks were long hooks for lifting and turning pieces of meat on the fire; the firepans held live coals being moved from one place to another.

27:4

A grate is a screen of crossed metal bars, like the grill of a barbecue. Ashes drop through it and air comes up from below, which keeps the fire burning hot.

27:5

The rim, or ledge, is a shelf running round the outside of the altar. The bronze mesh sat below it, inside the hollow altar box, so the fire rested halfway up rather than at ground level.

27:6

God's people were moving from place to place. The poles let them lift the altar and carry it along.

27:7

The whole sanctuary was portable, designed to be dismantled and carried through the desert, so the altar has permanent rings and poles like a stretcher rather than being lifted directly.

27:8

The mountain is Sinai, where Moses is being given these instructions; the pattern he was shown is referred to earlier in the same set of directions.

27:9

The tabernacle is the portable tent-sanctuary being described from chapter 25 onward. The courtyard is the fenced enclosure around it: not a wall but linen sheets hung between posts, marking off the area where the altar stood. A hundred cubits is about a hundred and fifty feet.

27:10

The bases were heavy sockets that sat on the ground and held the posts upright. The hooks carried the linen hangings; the bands were rings or rods of silver around the posts. Fifty cubits is about seventy-five feet.

27:13

The east side, facing the sunrise, is the entrance end; the hangings described next leave a gap in the middle for the gate.

27:16

Blue, purple and scarlet were costly dyes (the first two from shellfish, the third from an insect) and mark this curtain as more elaborate than the plain white linen of the rest of the fence. Twenty cubits is about thirty feet.

27:18

Five cubits is about seven and a half feet, higher than a person, so the courtyard could not be seen into from outside.

27:19

Tent pegs were driven into the ground to hold the guy ropes that kept the posts and hangings taut, as with any large tent.

27:20

Oil from crushed olives means oil from the first crushing, before heat or heavy pressing, which is clearest and burns with least smoke and soot. The lamp is the seven-branched lampstand described in chapter 25.

27:21

The tent of meeting is another name for the tabernacle, the place where God was said to meet Moses. The curtain divides the tent into two rooms; the Testimony is the pair of stone tablets of the covenant, kept in the chest in the inner room. "Before the LORD" means in the sanctuary, in God's presence. A lasting rule is a standing regulation meant to hold for future generations, not a one-off instruction.