The Bible

The Bible › Exodus

Exodus 27

1“Make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits wide. The altar is to be square, and three cubits high. 2Make its horns on its four corners; its horns are to be of one piece with it. Overlay it with bronze. 3Make its pots for removing the fatty ashes, its shovels, its basins, its forks, and its firepans. Make all its utensils of bronze. 4Make a grating for it, a bronze network, and make four bronze rings on the network at its four corners. 5Put it under the ledge of the altar, below, so that the network reaches halfway up the altar. 6Make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. 7Its poles are to be put into the rings, so that the poles are on the two sides of the altar when it is carried. 8Make it hollow, of boards. Just as you were shown on the mountain, so they are to make it.

9“Make the courtyard of the dwelling. For the south side, facing south, the courtyard is to have hangings of fine twisted linen, a hundred cubits long for that side, 10with twenty pillars and their twenty bronze sockets. The pillars' hooks and bands are to be silver. 11Likewise along the north side there are to be hangings a hundred cubits long, with twenty pillars and their twenty bronze sockets. The pillars' hooks and bands are to be silver. 12For the width of the courtyard on the west side there are to be hangings fifty cubits long, with ten pillars and their ten sockets. 13The width of the courtyard on the front side, eastward, is to be fifty cubits. 14There are to be fifteen cubits of hangings on one side of the entrance, with three pillars and their three sockets, 15and fifteen cubits of hangings on the other side, with three pillars and their three sockets. 16For the courtyard gate there is to be a screen twenty cubits long, of blue, purple, and crimson yarn and fine twisted linen, the work of an embroiderer, with four pillars and their four sockets. 17All the courtyard's pillars around it are to be banded with silver, their hooks of silver and their sockets of bronze. 18The length of the courtyard is to be a hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits throughout, and its height five cubits, with fine twisted linen and their bronze sockets. 19All the dwelling's utensils for all its service, all its pegs, and all the pegs of the courtyard are to be bronze.

20“And you are to command the sons of Israel to bring you pure oil of beaten olives for the light, to keep a lamp burning regularly. 21In the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons are to tend it from evening until morning before Yahweh. It is a lasting statute throughout their generations, on behalf of the sons of Israel.

Translation notes 4

27:1–8 — The altar. This altar is distinguished from the incense altar in chapter 30. Its horns are projecting corners. The text specifies a hollow wooden structure overlaid with bronze; it does not give a complete account of how every surface was protected from fire.

27:4–5 — Grating and ledge. The network's exact relation to the ledge and the altar's interior is debated. The translation keeps the stated halfway height without presenting a speculative reconstruction as a direct Hebrew instruction.

27:9–19 — Court measurements. The dimensions are retained in cubits rather than converted with uncertain modern precision. The gate screen occupies twenty cubits between two fifteen-cubit sections, completing the fifty-cubit east side. “Bands” is a conventional identification of the silver connecting or binding fittings.

27:20–21 — Regular light. The Hebrew word can mean continual or regular. The following instruction specifies evening to morning, so “regularly” preserves the recurring obligation without adding that these lamps must burn every hour of the day. “Tent of meeting” names the place appointed for meeting with Yahweh.