Exodus 27
Instructions for the Bronze Altar 1–8
Design of the Tabernacle Court 9–19
Oil for the Perpetual Lamp 20–21
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Exodus 27
Verse 1
an altar of shittim wood — Mizbeach, altar, comes from zabach, to slay a sacrifice. This is the ‘altar of burnt offering’ (Ex 38:1), five cubits square and three high, set ‘before the door of the tabernacle’ (Ex 40:6). The earlier law forbade steps up to the LORD’s altar (Ex 20:26). Hebrews says, ‘We have an altar’ (Heb 13:10).
Verse 2
his horns shall be of the same — Qeren, horn: one stands at each of the four corners, made as one piece with the altar and overlaid with brass. The blood of the bullock was put ‘upon the horns of the altar with thy finger’ (Ex 29:12). Adonijah ‘caught hold on the horns of the altar’ (1 Kgs 1:50), and the psalm binds the sacrifice ‘even unto the horns of the altar’ (Ps 118:27).
Verse 3
his pans to receive his ashes — Dashen, the verb for removing ashes, is also the verb of ‘thou anointest my head with oil’ (Ps 23:5); the pans clear away what the fire has consumed. The priest carried the ashes ‘beside the altar’ and then ‘without the camp unto a clean place’ (Lev 6:10–11). ‘Basons’ (mizraq) are sprinkling bowls, from zaraq, to sprinkle.
Verse 8
as it was shewed thee in the mount — This is the fourth such charge in these chapters (Ex 25:9, 40; 26:30). ‘Hollow’ is nabab, and ‘boards’ is luach, the word used for the ‘tables of stone’ (Ex 24:12). Ex 38:7 records that the altar was made ‘hollow with boards’. Hebrews cites the instruction to Moses for the whole tabernacle (Heb 8:5).
Verse 9
the court of the tabernacle — Chatser is an enclosed yard. Its hangings (qela, screens) are fine twined linen, a hundred cubits long on the south side, which is named by two words, negeb and teman. The altar is set in it ‘before the door of the tabernacle’ (Ex 40:6), and Moses ‘reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar’ (Ex 40:33).
Verse 16
the gate of the court — Shaar is a gate. The hanging is twenty cubits wide, of blue, purple, scarlet and fine twined linen ‘wrought with needlework’ (raqam), between hangings of fifteen cubits on each side (vv.14–15). That makes fifty cubits at the east end, the breadth of the court (v.13). It has the same threads as the hanging for the door of the tent (Ex 26:36).
Verse 18
the length of the court shall be an hundred cubits — The court is a hundred cubits by fifty, with hangings of fine twined linen five cubits high (qomah), half the ten-cubit boards of the tabernacle (Ex 26:16). Its sockets are of brass (nechosheth), while the pillars are ‘filleted with silver’ and have silver hooks (v.17). The sanctuary’s own sockets were silver (Ex 26:19).
Verse 19
all the pins thereof — Yated is a peg or pin, of brass for both the tabernacle and the court, named with ‘their cords’ (Ex 35:18). The brass of the offering was ‘seventy talents, and two thousand and four hundred shekels’ (Ex 38:29), and from it were made ‘all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the pins of the court round about’ (Ex 38:31).
Verse 20
pure oil olive beaten for the light — Zak is clear or pure, kathith beaten, crushed oil from the olive. ‘Light’ is maor, the word used of the ‘lights in the firmament’ (Gen 1:14). ‘To burn always’ translates tamid, continually, as the same command is repeated, ‘to cause the lamps to burn continually’ (Lev 24:2).
Verse 21
from evening to morning — ‘Tabernacle of the congregation’ is ohel moed, the tent of the appointed meeting (yaad, as in Ex 25:22). The lamp stands outside the veil, ‘before the testimony’, and Aaron and his sons ‘order’ (arak, arrange) it as ‘a statute for ever’. Aaron lights the lamps at even (Ex 30:8). Samuel was laid down to sleep before ‘the lamp of God went out’ (1 Sam 3:3).