BSB
Exodus 27
1“You are to build an altar of acacia wood. The altar must be square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high.
2Make a horn on each of its four corners, so that the horns are of one piece, and overlay it with bronze.
3Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots for removing ashes, its shovels, its sprinkling bowls, its meat forks, and its firepans.
4Construct for it a grate of bronze mesh, and make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the mesh.
5Set the grate beneath the ledge of the altar, so that the mesh comes halfway up the altar.
6Additionally, make poles of acacia wood for the altar and overlay them with bronze.
7The poles are to be inserted into the rings so that the poles are on two sides of the altar when it is carried.
8Construct the altar with boards so that it is hollow. It is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain.
9You are also to make a courtyard for the tabernacle. On the south side of the courtyard make curtains of finely spun linen, a hundred cubits long on one side,
10with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and silver hooks and bands on the posts.
11Likewise there are to be curtains on the north side, a hundred cubits long, with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and with silver hooks and bands on the posts.
12The curtains on the west side of the courtyard shall be fifty cubits wide, with ten posts and ten bases.
13The east side of the courtyard, toward the sunrise, is to be fifty cubits wide.
14Make the curtains on one side fifteen cubits long, with three posts and three bases,
15and the curtains on the other side fifteen cubits long, with three posts and three bases.
16The gate of the courtyard shall be twenty cubits long, with a curtain embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen. It shall have four posts and four bases.
17All the posts around the courtyard shall have silver bands, silver hooks, and bronze bases.
18The entire courtyard shall be a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide, with curtains of finely spun linen five cubits high, and with bronze bases.
19All the utensils of the tabernacle for every use, including all its tent pegs and the tent pegs of the courtyard, shall be made of bronze.
20And you are to command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually.
21In the Tent of Meeting, outside the veil that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening until morning. This is to be a permanent statute for the Israelites for the generations to come.
Study This Passage
Key Words and Topics
These study connections are drawn from the internal BSB concordance and topical index imported into Daily Bread Intake.
Key Words in This Passage
Select a word to open the full concordance search.
Related Topics
Altar in the Tabernacle: Furniture of Exodus 27:3–7
Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots for removing ashes, its shovels, its sprinkling bowls, its meat forks, and its firepans. / Construct for it a grate of bronze mesh, and make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the mesh. / Set the grate beneath the ledge of the altar, so that the mesh comes halfway up the altar.
Altar in the Tabernacle: Horns of Exodus 27:2
Make a horn on each of its four corners, so that the horns are of one piece, and overlay it with bronze.
Altar in the Tabernacle: Pattern of Exodus 27:1–8
“You are to build an altar of acacia wood. The altar must be square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high. / Make a horn on each of its four corners, so that the horns are of one piece, and overlay it with bronze. / Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots for removing ashes, its shovels, its sprinkling bowls, its meat forks, and its firepans.
Altars for Burnt-Offering Exodus 27:1–8
“You are to build an altar of acacia wood. The altar must be square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high. / Make a horn on each of its four corners, so that the horns are of one piece, and overlay it with bronze. / Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots for removing ashes, its shovels, its sprinkling bowls, its meat forks, and its firepans.
Basin: Made of Brass (Bronze) Exodus 27:3
Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots for removing ashes, its shovels, its sprinkling bowls, its meat forks, and its firepans.
Candlestick for the Tabernacle: Lighted by Priests Exodus 27:21
In the Tent of Meeting, outside the veil that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening until morning. This is to be a permanent statute for the Israelites for the generations to come.
Candlestick for the Tabernacle: Lighted with Olive Oil Exodus 27:20
And you are to command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually.
Candlestick of the Tabernacle: Burned Every Night Exodus 27:20, 21
And you are to command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually. / In the Tent of Meeting, outside the veil that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening until morning. This is to be a permanent statute for the Israelites for the generations to come.
Colors: These Colors Figured Largely in the Symbolisms of the Tabernacle Furnishing Exodus 27:16
The gate of the courtyard shall be twenty cubits long, with a curtain embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen. It shall have four posts and four bases.
Copper Brass: Made Into: Altars Exodus 27:2
Make a horn on each of its four corners, so that the horns are of one piece, and overlay it with bronze.
Copper Brass: Made Into: Sacred Vessels Exodus 27:3
Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots for removing ashes, its shovels, its sprinkling bowls, its meat forks, and its firepans.
Curtains for the Tabernacle Exodus 27:9–18
You are also to make a courtyard for the tabernacle. On the south side of the courtyard make curtains of finely spun linen, a hundred cubits long on one side, / with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and silver hooks and bands on the posts. / Likewise there are to be curtains on the north side, a hundred cubits long, with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and with silver hooks and bands on the posts.
Embroidery in Blue and Purple and Scarlet on the Curtains of the Tabernacle Exodus 27:16
The gate of the courtyard shall be twenty cubits long, with a curtain embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen. It shall have four posts and four bases.
Fleshhook used in the Tabernacle Exodus 27:3
Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots for removing ashes, its shovels, its sprinkling bowls, its meat forks, and its firepans.
Grate: General Scriptures Concerning Exodus 27:4, 5
Construct for it a grate of bronze mesh, and make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the mesh. / Set the grate beneath the ledge of the altar, so that the mesh comes halfway up the altar.
Hooks: Made of Silver Exodus 27:10
with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and silver hooks and bands on the posts.
Horns: Representations of, Placed at the Four Corners of the Altars Exodus 27:2
Make a horn on each of its four corners, so that the horns are of one piece, and overlay it with bronze.
Israel: Pattern for the Tabernacle and the Appurtenances, and Forms of Worship to be Observed Exodus 27:1
“You are to build an altar of acacia wood. The altar must be square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high.
Lamp: Kept Burning at Night in the Tabernacle and Cared for by Priest Exodus 27:20, 21
And you are to command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually. / In the Tent of Meeting, outside the veil that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening until morning. This is to be a permanent statute for the Israelites for the generations to come.
Linen: Curtains of the Tabernacle Made of Exodus 27:9
You are also to make a courtyard for the tabernacle. On the south side of the courtyard make curtains of finely spun linen, a hundred cubits long on one side,
Metals: Brass Exodus 27:2, 4
Make a horn on each of its four corners, so that the horns are of one piece, and overlay it with bronze. / Construct for it a grate of bronze mesh, and make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the mesh.
Oil used for Lamps Exodus 27:20
And you are to command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually.
Oil: Illuminating, for Tabernacle Exodus 27:20
And you are to command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually.
Priest: Duties of Light the Lamps in the Tabernacle Exodus 27:20, 21
And you are to command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually. / In the Tent of Meeting, outside the veil that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening until morning. This is to be a permanent statute for the Israelites for the generations to come.
Select a topic to open the full topical search.
Bible Dictionary
Related Dictionary Terms
Explore people, places, themes, and biblical terms connected to this passage.
Commentary Insights
Study and Reflection
Explore devotional and study commentary connected to this passage.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary
Historical, contextual, and verse-level study notes for deeper biblical exploration.
Exodus 27:1-2 Verses 1-2
altar of shittim wood--The dimensions of this altar which was placed at the entrance of the sanctuary were nearly three yards square, and a yard and a half in height. Under the wooden frame of this chest-like altar the inside was hollow, and each corner was to be terminated by "horns"--angular projections, perpendicular or oblique, in the form of horns. The animals to be sacrificed were bound to these (Ps 118:27), and part of the blood was applied to them.
Exodus 27:3 Verse 3
shovels--fire shovels for scraping together any of the scattered ashes. basons--for receiving the blood of the sacrifice to be sprinkled on the people. fleshhooks--curved, three-pronged forks (1Sa 2:13, 14). fire-pans--A large sort of vessel, wherein the sacred fire which came down from heaven (Le 9:24) was kept burning, while they cleaned the altar and the grate from the coals and ashes, and while the altar was carried from one place to another in the wilderness [Patrick, Spencer, Le Clerc].
Exodus 27:4 Verse 4
a grate of network of brass--sunk latticework to support the fire. four brazen rings--by which the grating might be lifted and taken away as occasion required from the body of the altar.
Exodus 27:5 Verse 5
put it under the compass of the altar beneath--that is, the grating in which they were carried to a clean place (Le 4:12).
Exodus 27:6-7 Verses 6-7
staves ... rings--Those rings were placed at the side through which the poles were inserted on occasions of removal. 9-19. the court of the tabernacle--The enclosure in which the edifice stood was a rectangular court, extending rather more than fifty yards in length and half that space in breadth, and the enclosing parapet was about three yards or half the height of the tabernacle. That parapet consisted of a connected series of curtains, made of fine twined linen yarn, woven into a kind of network, so that the people could see through; but that large curtain which overhung the entrance was of a different texture, being embroidered and dyed with variegated colors, and it was furnished with cords for pulling it up or drawing it aside when the priests had occasion to enter. The curtains of this enclosure were supported on sixty brazen pillars which stood on pedestals of the same metal, but their capitals and fillets were of silver, and the hooks on which they were suspended were of silver also.
Exodus 27:19 Verse 19
pins--were designed to hold down the curtains at the bottom, lest the wind should waft them aside.
Exodus 27:20-21 Verses 20-21
pure oil olive beaten--that is, such as runs from the olives when bruised and without the application of fire. for the light ... Aaron and his sons--were to take charge of lighting it in all time coming.
Exodus 27:21 Verse 21
shall order it from evening to morning--The tabernacle having no windows, the lamps required to be lighted during the day. Josephus says that in his time only three were lighted; but his were degenerate times, and there is no Scripture authority for this limitation. But although the priests were obliged from necessity to light them by day, they might have let them go out at night had it not been for this express ordinance.
Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
Pastoral and devotional reflections focused on spiritual formation and application.
Exodus 27:1-8 Verses 1-8
In the court before the tabernacle, where the people attended, was an altar, to which they must bring their sacrifices, and on which their priests must offer them to God. It was of wood overlaid with brass. A grate of brass was let into the hollow of the altar, about the middle of which the fire was kept, and the sacrifice burnt. It was made of net-work like a sieve, and hung hollow, that the ashes might fall through. This brazen altar was a type of Christ dying to make atonement for our sins. The wood had been consumed by the fire from heaven, if it had not been secured by the brass: nor could the human nature of Christ have borne the wrath of God, if it had not been supported by Divine power.
Exodus 27:9-19 Verses 9-19
The tabernacle was enclosed in a court, about sixty yards long and thirty broad, formed by curtains hung upon brazen pillars, fixed in brazen sockets. Within this enclosure the priests and Levites offered the sacrifices, and thither the Jewish people were admitted. These distinctions represented the difference between the visible nominal church, and the true spiritual church, which alone has access to God, and communion with him.
Exodus 27:20-21 Verses 20, 21
The pure oil signified the gifts and graces of the Spirit, which all believers receive from Christ, the good Olive, and without which our light cannot shine before men. The priests were to light the lamps, and tend them. It is the work of ministers, by preaching and expounding the Scriptures, which are as a lamp, to enlighten the church, God's tabernacle upon earth. Blessed be God, this light is not now confined to the Jewish tabernacle, but is a light to lighten the gentiles, and for salvation unto the ends of the earth.