Exodus 27:8

_HOLLOW WITH BOARDS SHALT THOU MAKE IT: AS IT WAS SHEWED THEE IN THE MOUNT, SO SHALL THEY MAKE IT._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

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....

Verse Exodus 27:8. _HOLLOW WITH BOARDS_] It seems to have been a kind of _frame-work_, and to have had nothing solid in the inside, and only covered with the grating at the top. This rendered it more light and portable....

(Compare Exodus 38:1.) The great altar which stood in the court immediately in front of the tabernacle was commonly called the altar of burnt-offering, because on it were burnt the whole burnt-offerings, and all those parts of the other animal sacrifices which were offered to the Lord. It was also called the brazen altar, because it was covered with bronze, in distinction from the golden altar or altar of incense Exodus 39:38; Exodus 40:5. Exodus 27:2 HIS HORNS SHALL BE OF THE SAME - These horns were projections pointing upward in the form either of a small obelisk, or of

EXPOSITION THE ALTAR OF BURNT OFFERING. From the description of the tabernacle, or sacred tent in which worship was to be offered by the priests, it followed in natural sequence, that directions should be given concerning the court, or precinct, within which the tabernacle was to stand Ancient temples were almost universally surrounded by precincts, which the Greeks called τεμένη, whereto a sacred character attached; and this was particularly the case in Egypt, where the _temenos_ seems to have been a regular adjunct to the temple. Among the chief uses of such an open space, was the offering of victims on altars, as these could not be conveniently consumed elsewhere than in the open air, on account of the clouds of smoke and the fumes of the sacrifices. As in the description of the tabernacle, the furniture was first described, then the structure, so now the altar take

HOLLOW WITH BOARDS SHALT THOU MAKE IT,.... The frame of it being made of boards of shittim wood, there was nothing within side but the grate, which was put within the square, down into the middle of it, and so was light of carriage; though the Targum of Jonathan, and other Jewish writers, represent this hollow as filled up with dust and earth, to answer to the altar of earth Moses was before bid to make; but this seems quite contrary to the present direction: the hollowness of the altar may denote the emptiness of Christ when he became a sacrifice: he emptied himself, as it were, when he became incarnate, of all his greatness, glory, and riches, and became mean and poor for the sake of his people, that they through his poverty might be made rich, Philippians 2:7 AS IT WAS SHOWED THEE IN THE MOUNT, SO SHALL THEY MAKE IT; or, "as he showed thee" g, that is, God. Moses h

CHAPTER 27 THE TABERNACLE CONCLUDED _ 1. The altar of brass (Exodus 27:1)_ 2. The court of the tabernacle (Exodus 27:9) 3. The oil for the lamp (Exodus 27:20) The brazen altar stood at the door of the tabernacle. Later we find in this book the golden altar of incense mentioned. It stood between the golden candlestick and the brazen altar. This altar was likewise of shittim wood. Instead of gold, here was brass, because the altar is the type of the cross where Christ met the burning heat of divine justice. Upon this altar the burnt offering was brought and wholly consumed, speaking of Him who knew no sin and was made sin for us. The altar was hollow, the sacrificial fires burned mostly within.

EXODUS 27. P. ALTAR AND OUTER COURT (_cf. Exodus 38:1_, Exodus 38:9). In strongest contrast to Exodus 20:24, with its sanction of many altars, rudely made of earth or rough stone blocks, we find instructions for the altar to be made of wood plated with bronze, 7½ feet square and 4½ feet high, with horn-like projections at the corners, according to a widespread custom of uncertain meaning (Exodus 27:1 f.). Its vessels were to be of bronze (Exodus 27:3); and the (usual) ledge for the priests to stand on, half way up the altar, was to be supported by a bronz

AS. Hebrew according as....

(cf. Exodus 38:1-7). The _altar of burnt-offering_. This was a hollow frame of acacia planks, overlaid with copper (or bronze) 5 cubits (=7 ½ ft.) in length and breadth, and 3 cubits (1 ½ ft.) in height at each corner, a -horn," of the same material, projected outwards Round the altar, mid-way between top and bottom, ran a projecting ledge, probably for the priests to stand upon when sacrificing, supported at its outer edge by a vertical grating of bronze, that rested on the ground. At the corners of this grating, presumably where it me the ledge, there were rings to receive the poles for carrying the altar....