Exodus 27 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~1446 BC on the earlier dating, or ~1260 BC on the later one, during Moses' stay on the mountain
Location
Mount Sinai, describing the open courtyard that would surround the tent sanctuary in each desert camp
Audience
The people of Israel, who would gather in this courtyard to bring their offerings
Situation
God gives plans for the bronze altar where animal sacrifices were burned, complete with horns at its corners, a grating and carrying poles. He then describes the courtyard enclosed by linen hangings on posts, and commands that the people supply clear olive oil so the lamps burn from evening until morning.
Key Background
The horns projecting from the altar's corners were a widespread feature of Near Eastern altars, and in Israel a person fleeing violence could grab them to claim sanctuary until a case was heard. Bronze rather than gold is used throughout the courtyard, marking a gradient of value that rises as one moves inward toward the ark, so the metals themselves signal degrees of nearness to God. The courtyard measuring roughly fifty by a hundred metres created a defined public space in open desert, and providing beaten olive oil for the lamps was an ongoing obligation of ordinary households rather than a one-off gift.
Build the out of — make it square, seven and a half feet long by seven and a half feet wide, and four and a half feet tall.
Make a horn-shaped projection on each of the four corners — these should be one piece with the altar itself. Then overlay the whole thing with
Make pots for clearing away the ashes, along with shovels, for meat forks, and fire pans. Make all of these utensils out of bronze.
Make a for it — a mesh network out of bronze — and attach a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the mesh.
Set the mesh below the rim of the altar, halfway down, so it sits at the midpoint of the altar.
Make for the altar out of acacia wood and overlay them with bronze.
Slide the poles through the rings so they are on both sides of the altar for carrying it.
Build the altar hollow, out of planks, exactly as you were on the
Now make the for the The south side should have curtains of a hundred and fifty feet long along that side,
with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and silver hooks and bands on the posts.
The north side should be the same — curtains a hundred and fifty feet long, with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and silver hooks and bands on the posts.
The west side of the courtyard should have curtains seventy-five feet wide, with ten posts and ten bases.
The east side of the courtyard — the front — should also be seventy-five feet wide.
On one side of the entrance, hang twenty-two and a half feet of curtains, with three posts and three bases.
On the other side, hang another twenty-two and a half feet of curtains, with three posts and three bases.
For the entrance to the courtyard itself, make a thirty feet wide out of and woven into fine linen — the work of a skilled embroiderer — with four posts and four bases.
All the posts around the courtyard should have silver bands and hooks, with bronze bases.
The courtyard should be a hundred and fifty feet long and seventy-five feet wide, with curtains of finely woven linen seven and a half feet high, set in bronze bases.
All the equipment used for service in the dwelling place — every tent peg for the dwelling place and for the courtyard — should be made of bronze.
Command the Israelites to bring you from for the light, so the can burn continually.
In the outside the curtain that hangs in front of the and his sons will keep the lamps burning in from evening until morning. This will be a for all generations of Israelites.