The Altar of Burnt Offering

271 "Make an Altar of acacia wood. Make it seven and a half feet square and four and a half feet high. 2 Make horns at each of the four corners. The horns are to be of one piece with the Altar and covered with a veneer of bronze. 3 Make buckets for removing the ashes, along with shovels, basins, forks, and fire pans. Make all these utensils from bronze. 4 Make a grate of bronze mesh and attach bronze rings at each of the four corners. 5 Put the grate under the ledge of the Altar at the halfway point of the Altar. 6 Make acacia wood poles for the Altar and cover them with a veneer of bronze. 7 Insert the poles through the rings on the two sides of the Altar for carrying. 8 Use boards to make the Altar, keeping the interior hollow. The Courtyard

Matthew Henry's Commentary on Exodus 27:1-8

Commentary on Exodus 27:1-8

(Read Exodus 27:1-8)

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.