Exodus 27

1 And make an altar of hard wood, a square altar, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high.

2 Put horns at the four angles of it, made of the same, plating it all with brass.

3 And make all its vessels, the baskets for taking away the dust of the fire, the spades and basins and meat-hooks and fire-trays, of brass.

4 And make a network of brass, with four brass rings at its four angles.

5 And put the network under the shelf round the altar so that the net comes half-way up the altar.

6 And make rods for the altar, of hard wood, plated with brass.

7 And put the rods through the rings at the two opposite sides of the altar, for lifting it.

8 The altar is to be hollow, boarded in with wood; make it from the design which you saw on the mountain.

9 And let there be an open space round the House, with hangings for its south side of the best linen, a hundred cubits long.

10 Their twenty pillars and their twenty bases are to be of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their bands are to be of silver.

11 And on the north side in the same way, hangings a hundred cubits long, with twenty pillars of brass on bases of brass; their hooks and their bands are to be of silver.

12 And for the open space on the west side, the hangings are to be fifty cubits wide, with ten pillars and ten bases;

13 And on the east side the space is to be fifty cubits wide.

14 On the one side of the doorway will be hangings fifteen cubits long, with three pillars and three bases;

15 And on the other side, hangings fifteen cubits long, with three pillars and three bases.

16 And across the doorway, a veil of twenty cubits of the best linen, made of needlework of blue and purple and red, with four pillars and four bases.

17 All the pillars round the open space are to have silver bands, with hooks of silver and bases of brass.

18 The open space is to be a hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, with sides five cubits high, curtained with the best linen, with bases of brass.

19 All the instruments for the work of the House, and all its nails, and the nails of the open space are to be of brass.

20 Give orders to the children of Israel to give you clear olive oil for the lights, so that a light may be burning there at all times.

21 Let Aaron and his sons put this in order, evening and morning, before the Lord, inside the Tent of meeting, outside the veil which is before the ark; this is to be an order for ever, from generation to generation, to be kept by the children of Israel.

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Exodus 27 Commentary

Chapter 27

The altar of burnt offerings. (1-8) The court of the tabernacle. (9-19) The oil for the lamps. (20,21)

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.

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.

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.

Taken from Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 27

This chapter treats of the altar of burnt offering, and of all things relative to it, Ex 27:1-8, of the court of the tabernacle, its hangings on each side, with pillars, sockets, and hooks for them, Ex 27:9-19 and it is concluded with an order to the Israelites to bring oil olive for the lamp of the sanctuary, Ex 27:20,21.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible