271 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.
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.