271 “You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and its height shall be three cubits. 2 You shall make its horns on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it; and you shall overlay it with brass. 3 You shall make its pots to take away its ashes, its shovels, its basins, its flesh hooks, and its fire pans: all its vessels you shall make of brass. 4 You shall make a grating for it of network of brass: and on the net you shall make four bronze rings in its four corners. 5 You shall put it under the ledge around the altar beneath, that the net may reach halfway up the altar. 6 You shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with brass. 7 Its poles shall be put into the rings, and the poles shall be on the two sides of the altar, when carrying it. 8 You shall make it with hollow planks. They shall make it as it has been shown you 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.