Exodus 20:24-26

20:24 ‘You must make for me an altar made of earth, ¹  and you will sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, ²  your sheep and your cattle. In every place ³  where I cause my name to be honored ⁴  I will come to you and I will bless you. 20:25 If you make me an altar of stone, you must not build it ⁵  of stones shaped with tools, ⁶  for if you use your tool on it you have defiled it. ⁷  20:26 And you must not go up by steps to my altar, so that your nakedness is not exposed.’ ⁸ 

Exodus 24:4

24:4 and Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Early in the morning he built ⁹  an altar at the foot ¹⁰  of the mountain and arranged ¹¹  twelve standing stones ¹²  – according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

Exodus 38:1-7

The Making of the Altar for the Burnt Offering

38:1 He made the altar for the burnt offering of acacia wood seven feet six inches long and seven feet six inches wide – it was square – and its height was four feet six inches. 38:2 He made its horns on its four corners; its horns were part of it, ¹³  and he overlaid it with bronze. 38:3 He made all the utensils of the altar – the pots, the shovels, the tossing bowls, the meat hooks, and the fire pans – he made all its utensils of bronze. 38:4 He made a grating for the altar, a network of bronze under its ledge, halfway up from the bottom. 38:5 He cast four rings for the four corners of the bronze grating, to provide places for the poles. 38:6 He made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with bronze. 38:7 He put the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar, with which to carry it. He made the altar ¹⁴  hollow, out of boards.

Exodus 40:10

40:10 Then you are to anoint the altar for the burnt offering with ¹⁵  all its utensils; you are to sanctify the altar, and it will be the most holy altar.

Exodus 40:29

40:29 He also put the altar for the burnt offering by the entrance to the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the meal offering, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Exodus 40:2

40:2 “On the first day of the first month you are to set up ¹⁶  the tabernacle, the tent of meeting.

Exodus 24:18

24:18 Moses went into the cloud when he went up ¹⁷  the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. ¹⁸ 

Exodus 24:2

24:2 Moses alone may come ¹⁹  near the Lord, but the others ²⁰  must not come near, ²¹  nor may the people go up with him.”

Exodus 4:1

The Source of Sufficiency

4:1 ²² Moses answered again, ²³  “And if ²⁴  they do not believe me or pay attention to me, ²⁵  but say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you’?”

Ezekiel 43:13-17

The Altar

43:13 “And these are the measurements of the altar: ²⁶  Its base ²⁷  is 1¾ feet ²⁸  high, ²⁹  and 1¾ feet ³⁰  wide, and its border nine inches ³¹  on its edge. This is to be the height ³²  of the altar. 43:14 From the base of the ground to the lower edge is 3½ feet, ³³  and the width 1¾ feet; ³⁴  and from the smaller ledge to the larger edge, 7 feet, ³⁵  and the width 1¾ feet; 43:15 and the altar hearth, 7 feet, and from the altar hearth four horns projecting upward. 43:16 Now the altar hearth ³⁶  is a perfect square, 21 feet ³⁷  long and 21 feet wide. 43:17 The ledge is 24½ feet ³⁸  long and 24½ feet wide on four sides; the border around it is 10½ inches, ³⁹  and its surrounding base 1¾ feet. ⁴⁰  Its steps face east.”

Hebrews 13:10

13:10 We have an altar that those who serve in the tabernacle have no right to eat from.

[20:24]  ¹ sn The instructions here call for the altar to be made of natural things, not things manufactured or shaped by man. The altar was either to be made of clumps of earth or natural, unhewn rocks.

[20:24]  ² sn The “burnt offering” is the offering prescribed in Lev 1. Everything of this animal went up in smoke as a sweet aroma to God. It signified complete surrender by the worshiper who brought the animal, and complete acceptance by God, thereby making atonement. The “peace offering” is legislated in Lev 3 and 7. This was a communal meal offering to celebrate being at peace with God. It was made usually for thanksgiving, for payment of vows, or as a freewill offering.

[20:24]  ³ tn Gesenius lists this as one of the few places where the noun in construct seems to be indefinite in spite of the fact that the genitive has the article. He says בְּכָל־הַמָּקוֹם (bÿkhol-hammaqom) means “in all the place, sc. of the sanctuary, and is a dogmatic correction of “in every place” (כָּל־מָקוֹם, kol-maqom). See GKC 412 §127.e.

[20:24]  ⁴ tn The verb is זָכַר (zakhar, “to remember”), but in the Hiphil especially it can mean more than remember or cause to remember (remind) – it has the sense of praise or honor. B. S. Childs says it has a denominative meaning, “to proclaim” (Exodus [OTL], 447). The point of the verse is that God will give Israel reason for praising and honoring him, and in every place that occurs he will make his presence known by blessing them.

[20:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “them” referring to the stones.

[20:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “of hewn stones.” Gesenius classifies this as an adverbial accusative – “you shall not build them (the stones of the altar) as hewn stones.” The remoter accusative is in apposition to the nearer (GKC 372 §117.kk).

[20:25]  ⁷ tn The verb is a preterite with vav (ו) consecutive. It forms the apodosis in a conditional clause: “if you lift up your tool on it…you have defiled it.”

[20:26]  ⁸ tn Heb “uncovered” (so ASV, NAB).

[24:4]  ⁹ tn The two preterites quite likely form a verbal hendiadys (the verb “to get up early” is frequently in such constructions). Literally it says, “and he got up early [in the morning] and he built”; this means “early [in the morning] he built.” The first verb becomes the adverb.

[24:4]  ¹⁰ tn “under.”

[24:4]  ¹¹ tn The verb “arranged” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied to clarify exactly what Moses did with the twelve stones.

[24:4]  ¹² tn The thing numbered is found in the singular when the number is plural – “twelve standing-stone.” See GKC 433 §134.f. The “standing-stone” could be a small piece about a foot high, or a huge column higher than men. They served to commemorate treaties (Gen 32), or visions (Gen 28) or boundaries, or graves. Here it will function with the altar as a place of worship.

[38:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “its horns were from it,” meaning from the same piece.

[38:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the altar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[40:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and.”

[40:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “you will raise,” an imperfect of instruction.

[24:18]  ¹⁷ tn The verb is a preterite with vav (ו) consecutive; here, the second clause, is subordinated to the first preterite, because it seems that the entering into the cloud is the dominant point in this section of the chapter.

[24:18]  ¹⁸ sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 750) offers this description of some of the mystery involved in Moses’ ascending into the cloud: Moses ascended into the presence of God, but remained on earth. He did not rise to heaven – the ground remained firmly under his feet. But he clearly was brought into God’s presence; he was like a heavenly servant before God’s throne, like the angels, and he consumed neither bread nor water. The purpose of his being there was to become familiar with all God’s demands and purposes. He would receive the tablets of stone and all the instructions for the tabernacle that was to be built (beginning in chap. 25). He would not descend until the sin of the golden calf.

[24:2]  ¹⁹ tn The verb is a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive; it and the preceding perfect tense follow the imperative, and so have either a force of instruction, or, as taken here, are the equivalent of an imperfect tense (of permission).

[24:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “they.”

[24:2]  ²¹ tn Now the imperfect tense negated is used; here the prohibition would fit (“they will not come near”), or the obligatory (“they must not”) in which the subjects are obliged to act – or not act in this case.

[4:1]  ²² sn In chap. 3, the first part of this extensive call, Yahweh promises to deliver his people. At the hesitancy of Moses, God guarantees his presence will be with him, and that assures the success of the mission. But with chap. 4, the second half of the call, the tone changes sharply. Now Moses protests his inadequacies in view of the nature of the task. In many ways, these verses address the question, “Who is sufficient for these things?” There are three basic movements in the passage. The first nine verses tell how God gave Moses signs in case Israel did not believe him (4:1-9). The second section records how God dealt with the speech problem of Moses (4:10-12). And finally, the last section records God’s provision of a helper, someone who could talk well (4:13-17). See also J. E. Hamlin, “The Liberator’s Ordeal: A Study of Exodus 4:1-9,” Rhetorical Criticism [PTMS], 33-42.

[4:1]  ²³ tn Heb “and Moses answered and said.”

[4:1]  ²⁴ tn Or “What if.” The use of הֵן (hen) is unusual here, introducing a conditional idea in the question without a following consequence clause (see Exod 8:22 HT [8:26 ET]; Jer 2:10; 2 Chr 7:13). The Greek has “if not” but adds the clause “what shall I say to them?”

[4:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “listen to my voice,” so as to respond positively.

[43:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the measurements of the altar by cubits, the cubit being a cubit and a handbreadth.” The measuring units here and in the remainder of this section are the Hebrew “long” cubit, consisting of a cubit (about 18 inches or 45 cm) and a handbreadth (about 3 inches or 7.5 cm), for a total of 21 inches (52.5 cm). Because modern readers are not familiar with the cubit as a unit of measurement, and due to the additional complication of the “long” cubit as opposed to the regular cubit, all measurements have been converted to American standard feet and inches, with the Hebrew measurements and the metric equivalents given in the notes. On the altar see Ezek 40:47.

[43:13]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew term normally means “bosom.” Here it refers to a hollow in the ground.

[43:13]  ²⁸ tn Heb “one cubit” (i.e., 52.5 cm).

[43:13]  ²⁹ tn The word “high” is not in the Hebrew text but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[43:13]  ³⁰ tn Heb “one cubit” (i.e., 52.5 cm).

[43:13]  ³¹ tn Heb “one span.” A span was three handbreadths, or about nine inches (i.e., 22.5 cm).

[43:13]  ³² tc Heb “bulge, protuberance, mound.” The translation follows the LXX.

[43:14]  ³³ tn Heb “two cubits” (i.e., 1.05 meters).

[43:14]  ³⁴ tn Heb “one cubit” (i.e., 52.5 cm; the phrase occurs again later in this verse).

[43:14]  ³⁵ tn Heb “four cubits” (i.e., 2.1 meters; the phrase also occurs in the next verse).

[43:16]  ³⁶ tn The precise Hebrew word used here to refer to an “altar hearth” occurs only here in the OT.

[43:16]  ³⁷ tn Heb “twelve cubits” (i.e., 6.3 meters; the phrase occurs twice in this verse).

[43:17]  ³⁸ tn Heb “fourteen”; the word “cubits” is not in the Hebrew text but is understood from the context; the phrase occurs again later in this verse. Fourteen cubits is about 7.35 meters.

[43:17]  ³⁹ tn Heb “half a cubit” (i.e., 26.25 cm).

[43:17]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “one cubit” (i.e., 52.5 cm).