Exodus 26:2

26:2 The length of each ¹  curtain is to be forty-two feet, and the width of each curtain is to be six feet ²  – the same size for each of the curtains.

Exodus 27:2

27:2 You are to make its four horns ³  on its four corners; its horns will be part of it, ⁴  and you are to overlay it with bronze.

Exodus 29:1

The Consecration of Aaron and His Sons

29:1 ⁵ “Now this is what ⁶  you are to do for them to consecrate them so that they may minister as my priests. Take a young ⁷  bull and two rams without blemish; ⁸ 

[26:2]  ¹ tn Heb “one” (so KJV).

[26:2]  ² tn Heb “twenty-eight cubits” long and “four cubits” wide.

[27:2]  ³ sn The horns of the altar were indispensable – they were the most sacred part. Blood was put on them; fugitives could cling to them, and the priests would grab the horns of the little altar when making intercessory prayer. They signified power, as horns on an animal did in the wild (and so the word was used for kings as well). The horns may also represent the sacrificial animals killed on the altar.

[27:2]  ⁴ sn The text, as before, uses the prepositional phrase “from it” or “part of it” to say that the horns will be part of the altar – of the same piece as the altar. They were not to be made separately and then attached, but made at the end of the boards used to build the altar (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 363).

[29:1]  ⁵ sn Chap. 29 is a rather long, involved discussion of the consecration of Aaron the priest. It is similar to the ordination service in Lev 8. In fact, the execution of what is instructed here is narrated there. But these instructions must have been formulated after or in conjunction with Lev 1-7, for they presuppose a knowledge of the sacrifices. The bulk of the chapter is the consecration of the priests: 1-35. It has the preparation (1-3), washing (4), investiture and anointing (5-9), sin offering (10-14), burnt offering (15-18), installation peace offering (19-26, 31-34), other offerings’ rulings (27-30), and the duration of the ritual (35). Then there is the consecration of the altar (36-37), and the oblations (38-46). There are many possibilities for the study and exposition of this material. The whole chapter is the consecration of tabernacle, altar, people, and most of all the priests. God was beginning the holy operations with sacral ritual. So the overall message would be: Everyone who ministers, everyone who worships, and everything they use in the presence of Yahweh, must be set apart to God by the cleansing, enabling, and sanctifying work of God.

[29:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “the thing.”

[29:1]  ⁷ tn Literally: “take one bull, a ‘son’ of the herd.”

[29:1]  ⁸ tn The word תָּמִים (tamim) means “perfect.” The animals could not have diseases or be crippled or blind (see Mal 1). The requirement was designed to ensure that the people would give the best they had to Yahweh. The typology pointed to the sinless Messiah who would fulfill all these sacrifices in his one sacrifice on the cross.