Exoduschapter 27
21 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · The Law
Make a horn on each of its four corners, so that the horns are of one piece, and overlay it with bronze.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Exodus Overview.
This chapter moves out from the tent into the open air around it. Moses received the plan for the altar and the courtyard, the part of the sanctuary that every Israelite would see and smell. The altar is built for heavy daily use, and the courtyard is laid out with a single entrance. Listen for the metal chosen here, which differs from the gold of the inner rooms. Listen also for the lamp at the end, which is to burn through every night.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, who would see this altar smoking every morning of their lives
- What
- The plans for the bronze altar of burnt offering, the linen-walled courtyard around the tabernacle and the oil for the lamp.
- Where
- The summit of Mount Sinai, where Moses received the pattern while the camp waited at the foot of the mountain.
- When
- The forty days Moses spent on Sinai after the covenant was sealed, about 1446 BC on the early date this site follows.
- Why
- To give Israel one place of sacrifice, one way in, and a light kept burning before the LORD.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to the law Exodus says Moses wrote at God's command, recorded at 17:14, at 24:4 and at 34:27, while he was going up and down the mountain between God and the people. The critical reading takes the legal sections for a later compilation from several sources, a position argued by Julius Wellhausen and the tradition following him, and the site states no verdict on it.
Show the rest of the historical context, 8 more paragraphs
The chapter gives the outer court, and Albert Barnes notes that verse 21 carries the first occurrence of the name Tent of Meeting.
A first hearer knew what the horns of an altar were for, and horned altars have been excavated at Israelite sites including Beersheba and Megiddo.
The horns were what a fugitive took hold of when he claimed sanctuary, and Adam Clarke notes at 21:14 that the altar was the common asylum before the cities of refuge were assigned.
He knew the metal, since the utensils are listed like a working kitchen's, with pots for the ashes, shovels, basins, forks and firepans, all of bronze.
Adam Clarke gives the reason for bronze as the severity of the service, which would soon have worn out a finer metal.
The courtyard is a linen-screened enclosure a hundred cubits by fifty with a single gate on the east, so there was one way in.
The lamp is fed with beaten olive oil, which Adam Clarke describes as the mother drop, running out after a light bruising and purer than what the press yields.
Aaron and his sons tend the lamps from evening to morning as a permanent statute.
Significance
Everyone entering the courtyard passed the altar first, so that the order of the furniture was itself a doctrine.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The lamp was to burn continually, which meant that somebody was up trimming it in the dark. Worship in Israel was a job of work.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The chapter gives the bronze altar, the court and the oil for the lamp. On the very first measurement Rashi reports a difference between two Rabbis and leaves it standing. Rabbi Jehudah takes the three cubits as written. Rabbi Jose argues from the word square, used here and of the golden altar at Exodus 30:2, that the height was ten (Rashi on Exodus 27:1:1). The horns are made of one piece with the altar rather than attached afterwards (Rashi on Exodus 27:2:1). The copper overlay he reads as a covering for a particular sin. It atones "to atone for sins committed with effrontery", which he ties to the copper forehead of Isaiah 48:4 (Rashi on Exodus 27:2:2, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Terumah 11). The hangings of the court he pictures from ordinary work, "made like the sails of ships, full of holes, of plaited work" (Rashi on Exodus 27:9:1). The columns stood five cubits apart, and he counts them corner by corner round the court (Rashi on Exodus 27:10:1 and 27:14:1). The east is called the front of the world and the west its back, which is why the sea to the west is the hinder sea (Rashi on Exodus 27:13:1). The clear oil is got by letting the olive ripen on the tree rather than by straining (Rashi on Exodus 27:20:1, citing Menachot 86a). The measure for the lamp comes from the longest nights. The Rabbis reckoned half a log of oil enough for the nights of Tebeth, and set the same measure for every night of the year (Rashi on Exodus 27:21:1, citing Menachot 89a). Rashi is quoted from the Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition of 1929 to 1934, public domain. Ibn Ezra comments at Exodus 27:1:1, 27:4:1, 27:5:1, 27:8:1 and 27:12:1 under a licence that keeps his text off this page. Malbim comments at Exodus 27:16:1 with no English version in the corpus.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty places where the Midrash and the Talmud draw on this chapter, cited here by reference. Midrash Lekach Tov follows the altar and its vessels at Exodus 27:3:1, 27:3:2 and 27:3:3. It continues at Exodus 27:4:1, 27:5:1, 27:5:2, 27:9:1, 27:19:1 and 27:19:2. Bamidbar Rabbah reads the chapter at 6:3, 12:4, 13:19, 15:1, 15:7 and 21:22. The court and its measurements are read in Eruvin at 2b:2 and 23b:5, and in Bereshit Rabbah 5:7. The Jerusalem Talmud takes up the altar at Pesachim 5:1:9 and 5:3:9, and at Chagigah 3:8:5. It reads the court and the lamp at Megillah 1:9:4, Sanhedrin 3:9:3, Yoma 1:1:9 and 3:6:4. The Ein Yaakov collections carry the chapter at Bava Batra 1:26, Sanhedrin 2:16, Menakhot 10:2, Shabbat 2:8 and Yoma 5:2. The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael reads the staves at Tractate Kaspa 1:2, and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah at 368:2.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Exodus 27:1 to 27:21, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain, 1040 to 1105; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Exodus 27:1:1, 27:4:1, 27:5:1, 27:8:1 and 27:12:1, cited by reference, CC-BY-NC, 1089 to 1164; Malbim, Malbim on Exodus 27:16:1, cited by reference, no English version in the corpus; Midrash Tanchuma, Terumah 11, as Rashi cites it; Babylonian Talmud, Menachot 86a and 89a, as Rashi cites them, and Eruvin 2b:2 and 23b:5, cited by reference; Jerusalem Talmud, Pesachim 5:1:9 and 5:3:9, Chagigah 3:8:5 and Yoma 1:1:9, cited by reference; Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 27:3:1 to 27:19:2, cited by reference; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/exodus/27.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026; MannaFest, the commentators and their dates, src/app/featured/the-jewish-writings/page.tsx, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Altar of Bronze
Exodus 40:6 places this altar before the door of the tent, so it is the first object anyone entering the court comes to. Its overlay is brass where everything inside the tent is gold, which carries on the grading of chapter 26, where the metal grows plainer the further out a thing sits. The horns are worked out of the same piece rather than fastened on, blood goes on them at Exodus 29:12, and Adonijah and then Joab later catch hold of them for their lives at 1 Kings 1:50 and 1 Kings 2:28.
Exodus 27:1
“And thou shall make an altar of shittim wood,.... This is a different altar from that made of earth before the tabernacle was built, Exo 20:24 and from the altar of incense, Exo 30:1 this was to offer burnt offerings on, and was placed at the door of the tabernacle, in the court of the people, where they brought their sacrifices to the priests to offer for them: it stood in the open air, as it was proper it should, that the smoke or the sacrifices might ascend up and scatter.”
ConnectionsHebrews 13:10
Exodus 27:2
“Thou shalt make the horns of it - The horns might have three uses: 1. For ornament. 2. To prevent carcasses, etc., from falling off. 3. To tie the victim to, previously to its being sacrificed. So David: Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar; Psa 118:27. Horns were much used in all ancient altars among the heathen, and some of them were entirely constructed of the horns of the beasts that had been offered in sacrifice; but such altars appear to be erected rather as trophies in honor of their gods.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The list of vessels opens with the pans for the ashes, so the first tool named is the one for clearing away what the fire has already consumed. Leviticus 6:10 and 6:11 make that a daily priestly duty, done in linen garments and finished by carrying the ashes outside the camp to a clean place. Every item here is brass, including the grate that holds the fire, and no gold comes near this altar.
Exodus 27:3
“Thou shalt make his pans - סירתיו sirothaiv, a sort or large brazen dishes, which stood under the altar to receive the ashes that fell through the grating. His shovels - יעיו yaaiv. Some render this besoms; but as these were brazen instruments, it is more natural to suppose that some kind of fire-shovels are intended, or scuttles, which were used to carry off the ashes that fell through the grating into the large pan or siroth.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 27:4
“Thou shalt make for it a grate - Calmet supposes this altar to have been a sort of box, covered with brass plates, on the top of which was a grating to supply the fire with air, and permit the ashes to fall through into the siroth or pan that was placed below. At the four corners of the grating were four rings and four chains, by which it was attached to the four horns; and at the sides were rings for the poles of shittim wood with which it was carried.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 27:5
“And thou shalt put it under the compass of the altar beneath,.... That is, the grate was to be put within the square compass of the altar, in the hollow part of it, for the wood and sacrifice to be laid upon it: that the net may be even to the midst of the altar; and as the altar was three cubits high, this net or grate was let down by chains to its rings a cubit and a half, and being of such a depth was capable of containing a great deal.”
Staves and rings mean the altar travels, and verse 8 says it is hollow with boards rather than solid. Exodus 20:24 and 20:25 had commanded an altar of earth, or one of stone left unhewn, and this is a frame built to be carried and filled. Verse 8 then repeats the refrain of Exodus 25:40 and Exodus 26:30, that it is made as it was shewed thee in the mount, and Hebrews 8:5 quotes that line and calls the whole structure the example and shadow of heavenly things.
Exodus 27:6
“And thou shalt make staves for the altar, staves of shittim wood,.... Like those that were made for the ark, and for the same purpose: and overlay them with brass; with plates of brass, whereas those for the ark were overlaid with gold.”
Exodus 27:8
“Hollow with boards - It seems to have been a kind of frame-work, and to have had nothing solid in the inside, and only covered with the grating at the top. This rendered it more light and portable.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 27:8
“Now this brazen altar was a type of Christ dying to make atonement for our sins: the wood would have 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 a divine power.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The Court of the Tabernacle
The word court occurs here for the first time in Scripture, and what it names is a wall of plain white linen a hundred cubits long by fifty broad. Its pillars stand in sockets of brass and are hooked and filleted with silver, so the perimeter repeats the tent's own order of metals with the plainest at the ground. Three sides get their hangings and their pillars counted out, and the east side is given only its width, because the gate goes there and verses 14 to 16 divide it.
Exodus 27:9
“The court of the tabernacle - (Compare Exo 38:9-20) Exo 27:9 The south side southward - The south side on the right. See Exo 26:18. Exo 27:10 Sockets - Bases. See Exo 26:19. Fillets - Rather, Connecting rods; curtain-rods of silver connecting the heads of the pillars. The hangings were attached to the pillars by the silver hooks; but the length of the space between the pillars would render it most probable that they were also in some way fastened to these rods. Exo 27:13 The east side eastward - On the front side eastward.”
Exodus 27:11
“And likewise for the north side in length there shall be hangings of one hundred cubits long,.... The north and south sides of this court being equal, the same length of hangings were for the one as the other: and his twenty pillars, and their twenty sockets of brass; there went on this side the same number of pillars and sockets, and of the same metal: the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver; just as they were on the south side.”
Exodus 27:12
“And for the breadth of the court, on the west side,.... On the west end, the upper end of the court, near to which reached the holy of holies: shall be hangings of fifty cubits: or twenty five yards and more, so that the court was but half as broad as it was long: their pillars ten, and their sockets ten; which was a number proportionate to the hangings, and stood at an equal distance from each other, as the pillars for the sides, at five cubits, or two yards and a half, as commonly computed.”
Exodus 27:13
“And the breadth of the court on the east side eastward,.... Which was the entrance into it: shall be fifty cubits; the east end and west end were of the same measure.”
Fifteen cubits of linen on either hand leave twenty cubits of gate between them, and the gate is the one coloured thing in the whole perimeter. It uses the four materials of the vail at Exodus 26:31 and the door of the tent at Exodus 26:36, and like the door it is needlework and carries no cherubims, so the graded distinction of chapter 26 holds out here at the edge. The single way in faces east, the quarter Genesis 3:24 set the cherubims to keep, and Exodus 40:33 makes the hanging of the court gate the last thing Moses set up before the sentence So Moses finished the work.
Exodus 27:14
“The hangings of one side of the gate,.... Or entrance into the court: shall be fifteen cubits; or seven yards and a half: their pillars three, and their sockets three; and so stood at the same distance from one another as the rest of the pillars did, the distance of five cubits.”
Exodus 27:15
“And on the other side shall be hangings fifteen cubits,.... On the other side of the gate, or entrance into the court, on the northeast side, as the other may be supposed to be the southeast side, there was the same length of hangings: their pillars three, and their sockets three; the same as on the other side of the gate.”
Exodus 27:16
“And for the gate of the court - It appears that the hangings of this gate were of the same materials and workmanship with that of the inner covering of the tabernacle, and the outer and inner veil. See Exo 26:36.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Every pillar in the perimeter is filleted with silver, and Exodus 38:25 to 28 says where that silver came from, the half shekel each man paid when he was numbered, with what remained after the hundred sockets made into hooks and fillets. The linen wall stands five cubits high, above the head of a man, so the court screened the altar from anyone standing outside it. The chapter then names the tent pins, and the smallest piece of the structure is specified along with the rest.
Exodus 27:19
“All the vessels - shall be of brass - It would have been improper to have used instruments made of the more precious metals about this altar, as they must have been soon worn out by the severity of the service.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Oil to Keep the Lamp Burningvv. 20-21
The chapter turns from building to a standing duty, and it does so before Aaron is consecrated in chapters 28 and 29. The oil is beaten rather than milled, which is the first and clearest run, and the lamp is to be ordered from evening to morning every night. The phrase statute for ever occurs here for the first time in Scripture, and it falls on the first continuing obligation laid on the priesthood. Leviticus 24:2 to 4 gives the command again almost word for word, and 1 Samuel 3:3 dates the call of Samuel by a night when the lamp of God was close to going out.
Exodus 27:20
“We read of the candlestick in the 25th chapter; here is order given for the keeping of the lamps constantly burning in it. The pure oil signified the gifts and graces of the Spirit, which are communicated to all believers from Christ the good olive, of whose fulness we receive, Zech. iv, 11, 12.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 27:20
“Pure oil olive beaten - That is, such oil as could easily be expressed from the olives after they had been bruised in a mortar; the mother drop, as it is called, which drops out of itself as soon as the olives are a little broken, and which is much purer than that which is obtained after the olives are put under the press.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 27:21
“The tabernacle of the congregation - More literally, the tent of meeting. This is the first occurrence of this designation of the tabernacle, and the idea connected with it is that of Yahweh meeting with either Moses, or the priests, or (in a few cases) with the people gathered into a congregation at the entrance of the tent. Without the rail, which is before the testimony - i. e. the holy place (see Exo 25:16).”
How this psalm is built
The form: Building instruction for the outer court, the altar of burnt offering and the hangings around it, as Clarke classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Everything out here is bronze | The altar is overlaid with bronze at verse 2 and its utensils are bronze at verse 3. Its grate and rings are bronze at verse 4 and its poles at verse 6. The bases of the court are bronze at verses 10 to 18, and every tent peg is bronze at verse 19. Counted in the Berean text of the chapter, the metal is named for the outer court again and again, while the hooks and bands on the posts are silver. Adam Clarke reads the choice as practical, since the precious metals would soon have worn out under the severity of the service.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Exodus 27:19. | Exodus 27:2, Exodus 27:3, Exodus 27:6, Exodus 27:17, Exodus 27:19 |
| The court counted out side by side | A hundred cubits of curtain on the south with twenty posts and twenty bases, and the same on the north. Fifty cubits on the west with ten posts, and fifty on the east divided into fifteen, twenty and fifteen. The totals are then stated at verse 18 as a hundred cubits by fifty, with curtains five cubits high. | Exodus 27:9, Exodus 27:11, Exodus 27:12, Exodus 27:14, Exodus 27:18 |
| A horn at each of the four corners | The horns of verse 2 are made of one piece with the altar. They are the part of the altar the rest of the law keeps returning to. Exodus 21:14 sends a murderer away from the altar to die, and Adam Clarke notes there that before the cities of refuge were assigned the altar was the common asylum. Exodus 30:10 puts the yearly atonement blood on the horns of the incense altar.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Exodus 21:14. | Exodus 27:2, Exodus 21:14, Exodus 30:10 |
The chapter completes the survey that began at 25:10 with the ark. The order across the three chapters runs from the innermost furniture outward to the fence, and a worshipper met them in the reverse order. Court, altar, door, room, veil, ark.
14 more paragraphs on the patterns
The court is built in chapter 38 and the altar with it, and the weekly Jewish reading divides the material the same way, Terumah ending at 27:19 and Tetzaveh beginning at 27:20. The seam falls inside this chapter, between the court and the oil.
The historical value
Adam Clarke works the practical details of the chapter. At verse 3 he reads the pans as large bronze dishes standing under the altar to catch the ashes that fell through the grating, and takes the shovels for fire shovels rather than besoms. At verse 8 he reads the hollow construction as making the altar lighter and more portable. At verse 19 he gives the reason for bronze rather than a finer metal, which is the severity of the service. Each is his own reasoning from the text.
The Haftarah read with Tetzaveh is Ezekiel 43:10 to 27, which gives the altar of the temple Ezekiel was shown. A reader comparing the two altars has the Jewish reading cycle putting them side by side once a year.
The New Testament's use
The altar of this chapter has no direct quotation in the New Testament that the store's notes record. Hebrews 13:11 to 13 works from the sacrificial system it belongs to, and turns on the bodies burned outside the camp, which is the instruction given at Exodus 29:14.
Matthew Henry reads verse 20 with the altar behind it, and states the exchange plainly. Israel brought their sacrifices to the altar and God gave His oracles from the mercy seat, so that a communion was settled between God and Israel.
The debated reading
The chapter carries no doctrinal dispute that the commentators the store holds set out in opposing positions. Its open questions are matters of reconstruction, and two are worth naming.
The first is how the grate of verses 4 and 5 sat. The text says the grate goes beneath the ledge so that the mesh comes halfway up the altar. Adam Clarke and John Wesley both read it as set into the hollow of the altar, with the fire on it and the ashes falling through. That is a reading of the words rather than a picture the text supplies.
The second is the height of the altar against the height of the court. The altar stands three cubits high at verse 1 and the court's curtains five cubits high at verse 18. The text gives both figures and says nothing about how a worshipper outside saw over or through them.
The typological reading of the altar is a third matter, and it follows the pattern set out in the study of chapter 25. Matthew Henry and John Wesley both read the brass that saved the wood from the fire as a figure, the human nature of Christ supported by divine power under the wrath of God. That reading is theirs and the estate states no verdict on it.
Where to go deeper
The altar stands at the altar and the sacrifices on it at the blood. The oil and the lamps stand at the lampstand. The bronze basin that comes later stands at the bronze laver. The priests who tend the lamps stand at the priest. The ground outside the camp stands at outside the camp. The tabernacle as a whole has no page yet and is owed.
Keep studying
Studies7
People1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Exodus 27:8; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Exodus 27:21 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Exodus 27:20.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews.