UNROLL
At dawn in the desert, a long, low wall of white linen hangings on posts with silver bands runs across the lower part of the frame, a thin column of smoke rising straight up from behind it into a clear morning sky.

The Book of

Exodus 27

Inside the gate of God’s courtyard stood a bronze altar. No one came near Him without passing it.

21 verses≈ 4 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

Tap any post to go deeper

Where we are

  1. 1–6Slaves in EgyptOppression and a deliverer
  2. 7–13The plaguesThe LORD against Pharaoh
  3. 14–18Through the seaRescued and led
  4. 19–24At SinaiThe covenant and the law
  5. 25–31A place to dwellThe tabernacle plannedChapter 27
  6. 32–40Broken and renewedThe calf, mercy, the glory

The Bronze Altar

“You are to build an altar of acacia wood. The altar must be square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

Make a horn on each of its four corners, so that the horns are of one piece, and overlay it with bronze.

God

Construct the altar with boards so that it is hollow. It is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain.

Reflect

The altar first

Before the lampstand’s light or the ark’s gold, anyone coming into God’s courtyard met a bronze altar, the place of sacrifice. There was no way in that went around it. The New Testament says Jesus offered Himself once for all, so that we come near to God through His sacrifice, not our own efforts. What makes you hold back from coming near to God today: guilt, busyness, a feeling that you must earn it first? Write it down, and write what Christ’s sacrifice says to it.

Courtyard · 100 × 50 cubitsNGate · EastTent of MeetingBronze altarBasinThe tent, enlarged · 30 × 10 cubitsArkTableLampstandIncense altarVeilScreenMost Holy PlaceHoly Place

Plan to scale in cubits · north at the top

Where it stood

The altar of burnt offering

The bronze altar, five cubits square (about 7½ feet) and three cubits high (about 4½ feet), stood in the open courtyard between the gate and the tent. Whoever came in through the gate met it first: the way to God’s dwelling led past the altar of sacrifice.

The Courtyard

Close along the courtyard wall in morning light: fine white linen hangings hung from wooden posts by silver hooks, each post banded with silver at its top and set in a bronze base, with bronze pegs and taut ropes in the sand.

How to make it

The linen walls

  1. A courtyard for the tabernacle

    You are also to make a courtyard for the tabernacle.

  2. Long sides

    South: 100 cubits, twenty posts

    On the south side of the courtyard make curtains of finely spun linen, a hundred cubits long on one side, with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and silver hooks and bands on the posts.

  3. North: the same

    Likewise there are to be curtains on the north side, a hundred cubits long, with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and with silver hooks and bands on the posts.

  4. Far end

    West: 50 cubits, ten posts

    The curtains on the west side of the courtyard shall be fifty cubits wide, with ten posts and ten bases.

  5. Entrance end

    East: 50 cubits, toward sunrise

    The east side of the courtyard, toward the sunrise, is to be fifty cubits wide.

  6. Hangings either side of the gate

    Make the curtains on one side fifteen cubits long, with three posts and three bases, and the curtains on the other side fifteen cubits long, with three posts and three bases.

The gate of the courtyard shall be twenty cubits long, with a curtain embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen. It shall have four posts and four bases.

All the posts around the courtyard shall have silver bands, silver hooks, and bronze bases. The entire courtyard shall be a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide, with curtains of finely spun linen five cubits high, and with bronze bases. All the utensils of the tabernacle for every use, including all its tent pegs and the tent pegs of the courtyard, shall be made of bronze.

Courtyard · 100 × 50 cubitsNGate · EastTent of MeetingBronze altarBasinThe tent, enlarged · 30 × 10 cubitsArkTableLampstandIncense altarVeilScreenMost Holy PlaceHoly Place

Plan to scale in cubits · north at the top

Where it stood

The courtyard

A wall of white linen 100 by 50 cubits (about 150 by 75 feet) and five cubits (about 7½ feet) high, on sixty posts, one every five cubits. Its only way in was the gate of 20 cubits (about 30 feet) in the middle of the east side, “toward the sunrise.” Inside stood the altar, and beyond it the tent.

Question

Quick question

The courtyard had four sides of linen, but only one way in.

On which side of the courtyard was the gate?

The Oil for the Lamps

And you are to command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually.

Exodus 27:20

Olives crushed in a shallow stone basin, clear golden oil dripping from the pressed pulp into a small clay jar, in morning light.
Inside the Holy Place of the tabernacle: the seven flames of the golden lampstand burning low before the dark inner curtain, the table of bread in shadow.

In the Tent of Meeting, outside the veil that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening until morning. This is to be a permanent statute for the Israelites for the generations to come.

0:13

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

You’ve experienced

Exodus 27

0 of 40 chapters read

A verse to carry with you

And you are to command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually.

Exodus 27:20

or swipe left