Exodus 27:2

The Altar of Burnt Offering

1 “You shall make ^aan altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits wide—the altar shall be square—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 bronze.

3 Also you shall make its pans to receive its ashes, and its shovels and its basins and its forks and its firepans; you shall make all its utensils of bronze.

4 You shall make a grate for it, a network of bronze; and on the network you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners.

5 You shall put it under the rim of the altar beneath, that the network may be midway up the altar.

6 And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze.

Commentaries:

Adam Clarke

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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; Psalms 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. On the reverses of several medals we find altars represented with horns at the corners. There is a medal of Antoninus on the reverse of which is an altar, on which a fire burns, consecrated Divi Pio , where the horns appear on each of the corners.

There is one of Faustina, on which the altar and its horns are very distinct, the legend Pietas Augusta . All the following have altars with horns. One of Valerian, legend Consecratio ; one of Claudius Gothicus, same legend; one of Quintillus, same legend; one of Crispina, with the legend Diis Genitalibus ; and several others. See Numismatica Antiq., a Musellio, under Consecratio, in the index.

Callimachus, in his Hymn to Apollo, line 60 introduces him constructing an altar of the horns of the animals slain by Diana:

. . .

Martial has these words: Cornibus ara frequens .

**Other Adam Clarke entries containing Exodus 27:2:**

Exodus 35:16

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