Matthew Henry on Exodus 27:1-8
As God intended in the tabernacle to manifest his presence among his people, so there they were to pay their devotions to him, not in the tabernacle itself (into that only the priests entered as God's domestic servants), but in the court before the tabernacle, where, as common subjects, they attended. There an altar was ordered to be set up, to which they must bring their sacrifices, and on which their priests must offer them to God: and this altar was to sanctify their gifts. Here they were to present their services to God, as from the mercy-seat he gave his oracles to them; and thus a communion was settled between God and Israel. Moses is here directed about, 1. The dimensions of it; it wa…
Read the whole note in the consoleAdam Clarke on 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. 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, c…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on Exodus 27:2
Which were either for ornament, or for keeping what was laid upon the altar from falling off, or for the fastening of the sacrifice to them, and were what criminals fled to for refuge, and laid hold on; and may denote the power of Christ, who is the horn of salvation to preserve his people from a final falling away, and from ruin and destruction, and his protection of those that fly to him for refuge; and these horns being at the corners of the altar may respect the four parts of the world, from whence souls come to Christ for everlasting salvation:
his horns shall be of the same; that is, made of the same wood as the altar itself and so may lead to observe the like things: or "upwards out…
