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 consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Exodus 27:6
staves . . . rings--Those rings were placed at the side through which the poles were inserted on occasions of removal.
Adam Clarke on 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. Even on this there is a great variety of opinions.
John Gill on Exodus 27:7
And the staves shall be put into the rings,.... Not into the rings of the grate, as Jarchi and others: though Dr. Lightfoot (f) thinks these came out of each corner through the altar frame, and hung out of the frame, and in these the staves being put, made the frame and the grate sure together, and so they were also carried together; but it seems rather, that as the grate had rings peculiar to that, to let it down and take it up, and with which it was carried, with a purple cloth covered over it, Numbers 4:13 so the altar had rings peculiar to that on the sides of it, into which these staves were put:
and the staves shall be upon the two sides of the altar, to bear it; and which shows that…
