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Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots for removing ashes, its shovels, its sprinkling bowls, its meat forks, and its firepans.
Exodus 27:3 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB You shall make its pots to take away its ashes, its shovels, its basins, its meat hooks, and its fire pans: all its vessels you shall make of brass.
  • KJV And thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basons, and his fleshhooks, and his firepans: all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass.
  • NKJV 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.
  • NASB And you shall make its pails for removing its ashes, and its shovels, its basins, its forks, and its firepans; you shall make all its utensils of bronze.
  • NLT Make ash buckets, shovels, basins, meat forks, and firepans, all of bronze.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

All the altar's utensils — pots, shovels, basins, hooks, and fire pans — were to be made of bronze. These tools served the daily work of sacrifice.

Overview

A full set of bronze implements equipped the altar for removing ashes and handling the offerings. The bronze throughout marked the altar's service in the outer court. The careful provision for the ministry of sacrifice underscores that atonement was God's ordered, ongoing means of dealing with sin until its fulfillment in Christ.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 12

  • 1 Kgs 7:45and the pots, shovels, and sprinkling bowls. All the articles that Huram made for King Solomon in the house of the LORD were made of burnished bronze.
  • Exod 24:6Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar.
  • 2 Chr 4:16and the pots, shovels, meat forks, and all the other articles. All these objects that Huram-abi made for King Solomon for the house of the LORD were of polished bronze.
  • 1 Kgs 7:40Additionally, Huram made the pots, shovels, and sprinkling bowls. So Huram finished all the work that he had undertaken for King Solomon in the house of the LORD:
  • 1 Sam 2:13–14or for the custom of the priests with the people. When any man offered a sacrifice, the servant of the priest would come with a three-pronged meat fork while the meat was boiling
  • Num 4:14and place on it all the vessels used to serve there: the firepans, meat forks, shovels, and sprinkling bowls—all the equipment of the altar. They are to spread over it a covering of fine leather and insert the poles.
  • 1 Chr 28:17the weight of the pure gold for the forks, sprinkling bowls, and pitchers; the weight of each gold dish; the weight of each silver bowl;
  • 2 Chr 4:11Additionally, Huram made the pots, shovels, and sprinkling bowls. So Huram finished the work that he had undertaken for King Solomon in the house of God:
  • Lev 16:12Then he must take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense, and take them inside the veil.
  • Exod 38:3He made all the altar’s utensils of bronze—its pots, shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks, and firepans.
  • 2 Kgs 25:15The captain of the guard also took away the censers and sprinkling bowls—anything made of pure gold or fine silver.
  • Jer 52:18–20They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes, and all the articles of bronze used in the temple service.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (5)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Exodus videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Exodus 27:3YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on ExodusMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.

How Exodus 27:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.