Next Bezalel used acacia wood to construct the square altar of burnt offering. It was 7-1/2 feet wide, 7-1/2 feet long, and 4-1/2 feet high.
Parallel translations
- WEB He made the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood. It was square. Its length was five cubits, its width was five cubits, and its height was three cubits.
- KJV And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood: five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare; and three cubits the height thereof.
- BSB Bezalel constructed the altar of burnt offering from acacia wood. It was square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high.
- NKJV He made the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood; five cubits was its length and five cubits its width—it was square—and its height was three cubits.
- NASB Then he made the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood, five cubits long, and five cubits wide, square, and three cubits high.
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
The altar of burnt offering was made of acacia wood, a large square altar three cubits high. On it the sacrifices for sin were offered.
Overview
This bronze altar stood in the courtyard as the first thing encountered, where atoning sacrifices were burned. It teaches that approach to a holy God requires blood and sacrifice. The continual offerings here point to Christ, the once-for-all sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:10-12). The dimensions follow Exodus 27:1.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Exod 27:1–8“You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long, and five cubits wide; the altar shall be square: and its height shall be three cubits.
- Exod 40:6“You shall set the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting.
- 2 Chr 4:1Then he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high.
- Ezek 43:13–17These are the measurements of the altar by cubits (the cubit is a cubit and a hand width): the bottom shall be a cubit, and the width a cubit, and its border around its edge a span; and this shall be the base of the altar.
- Rev 21:16The city is square, and its length is as great as its width. He measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand twelve stadia. Its length, width, and height are equal.
- Heb 13:10We have an altar from which those who serve the holy tabernacle have no right to eat.
- Exod 40:29He set the altar of burnt offering at the door of the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the meal offering, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
- 1 Pet 2:5You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
- Heb 13:8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
- John 6:37All those whom the Father gives me will come to me. He who comes to me I will in no way throw out.
- Rom 8:3–4For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;
- Rom 12:1Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
- Heb 3:1Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus;
- Heb 9:14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
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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 38:1 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
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