Exodus 27
Plans for the altar at the tabernacle
1 Use acacia wood to make an altar. It must be square, 220 centimetres long and 220 centimetres wide. It must be 132 centimetres high. 2 Make four horns, one at each corner of the altar. The horns and the altar itself must be one piece of work. Then cover the whole altar with bronze. 3 Make all the tools for the altar with bronze. Make pots to remove the ashes, spades and bowls. Make forks for the meat. Make dishes to carry the fire. 4 Use bronze to make a square net and rings at each corner. 5 Fix this net inside the altar, in the middle, between the top of the altar and the ground.
27:3These spades were tools that they could use to pick up the ashes.
27:5The net would hold the coal for the fire, and the ashes would fall through it.
6 Use acacia wood to make poles for the altar. Cover them with bronze. 7 You must put the poles through the rings when you carry the altar. There will be a pole on each of two sides of the altar. 8 Use boards to make the altar, so that it is empty inside. You must make it in the way that the Lord showed you on the mountain.
The yard around the tabernacle
9 Make a yard around the tent of the tabernacle. The south side must be 44 metres long. It will have curtains that are made of good linen. 10 Make 20 poles and 20 bronze bases to hold the poles. Use silver to make hooks and sticks to hold the curtains. 11 The north side of the yard must also be 44 metres long. It will also have 20 poles with their bronze bases, as well as their silver hooks and sticks.
12 The west end of the yard must be 22 metres long. Make curtains for it, with ten poles and their bronze bases. 13 The entrance to the yard is at its east end. That end must also be 22 metres long. 14-15 There will be 6.5 metres of curtain on each side of the entrance. There will be three poles with their bases to hold the curtains on each side.
16 Make a curtain 9 metres wide for the entrance to the yard. Make it out of blue, purple and red material, as well as good linen. Choose a worker who can use special skills to make the curtain look beautiful. Make four poles and their bases to hold the curtain at the entrance.
17 All the poles around the yard must have bronze bases. They will also have silver hooks and sticks to hold the curtains. 18 The yard will be 44 metres long and 22 metres wide. Use good linen to make the curtains. They must be 220 centimetres high on the bronze bases.
19 Use bronze to make all the tools that you will use in the tabernacle. Also use bronze to make the pegs that fix the tent of the tabernacle to the ground. And make bronze pegs to fix the curtain around the yard to the ground.
Olive oil for the lamps in the tabernacle
20 Command the Israelites to bring you pure oil from fresh olives. You will use this oil for the lamps. The lamps must give light all the time. 21 Aaron and his sons must make sure that the lamps always give light from evening until morning. The lampstand will be in the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain that hangs in front of the Covenant Box. The lamps must always give light there, where the Lord is. This will always be a rule for the Israelites, now and in the future.
27:21‘ Tent of Meeting’ was another name for the tabernacle.
