^27:2You are to make its four horns⁵ on its four corners; its horns will be part of it,⁶ and you are to overlay it with bronze. ^27:3You are to make its pots for the ashes,⁷ its shovels, its tossing bowls,⁸ its meat hooks, and its fire pans—you are to make all⁹ its utensils of bronze. ^27:4You are to make a grating¹⁰ for it, a network of bronze, and you are to make on the network four bronze rings on its four corners.

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Footnotes

5 The horns of the altar were indispensable—they were the most sacred part. Blood was put on them; fugitives could cling to them, and the priests would grab the horns of the little altar when making intercessory prayer. They signified power, as horns on an animal did in the wild (and so the word was used for kings as well). The horns may also represent the sacrificial animals killed on the altar.
6 The text, as before, uses the prepositional phrase “from it” or “part of it” to say that the horns will be part of the altar—of the same piece as the altar. They were not to be made separately and then attached, but made at the end of the boards used to build the altar (U. Cassuto, Exodus, ).
7 The word is literally “its fat,” but sometimes it describes “fatty ashes” ( “the greasy ashes”). The fat would run down and mix with the ashes, and this had to be collected and removed.
8 This was the larger bowl used in tossing the blood at the side of the altar.
9 The text has “to all its vessels.” This is the lamed (ל) of inclusion according to Gesenius, meaning “all its utensils” ( §143.e).
10 The noun מִכְבָּר (mikhbar) means “a grating”; it is related to the word that means a “sieve.” This formed a vertical support for the ledge, resting on the ground and supporting its outer edge (S. R. Driver, Exodus, ).

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

And you shall make horns for it on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with bronze. You shall make pots for it to receive its ashes, and shovels and basins and forks and fire pans. You shall make all its utensils of bronze. You shall also make for it a grating, a network of bronze, and on the net you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

Make a horn at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar are of one piece, and overlay the altar with bronze. Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots to remove the ashes, and its shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks and firepans. Make a grating for it, a bronze network, and make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the network.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

Make horns for it on its four corners; the horns are to be of one piece. Overlay it with bronze. Make its pots for removing ashes, and its shovels, basins, meat forks, and firepans; make all its utensils of bronze. Construct a grate for it of bronze mesh, and make four bronze rings on the mesh at its four corners.

NLTNew Living Translation

Make horns for each of its four corners so that the horns and altar are all one piece. Overlay the altar with bronze. Make ash buckets, shovels, basins, meat forks, and firepans, all of bronze. Make a bronze grating for it, and attach four bronze rings at its four corners.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

And you will make its horns on its four corners; its horns will be of one piece with it, and you will overlay it with bronze. And you will make its pots for removing its fat-soaked ashes and its shovels and its sprinkling bowls and its forks and its fire pans; you will make all its equipment with bronze. And you will make for it a grating, a work of bronze network, and you will make on the network four bronze rings on its four ends.

KJV 1900King James Version

And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: his horns shall be of the same: and thou shalt overlay it with brass. 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. And thou shalt make for it a grate of network of brass; and upon the net shalt thou make four brasen rings in the four corners thereof.

Public Domain