| Geneva Study Bible And thou shalt make an {a} altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height thereof shall be three cubits. (a) For the burnt offering. Wesley's Notes 27:1 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 so be set up, to which they must bring their sacrifices; and this altar was to sanctify their gifts; from hence 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. Scofield Reference Notes [2] altar Brazen altar, type of the Cross upon which Christ, our whole burnt-offering offered Himself without spot to God Heb 9:14. [3] height (Cf) Ex 25:10. The altar of burnt offering is double the height of the mercy-seat. The atonement more than saves us-- it glorifies God Jn 17:14. Margin shittim i.e. acacia. Margin wood The wood (Christ's humanity), completely inclosed in brass, must have become completely charred by sacrificial fires. Cf. Heb 10:5-7. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary CHAPTER 27 Ex 27:1-21. Altar for Burnt Offering. 1, 2. altar of shittim wood-The dimensions of this altar which was placed at the entrance of the sanctuary were nearly three yards square, and a yard and a half in height. Under the wooden frame of this chest-like altar the inside was hollow, and each corner was to be terminated by "horns"-angular projections, perpendicular or oblique, in the form of horns. The animals to be sacrificed were bound to these (Ps 118:27), and part of the blood was applied to them. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 27:1-8 In the court before the tabernacle, where the people attended, was an altar, to which they must bring their sacrifices, and on which their priests must offer them to God. It was of wood overlaid with brass. A grate of brass was let into the hollow of the altar, about the middle of which the fire was kept, and the sacrifice burnt. It was made of net-work like a sieve, and hung hollow, that the ashes might fall through. This brazen altar was a type of Christ dying to make atonement for our sins. The wood had been consumed by the fire from heaven, if it had not been secured by the brass: nor could the human nature of Christ have borne the wrath of God, if it had not been supported by Divine power. | 
