Exodus 27

Exodus 27 is one chapter in the instructions for building the tabernacle that run from chapters 25 through 31 of Exodus. The preceding chapter, Exodus 26, dealt with the curtains and boards of the tabernacle itself. This chapter regulates the altar and the court outside the tabernacle, as well as the oil for the lamp.

Outline

• Verses 1–8 A square altar is to be made of shittim wood (commonly identified as acacia), five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and overlaid with bronze. Horns are to be placed on its four corners. Its pans for ashes, shovels, basins, fleshhooks, and firepans are also to be made of bronze. It is to have a bronze grate of network, along with rings and poles so that it can be carried, and it is to be made hollow with boards. This altar is commonly called the altar of burnt offering.
• Verses 9–19 The north and south sides of the tabernacle court are 100 cubits long, and the east and west sides 50 cubits. The court is enclosed by hangings of fine linen five cubits high. The sockets of the pillars are of bronze, and the hooks and fillets are of silver. At the eastern gate, hangings of fifteen cubits are set on each side, and the central twenty cubits are covered by a screen of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine twined linen, embroidered with needlework. The pins (tent pegs) are likewise all made of bronze.
• Verses 20–21 The children of Israel are to bring pure oil beaten from olives. With this oil Aaron and his sons are to tend the lamp outside the veil before the ark of the testimony from evening to morning. This is a perpetual statute to be kept throughout their generations.

A cubit is the length from the elbow to the fingertip and is commonly reckoned at about 45 cm (roughly 18 inches).

Key Verses

• Exodus 27:8 "as it was shewed thee in the mount, so shall they make it" — This reiterates that the tabernacle is to be built according to the pattern God showed (compare Exodus 25:40).
• Exodus 27:20 "to cause the lamp to burn always" — This is the regulation for continually tending the sanctuary lamp, and it is repeated in Leviticus 24:2–4.

People and Places

• Moses: the "thou" of the text, that is, the one receiving the instructions. His name does not appear directly in this chapter.
• Aaron and his sons: the priests charged with tending the lamp.
• The mount: refers to Mount Sinai, where God showed the pattern of the tabernacle.
• Tabernacle of the congregation (tent of meeting): another term for the tabernacle, meaning the tent where God meets with His people.
• Ark of the testimony: refers to the Ark of the Covenant, which held the tablets of the testimony (the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments).

Points for Reflection

• Interpretations differ regarding "always" in verse 20 and "from evening to morning" in verse 21. Some take them to mean that the lamp was to burn through the night, while others understand them to mean that it was never to go out, night or day. The words of 1 Samuel 3:3, "ere the lamp of God went out," are often cited in support of the former view.
• Christian interpretive tradition sometimes reads the furnishings of this chapter in relation to Christ. The altar of burnt offering is likened to the cross of Christ, the single gate of the court to "I am the door" (John 10:9), and the lamp to the Holy Spirit or to Christ as the light. Such typological readings are not stated directly in the text, and some scholars caution against excessive allegorizing.
• Hebrews 8:5 describes the tabernacle as "the example and shadow of heavenly things."
• The Jewish custom of keeping an eternal light (ner tamid) in the synagogue is said to be based on this passage and on Leviticus 24.
• The account of the actual construction of the altar and the court appears in Exodus 38.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, expository studies and seminars on the tabernacle that explain its structure step by step, from the gate of the court to the Most Holy Place, are widely held. The gate of the court and the altar of burnt offering in this chapter serve as their starting point. Sunday schools sometimes teach the subject by building models of the tabernacle.