Exodus 27:7

27:7 The poles are to be put ¹  into the rings so that the poles will be on two sides of the altar when carrying it. ² 

Exodus 28:36

28:36 “You are to make a plate ³  of pure gold and engrave on it the way a seal is engraved: ⁴  “Holiness to the Lord.” ⁵ 

Exodus 30:38

30:38 Whoever makes anything like it, to use as perfume, ⁶  will be cut off from his people.”

Exodus 37:13

37:13 He cast four gold rings for it and attached the rings at the four corners where its four legs were.

Exodus 37:20

37:20 On the lampstand there were four cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms,

Exodus 38:7

38:7 He put the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar, with which to carry it. He made the altar ⁷  hollow, out of boards.

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¹ tn The verb is a Hophal perfect with vav consecutive: וְהוּבָא (vÿhuva’, “and it will be brought”). The particle אֶת (’et) here introduces the subject of the passive verb (see a similar use in 21:28, “and its flesh will not be eaten”).

² tn The construction is the infinitive construct with bet (ב) preposition: “in carrying it.” Here the meaning must be that the poles are not left in the rings, but only put into the rings when they carried it.

³ tn The word צִּיץ (tsits) seems to mean “a shining thing” and so here a plate of metal. It originally meant “flower,” but they could not write on a flower. So it must have the sense of something worn openly, visible, and shining. The Rabbinic tradition says it was two fingers wide and stretched from ear to ear, but this is an attempt to give details that the Law does not give (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 818).

⁴ tn Heb “the engravings of a seal”; this phrase is an adverbial accusative of manner.

⁵ sn The engraving was a perpetual reminder of the holiness that was due the Lord (Heb “Yahweh”), that all the clothing, the furnishings, and the activities were to come under that description. This corresponded to the symbolism for the whole nation of binding the law between the eyes. It was to be a perpetual reminder of commitment.

⁶ tn Or to smell it, to use for the maker’s own pleasure.

⁷ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the altar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.