Discovery BoxExodus 20:25 
Context20:25 If you make me an altar of stone, you must not build it 1 of stones shaped with tools, 2 for if you use your tool on it you have defiled it. 3
Exodus 26:19
Context26:19 and you are to make forty silver bases to go under the twenty frames – two bases under the first frame for its two projections, and likewise 4 two bases under the next frame for its two projections;
Exodus 27:19
Context27:19 All 5 the utensils of the tabernacle used 6 in all its service, all its tent pegs, and all the tent pegs of the courtyard are to be made of bronze. 7
Exodus 32:5
Context32:5 When 8 Aaron saw this, 9 he built an altar before it, 10 and Aaron made a proclamation 11 and said, “Tomorrow will be a feast 12 to the Lord.”
1 tn Heb “them” referring to the stones.
2 tn Heb “of hewn stones.” Gesenius classifies this as an adverbial accusative – “you shall not build them (the stones of the altar) as hewn stones.” The remoter accusative is in apposition to the nearer (GKC 372 §117.kk).
3 tn The verb is a preterite with vav (ו) consecutive. It forms the apodosis in a conditional clause: “if you lift up your tool on it…you have defiled it.”
4 tn The clause is repeated to show the distributive sense; it literally says, “and two bases under the one frame for its two projections.”
5 tn Heb “to all”; for use of the preposition lamed (ל) to show inclusion (all belonging to) see GKC 458 §143.e.
6 tn Here “used” has been supplied.
7 sn The tabernacle is an important aspect of OT theology. The writer’s pattern so far has been: ark, table, lamp, and then their container (the tabernacle); then the altar and its container (the courtyard). The courtyard is the place of worship where the people could gather – they entered God’s courts. Though the courtyard may not seem of much interest to current readers, it did interest the Israelites. Here the sacrifices were made, the choirs sang, the believers offered their praises, they had their sins forgiven, they came to pray, they appeared on the holy days, and they heard from God. It was sacred because God met them there; they left the “world” (figuratively speaking) and came into the very presence of God.
8 tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive is subordinated as a temporal clause to the next preterite.
9 tn The word “this” has been supplied.
10 tn “Before it” means before the deity in the form of the calf. Aaron tried to redirect their worship to Yahweh, but the people had already broken down the barrier and were beyond control (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 413).
11 tn Heb “called.”
12 sn The word is חַג (khag), the pilgrim’s festival. This was the word used by Moses for their pilgrimage into the wilderness. Aaron seems here to be trying to do what Moses had intended they do, make a feast to Yahweh at Sinai, but his efforts will not compete with the idol. As B. Jacob says, Aaron saw all this happening and tried to rescue the true belief (Exodus, 941).
