Exodus 25:26
Context25:26 You are to make four rings of gold for it and attach 1 the rings at the four corners where its four legs are. 2
Exodus 26:24
Context26:24 At the two corners 3 they must be doubled at the lower end and finished together at the top in one ring. So it will be for both.
Exodus 27:2
Context27:2 You are to make its four horns 4 on its four corners; its horns will be part of it, 5 and you are to overlay it with bronze.
Exodus 27:4
Context27:4 You are to make a grating 6 for it, a network of bronze, and you are to make on the network four bronze rings on its four corners.
Exodus 36:29
Context36:29 At the two corners 7 they were doubled at the lower end and 8 finished together at the top in one ring. So he did for both.
1 tn Heb “give.”
2 tn Heb “which [are] to four of its feet.”
3 tn Heb “they will be for the two corners.” This is the last clause of the verse, moved forward for clarity.
4 sn 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.
5 sn 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, 363).
6 tn 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, 292).
7 tn This is the last phrase of the verse, moved forward for clarity.
8 tn This difficult verse uses the perfect tense at the beginning, and the second clause parallels it with יִהְיוּ (yihyu), which has to be taken here as a preterite without the consecutive vav (ו). The predicate “finished” or “completed” is the word תָּמִּים (tammim); it normally means “complete, sound, whole,” and related words describe the sacrifices as without blemish.