Discovery BoxExodus 27:1 
Context27:1 “You are to make the 1 altar of acacia wood, seven feet six inches long, 2 and seven feet six inches wide; the altar is to be square, 3 and its height is to be 4 four feet six inches.
Exodus 29:12
Context29:12 and take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar 5 with your finger; all the rest of 6 the blood you are to pour out at the base of the altar.
Exodus 38:30
Context38:30 With it he made the bases for the door of the tent of meeting, the bronze altar, the bronze grating for it, and all the utensils of the altar,
1 tn The article on this word identifies this as the altar, meaning the main high altar on which the sacrifices would be made.
2 tn The dimensions are five cubits by five cubits by three cubits high.
3 tn Heb “four”; this refers to four sides. S. R. Driver says this is an archaism that means there were four equal sides (Exodus, 291).
4 tn Heb “and three cubits its height.”
5 sn This act seems to have signified the efficacious nature of the blood, since the horns represented power. This is part of the ritual of the sin offering for laity, because before the priests become priests they are treated as laity. The offering is better described as a purification offering rather than a sin offering, because it was offered, according to Leviticus, for both sins and impurities. Moreover, it was offered primarily to purify the sanctuary so that the once-defiled or sinful person could enter (see J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB]).
6 tn The phrase “rest of” has been supplied in the translation for clarification.
