Bible Strands
Exodus 38:1
Bezalel constructed the altar of burnt offering from acacia wood. It was square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Bezalel executes the tabernacle construction sequence by physically building the altar following the divine blueprint. The narrative shifts from command to fulfillment as the craftsman completes the primary sacrificial instrument.
The words — מִזְבַּח (mizbach) translates literally to “altar,” designating the designated place of sacrifice. שִׁטִּים (shittim) denotes the specific acacia wood used for its core structure, emphasizing durability and divine specification.
The thread — The altar’s design and dimensions recur in Exodus 27:1 as the initial command, Exodus 40:6 as the placement instruction, and Exodus 40:29 as the operational directive for sacrifices. These references trace the object from divine decree through physical construction to functional use.
Why it lands — The text records precise measurements and materials to establish that worship requires exact obedience to divine instruction. A reader is asked to recognize that the altar’s physical reality precedes and enables the sacrificial system it supports.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood: five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare; and three cubits the height thereof.
Cross-references
- Exodus 27:1 “You are to build an altar of acacia wood. The altar must be square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high.
- Exodus 40:6 Place the altar of burnt offering in front of the entrance to the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting.
- Exodus 40:29 He placed the altar of burnt offering near the entrance to the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the grain offering, just as the LORD had commanded him.
- 2 Chronicles 4:1 He made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high.
- Ezekiel 43:13 These are the measurements of the altar in long cubits (a cubit and a handbreadth): Its gutter shall be a cubit deep and a cubit wide, with a rim of one span around its edge. And this is the height of the altar:
- Hebrews 13:10 We have an altar from which those who serve at the tabernacle have no right to eat.
- Revelation 21:16 The city lies foursquare, with its width the same as its length. And he measured the city with the rod, and all its dimensions were equal—12,000 stadia in length and width and height.
- John 6:37 Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never drive away.
- Romans 8:3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh,
- Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.