Exodus 27King James Version
The bronze altar of burnt offering, five cubits square. The court of the tabernacle with its hangings of fine twined linen and its pillars and sockets of bronze. The pure olive oil, beaten for the light, to keep the lamp burning continually from evening until morning before the Lord.
God gives specifications for the bronze altar of burnt offering: five cubits square, three cubits high, with horns at each corner, a bronze grating halfway up, rings and poles for carrying. Then the courtyard surrounding the tabernacle: curtains of fine linen on bronze posts with silver hooks, 100 cubits by 50 cubits. The eastern entrance has a screen. Moses is commanded to maintain the lamp with pure olive oil so it burns continually from evening to morning, tended by Aaron and his sons.
The altar stands at the entrance to the courtyard because access to God's presence requires first addressing what separates humanity from holiness.
v20: "And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always" -- the perpetual light is one of Judaism's most enduring symbols, still maintained as the Ner Tamid in every synagogue today.
The tabernacle courtyard is a large open space visible to all of Israel from outside. The altar stands at the entrance. Every morning and evening, a priest tends the lamp in the dark inner room. The beaten olive oil is the highest grade, pressed by hand rather than mill-stone. The lampstand's light is the only artificial light inside the holy place.
God designs; no human actors named in construction. Aaron and his sons are the lamp-keepers, their first specific priestly assignment.
The bronze altar's horns, mentioned also in 1 Kings, are functional refuge points: the phrase 'catching hold of the altar's horns' became an act of seeking asylum. The olive oil for the lamp is beaten, not pressed, producing the purest quality. The eternal flame maintained in every synagogue traces directly to this command.
For when the work of faith feels like an obligation to maintain something that does not seem dramatic, just a lamp, just an ongoing task. The perpetual light is tended daily in ordinary time, not just on feast days.
1And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height thereof shall be three cubits.
2And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: his horns shall be of the same: and thou shalt overlay it with brass.
3And thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basons, and his fleshhooks, and his firepans: all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass.
4And thou shalt make for it a grate of network of brass; and upon the net shalt thou make four brasen rings in the four corners thereof.
5And thou shalt put it under the compass of the altar beneath, that the net may be even to the midst of the altar.
6And thou shalt make staves for the altar, staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with brass.
7And the staves shall be put into the rings, and the staves shall be upon the two sides of the altar, to bear it.
8Hollow with boards shalt thou make it: as it was shewed thee in the mount, so shall they make it.
9And thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle: for the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen of an hundred cubits long for one side:
10And the twenty pillars thereof and their twenty sockets shall be of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver.
11And likewise for the north side in length there shall be hangings of an hundred cubits long, and his twenty pillars and their twenty sockets of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.
12And for the breadth of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits: their pillars ten, and their sockets ten.
13And the breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits.
14The hangings of one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits: their pillars three, and their sockets three.
15And on the other side shall be hangings fifteen cubits: their pillars three, and their sockets three.
16And for the gate of the court shall be an hanging of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework: and their pillars shall be four, and their sockets four.
17All the pillars round about the court shall be filleted with silver; their hooks shall be of silver, and their sockets of brass.
18The length of the court shall be an hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty every where, and the height five cubits of fine twined linen, and their sockets of brass.
19All the vessels of the tabernacle in all the service thereof, and all the pins thereof, and all the pins of the court, shall be of brass.
20And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.
21In the tabernacle of the congregation without the vail, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the LORD: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.