Bible Glide

Exodus 27

Exodus 27 Summary, Context, and Full Chapter

Exodus 27 gives detailed instructions for the altar, the courtyard around the tabernacle, and the oil used for the lamps. The chapter shows how Israel was to prepare a holy place for sacrifice, worship, and ongoing light before the LORD.

Read in ReaderShare Passage

What happens in Exodus 27?

This chapter begins with the bronze altar, built from acacia wood and overlaid with bronze, with horns, tools, grating, and carrying poles for transport. It then describes the tabernacle courtyard, including its linen curtains, posts, bases, and the entrance on the east side. The layout sets clear boundaries around the sacred space. The chapter ends with instructions to bring pure olive oil so the lamps stay lit continually, and with Aaron and his sons assigned to tend them regularly before the LORD.

Exodus 27 continues the tabernacle instructions given in the wilderness after the covenant at Sinai. It follows the design of the sanctuary itself in chapter 26 and adds the outer courtyard and altar used for sacrifice. The chapter also prepares for the priestly service described in the next chapter, showing how worship, sacrifice, and light were to be maintained together.

Themes to notice

  • SacrificeThe bronze altar provides the place where offerings are made before God.
  • Holy boundariesThe courtyard marks off a set-apart space for the tabernacle and its service.
  • Continual lightPure oil and faithful tending keep the lamps burning before the LORD.

Questions for Exodus 27

  • What do the altar and courtyard teach about approaching God with reverence?
  • Why might the lamp oil and regular tending matter for Israel's worship?
  • How do the details of this chapter prepare for the priestly work that follows?

Read the full text of Exodus 27 below, then open it in the reader to highlight, take notes, or ask follow-up Bible questions. No account is required to read.

Exodus 27

The Bronze Altar

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.2Make a horn on each of its four corners, so that the horns are of one piece, and overlay it with bronze.3Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots for removing ashes, its shovels, its sprinkling bowls, its meat forks, and its firepans.4Construct for it a grate of bronze mesh, and make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the mesh.5Set the grate beneath the ledge of the altar, so that the mesh comes halfway up the altar.6Additionally, make poles of acacia wood for the altar and overlay them with bronze.7The poles are to be inserted into the rings so that the poles are on two sides of the altar when it is carried.8Construct the altar with boards so that it is hollow. It is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain.

The Courtyard

9You are also to make a courtyard for the tabernacle. On the south side of the courtyard make curtains of finely spun linen, a hundred cubits long on one side,10with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and silver hooks and bands on the posts.11Likewise there are to be curtains on the north side, a hundred cubits long, with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and with silver hooks and bands on the posts.12The curtains on the west side of the courtyard shall be fifty cubits wide, with ten posts and ten bases.13The east side of the courtyard, toward the sunrise, is to be fifty cubits wide.14Make the curtains on one side fifteen cubits long, with three posts and three bases,15and the curtains on the other side fifteen cubits long, with three posts and three bases.16The gate of the courtyard shall be twenty cubits long, with a curtain embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen. It shall have four posts and four bases.17All the posts around the courtyard shall have silver bands, silver hooks, and bronze bases.18The entire courtyard shall be a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide, with curtains of finely spun linen five cubits high, and with bronze bases.19All the utensils of the tabernacle for every use, including all its tent pegs and the tent pegs of the courtyard, shall be made of bronze.

The Oil for the Lamps

20And you are to command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually.21In the Tent of Meeting, outside the veil that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening until morning. This is to be a permanent statute for the Israelites for the generations to come.

Keep studying

Save notes and ask about Exodus 27

Create a free account to keep highlights and notes across devices, or open Bible Glide Chat with this passage already attached.

Create Free AccountAsk About This Passage