Keluaran 27:2

27:2 You are to make its four horns ¹  on its four corners; its horns will be part of it, ²  and you are to overlay it with bronze.

Keluaran 28:5

28:5 The artisans ³  are to use ⁴  the gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen.

[27:2]  ¹ 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.

[27:2]  ² 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).

[28:5]  ³ tn Heb “and they.” The word “artisans” is supplied as the referent of the pronoun, a connection that is clearer in Hebrew than in English.

[28:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “receive” or “take.”