Exodus 27:1 ¶ And 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. 2 And 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. 3 And 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.
4 And 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. 5 And thou
shalt put it under the compass of the altar beneath, that the net may be even
to the midst of the altar. 6 And thou
shalt make staves for the altar, staves of shittim wood, and overlay
them with brass. 7 And the staves shall
be put into the rings, and the staves shall be upon the two sides of the altar,
to bear it. 8 Hollow with boards shalt
thou make it: as it was shewed thee in the mount, so shall they make it.
Cubits as units of measurement came
in different lengths. Some authorities say they went from 18 to 22 inches. It
is clear that there were different types of cubits mentioned in the Bible.
Besides a regular cubit there was a great
cubit.
Ezekiel 41:8 I saw also the height of the house round
about: the foundations of the side chambers were a full reed of six great cubits.
There must have been a
standard they went by as a measuring reed
is mentioned several times in Ezekiel. So, I would doubt that every man was
just going by the distance from his elbow to the tip of his middle finger as
there could be some variation in that which would make building tricky.
Remember, Solomon’s temple was
a modular building, or as some today call modular buildings a systems-built
structure, where all the parts were formed offsite by a plan and then brought
to the site and put together. You could not do that without exacting measurements.
1Kings 6:7 And the house, when it was in building, was
built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was
neither hammer nor axe nor any
tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.
The ability of ancient peoples
to make use of exact measurements is astounding when you consider the precision
of the Pyramids of Egypt to the buildings the Incas and the cultures before
them left behind in what is now Peru in South America.
The horns of the altar
were a place people would run to for sanctuary and protection from other
contexts. But committing murder and running to God’s altar for
protection would not save someone from punishment.
Exodus 21:14 But if a man come presumptuously upon his
neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he
may die.
1Kings 2:29 And
it was told king Solomon that Joab was fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD;
and, behold, he is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada,
saying, Go, fall upon him. 30 And
Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the LORD, and said unto him, Thus saith the
king, Come forth. And he said, Nay; but I will die here. And Benaiah brought
the king word again, saying, Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me. 31 And the king said unto him, Do as he hath
said, and fall upon him, and bury him; that thou mayest take away the innocent
blood, which Joab shed, from me, and from the house of my father. 32 And the LORD shall return his blood upon his
own head, who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and slew
them with the sword, my father David not knowing thereof, to wit, Abner the son
of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of
the host of Judah. 33 Their blood shall
therefore return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever:
but upon David, and upon his seed, and upon his house, and upon his throne,
shall there be peace for ever from the LORD. 34
So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up, and fell upon him, and slew him:
and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.
There are words here in these
passages that are not used in the same way today as they were in early modern
English. But, there are many studies you can access online that go into great
detail on how these items looked.
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