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.
Altar of shittim wood. The dimensions of this altar, which was placed at the entrance of the sanctuary, were nearly three yards square, and a yard and a half in height. Under the brass-overlaid wooden frame of this chest-like altar there must have been a center of earth or stone sufficiently large enough to support the body of the sacrificial victim; and thus the precept which required the art of man to be enlisted in the construction of the altar of the tabernacle appears in perfect harmony with the prohibition against the use of the hammer or the chisel. The enclosing copper case served merely to keep the earth together (see Kurtz, 'History of the Old Covenant,' vol. 3:, p. 142). Each corner was to be terminated by "horns" х qarnotaayw (H7161) - its horns; Septuagint, ta kerata; Josephus ('Jewish War,' b. 5:, ch. 5:, sec. 6), gooniai keratoeideis] - angular projections, perpendicular or oblique, in the form of horns. The animals to be sacrificed were bound to these (Psalms 118:27), and part of the blood was applied to them (Exodus 29:12; Leviticus 4:25).