What Does Exodus 27:1 Mean in the King James?

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.

Exodus 27:1 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The altar’s Hebrew name carries the act of sacrifice inside it, so this measured structure is named by the act it is built to hold.

THE MEANING

Sacred approach takes tangible form here: acacia wood is measured into a square altar, five cubits long and broad and three cubits high. The place is defined before an offering appears, giving sacrifice a concrete form rather than leaving it abstract.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The sacred is not formless or only inward: here, the place of sacrifice has material, measured form.

THE ROOT

מִזְבֵּחַ

mizbeach

GROWS FROM

זבח

z-b-ḥ

to slaughter; to sacrifice

The English word “altar” names the structure; Hebrew ⁨מִזְבֵּחַ⁩ (mizbeach, altar) also carries its purpose through ⁨זבח⁩ (z-b-ḥ, slaughter or sacrifice). That root retains the act’s hard edge: sacrifice entails slaughter, and the altar’s dimensions give that act a defined place.

ALSO GROWS

zavaḥ: to slaughter or sacrifice

זָבַח

This verb names the action carried in the altar’s name.

zevaḥ: a sacrifice or sacrificial offering

זֶבַח

This noun names what is brought to the altar, linking the structure to the offering it receives.

THE PATTERN

The place of encounter is shaped around an offering, giving what is presented a tangible form.

And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Genesis 8:20 · KJVAn altar gives the offering a defined place, joining the structure to the act presented there.

An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.

Exodus 20:24 · KJVThe altar is made tangible through its material and becomes the place where offerings are brought.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Romans 12:1 · KJVThe offering pattern opens into embodied life: what is presented is the body itself, a living sacrifice.

THE THREAD

And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

Genesis 22:9 · KJV

⁨מִזְבֵּחַ⁩ (mizbeach, altar) is the same Hebrew word used in this verse. Genesis sets the wood and altar beside a bound son, making explicit the sacrifice carried in the name Exodus 27 defines through material and measurement.

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