Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary Verse 2. Thou shalt make the horns of it] The horns might have three uses: 1. For ornament. 2. To prevent carcasses, &c., from falling off. 3. To tie the victim to, previously to its being sacrificed. So David: Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar; Psa. cxviii. 27. Horns were much used in all ancient altars among the heathen, and some of them were entirely constructed of the horns of the beasts that had been offered in sacrifice; but such altars appear to be erected rather as trophies in honour of their gods. On the reverses of several medals we find altars represented with horns at the corners. There is a medal of Antoninus on the reverse of which is an altar, on which a fire burns, consecrated Divi Pio, where the horns appear on each of the corners.
There is one of Faustina, on which the altar and its horns are very distinct, the legend Pietas Augusta. All the following have altars with horns. One of Valerian, legend Consecratio; one of Claudius Gothicus, same legend; one of Quintillus, same legend; one of Crispina, with the legend Diis Genitalibus; and several others. See Numismatica Antiq., a MUSELLIO, under Consecratio, in the index.
Callimachus, in his Hymn to Apollo, line 60 introduces him constructing an altar of the horns of the animals slain by Diana: - phxe de bwmon ek kerawn k. t. l. Martial has these words: Cornibus ara frequens.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-8 - In the court before the tabernacle, where the people attended, was a altar, to which they must bring their sacrifices, and on which their priests must offer them to God. It was of wood overlaid with brass. grate of brass was let into the hollow of the altar, about the middl of which the fire was kept, and the sacrifice burnt. It was made of net-work like a sieve, and hung hollow, that the ashes might fal through. This brazen altar was a type of Christ dying to make atonemen for our sins. The wood had been consumed by the fire from heaven, if it had not been secured by the brass: nor could the human nature of Chris have borne the wrath of God, if it had not been supported by Divin power.
Original Hebrew ועשׂית6213 קרנתיו7161 על5921 ארבע702 פנתיו6438 ממנו4480 תהיין1961 קרנתיו7161 וצפית6823 אתו853 נחשׁת׃5178
