■ covering of the altar ' were made from the bronze censers of the rebellious company of Korah (Nu 16"*''). Round the altar, half-way between top and Vjottom, ran a projecting 'ledge' (so RV for the obscure 3iD-i3, only 27° 2&* ; AV ' the compass,' etc.), attached to which and reaching to the ground was a grating (RV ; AV 'grate,' which see) of bronze. The purpose of these two append- ages can only be conjectured (see the Comm. and works cited in the Literature for the numerous conjectures that have been put forward). Con- sidering the height of the altar, at least 4J feet, one naturally supposes that the ledge was for the priests to stand upon during Iheir ministrations at the altar, and in Lv 9-- we actually read of A iron ' stepping do«Ti ' from the altar. Together '/pith the grating, it may also have been a device So prevent the ashes, etc., from falling upon and defiling the sacrificial blood, J"'8 peculiar portion', which could still be dashed against the base of the iltar through the wide meshes of the network. Four bronze rings were attached to the corners of the grating, presumably where it met the ledge, to receive the poles for carrj'ing the altar. Tlie necessary utensils were also of bronze ; they com- prised sliovels or rakes (D-y;) for collecting the ashes, pots (AV pans) for carrying them away, the large basins for catching the blood of the animals sacrificed, the flesh hooks or forks, and the firepans. The fire is to ' be kept burning upon the altar continually, it shall not go out ' (Lv G"), which hardly accords with the prescriptions of Lv 1' and Nil 4'3'-.
The idea underlying this unique structure — a hollow wooden chest with a tliin sheathing of bronze, little adapted, one would think, for the purpose it is to serve — is now generally recognized as ha.'ing originated in the desire to construct a portable nltar on the lines of the massive brazen altai of Solomon, which was itself a departure • For the special sanctity attaching to the horns see Altar (vol. i. p. 77). It is open to gfrave doubt whether tliia wide- spread custom of providing altars with these projections lias an>-thing todo with the ox orcalf s^'mbolism (see Calf [(.ioLDE-vJ, vol. i. p. 342), as Stade and others suppose. ' Horn ' is rather a popular metaphor for the more correct y'li'ij? of Ezekiel (41'^; cf. Josephus' phrase yoitteti xtpanuitt:), and their ultimate rauon d'etre is probably to be sought in the same primitive circle of thoueht as a8cnl>ed a special sanctity to the four comers of a robe (see Frinobs, vol. ti. p. 69*). Another view is suggested by RS' 4Sa, Baentscb (Com. tn loe.).
from the true Heb. tradition (Ex 20--"'). The account of the making of this altar, which was one-fourth larger in cubic content than the whole tabernacle of P (2 Ch 4'), has now disappeared from the MT of 1 K 7, but was still read there bv the Chronicler {I.e.), and references to it still survive (1 K 8''=- «• 9'-", 2K 16'"). Its disappear- ance is easily accounted for by the fact that it« construction appeared to a later age as quite un- necessary, since the ' tent of meeting ' and all ita vessels, including the bronze altar of this section, were considered to have been transferred by Solomon, along with the ark, to his new temple (1 K 8-*; see Wellh. Proleg. [Eng. tr.] 44 ; Stade, ZATW iu. \S1 ^ Akad. Beden, 164; and the Comm.).
(6) The Laver (Ex 30""=', cf. SS* [LXX 38™]).— Between the altar above described and the taber- nacle stood the laver of bronze ("ivj, Xoi/r^p), to the description of which only a few words are de- voted, and these few are found not in the main body of P, but in a section (30. 31) bearing internal evidence of a later origin (see § ii., and more fully § viii. (c)). Bej-ond the fact that it was a large basin of bronze, and stood upon a base of the same material, we know nothing of its work- manship or ornamentation. It served to hold the water required for the ablutions of the priests in the course of their ministrations, and is fre- quently mentioned in the secondary strata of the priestly legislation (30™ 31° etc. ; it is omitted, how- ever, from the directions for the march in Nu 4). A curious tradition grew up at some still later
Eeriod, to the effect that the laver was made of the ronze ' mirrors of the serving-women which served at the door of the tent of meeting ' (38*, cf . 1 S 2"^). The latter, needless to say, was not yet in exist- ence. The temple of Solomon had ten lavers of elaborate construction (see Laver), the second temjile apparently had only one (Sir 50').
vii. The Tabernacle PROPER— (a) 7/(e Curtains of the Dwelling and the Tent, the outer coverings ("Ex 26'-'^ = 36«-" [LXX 37']; Jos. Ant. III. vi. 4 [ed. Niese, § 130 ff.]). — Probably no section of the OT of equal length is responsible for so large a number of divergent interpretations as the chapters now before us. It is clearly impossible within the limits of this article to refer to more than a very few of these interpretations, even of those asso- ciated with scholars of repute. What follows is the result of an independent study of the original in the light of the recognized principles under- lying the scheme of the wilderness sanctuary as conceived by the priestly writers (see § r. ). Fuller justification of the writer's position with regard to the many matters of controversy that emerge Avill be found in his commentary on Exodus (Internat. Crit. series).