ALTAR — from zavach, 'to slaughter, sacrifice.' This chapter's bronze altar (27:1-8) stands OUTSIDE the tent, in the open court — acacia wood overlaid with bronze/copper, not the gold of every furnishing INSIDE the tabernacle (Exodus 25). Its horns (v2) are 'of one piece with it,' never bolted on. ⚠ Those horns become one of the most consequential objects in the whole narrative: fleeing men grasp them for asylum (1 Kings 1:50-51, already on these pages; 1 Kings 2:28, not yet), and their removal is itself a sentence of judgment ('the horns of the altar shall be cut off,' Amos 3:14, not yet on these pages). Hollow rather than solid (v8) — the standard reconciliation with the earlier law that a true altar be plain earth or unhewn stone, never cut and never elevated by steps (Exodus 20:24-26, already on these pages). A second mizbeach stands INSIDE the tent, gold rather than bronze, for incense rather than blood — but built to the same rule, its horns likewise 'of one piece with it' (Exodus 37:25-26, already on these pages), as if one design vocabulary governs both altars regardless of which side of the curtain they stand on. → first discussed at Exod 27:1