Altar

ALTAR. As Sacrifices offered up to God are as ancient as the world, Altars are of no less antiquity. The Scripture in some places speaks of Altars erected by the Patriarchs, without describing the form or matter of them. The Altar which Jacob set up at Bethel was nothing but the stone which had served him for a bolster. Gideon sacrificed upon nothing better than a stone which was before his house. The first Altars which God com manded Moses to raise to him, must have Exod. xx. 24, 25.been of Earth or rough Stones; and the Lord declared to him, that if any use were made of Iron in them they would be impure. Ch. xxv. 1, 2, 3, &c.The Altar of Burnt-offerings which he caused sometime after to be made, was a kind of trunk of Shittim wood, hollow, and covered over with plates of Brass. See hereafter BURNT-OFFERINGS, and ALTAR OF BURNT-OFFERINGS.

The Altar which Moses injoined Joshua to build upon Mount Hebal, was to be of Deut. xxvii. 5. Josh. viii. 31.unpolished Stones; and it is very probable that those which were built afterwards by Samuel, Saul and David, were of the same structure. The Altar which Solomon 2 Chron. iv. 1, 2, 3.erected in the Temple, was of Brass, but filled, as is believed, with rough Stones. It was twenty cubits long, twenty wide, and ten in height. Lastly, that which was rebuilt at Jerusalem by Zerubbabel, and the other Jews who returned from Babylon, was only of rough Stones: nor was that which the Maccabees rebuilt any better. Josephus¹ says, that the Altar which in his time was in the Temple, was of rough Stones, fifteen cubits high, forty long, and as many in width.

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