Ezekiel 43:13-17

The altar of burnt-offering in the inner court

The altar was a large structure, built of stone, and rose in terraces, contracting by means of two inlets towards the top. It consisted: (1) of a basement, with a border or moulding on the top or edge of it. (2) Two cubits above this basement or socket, in which the altar proper stood, was the first inlet, a cubit broad, so that there ran a ledge of a cubit round about the altar on its four sides (Ezekiel 43:13). (3) Four cubits above this first inlet came the second inlet or contraction, also a cubit broad, so as to form in like manner a ledge of a cubit round about the altar (Ezekiel 43:14). (4) Then four cubits upwards from this ledge was the altar area or platform proper, the "hearth of God," having horns rising up at the four corners (Ezekiel 43:15). The area of this altar-hearth was a square of is cubits (Ezekiel 43:16). At the higher inlet the area was 14 cubits square (Ezekiel 43:17). Probably, therefore, at the lower inlet the area was 16 cubits square and the basement 18 cubits. Thus the structure had the appearance of four square blocks, each narrower in area than the one below it, and each thus appearing set into the one under it as into a socket. Such structures built in stages were common in the architecture of the East; see examples in Rawlin. Phenicia, p. 166 seq.