Burnt Offering Altar

Burnt offerings were presented on a burnt offering altar. According to Exodus 27, Moses was given the task of constructing a burnt offering altar near the tabernacle. Later, when the Temple was built in Jerusalem, a burnt offering altar was placed in front of the Temple.

Animals were burned as a sacrifice on a burnt offering altar; sometimes just the fat parts of an animal were burned. An aroma then rose towards heaven. In Genesis 8:21 we read: “The odour of the sacrifice pleased the LORD.” Apart from animal sacrifices, grain offerings were also presented.

A burnt offering altar was generally made of stones piled on top of each other. According to the stipulations in Exodus 20:25 and Deuteronomy 27:5, these stones were not to be worked with iron tools. Furthermore, no staircase leading to the top of the altar was allowed.
In various stories in Genesis we are told of the construction of an altar. This often occurred at a place where a significant event or an encounter with God had taken place. Thus in Genesis 8:20 Noah builds an altar at the place where he returned to dry land after the great flood. In Genesis 22:9 Abraham builds an altar on God’s instructions, to sacrifice his son Isaac on.

In Exodus 27:1-8 and Exodus 38:1-7 there is a description of the burnt offering altar that God instructed Moses to build near the tabernacle. He was to make this altar not of stone but of acacia wood, and cover it with bronze.
However, a burnt offering altar could also be found in other places than in a Temple or near the tabernacle. In Israel various stone altars have been found which were not situated inside a Temple, including ones in Shiloh and Megiddo.

In 2 Chronicles 4:1 we are told how Solomon has an altar made of bronze for the Temple in Jerusalem.
In 2 Kings 16:14 we read that King Ahaz later replaces this bronze altar with a larger altar, made on the model of an altar in Damascus. When the Israelites return to Jerusalem after the exile, they immediately build a new burnt offering altar, even before a start is made on the reconstruction of the Temple (Ezra 3:2-3).