Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 20:25
And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
25. tool ] The word ( reb) commonly rendered ‘sword,’ occasionally used of other sharp instruments, Jos 5:2-3 (‘knives’): in Deu 27:5 E (Jos 8:31) the word is replaced by ‘iron.’ Cf. 1Ma 4:47 . The prohibition may be a survival either from a time when instruments of iron were not in general use, or from the time when the altar was a natural rock or boulder (cf. on v. 24), supposed to be the abode of numen or deity, and it was imagined that to alter its shape would have the effect of driving the numen from it (Nowack, Arch. ii. 17; DB. i. 76 a , EB. i. 124). But naturally this is not the belief which actuates the prohibition here. An altar of stones, seemingly unhewn, was built by Elijah (1Ki 18:32).
it (twice)] The pron. (which is fem. in the Heb.) refers not to ‘altar but to ‘stone’: it is the stone which is profaned by being worked with a tool.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Exo 20:25
Thou shalt not build it of hewn stone.
The altar of unhewn stone: simplicity of worship
I. Ritualism is not a necessity of worship. There can be worship at the rough altar of unhewn stones, as well as in the temple where wealth has lavished its contributions and art exhausted its genius. Worship is not a form, but a spirit; not a service, but a life. And a life has many functions.
II. Meritoriousness must be excluded from worship. No too1 to be used in constructing this altar. To culture the soul in true devotion, as God requires, is a harder task than to give money, etc.
III. Universality is a characteristic of worship.
1. Not confined to places.
2. Not confined to persons. As mere earthen altars will do, where is the man who cannot build them? (Homilist.)
The Jewish altar as typical of Christ
One can hardly help connecting the words with Daniels vision of a stone cut out of the mountain without hands, which was a vision of Christ. The rough stone fashioned by no human instrumentality, this alone might be an altar of the Lord. It was forbidden that man should attempt by devices of his own to adorn the altar; if he made the endeavour, he utterly profaned and polluted the structure: and in all this, was it not, as though it had been said expressly to man, Thou shalt have a Mediator, an Altar, on which thine offerings being laid, shall be consumed by the fires of Divine acceptance; but if thou shouldst attempt to add anything of thine own to the worthiness of this Mediator, if thou wouldst carve the altar, or ornament it with human merit or righteousness, the effect shall be that for yourself the altar shall be stripped of all virtue, and no flame break forth from the heavens to burn up the oblation? Now, we believe, that so soon as man had fallen, God instituted a system of sacrifice, and taught those who had sullied their immortality that its lustre should be restored through a propitiation for sin. As we conclude that God first ordained sacrifice, we may also conclude that it was under His direction that the first altars were reared. Observe two things: an altar supported the gift, and an altar sanctified the gift. We believe that in both these respects Christ Jesus may be designated as an altar, whether you consider His Person or the work which He effects on our behalf.
1. If we look first at the Person of the Mediator, shall we not find the two properties of the altar, that it supported and sanctified the oblation which Christ made to the Almighty? The Person of Christ Jesus, as you know, was a Divine Person, whilst in it were gathered two natures, the human and the Divine. It was the human nature which was sacrificed, the Divine being inaccessible to suffering and incapable of pain. So that if you simply look at the Person of the Mediator, and consider that it was the design of the altar to support the gift that was presented in sacrifice, you must see that the Divine nature so bore up the human, that it so served as a platform on which the oblation might be laid when the fire of Gods justice came down in its purity and its intenseness, that with as much reason as Christ Jesus is described as a sacrifice, may He also be described as an altar.
2. Not, however, that the altar only sustained the gift; it also sanctified the gift; and the fitness of considering the Divine nature in the Person of Christ as the altar on which the human was presented, will be still more apparent if you bring into account this sanctifying virtue. We have already stated that the Divine nature was of necessity incapable of suffering, and that it was, therefore, the human which made the Redeemer accessible to anguish; but it was the Divinity which gave worth to the sufferings of the humanity, and rendered them efficacious to the taking away sin. The Divine was to the human what the altar was to the sacrifice: it sanctified the gift and made it acceptable. Yes, blessed Saviour we most thankfully own that through Thee, and Thee only, can we offer unto God any acceptable service. And here we would remind you of a very emphatic question put by our Lord to the Pharisees–Whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? We have to allude to the supposed efficacy in repentance, and the presumed virtue in the tears which the sinful may shed over their offences against God. The guilt of sin is removed by Christs blood, not by mans tears. It is the altar that sanctifieth the gift. I depreciate not repentance, I strip it not of moral excellence, nor of moral prevalence, but we affirm that without the altar the gift would be unavailing, without Christ the most contrite would perish with the most hardy. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 25. Thou shalt not build it of hewn stone] Because they were now in a wandering state, and had as yet no fixed residence; and therefore no time should be wasted to rear costly altars, which could not be transported with them, and which they must soon leave. Besides, they must not lavish skill or expense on the construction of an altar; the altar of itself, whether costly or mean, was nothing in the worship; it was only the place on which the victim should be laid, and their mind must be attentively fixed on that God to whom the sacrifice was offered, and on the sacrifice itself, as that appointed by the Lord to make an atonement for their sins.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
An altar of stone in those rocky parts might be as easy for them to make as one of earth. Hewn stone would require both time, and cost, and art. The reasons of this precept are in part the same with the former, Exo 20:24.
If thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it, by thy disobedience to my express command now given; and howsoever they think to gratify me by this curiosity, I shall not look upon it as a sacred thing, by which the sacrifices offered on it shall be sanctified, but as a profane thing which will defile them. So little doth God value or approve the inventions of men in his worship, how colourable soever they be.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
25. thou shalt not build it of hewnstone, &c.that is, carved with figures and ornaments thatmight lead to superstition.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone,…. If they chose instead of an earthen one to make one of stone, as they might in rocky places, where they came, and in such an one where they now were, Mount Sinai, under which hill an altar was built, Ex 24:4,
thou shall not build it of hewn stone; which would require time and occasion expense, to hew and polish them in an artificial way; but it was to be built of rude and unpolished stones, just as they were taken out of the quarry, or found lying by the way, and which were laid up in an heap one upon another, and was done with little trouble, and without any ornament, and easily separated and thrown down, when become useless: the reason of this law, as given by Maimonides w, is this,
“because the idolaters of that time built their altars of hewn stones, therefore God forbad it, lest we should be like them, and that we might shun it in all things, he commanded the altar to be made of earth, as it is said, an altar of earth shalt thou make unto me; and if it could not be made without stones, that the stones should remain in their own natural form, and be neither hewn nor polished; as he after forbad a painted stone, and a plantation of trees by an altar; for in each of these there is one and the same intention and design, namely, that we might not worship him in the same manner in which idolaters used to worship their fictitious deities:”
for if thou lift up thy tool upon it; or, thy sword x; it signifies any tool or instrument made of iron as a sword is, and here such an one as is used in hewing of stone; which, if lifted up on the altar, or on any of the stones of which it is built, to strike and hew them with,
thou hast polluted it; and so made it unfit for use: how this should be done hereby is not easy to say, no good reason seems to be assignable for it but the will and pleasure of God; who so appointed it, and reckoned that a pollution, and would have it so thought by others, which with men is accounted ornamental; his thoughts and judgment are not as man’s: the Targum of Jonathan is,
“for if thou liftest up iron, of which a sword is made, upon a stone, thou wilt profane it;”
the reason which the Misnic doctors y give, and Jarchi from them, is,
“because iron was created to shorten the days of men, but the other was made to prolong the days of men: and therefore it cannot be just that that which shortens should be lifted up and agitated over that which prolongs:”
but Maimonides gives a better reason of it, as Abarbinel understands him, which was to prevent persons making images in stones z, which image making is the thing guarded against and forbidden in the context; but still better is that of Isaac Arama a, that the hands of the artificer were to abstain from the stones of the altar, lest that good which men obtain of God at the altar should be attributed to any work of theirs: though, after all, it is right what Aben Ezra, says, that it does not belong to us to search after the reasons of the commands, at least not in too curious and bold a manner, and where God is silent and has not thought fit to give any.
w Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 45. x “gladium tuum”, Montanus, Piscator, Cartwright. y Misnah Middot, c. 3. sect. 4. z Apud L’Empereur in Middot, ib. a Apud Rivet in loc.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(25) If thou wilt make me an altar of stone.Among civilised nations altars were almost always of stone, which superseded earth, as more durable. God does not absolutely prohibit the employment of stone altars by the Israelites, who are found to use them upon certain occasions (Jos. 8:31; 1Ki. 18:32). He is content to forbid the shaping of the stones by an implement, that so they may not give rise to idolatry. (See Note on Exo. 20:24.)
Thou hast polluted it.Nature is Gods handiwork, and, therefore, pure and holy. Man, by contact with it, imparts to it of his impurity. The altar, whereby sin was to be expiated, required to be free from all taint of human corruption. For the construction of the altar afterwards sanctioned, see the comment on Exo. 27:1.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
25. If thou wilt make me an altar of stone Such an altar would be as simple and easy of construction as one of turf, and more so in places where stones abounded . But to preserve its simplicity, and to deter from attempts to imitate the sculptured embellishments of heathen altars, they were forbidden to make use of hewn stone, or to wield a graver’s tool upon it . The natural stone, untouched by art or man’s device, was most like the earth itself, and most appropriate for the sanctity and simplicity of the altar-service . Any attempt to cut or carve the stones would be a polluting of holy things . The framework of acacia wood, overlaid with brass, was a subsequent and special provision for the altar of the tabernacle . See Exo 27:1-8.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 20:25. And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, &c. The Lord will have an altar of turf, or natural stone, not put together with much art. For if thou lift up thy tool upon it, it is added, thou hast polluted it: i.e. thou hast rendered it unfit for my use and worship; it must be no longer considered as an altar consecrated to me. This is all that the original word chilel can import, which is used in a sense directly opposite to kidesh; that is, holy, or set apart to sacred uses. See Lev 10:10. It is impossible to suppose that the workman’s tool could convey any actual pollution or uncleanness to the altar: the whole meaning, therefore, is, that God requiring an altar of natural and unhewn stone, the application of any tool to form or polish it, being directly contrary to his commandment, made such altar utterly unfit for his service. The word rendered polluted is often used to denote an application to one’s own or to common use. See marginal translation of Deu 20:6; Deu 28:30 in our Bibles compared with Lev 19:23-24. It is remarkable, that Plato, in his Book of Laws, (l. 12 p. 955.) orders that all things, belonging to the service of God, should be very simple and plain, without any cost or ornament; and therefore forbids gold, silver, or ivory, because they were things too apt to raise envy.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Exo 20:25 And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
Ver. 25. Thou hast polluted. ] Not polished it. So in preaching. 1Co 2:4-5 Epistolae ornamentum est ornamentis carere: Plainness commends an epistle. a Nimio mundo studentes, ab immundo propius absunt. b Some mar all by over doing it.
a Politian.
b Colerus.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
not . . . hewn stone. No human handiwork tc be used in approaching God in worship. tool. Man’s work, in this sphere, pollutes.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
And: Deu 27:5, Deu 27:6, Jos 8:31
build it of hewn stone: Heb. build them with hewing
Reciprocal: Gen 8:20 – builded Lev 16:33 – General Jdg 21:4 – built there 1Ki 18:32 – And with 1Ch 21:26 – built there Ezr 3:2 – as it is written Isa 65:3 – altars