Grate

The grate is a piece of the altar of burnt offering — a bronze network fitted under the altar's ledge, with four rings cast at its corners as places for the carrying-poles. Its description appears twice: first in the instructions Moses receives at Sinai, then in the matching record of the altar as it was actually built.

Instruction

The plan for the altar specifies the grating itself, its material, and its rings: "And you will make for it a grating of network of bronze: and on the net you will make four bronze rings in the four corners of it. And you will put it under the ledge around the altar beneath, that the net may reach halfway up the altar" (Exod 27:4-5). The grating is bronze, lattice-shaped, ringed at its four corners, and seated under the ledge so that it reaches midway up the altar's height.

Construction

The construction account repeats the instruction in execution: "And he made for the altar a grating of network of bronze, under the ledge around it beneath, reaching halfway up. And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grating of bronze, to be places for the poles" (Exod 38:4-5). Material, position, and dimension match what was commanded; the four rings, here, are explicitly identified as housings for the carrying-poles by which the altar is moved.