Exodus 20:25
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
And if you will make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone: for if you lift up your tool on it, you have polluted it.
American King James Version (AKJV)
And if you will make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone: for if you lift up your tool on it, you have polluted it.
American Standard Version (ASV)
And if thou make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones; for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
And if you make me an altar of stone do not make it of cut stones: for the touch of an instrument will make it unclean.
Webster's Revision
And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou shalt lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
World English Bible
If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stones; for if you lift up your tool on it, you have polluted it.
English Revised Version (ERV)
And if thou make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
Definitions for Exodus 20:25
Clarke's Exodus 20:25 Bible Commentary
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.
