Exodus 20:24 (LSB)

Passage

You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.

Nearby Context

Exodus 20:22 Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven.

Exodus 20:23 You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves.

Exodus 20:24 You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.

Exodus 20:25 And if you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it.

Exodus 20:26 And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that your nakedness will not be exposed on it.’

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "sheep", "shall", "make", "altar", "earth", "sacrifice", "burnt", and "offerings". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "sheep" and "shall", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 23's "You shall not make other gods besides..." into verse 25's "And if you make an altar of...", so "sheep" and "shall" belong inside that flow. In Exodus context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "sheep" and "shall" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.