Matthew Poole and continuators on Exodus 20:25

25 And if thou wilt make me an Altar of stone , thou shalt not build it of hewen stone : for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it .

Which in those rocky parts might be as easie for them to make as one of earth.

Which would require both time and cost and art. The reasons of this precept are in part the same with the former, ver. 24.

By thy disobedience to my express command now given: and howsoever they think to gratifie 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 prophane thing which will defile them. So little doth God value or approve the inventions of men in his worship, how colourable soever they be.

Marginal references: Deut. 27. [illegible: 1+ letters] Josh. 8. 31.; Heb. build [illegible: 1+ letters]em with hew [illegible: 1+ letters]ng.