rth remains
twenty-four cubits square. Rabbi Jose said, "at first it was only
twenty-eight cubits square." It receded and ascended until the hearth
remained twenty cubits square; but when the children of the captivity came
up, they added to it four cubits on the north, and four cubits on the
west, like a gamma it is said; and the altar was twelve cubits long by
twelve broad, being a square. One might say it was only "a square of
twelve,"(577) as is said. Upon its four sides we learn that it measured
from the middle twelve cubits to every side. And a line of red paint
girdled it in the midst to separate the blood sprinkled above from the
blood sprinkled below. And the foundation was a perfect walk along on the
north side; and all along on the west, but it wanted in the south one
cubit, and in the east one cubit.(578)

2. And in the southwestern corner were two holes as two thin nostrils,
that the blood poured upon the western and southern foundation should run
into them; and it commingled in a canal and flowed out into the Kidron.

3. Below in the plaster in the same corner there was a place a cubit
square, with a marble tablet, and a ring fastened in it. Through it they
descended to the sewer and cleansed it. And there was a sloping
ascent(579) to the south of the altar, thirty-two cubits long by sixteen
broad. In its western side was a closet, where they put the birds unmeet
for the sin-offering.

4. Either the stones of the sloping ascent, or the stones of the altar
were from the valley of Bethcerem.(580) And they digged deeper than virgin
soil, and brought from thence perfect stones over which iron(581) was not
waved. For the iron defiles by touching. And a scratch defiles everything.
In any of them a scratch defiled, but the others were lawful. And they
whitewashed them twice in the year; once at the passover, and once at the
feast of Tabernacles. And the Sanctuary (was whitewashed) once at the
passover. The Rabbi said, "every Friday evening they whitewashed them with
a mop on account of the blood." They did not plaster it with an iron
trowel, "mayhap it will touch and defile." Since iron is made to shorten
the days of man, and the altar is made to lengthen the days of man, it is
not lawful, that what shortens should be waved over what lengthens.

5. And there were rings to the northern side of the altar, six rows of
four each: though some say four rows of six each. Upon them the priests
slaughtered the holy beas