Not every holy object in Scripture is beautiful. Among the bronze vessels made for the altar were pots, shovels, basins, firepans and fleshhooks, tools for the plain work of handling offerings and ashes. Moses is told to make them in Exodus 27, and Exodus 38 records the making. Numbers 4 lists them again among the “vessels of the altar” that were wrapped for travel, and Solomon’s temple had its own set in 2 Chronicles 4. The Bible gives no description of their shape, only their place in the daily service. Read Exodus 27:1-8 to see what they were made to serve.
4 verses
And thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basons, and his fleshhooks, and his firepans: all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass.
And he made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels, and the basons, and the fleshhooks, and the firepans: all the vessels thereof made he of brass.
And they shall put upon it all the vessels thereof, wherewith they minister about it, even the censers, the fleshhooks, and the shovels, and the basons, all the vessels of the altar; and they shall spread upon it a covering of badgers' skins, and put to the staves of it.
The pots also, and the shovels, and the fleshhooks, and all their instruments, did Huram his father make to king Solomon for the house of the LORD of bright brass.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
A many-pronged fork used in the sacrificial services (1 Sam. 2:13, 14; Ex. 27:3; 38:3) by the priest in drawing away the flesh. The fat of the sacrifice, together with the breast and shoulder (Lev. 7:29-34), were presented by the worshipper to the priest. The fat was burned on the alter (3:3-5), and the breast and shoulder became the portion of the priests. But Hophni and Phinehas, not content with this, sent a servant to seize with a flesh-hook a further portion.