Literally, “it he began to build an altar” (see KJV margin). Some think this means that he started an altar but did not finish it; others, that this was the first altar he ever built. The translators evidently accepted the latter rendering and therefore translated hechel as “the first” instead of “began,” thinking this rendering conformed better to idiomatic Hebrew. This is the only instance in the OT that such a translation of hechel is made.