Therefore, if you are offering your [sacrificial] gift on the Altar and [just then] you remember that your brother has a grievance against you,

[stop right there]; leave your gift at the Altar and [immediately] go to that brother and settle the matter first, before returning to offer your gift.

And [you say], whoever takes an oath 'by the Altar,' it does not [really] mean anything, but whoever takes an oath 'by the gift on the Altar,' he is obligated to [fulfill] the oath.

You blind people! Which is more important, the gift or the Altar that makes the gift sacred?

The person, therefore, who takes an oath 'by the Altar,' [not only] swears by it, but [also] by everything on it.

[This will be done] so that on you may fall the guilt for shedding on the ground the blood of all those innocent people, from the blood of righteous Abel to that of Barachiah's son Zachariah, whom you murdered between the Sanctuary and the Altar [i.e., in the Temple area].