28 Bible Verses about Altars

He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he had built in Samaria.

So they took the bull that he gave them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “Baal, answer us!” But there was no sound; no one answered. Then they danced, hobbling around the altar they had made.

Therefore Jacob’s iniquity will be purged in this way,
and the result of the removal of his sin will be this:
when he makes all the altar stones
like crushed bits of chalk,
no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.

These people continually provoke Me
to My face,
sacrificing in gardens,
burning incense on bricks,

When Ephraim multiplied his altars for sin,
they became his altars for sinning.

The priest must apply some of the blood to the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before the Lord in the tent of meeting. He must pour out the rest of the bull’s blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

Solomon also made all the equipment in the Lord’s temple: the gold altar; the gold table that the bread of the Presence was placed on;

the gold altar; the anointing oil; the fragrant incense; the screen for the entrance to the tent;

“You are to make an altar for the burning of incense; make it of acacia wood.

So he added the gold overlay to the entire temple until everything was completely finished, including the entire altar that belongs to the inner sanctuary.

“These are the measurements of the altar in units of length (each unit being the standard length plus three inches): the gutter is 21 inches deep and 21 inches wide, with a rim of nine inches around its edge. This is the base of the altar.

“You must make an earthen altar for Me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats, as well as your cattle. I will come to you and bless you in every place where I cause My name to be remembered.

Build an altar of stones there to the Lord your God—you must not use any iron tool on them.

just as Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of uncut stones on which no iron tool has been used. Then they offered burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings on it.

And he set up an altar there and called it “God, the God of Israel.”

God said to Jacob, “Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”

We must get up and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to the God who answered me in my day of distress. He has been with me everywhere I have gone.”

Jacob built an altar there and called the place God of Bethel because it was there that God had revealed Himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

The king tore down the altars that were on the roof—Ahaz’s upper chamber that the kings of Judah had made—and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. Then he smashed them there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley.

The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will become impure like that place Topheth—all the houses on whose rooftops they have burned incense to the whole heavenly host and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”

The Chaldeans who are going to fight against this city will come, set this city on fire, and burn it along with the houses where incense has been burned to Baal on their rooftops and where drink offerings have been poured out to other gods to provoke Me to anger.

Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son. He must die, because he tore down Baal’s altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.”

He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he had built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed and reestablished the altars for Baal. He made an Asherah, as King Ahab of Israel had done; he also worshiped the whole heavenly host and served them.

Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”

So Balak took him to Lookout Field on top of Pisgah, built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Balaam told Balak, “Build me seven altars here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”

So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the oaks of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the Lord.

Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.

He made a bronze altar 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 15 feet high.

Solomon also made all the equipment in God’s temple: the gold altar; the tables on which to put the bread of the Presence;

So Gideon went and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from a half bushel of flour. He placed the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot. He brought them out and offered them to Him under the oak. The Angel of God said to him, "Take the meat with the unleavened bread, put it on this stone, and pour the broth [on it]." And he did so. The Angel of the Lord extended the tip of the staff that was in His hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire came up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the Angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.

Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the Lord, and He did a wonderful thing while Manoah and his wife were watching. When the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the Angel of the Lord went up in its flame. When Manoah and his wife saw [this], they fell facedown on the ground.

Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”

David replied, “To buy the threshing floor from you in order to build an altar to the Lord, so the plague on the people may be halted.”

He built an altar to the Lord there and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered prayer on behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel ended.

Instead, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and chop down their Asherah poles.

Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn up their carved images.

If a person schemes and willfully acts against his neighbor to murder him, you must take him from My altar to be put to death.

"Very well," Bathsheba replied. "I will speak to the king for you." So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him about Adonijah. The king stood up to greet her, bowed to her, sat down on his throne, and had a throne placed for the king's mother. So she sat down at his right hand. Then she said, "I have just one small request of you. Don't turn me down." "[Go ahead and] ask, mother," the king replied, "for I won't turn you down." read more.
So she said, "Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to your brother Adonijah as a wife." King Solomon answered his mother, "Why are you requesting Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Since he is my elder brother, you might as well ask the kingship for him, for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab son of Zeruiah." Then Solomon took an oath by the Lord: "May God punish me and do so severely if Adonijah has not made this request at the cost of his life. And now, as the Lord lives, the One who established me, seated me on the throne of my father David, and made me a dynasty as He promised-I swear Adonijah will be put to death today!" Then King Solomon gave the order to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who struck down Adonijah, and he died. The king said to Abiathar the priest, "Go to your fields in Anathoth. Even though you deserve to die, I will not put you to death today, since you carried the ark of the Lord God in the presence of my father David and you suffered through all that my father suffered." So Solomon banished Abiathar from being the Lord's priest, and it fulfilled the Lord's prophecy He had spoken at Shiloh against Eli's family. The news reached Joab. Since he had supported Adonijah but not Absalom, Joab fled to the Lord's tabernacle and took hold of the horns of the altar. It was reported to King Solomon: "Joab has fled to the Lord's tabernacle and is now beside the altar." Then Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada and told [him], "Go and strike him down!" So Benaiah went to the tabernacle and said to Joab, "This is what the king says: 'Come out!' " But Joab said, "No, for I will die here." So Benaiah took a message back to the king, "This is what Joab said, and this is how he answered me." The king said to him, "Do just as he says. Strike him down and bury him in order to remove from me and from my father's house the blood that Joab shed without just cause. The Lord will bring back his own blood on his own head because he struck down two men more righteous and better than he, without my father David's knowledge. With his sword, Joab murdered Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel's army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah's army. Their blood will come back on Joab's head and on the head of his descendants forever, but for David, his descendants, his dynasty, and his throne, there will be peace from the Lord forever." Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up, struck down Joab, and put him to death. He was buried at his house in the wilderness.

And Moses built an altar and named it, “The Lord Is My Banner.”

And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early the next morning and set up an altar and 12 pillars for the 12 tribes of Israel at the base of the mountain.

“Do not set up an Asherah of any kind of wood next to the altar you will build for the Lord your God,

King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria. When he saw the altar that was in Damascus, King Ahaz sent a model of the altar and complete plans for its construction to Uriah the priest. Uriah built the altar according to all [the instructions] King Ahaz sent from Damascus. Therefore, by the time King Ahaz came back from Damascus, Uriah the priest had made it. When the king came back from Damascus, he saw the altar. Then he approached the altar and ascended it.

Write clearly all the words of this law on the plastered stones.”

"You must make an earthen altar for Me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats, as well as your cattle. I will come to you and bless you in every place where I cause My name to be remembered. If you make a stone altar for Me, you must not build it out of cut stones. If you use your chisel on it, you will defile it.

Adonijah was afraid of Solomon, so he got up and went to take hold of the horns of the altar. It was reported to Solomon: "Look, Adonijah fears King Solomon, and he has taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, 'Let King Solomon first swear to me that he will not kill his servant with the sword.' "

At that time Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal to the Lord, the God of Israel, just as Moses the Lord's servant had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of uncut stones on which no iron tool has been used. Then they offered burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings on it.

Build a well-constructed altar to the Lord your God on the top of this rock. Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down." So Gideon took 10 of his male servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his father's household and the men of the city to do it in the daytime, he did it at night.

He offered sacrifices on the altar he had set up in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. He chose this month on his own. He made a festival for the Israelites, offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned incense.

"You are to construct the altar of acacia wood. The altar must be square, seven and a half feet long, and seven and a half feet wide; it must be four and a half feet high. Make horns for it on its four corners; the horns are to be of one piece. Overlay it with bronze. Make its pots for removing ashes, and its shovels, basins, meat forks, and firepans; make all its utensils of bronze. read more.
Construct a grate for it of bronze mesh, and make four bronze rings on the mesh at its four corners. Set it below, under the altar's ledge, so that the mesh comes halfway up the altar. Then make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. The poles are to be inserted into the rings, so that the poles are on two sides of the altar when it is carried. Construct the altar with boards so that it is hollow. They are to make it just as it was shown to you on the mountain.

"You are to make an altar for the burning of incense; make it of acacia wood. It must be square, 18 inches long and 18 inches wide; it must be 36 inches high. Its horns must be of one piece. Overlay its top, all around its sides, and its horns with pure gold; make a gold molding all around it. read more.
Make two gold rings for it under the molding on two of its sides; put these on opposite sides of it to be holders for the poles to carry it with. Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. "You are to place the altar in front of the veil by the ark of the testimony-in front of the mercy seat that is over the testimony-where I will meet with you.

Then he would return to Ramah because his home was there, he judged Israel there, and he built an altar to the Lord there.

So he built an altar there, called on the name of Yahweh, and pitched his tent there. Isaac’s slaves also dug a well there.

When they came to the region of the Jordan in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh built a large, impressive altar there by the Jordan.

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

You must not go up to My altar on steps, so that your nakedness is not exposed on it.

“You must make an earthen altar for Me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats, as well as your cattle. I will come to you and bless you in every place where I cause My name to be remembered.

The next day the people got up early, built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.

These people continually provoke Me
to My face,
sacrificing in gardens,
burning incense on bricks,

Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers the priests along with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his brothers began to build the altar of Israel's God in order to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God. They set up the altar on its foundation and offered burnt offerings for the morning and evening on it to the Lord even though they feared the surrounding peoples.

For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed:

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.

Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

the bronze altar with its bronze grate, its poles, and all its utensils; the basin with its stand;

Make horns for it on its four corners; the horns are to be of one piece. Overlay it with bronze.

These people continually provoke Me
to My face,
sacrificing in gardens,
burning incense on bricks,

When they came to the region of the Jordan in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh built a large, impressive altar there by the Jordan. Then the Israelites heard [it] said, "Look, the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh have built an altar on the frontier of the land of Canaan at the region of the Jordan, on the Israelite side." When the Israelites heard [this], the entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh to go to war against them. read more.
The Israelites sent Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead. [They sent] 10 leaders with him-one family leader for each tribe of Israel. All of them were heads of their families among the clans of Israel. They went to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and told them, "This is what the Lord's entire community says: 'What is this treachery you have committed today against the God of Israel by turning away from the Lord and building an altar for yourselves, so that you are in rebellion against the Lord today? Wasn't the sin of Peor, which brought a plague on the Lord's community, enough for us, so that we have not cleansed ourselves from it even to this day, and now, you would turn away from the Lord? If you rebel against the Lord today, tomorrow He will be angry with the entire community of Israel. But if the land you possess is defiled, cross over to the land the Lord possesses where the Lord's tabernacle stands, and take possession [of it] among us. But don't rebel against the Lord or against us by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the Lord our God. Wasn't Achan son of Zerah unfaithful regarding what was set apart for destruction, bringing wrath on the entire community of Israel? He was not the only one who perished because of his sin.' " The Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh answered the leaders of the Israelite clans, "The Lord is the God of gods! The Lord is the God of gods! He knows, and may Israel also know. Do not spare us today, if [it was] in rebellion or treachery against the Lord that we have built for ourselves an altar to turn away from Him. May the Lord Himself hold us accountable if [we intended] to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings on it, or to sacrifice fellowship offerings on it. We actually did this from a specific concern that in the future your descendants might say to our descendants, 'What relationship do you have with the Lord, the God of Israel? For the Lord has made the Jordan a border between us and you descendants of Reuben and Gad. You have no share in the Lord!' So your descendants may cause our descendants to stop fearing the Lord. "Therefore we said: Let us take action and build an altar for ourselves, but not for burnt offering or sacrifice. Instead, it is to be a witness between us and you, and between the generations after us, so that we may carry out the worship of the Lord in His presence with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and fellowship offerings. Then in the future, your descendants will not be able to say to our descendants, 'You have no share in the Lord!' We thought that if they said this to us or to our generations in the future, we would reply: Look at the replica of the Lord's altar that our fathers made, not for burnt offering or sacrifice, but as a witness between us and you. We would never rebel against the Lord or turn away from Him today by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the Lord our God, which is in front of His tabernacle."

Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the Lord, and He did a wonderful thing while Manoah and his wife were watching.

The Angel of God said to him, "Take the meat with the unleavened bread, put it on this stone, and pour the broth [on it]." And he did so. The Angel of the Lord extended the tip of the staff that was in His hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire came up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the Angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.