28 Bible Verses about Altars

And he raised up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.

And they took the bullock which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made.

By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin; when he makes all the stones of the altar like chalkstones that are beaten to dust, the idol poles and incense altars shall not remain standing.

A people that provoke me to anger continually to my face; that sacrifice in gardens, and burn incense upon altars of brick;

Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin offerings, the altars shall be unto him for sinning.

And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the LORD, which is in the tabernacle of meeting; and shall pour the rest of the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

And Solomon made all the vessels that pertained unto the house of the LORD: the altar of gold, and the table of gold, on which was the showbread,

And the golden altar, and the anointing oil, and the sweet-smelling incense, and the hanging for the tabernacle door,

And you shall make an altar to burn incense upon: of acacia wood shall you make it.

And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the house: also the whole altar that was by the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.

And these are the measurements of the altar by cubits: The cubit is a cubit and a handbreadth; the base shall be a cubit high, and the width a cubit, and its rim all around its edge shall be a span: and this shall be the height of the altar.

An altar of earth you shall make for me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings, and your peace offerings, your sheep, and your oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto you, and I will bless you.

And there shall you build an altar unto the LORD your God, an altar of stones: you shall not lift up any iron tool upon them.

As Moses the servant of the LORD commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no man has lifted up any iron: and they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings.

And he erected there an altar, and called it Elelohe-israel.

And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, who appeared unto you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.

And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.

And he built there an altar, and called the place El-bethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.

And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king pull down, and broke them down from there, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.

And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled like the place of Topheth, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.

And the Chaldeans, that fight against this city, shall come and set fire to this city, and burn it with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal, and poured out drink offerings unto other gods, to provoke me to anger.

Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out your son, that he may die: because he has cast down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the idol pole that was by it.

And he raised up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made an idol pole; and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.

For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he raised up altars for Baal, and made an idol pole, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshiped all the army of heaven, and served them.

And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven oxen and seven rams.

And he brought him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar.

And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams.

Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.

And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto your descendants will I give this land: and there built he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.

And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

Moreover he made an altar of bronze, twenty cubits its length, and twenty cubits its breadth, and ten cubits its height.

And Solomon made all the articles that were for the house of God, the golden altar also, and the tables on which the showbread was set;

And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it. And the angel of God said unto him, Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so. Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.

So Manoah took a kid with a grain offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the LORD: and the angel did a wondrous thing; and Manoah and his wife looked on. For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground.

And Araunah said, Why has my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people.

And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD heeded supplications for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.

But you shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their idol poles:

But thus shall you deal with them; you shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their idol poles, and burn their graven images with fire.

But if a man comes presumptuously upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile; you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.

And Bath-sheba said, Well; I will speak for you unto the king. Bath-sheba therefore went unto king Solomon, to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king's mother; and she sat on his right hand. Then she said, I desire one small petition of you; I pray you, say not nay to me. And the king said unto her, Ask on, my mother: for I will not say nay to you. read more.
And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as his wife. And king Solomon answered and said unto his mother, And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? ask for him the kingdom also; for he is my elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah. Then king Solomon swore by the LORD, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life. Now therefore, as the LORD lives, who has established me, and set me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me a house, as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this day. And king Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he struck him down so that he died. And unto Abiathar the priest said the king, Get you to Anathoth, unto your own fields; for you are worthy of death: but I will not at this time put you to death, because you bore the ark of the Lord GOD before David my father, and because you have been afflicted in all in which my father was afflicted. So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the LORD; that he might fulfill the word of the LORD, which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. Then tidings came to Joab: for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom. And Joab fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD, and caught hold on the horns of the altar. And it was told king Solomon that Joab was fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD; and, behold, he is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, strike him down. And Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the LORD, and said unto him, Thus says the king, Come forth. And he said, Nay; but I will die here. And Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me. And the king said unto him, Do as he has said, and strike him down, and bury him; that you may take away the innocent blood, which Joab shed, from me, and from the house of my father. And the LORD shall return his blood upon his own head, who struck down two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword, my father David not knowing of it, Abner the son of Ner, captain of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the army of Judah. Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his descendants forever: but upon David, and upon his descendants, and upon his house, and upon his throne, shall there be peace forever from the LORD. So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up, and struck him down, and slew him: and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.

And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it, The LORD is my banner:

And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

You shall not make a post idol of any trees near unto the altar of the LORD your God, which you shall make you.

And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof. And Uriah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Uriah the priest made it before king Ahaz came from Damascus. And when the king had come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon.

And you shall write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly.

An altar of earth you shall make for me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings, and your peace offerings, your sheep, and your oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto you, and I will bless you. And if you will make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone: for if you lift up your tool upon it, you have polluted it.

And Adonijah feared because of Solomon, and arose, and went, and caught hold of the horns of the altar. And it was told Solomon, saying, Behold, Adonijah fears king Solomon: for, lo, he has caught hold of the horns of the altar, saying, Let king Solomon swear unto me today that he will not slay his servant with the sword.

Then Joshua built an altar unto the LORD God of Israel in mount Ebal, As Moses the servant of the LORD commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no man has lifted up any iron: and they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings.

And build an altar unto the LORD your God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the idol pole which you shall cut down. Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his father's household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.

So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Beth-el the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.

And you shall make an altar of acacia wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height of it shall be three cubits. And you shall make the horns of it upon its four corners: its horns shall be of one piece with it: and you shall overlay it with bronze. And you shall make its pans to receive its ashes, and its shovels, and its basins, and its flesh hooks, and its fire pans: all the utensils of it you shall make of bronze. read more.
And you shall make for it a grate of network of bronze; and upon the net shall you make four bronze rings in the four corners. And you shall put it under the rim of the altar beneath, that the net may extend halfway down the altar. And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. And the poles shall be put into the rings, and the poles shall be upon the two sides of the altar, to bear it. Hollow with boards shall you make it: as it was shown you on the mount, so shall they make it.

And you shall make an altar to burn incense upon: of acacia wood shall you make it. A cubit shall be the length of it, and a cubit the breadth of it; foursquare shall it be: and two cubits shall be the height of it: its horns shall be of one piece with it. And you shall overlay it with pure gold, the top of it, and the sides of it round about, and its horns; and you shall make unto it a molding of gold round about. read more.
And two golden rings shall you make for it under its molding, by its two corners, upon the two sides of it shall you make it; and they shall be places for the poles with which to bear it. And you shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. And you shall put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you.

And his return was to Ramah; for there was his house; and there he judged Israel; and there he built an altar unto the LORD.

And he built an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's servants dug a well.

And when they came unto the borders of Jordan, that are in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, a great altar to see.

And Noah built an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Neither shall you go up by steps unto my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.

An altar of earth you shall make for me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings, and your peace offerings, your sheep, and your oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto you, and I will bless you.

And it came to pass the next day, that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

A people that provoke me to anger continually to my face; that sacrifice in gardens, and burn incense upon altars of brick;

Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God. And they set the altar upon its bases; for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries: and they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the LORD, even burnt offerings morning and evening.

For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore you ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

The bronze altar, and its grate of bronze, its poles, and all its utensils, the laver and its base,

And you shall make the horns of it upon its four corners: its horns shall be of one piece with it: and you shall overlay it with bronze.

A people that provoke me to anger continually to my face; that sacrifice in gardens, and burn incense upon altars of brick;

And when they came unto the borders of Jordan, that are in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, a great altar to see. And the children of Israel were told, Behold, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh have built an altar near the border of the land of Canaan, in the area of the Jordan, on the side of the children of Israel. And when the children of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered themselves together at Shiloh, to go up to war against them. read more.
And the children of Israel sent unto the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the half tribe of Manasseh, into the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, And with him ten leaders, of each chief house a leader throughout all the tribes of Israel; and every one was a head of the house of their fathers among the thousands of Israel. And they came unto the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the half tribe of Manasseh, unto the land of Gilead, and they spoke with them, saying, Thus says the whole congregation of the LORD, What trespass is this that you have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following the LORD, in that you have built you an altar, that you might rebel this day against the LORD? Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we are not cleansed until this day, although there was a plague in the congregation of the LORD, But that you must turn away this day from following the LORD? and it will be, seeing you rebel today against the LORD, that tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel. Nevertheless, if the land of your possession is unclean, then pass over unto the land of the possession of the LORD, in which the LORD'S tabernacle dwells, and take possession among us: but rebel not against the LORD, nor rebel against us, in building you an altar besides the altar of the LORD our God. Did not Achan the son of Zerah commit a trespass in the accursed thing, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel? and that man perished not alone in his iniquity. Then the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh answered, and said unto the heads of the thousands of Israel, The LORD God of gods, the LORD God of gods, he knows, and Israel he shall know; if it be in rebellion, or if in transgression against the LORD, (save us not this day,) That we have built us an altar to turn from following the LORD, or if to offer thereon burnt offerings or grain offerings, or if to offer peace offerings thereon, let the LORD himself require an account; And if we have not rather done it for fear of this thing, saying, In time to come your children might speak unto our children, saying, What have you to do with the LORD God of Israel? For the LORD has made the Jordan a border between us and you, you children of Reuben and children of Gad; you have no part in the LORD: so shall your children make our children cease from fearing the LORD. Therefore we said, Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice: But that it may be a witness between us and you, and our generations after us, that we might do the service of the LORD before him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings; that your children may not say to our children in time to come, you have no part in the LORD. Therefore said we, that it shall be, when they should so say to us or to our generations in time to come, that we may say again, Behold the pattern of the altar of the LORD, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifices; but it is a witness between us and you. God forbid that we should rebel against the LORD, and turn this day from following the LORD, to build an altar for burnt offerings, for grain offerings, or for sacrifices, besides the altar of the LORD our God that is before his tabernacle.

So Manoah took a kid with a grain offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the LORD: and the angel did a wondrous thing; and Manoah and his wife looked on.

And the angel of God said unto him, Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so. Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.