'Sacrifice' in the Bible

“In peace,” he replied. “I’ve come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

If your father misses me at all, say, ‘David urgently requested my permission to quickly go to his town Bethlehem for an annual sacrifice there involving the whole clan.’

He said, ‘Please let me go because our clan is holding a sacrifice in the town, and my brother has told me to be there. So now, if you are pleased with me, let me go so I can see my brothers.’ That’s why he didn’t come to the king’s table.”

The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there because it was the most famous high place. He offered 1,000 burnt offerings on that altar.

Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the Lord: 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. In this manner the king and all the Israelites dedicated the Lord’s temple.

Jeroboam made a festival in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival in Judah. He offered sacrifices on the altar; he made this offering in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had set up. He also stationed the priests in Bethel for the high places he had set up.

The man of God cried out against the altar by a revelation from the Lord: “Altar, altar, this is what the Lord says, ‘A son will be born to the house of David, named Josiah, and he will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who are burning incense on you. Human bones will be burned on you.’”

All afternoon they kept on raving until the offering of the evening sacrifice, but there was no sound; no one answered, no one paid attention.

At the time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet approached the altar and said, “Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that at Your word I have done all these things.

Naaman responded, “If not, please let your servant be given as much soil as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will no longer offer a burnt offering or a sacrifice to any other god but Yahweh.

Now, therefore, summon to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests. None must be missing, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal. Whoever is missing will not live.” However, Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the servants of Baal.

Then King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, “Offer on the great altar the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, and the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering. Also offer the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their grain offering, and their drink offerings. Sprinkle on the altar all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of sacrifice. The bronze altar will be for me to seek guidance.”

The Lord made a covenant with them and commanded them, “Do not fear other gods; do not bow down to them; do not serve them; do not sacrifice to them.

Instead fear the Lord, who brought you from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm. You are to bow down to Him, and you are to sacrifice to Him.

King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. In this manner the king and all the people dedicated God’s temple.

Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him:I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a temple of sacrifice.

Those from every tribe of Israel who had determined in their hearts to seek Yahweh their God followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Yahweh, the God of their ancestors.

He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him; he said, “Since the gods of the kings of Aram are helping them, I will sacrifice to them so that they will help me.” But they were the downfall of him and of all Israel.

You do not delight in sacrifice and offering;You open my ears to listen.You do not ask for a whole burnt offering or a sin offering.

“Gather My faithful ones to Me,those who made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”

Sacrifice a thank offering to God,and pay your vows to the Most High.

You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it;You are not pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit.God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart.

I will sacrifice a freewill offering to You.I will praise Your name, Yahweh,because it is good.

I will offer You fattened sheep as burnt offerings,with the fragrant smoke of rams;I will sacrifice oxen with goats.Selah

I will offer You a sacrifice of thanksgivingand call on the name of Yahweh.

The Lord is God and has given us light.Bind the festival sacrifice with cordsto the horns of the altar.

The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the Lord,but the prayer of the upright is His delight.

Doing what is righteous and justis more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

The sacrifice of a wicked person is detestable—how much more sowhen he brings it with ulterior motives!

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Better to draw near in obedience than to offer the sacrifice as fools do, for they ignorantly do wrong.

Everything is the same for everyone: there is one fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not sacrifice. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as for the one who takes an oath, so for the one who fears an oath.

The Lord’s sword is covered with blood.It drips with fat,with the blood of lambs and goats,with the fat of the kidneys of rams.For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

You have placed your bedon a high and lofty mountain;you also went up there to offer sacrifice.

All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered to you;the rams of Nebaioth will serve youand go up on My altar as an acceptable sacrifice.I will glorify My beautiful house.

for when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them or command them concerning burnt offering and sacrifice.

Then people will come from the cities of Judah and from the area around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the Judean foothills, from the hill country and from the Negev bringing burnt offerings and sacrifice, grain offerings and frankincense, and thank offerings to the house of the Lord.

That day belongs to the Lord, the God of Hosts,a day of vengeance to avenge Himselfagainst His adversaries.The sword will devour and be satisfied;it will drink its fill of their blood,because it will be a sacrifice to the Lord, the God of Hosts,in the northern land by the Euphrates River.

So the ruined cities will be filled with a flock of people, just as the flock of sheep for sacrifice is filled in Jerusalem during its appointed festivals. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.”

You must present them before the Lord; the priests will throw salt on them and sacrifice them as a burnt offering to the Lord.

The prince should enter from the outside by way of the gate’s portico and stand at the doorpost of the gate while the priests sacrifice his burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He will bow in worship at the threshold of the gate and then depart, but the gate must not be closed until evening.

It made itself great, even up to the Prince of the host; it removed His daily sacrifice and overthrew the place of His sanctuary.

Because of rebellion, a host, together with the daily sacrifice, will be given over. The horn will throw truth to the ground and will be successful in whatever it does.

Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the speaker, “How long will the events of this vision last—the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and of the host to be trampled?”

He will make a firm covenantwith many for one week,but in the middle of the weekhe will put a stop to sacrifice and offering.And the abomination of desolationwill be on a wing of the templeuntil the decreed destructionis poured out on the desolator.”

His forces will rise up and desecrate the temple fortress. They will abolish the daily sacrifice and set up the abomination of desolation.

From the time the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days.

For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or household idols.

They sacrifice on the mountaintops,and they burn offerings on the hills,and under oaks, poplars, and terebinths,because their shade is pleasant.And so your daughters act promiscuouslyand your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

For I desire loyalty and not sacrifice,the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Since Gilead is full of evil,they will certainly come to nothing.They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal;even their altars will be like heaps of rockson the furrows of a field.

Now they continue to sinand make themselves a cast image,idols skillfully made from their silver,all of them the work of craftsmen.People say about them,“Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves.”

The men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

but as for me, I will sacrifice to Youwith a voice of thanksgiving.I will fulfill what I have vowed.Salvation is from the Lord!

That is why they sacrifice to their dragnetand burn incense to their fishing net,for by these things their portion is richand their food plentiful.

Be silent in the presence of the Lord God,for the Day of the Lord is near.Indeed, the Lord has prepared a sacrifice;He has consecrated His guests.

On the day of the Lord’s sacrificeI will punish the officials, the king’s sons,and all who are dressed in foreign clothing.

“When you present a blind animal for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present a lame or sick animal, is it not wrong? Bring it to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor?” asks the Lord of Hosts.

Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

If you had known what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent.

On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrifice the Passover lamb, His disciples asked Him, “Where do You want us to go and prepare the Passover so You may eat it?”

and to offer a sacrifice (according to what is stated in the law of the Lord: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons).

They even made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and were celebrating what their hands had made.

Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the town, brought oxen and garlands to the gates. He, with the crowds, intended to offer sacrifice.

Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship.

No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to participate with demons!

But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.

But I have received everything in full, and I have an abundance. I am fully supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you provided—a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.

Otherwise, He would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

Therefore, as He was coming into the world, He said:You did not want sacrifice and offering,but You prepared a body for Me.

But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.

For if we deliberately sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was approved as a righteous man, because God approved his gifts, and even though he is dead, he still speaks through his faith.

Therefore, through Him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips that confess His name.