'Sacrifices' in the Bible

So Israel set out with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice them to the Lord our God.

Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law before God.

“He who sacrifices to any god, other than to the Lord alone, shall be utterly destroyed.

It shall be for Aaron and his sons as their portion forever from the sons of Israel, for it is a heave offering; and it shall be a heave offering from the sons of Israel from the sacrifices of their peace offerings, even their heave offering to the Lord.

You shall give the right thigh to the priest as a contribution from the sacrifices of your peace offerings.

For I have taken the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the contribution from the sons of Israel from the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons as their due forever from the sons of Israel.

The breast of the wave offering, however, and the thigh of the offering you may eat in a clean place, you and your sons and your daughters with you; for they have been given as your due and your sons’ due out of the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the sons of Israel.

The reason is so that the sons of Israel may bring their sacrifices which they were sacrificing in the open field, that they may bring them in to the Lord, at the doorway of the tent of meeting to the priest, and sacrifice them as sacrifices of peace offerings to the Lord.

They shall no longer sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat demons with which they play the harlot. This shall be a permanent statute to them throughout their generations.”’

‘These are the appointed times of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, to present offerings by fire to the Lord—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each day’s matter on its own day—

Also in the day of your gladness and in your appointed feasts, and on the first days of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be as a reminder of you before your God. I am the Lord your God.”

For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.

There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock.

then it shall come about that the place in which the Lord your God will choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice votive offerings which you will vow to the Lord.

And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall eat the flesh.

‘Who ate the fat of their sacrifices,And drank the wine of their drink offering?Let them rise up and help you,Let them be your hiding place!

“They will call peoples to the mountain;There they will offer righteous sacrifices;For they will draw out the abundance of the seas,And the hidden treasures of the sand.”

If we have built us an altar to turn away from following the Lord, or if to offer a burnt offering or grain offering on it, or if to offer sacrifices of peace offerings on it, may the Lord Himself require it.

rather it shall be a witness between us and you and between our generations after us, that we are to perform the service of the Lord before Him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices and with our peace offerings, so that your sons will not say to our sons in time to come, “You have no portion in the Lord.”’

The Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the box that was with it, in which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone; and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices that day to the Lord.

So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal. There they also offered sacrifices of peace offerings before the Lord; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.

Samuel said,“Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrificesAs in obeying the voice of the Lord?Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,And to heed than the fat of rams.

And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, from his city Giloh, while he was offering the sacrifices. And the conspiracy was strong, for the people increased continually with Absalom.

If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.”

Then they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings.Now Jehu had stationed for himself eighty men outside, and he had said, “The one who permits any of the men whom I bring into your hands to escape shall give up his life in exchange.”

On the next day they made sacrifices to the Lord and offered burnt offerings to the Lord, 1,000 bulls, 1,000 rams and 1,000 lambs, with their drink offerings and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel.

Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house.

Then Hezekiah said, “Now that you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord, come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the Lord.” And the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all those who were willing brought burnt offerings.

In the first year of King Cyrus, Cyrus the king issued a decree: ‘Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the temple, the place where sacrifices are offered, be rebuilt and let its foundations be retained, its height being 60 cubits and its width 60 cubits;

that they may offer acceptable sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons.

He spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble even the burned ones?”

and on that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced because God had given them great joy, even the women and children rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard from afar.

Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,And trust in the Lord.

And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me,And I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy;I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

“I do not reprove you for your sacrifices,And your burnt offerings are continually before Me.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices,In burnt offering and whole burnt offering;Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.

They joined themselves also to Baal-peor,And ate sacrifices offered to the dead.

Let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving,And tell of His works with joyful singing.

“What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?”Says the Lord.“I have had enough of burnt offerings of ramsAnd the fat of fed cattle;And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats.

“You have not brought to Me the sheep of your burnt offerings,Nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices.I have not burdened you with offerings,Nor wearied you with incense.

“You have bought Me not sweet cane with money,Nor have you filled Me with the fat of your sacrifices;Rather you have burdened Me with your sins,You have wearied Me with your iniquities.

Even those I will bring to My holy mountainAnd make them joyful in My house of prayer.Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar;For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”

A people who continually provoke Me to My face,Offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on bricks;

“But he who kills an ox is like one who slays a man;He who sacrifices a lamb is like the one who breaks a dog’s neck;He who offers a grain offering is like one who offers swine’s blood;He who burns incense is like the one who blesses an idol.As they have chosen their own ways,And their soul delights in their abominations,

I will pronounce My judgments on them concerning all their wickedness, whereby they have forsaken Me and have offered sacrifices to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands.

“For what purpose does frankincense come to Me from ShebaAnd the sweet cane from a distant land?Your burnt offerings are not acceptableAnd your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.”

Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known,

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat flesh.

For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.

The Lord of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me by offering up sacrifices to Baal.

They will come in from the cities of Judah and from the environs of Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of the Lord.

Because they have forsaken Me and have made this an alien place and have burned sacrifices in it to other gods, that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent

The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like the place Topheth, because of all the houses on whose rooftops they burned sacrifices to all the heavenly host and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”’”

and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to prepare sacrifices continually.’”

because of their wickedness which they committed so as to provoke Me to anger by continuing to burn sacrifices and to serve other gods whom they had not known, neither they, you, nor your fathers.

But they did not listen or incline their ears to turn from their wickedness, so as not to burn sacrifices to other gods.

provoking Me to anger with the works of your hands, burning sacrifices to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you are entering to reside, so that you might be cut off and become a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?

Then all the men who were aware that their wives were burning sacrifices to other gods, along with all the women who were standing by, as a large assembly, including all the people who were living in Pathros in the land of Egypt, responded to Jeremiah, saying,

But rather we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths, by burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then we had plenty of food and were well off and saw no misfortune.

But since we stopped burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have met our end by the sword and by famine.”

“And,” said the women, “when we were burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and were pouring out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

“As for the smoking sacrifices that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your forefathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them and did not all this come into His mind?

Because you have burned sacrifices and have sinned against the Lord and not obeyed the voice of the Lord or walked in His law, His statutes or His testimonies, therefore this calamity has befallen you, as it has this day.”

thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, as follows: ‘As for you and your wives, you have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled it with your hands, saying, “We will certainly perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.” Go ahead and confirm your vows, and certainly perform your vows!’

When I had brought them into the land which I swore to give to them, then they saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and they offered there their sacrifices and there they presented the provocation of their offering. There also they made their soothing aroma and there they poured out their drink offerings.

Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so will the waste cities be filled with flocks of men. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”’”

Four tables were on each side next to the gate; or, eight tables on which they slaughter sacrifices.

Then he said to me, “These are the boiling places where the ministers of the house shall boil the sacrifices of the people.”

“I will punish her for the days of the BaalsWhen she used to offer sacrifices to themAnd adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry,And follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares the Lord.

They offer sacrifices on the tops of the mountainsAnd burn incense on the hills,Under oak, poplar and terebinth,Because their shade is pleasant.Therefore your daughters play the harlotAnd your brides commit adultery.

I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlotOr your brides when they commit adultery,For the men themselves go apart with harlotsAnd offer sacrifices with temple prostitutes;So the people without understanding are ruined.

The wind wraps them in its wings,And they will be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the Lord,Their sacrifices will not please Him.Their bread will be like mourners’ bread;All who eat of it will be defiled,For their bread will be for themselves alone;It will not enter the house of the Lord.

“Enter Bethel and transgress;In Gilgal multiply transgression!Bring your sacrifices every morning,Your tithes every three days.

“Did you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel?

“But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord, for I am a great King,” says the Lord of hosts, “and My name is feared among the nations.”