Then they must place on it all its implements with which they serve there – the trays, the meat forks, the shovels, the basins, and all the utensils of the altar – and they must spread on it a covering of fine leather, and then insert its poles. ¹ 

Any one of you that I do not cut off from my altar, I will cause your ¹  eyes to fail ²  and will cause you grief. ³  All of those born to your family ⁴  will die in the prime of life. ⁵ 

They stretch out on clothing seized as collateral; they do so right ¹  beside every altar! They drink wine bought with the fines they have levied; they do so right in the temple ²  of their God! ³ 

For as I went around and observed closely your objects of worship, ¹  I even found an altar with this inscription: ²  ‘To an unknown god.’ Therefore what you worship without knowing it, ³  this I proclaim to you.

So they took a bull, as he had suggested, ¹  and prepared it. They invoked the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “Baal, answer us.” But there was no sound and no answer. They jumped ²  around on the altar they had made. ³ 

You are to make its four horns ¹  on its four corners; its horns will be part of it, ²  and you are to overlay it with bronze.

It contained the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered entirely with gold. In this ark ¹  were the golden urn containing the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.

He made its horns on its four corners; its horns were part of it, ¹  and he overlaid it with bronze.

When Josiah turned around, he saw the tombs there on the hill. So he ordered the bones from the tombs to be brought; ¹  he burned them on the altar and defiled it. This fulfilled the Lord’s announcement made by the prophet while Jeroboam stood by the altar during a festival. King Josiah ²  turned and saw the grave of the prophet who had foretold this. ³ 

As for the censers of these men who sinned at the cost of their lives, ¹  they must be made ²  into hammered sheets for covering the altar, because they presented them before the Lord and sanctified them. They will become a sign to the Israelites.”

But you and your sons with you are responsible for your priestly duties, for everything at the altar and within the curtain. And you must serve. I give you the priesthood as a gift for service; but the unauthorized person who approaches must be put to death.”

Then build an altar for the Lord your God on the top of this stronghold according to the proper pattern. ¹  Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt sacrifice on the wood from the Asherah pole that you cut down.”

You must not offer strange incense on it, nor burnt offering, nor meal offering, and you must not pour out a drink offering on it.

I will threaten Ariel, and she will mourn intensely and become like an altar hearth ¹  before me.

Then he moved from there to the hill country east of Bethel ¹  and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and worshiped the Lord. ² 

These must be on Aaron and his sons when they enter ¹  to the tent of meeting, or when they approach ²  the altar to minister in the Holy Place, so that they bear no iniquity and die. ³  It is to be a perpetual ordinance for him and for his descendants ⁴  after him. ⁵ 

You are to take some of the blood that is on the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it ¹  on Aaron, on his garments, on his sons, and on his sons’ garments with him, so that he may be holy, ²  he and his garments along with his sons and his sons’ garments.

and tear it open by its wings without dividing it into two parts. ¹  Finally, the priest must offer it up in smoke on the altar on the wood which is in the fire – it is a burnt offering, a gift of a soothing aroma to the Lord.

Then he must bring it to the sons of Aaron, the priests, and the priest ¹  must scoop out from there a handful of its choice wheat flour and some of its olive oil in addition to all of its frankincense, and the priest must offer its memorial portion ²  up in smoke on the altar – it is ³  a gift of a soothing aroma to the Lord.

Then he must remove all of its fat (just as fat was removed from the peace offering sacrifice) and the priest must offer it up in smoke on the altar for a soothing aroma to the Lord. So the priest will make atonement ¹  on his behalf and he will be forgiven. ²