That will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hooves.

They made him angry with their pagan shrines, ¹  and made him jealous with their idols.

you built yourself a chamber ¹  and put up a pavilion ²  in every public square.

There was a chamber with its door by the porch of the gate; ¹  there they washed the burnt offering.

For I am already being poured out as an offering, and the time for me to depart ¹  is at hand.

The ¹  smoke coming from the incense, ²  along with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.

They have also built places of worship ¹  in a place called Topheth ²  in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that they can sacrifice their sons and daughters by fire. That is something I never commanded them to do! Indeed, it never even entered my mind to command such a thing! ³ 

but as a reminder to us and you, ¹  and to our descendants who follow us, that we will honor the Lord in his very presence ²  with burnt offerings, sacrifices, and tokens of peace. ³  Then in the future your descendants will not be able to say to our descendants, ‘You have no right to worship the Lord.’ ⁴ 

When it was time for the evening offering, ¹  Elijah the prophet approached the altar ²  and prayed: “O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, prove ³  today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.

For the law possesses a shadow of the good things to come but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who come to worship. ¹ 

Be careful ¹  not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when ²  they prostitute themselves ³  to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invites you, ⁴  you will eat from his sacrifice;

He overlaid it with pure gold – its top, ¹  its four walls, ²  and its horns – and he made a surrounding border of gold for it. ³ 

Then he is to sprinkle on it some of the blood with his finger seven times, and cleanse and consecrate it ¹  from the impurities of the Israelites.

Certainly ¹  no man who has a physical flaw is to approach: a blind man, or one who is lame, or one with a slit nose, ²  or a limb too long,

However, Moses ¹  did not assign land as an inheritance ²  to the Levites; their inheritance ³  is the sacrificial offerings ⁴  made to the Lord God of Israel, as he instructed ⁵  them.

Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the Lord. The Lord’s messenger did an amazing thing as Manoah and his wife watched. ¹ 

Now the people were offering sacrifices at the high places, ¹  because in those days a temple had not yet been built to honor the Lord. ² 

Solomon demonstrated his loyalty to the Lord by following ¹  the practices ²  of his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.

Throughout the afternoon they were in an ecstatic frenzy, ¹  but there was no sound, no answer, and no response. ² 

The king ¹  ruined Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that no one could pass his son or his daughter through the fire to Molech. ²