“I am the good ¹  shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life ²  for the sheep.

It is to belong to Aaron and to his sons from the Israelites, by a perpetual ordinance, for it is a contribution. It is to be a contribution from the Israelites from their peace offerings, their contribution to the Lord.

You will go down to Gilgal before me. I am going to join you there to offer burnt offerings and to make peace offerings. You should wait for seven days, until I arrive and tell you what to do.”

That day the king consecrated the middle of the courtyard that is in front of the Lord’s temple. He offered there burnt sacrifices, grain offerings, and the fat from the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that stood before the Lord was too small to hold all these offerings. ¹ 

But Aaron and his descendants offered sacrifices on the altar for burnt offerings and on the altar for incense as they had been assigned to do in the most holy sanctuary. ¹  They made atonement for Israel, just as God’s servant Moses had ordered. ² 

The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses. Aaron and his descendants were chosen on a permanent basis to consecrate the most holy items, to offer sacrifices before the Lord, to serve him, and to praise his name. ¹ 

Of course, who can really build a temple for him, since the sky ¹  and the highest heavens cannot contain him? Who am I that I should build him a temple! It will really be only a place to offer sacrifices before him. ² 

He observed the daily requirements for sacrifices that Moses had specified for Sabbaths, new moon festivals, and the three annual celebrations – the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Temporary Shelters. ¹ 

The king contributed ¹  some of what he owned for burnt sacrifices, including the morning and evening burnt sacrifices and the burnt sacrifices made on Sabbaths, new moon festivals, and at other appointed times prescribed ²  in the law of the Lord.

I will do so because these people ¹  have rejected me and have defiled ²  this place. They have offered sacrifices in it to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors ³  nor the kings of Judah knew anything about. They have filled it with the blood of innocent children. ⁴ 

“The Lord did indeed remember and call to mind what you did! He remembered the sacrifices you and your ancestors, your kings, your leaders, and all the rest of the people of the land offered to other gods ¹  in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. ² 

When you present your sacrifices ¹  – when you make your sons pass through the fire – you defile yourselves with all your idols to this very day. Will I allow you to seek me, ²  O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I will not allow you to seek me! ³ 

“‘But the Levitical priests, the descendants of Zadok ¹  who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me, will approach me to minister to me; they will stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood, declares the sovereign Lord.

But Pharaoh replied, ¹  “You are slackers! Slackers! ²  That is why you are saying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to the Lord.’

“You must not offer the blood of my sacrifice with yeast; the sacrifice from the feast of Passover must not remain until the following morning. ¹ 

This is the law of the one in whom there is a diseased infection, ¹  who does not have sufficient means for his purification.” ² 

I will lay your cities waste ¹  and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas.

The leaders offered ¹  gifts ²  for ³  the dedication ⁴  of the altar when it was anointed. ⁵  And the leaders presented ⁶  their offering before the altar.

They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods they had not known; to new gods who had recently come along, gods your ancestors ¹  had not known about.

This man Elkanah went up with all his family to make the yearly sacrifice to the Lord and to keep his vow,