“‘Now this is what is unclean to you among the swarming things that swarm on the land: ¹  the rat, the mouse, the large lizard of any kind,

You are to offer them with their drink offerings in addition to the continual burnt offering and its grain offering – they must be unblemished.

If they have any kind of blemish – lameness, blindness, or anything else ¹  – you may not offer them as a sacrifice to the Lord your God.

The Philistine said to David, “Come here to me, so I can give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the field!” ¹ 

All their neighbors assisted ¹  them with silver utensils, ²  gold, equipment, animals, and expensive gifts, not to mention ³  all the voluntary offerings.

and the Sabeans ¹  swooped down ²  and carried them all away, and they killed ³  the servants with the sword! ⁴  And I – only I alone ⁵  – escaped to tell you!”

Your justice is like the highest mountains, ¹  your fairness like the deepest sea; you preserve ²  mankind and the animal kingdom. ³ 

They have given the corpses of your servants to the birds of the sky; ¹  the flesh of your loyal followers to the beasts of the earth.

Bel ¹  kneels down, Nebo ²  bends low. Their images weigh down animals and beasts. ³  Your heavy images are burdensome to tired animals. ⁴ 

I will hand them over to their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals. ¹ 

So I went in and looked. I noticed every figure ¹  of creeping thing and beast – detestable images ²  – and every idol of the house of Israel, engraved on the wall all around. ³ 

All the birds of the sky nested in its boughs; under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth, in its shade all the great ¹  nations lived.

You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the choice animals, but you do not feed the sheep!

“‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and will rid the land of wild beasts, so that they can live securely ¹  in the wilderness and even sleep in the woods. ² 

They will no longer be prey for the nations and the wild beasts will not devour them. They will live securely and no one will make them afraid.

You will eat the flesh of warriors ¹  and drink the blood of the princes of the earth – the rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fattened animals of Bashan.

Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly ¹  to God, and everyone ²  must turn from their ³  evil way of living ⁴  and from the violence that they do. ⁵ 

and said to him, “Hurry, speak to this young man ¹  as follows: ‘Jerusalem will no longer be enclosed by walls ²  because of the multitude of people and animals there.

that you abstain from meat that has been sacrificed to idols ¹  and from blood and from what has been strangled ²  and from sexual immorality. ³  If you keep yourselves from doing these things, ⁴  you will do well. Farewell. ⁵ 

So it was necessary for the sketches ¹  of the things in heaven to be purified with these sacrifices, ²  but the heavenly things themselves required ³  better sacrifices than these.