Quotes About Ritual

So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.

Put in the pieces of meat, every good piece—thigh and shoulder—fill it with choice bones.

Take the choicest of the flock and pile the fuel beneath it. Bring it to a boil and cook the bones in it.í

Pile on the logs and kindle the fire; cook the meat well and mix in the spices; let the bones be burned.

Then you will do as I have done: You will not cover your lips or eat the bread of mourners.

Seven steps led up to it, and its portico was opposite them; it had palm trees on its side pillars, one on each side.

There was a chamber with a doorway by the portico in each of the inner gateways. There the burnt offering was to be washed.

Outside, as one goes up to the entrance of the north gateway, there were two tables on one side and two more tables on the other side of the gateís portico.

So there were four tables inside the gateway and four outside—eight tables in all—on which the sacrifices were to be slaughtered.

There were also four tables of dressed stone for the burnt offering, each a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit high. On these were placed the utensils used to slaughter the burnt offerings and the other sacrifices.

The double-pronged hooks, each a handbreadth long, were fastened all around the inside of the room, and the flesh of the offering was to be placed on the tables.

Then the man said to me, “The north and south chambers facing the temple courtyard are the holy chambers where the priests who approach the LORD will eat the most holy offerings. There they will place the most holy offerings—the grain offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings—for the place is holy.

Once the priests have entered the holy area, they must not go out into the outer court until they have left behind the garments in which they minister, for these are holy. They are to put on other clothes before they approach the places that are for the people.”

These are the measurements of the altar in long cubits (a cubit and a handbreadth): Its gutter shall be a cubit deep and a cubit wide, with a rim of one span around its edge. And this is the height of the altar:

The altar hearth shall be four cubits high, and four horns shall project upward from the hearth.

The altar hearth shall be square at its four corners, twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide.

The ledge shall also be square, fourteen cubits long and fourteen cubits wide, with a rim of half a cubit and a gutter of a cubit all around it. The steps of the altar shall face east.”

Then He said to me: “Son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says: ëThese are the statutes for the altar on the day it is constructed, so that burnt offerings may be sacrificed on it and blood may be sprinkled on it:

You are to take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar, on the four corners of the ledge, and all around the rim; thus you will cleanse the altar and make atonement for it.

Then you are to take away the bull for the sin offering and burn it in the appointed part of the temple area outside the sanctuary.

On the second day you are to present an unblemished male goat as a sin offering, and the altar is to be cleansed as it was with the bull.

When you have finished the purification, you are to present a young, unblemished bull and an unblemished ram from the flock.

You must present them before the LORD; the priests are to sprinkle salt on them and sacrifice them as a burnt offering to the LORD.

For seven days you are to provide a male goat daily for a sin offering; you are also to provide a young bull and a ram from the flock, both unblemished.