“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you,

leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’

You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.

from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.

For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

“Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”?

Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple, and that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar?

Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?

He of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar.

which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.

We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.

Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.

Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne.

Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God.

The Two Witnesses

I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers.

Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe.”

And I heard the altar respond: “Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.”