A Prescribed Place of Worship

¹³ “Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place you happen to see.

¹⁷ But the high places were not taken out of Israel. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was true all his days.

³⁴ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, walking in the way of Jeroboam and in the sin that he caused Israel to commit.^(A)

²⁸ So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. He said to the people,^[a] “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”^{(A) 29} He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.^{(B) 30} And this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one at Bethel and before the other as far as Dan.^{[b](C) 31} He also made houses^[c] on high places and appointed priests from among all the people who were not Levites.^{(D) 32} Jeroboam appointed a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the festival that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar; so he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.^(E)

⁶ bringing there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, your votive gifts, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks.

² “Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites and say to them: This is what the Lord has commanded. ³ If anyone of the house of Israel slaughters an ox or a lamb or a goat in the camp or slaughters it outside the camp ⁴ and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, to present it as an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord, he shall be held guilty of bloodshed; he has shed blood, and he shall be cut off from the people.^{(A) 5} This is in order that the Israelites may bring their sacrifices that they offer in the open field, that they may bring them to the Lord, to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and offer them as sacrifices of well-being to the Lord.