²⁹ Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn away this day from following the Lord by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle!’ ”^(A)

¹⁶ Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods,

A Prescribed Place of Worship

¹³ “Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place you happen to see. ¹⁴ But only at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes—there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do everything I command you.^(A)

¹⁴ What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!^(A)

² By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?^(A)

⁶ By no means! For then how could God judge the world?

¹² Was it not this same Hezekiah who took away his high places and his altars and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, ‘Before one altar you shall worship, and upon it you shall make your offerings’?^(A)

²² But if you say to me, ‘We rely on the Lord our God,’ is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?^(A)

³ But Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance.”^(A)

²³ Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way.^(A)