Sacrifices
Sacrifice runs the whole length of scripture as a continuous practice and as a continually re-interpreted figure. The narrative books record what was actually slaughtered at altars and ark-sites; the prophets and psalms argue with the practice from inside, refusing offerings that are detached from obedience and reaching for sacrifices that are righteous, broken-hearted, and praising; the apostolic letters carry that figurative line into bodies presented to God and gifts received as a sweet-smelling savor. This umbrella collects mainly the figurative side; the literal sacrificial apparatus lives under Offerings.
Examples Across the Story
The patriarchal and conquest narratives repeatedly mark moments of arrival or transition with sacrifice. Israel sets out for Egypt by way of an altar: "And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beer-sheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac" (Gen 46:1). Jethro and the elders share a meal of sacrifice with Moses (Exo 18:12). After the conquest crisis, the people weep and sacrifice at the place they call Bochim (Jdg 2:5).
The history of the monarchy moves from altar to altar. Elkanah goes up yearly to offer at Shiloh (1Sa 1:21); the men of Beth-shemesh meet the returning ark with burnt-offerings (1Sa 6:15); Saul is made king at Gilgal with sacrifices of peace-offerings (1Sa 11:15); David sacrifices on the way as the ark is carried up (2Sa 6:13), and again on the Ornan threshing-floor that becomes the temple ground: "At that time, when David saw that Yahweh had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there" (1CH 21:28). At Solomon's accession the scale becomes uncountable — "they sacrificed sacrifices to Yahweh, and offered burnt-offerings to Yahweh, on the next day after that day, even a thousand bullocks, a thousand rams, and a thousand lambs, with their drink-offerings, and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel" (1CH 29:21) — and at the ark's installation in the temple, sheep and oxen are offered "that could not be counted nor numbered for multitude" (2CH 5:6).
Even pagan sailors learn the gesture: when the storm subsides at Jonah's word, "the men feared Yahweh exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh, and made vows" (Jon 1:16).
The Maccabean record continues the same pattern under threat. The Seleucid decree tries to break it — Antiochus is "to forbid burnt-offerings and sacrifice, and drink offering from the sanctuary; and should profane the sabbaths, and the festival days" (1Ma 1:45) — and a counterfeit cult is set up: "on the five and twentieth day of the month they sacrificed on the altar that was upon the altar" (1Ma 1:59). The restoration reverses it: "they offered sacrifice according to the law on the new altar of burnt-offerings which they had made" (1Ma 4:53). Later, priests come out to show Nicanor "the burnt-offerings that were offered for the king" (1Ma 7:33), and the treaty under Demetrius sets apart territory "to all those who sacrifice in Jerusalem" (1Ma 11:34). Sirach's portrait of the high-priest Simon at the altar belongs to the same continuous practice: "All the sons of Aaron in their glory, And the offering by fire to Yahweh in their hand, In the presence of all the congregations of Israel" (Sir 50:13), pouring "the blood of the grape … at the foot of the altar, A sweet-smelling savor to the Most High, the King of all" (Sir 50:15; cf. Sir 50:12, Sir 47:2).
Sacrifices God Refuses
A second, much sharper line runs through the prophets and psalms: sacrifice that is not joined to obedience or righteousness Yahweh does not want. Samuel's oracle states it bluntly: "Does Yahweh have as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in accepting [the Speech of] Yahweh? Look, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams" (1Sa 15:22). Hosea names the same priority — "For I desire goodness, and not sacrifice; and knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings" (Hos 6:6) — and Isaiah opens his book with Yahweh refusing the worship itself: "What to me is the multitude of your⁺ sacrifices? says Yahweh: I have had enough of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I do not delight in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats" (Isa 1:11).
The Psalter says the same in the first person. "Sacrifice and offering you have no delight in; My ears you have opened: Burnt-offering and sin-offering you have not required" (Psa 40:6). "For you do not delight in sacrifice; or else I would give it: You have no pleasure in burnt-offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (Psa 51:16-17).
Sirach extends the rule to the moral character of the offerer. "The sacrifice of an unrighteous man is a mocking sacrifice, And the oblations of the wicked are not acceptable. The Most High has no pleasure in the offerings of the ungodly, Neither is he pacified for sins by the multitude of sacrifices. [As] one who slays a son in the sight of his father, [So] is he who brings a sacrifice from the belongings of the poor" (Sir 34:21-24). And again: "do not trust in a sacrifice of extortion; For he is a God of justice, And with him there is no partiality" (Sir 35:15). Hebrews carries the verdict into the present: the levitical apparatus "is a pattern for the present time; according to which are offered both gifts and sacrifices that can't, as concerning the conscience, make the worshiper perfect" (Heb 9:9).
Sacrifice Turned Into Atrocity
The most disgusting refusal is reserved for child sacrifice, which Yahweh names and forbids before Israel enters the land: "You will not do so to Yahweh your God: for every disgusting thing to Yahweh, which he hates, they have done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods" (Deu 12:31; cf. Lev 18:21). The history records the violation. The king of Moab "took his eldest son who should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt-offering on the wall" (2Ki 3:27). Ahaz "made his son to pass through the fire, according to the disgusting behaviors of the nations" (2Ki 16:3), and "burned his sons in the fire" in the Hinnom valley (2CH 28:3). Ezekiel turns the indictment back on Israel itself: "you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you have borne to me, and these you have sacrificed to them to be devoured" (Eze 16:20). Jeremiah says of the Baal high places that Yahweh "didn't command, nor speak it, neither did it come into my mind" (Jer 19:5). Isaiah catalogs the same atrocity: "you⁺ who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who slay the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks" (Isa 57:5). And the Psalter remembers it as the pollution of the land: "And shed innocent blood, Even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was polluted with blood" (Psa 106:38).
Sacrifices of Righteousness
Against the refused sacrifices stands a positive type — sacrifice that is righteous because the one who offers it is righteous, or because what is offered is the right thing offered the right way. Moses' blessing of Zebulun and Issachar promises that "they will offer sacrifices of righteousness" (Deu 33:19). The Psalter calls for the same: "Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And put your⁺ trust in Yahweh" (Psa 4:5). After the cry for a clean heart, Psalm 51 finishes by re-admitting the sacrifices under that condition — "Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, In burnt-offering and whole burnt-offering" (Psa 51:19). Malachi sees a refined Levitical priesthood doing the same on the far side of judgment: Yahweh "will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they will offer to Yahweh offerings in righteousness" (Mal 3:3).
Sirach gives the same line in wisdom voice. "The offering of a righteous man makes the altar fat, And the sweet savor therefore [is] before the Most High. The sacrifice of a righteous man is acceptable, And the memorial of it will not be forgotten" (Sir 35:8-9). The instruction to give what is owed at the altar — first-fruits, heave-offering, "the sacrifices of righteousness," and the heave-offering of holy things (Sir 7:31) — and to "give a meal-offering, and also a memorial, And offer a fat sacrifice to the utmost of your means" (Sir 38:11) — sits inside this acceptable category, as does the daily continual offering of Sir 45:14: "His meal-offering is wholly consumed Twice every day as a continual sacrifice."
The Day of Yahweh's Sacrifice
The prophets take the sacrificial word and turn it on the nations and on Israel itself. Isaiah pictures Yahweh's judgment of Edom as a sacrifice and a slaughter: "The sword of Yahweh is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom" (Isa 34:6). Ezekiel summons the birds and beasts to feast on the slain of Gog: "gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I sacrifice for you⁺, even a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you⁺ may eat flesh and drink blood" (Eze 39:17). Zephaniah identifies the day of Yahweh itself as a sacrifice with consecrated guests: "Hold your peace at the presence of the Sovereign Yahweh; for the day of Yahweh is at hand: for Yahweh has prepared a sacrifice, he has consecrated his guests. And it will come to pass in the day of Yahweh's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's sons, and all such as are clothed with foreign apparel" (Zeph 1:7-8).
Sacrifice of Praise
A second figurative line runs the sacrificial word back into worship without blood. Jonah's confession from the fish ends, "I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation is of Yahweh" (Jon 2:9). The Psalter joins voices to it — "let them offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving, And declare his works with singing" (Psa 107:22), "I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, And will call on the name of Yahweh" (Psa 116:17). Jeremiah hears the same voice in restored Jerusalem, "the voice of those who say, Give thanks to Yahweh of hosts, for Yahweh is good, for his loving-kindness [endures] forever; [and of those] who bring [sacrifices of] thanksgiving into the house of Yahweh" (Jer 33:11), and pictures pilgrims arriving "bringing burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and meal-offerings, and frankincense, and bringing [sacrifices of] thanksgiving, to the house of Yahweh" (Jer 17:26).
Hosea concentrates the figure: returning to Yahweh with words is itself the offering. "Take with you⁺ words, and return to Yahweh: say to him, Take away all iniquity, and accept that which is good: so we will render [as] bullocks [the offering of] our lips" (Hos 14:2). Hebrews carries it into the apostolic period without altering the figure: "Through him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which make confession to his name" (Heb 13:15).
The Living Sacrifice and the Sacrifice of Self-Denial
The most fully figurative line in the apostolic letters takes the offerer's own body as the offering. "I urge you⁺ therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your⁺ bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, [which is] your⁺ spiritual service" (Rom 12:1). Paul speaks the same way of his own ministry: "if I am offered on the sacrifice and ministry of your⁺ faith, I joy, and rejoice with all of you⁺" (Phil 2:17). The Philippians' material gift, in turn, comes back to him as sacrifice: "an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God" (Phil 4:18).
Self-denial belongs in the same family. "What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. But on the contrary, I also count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and regard them as crap, that I may gain Christ" (Phil 3:7-8).
A Critique of Bloody Worship
Diognetus stands in the prophets' line and pushes the critique to its limit, applied to pagan idol-worship: "When you⁺ worship them with blood and fat, you⁺ think you⁺ are honoring them. But if they have touch, you⁺ are actually punishing them. And if they are without touch, [they cannot even respond] — proving [it]" (Gr 2:8). And of the wider scene: "those who think to offer him sacrifices of blood and fat and whole burnt-offerings, and to honor him with such honors, seem to me no different from those who show the same devotion to the deaf [objects]. The [Greeks] offer to things unable to partake of the honor; the [Jews] think they give to the one who needs nothing" (Gr 3:5). The figurative redirection — from bloody offering toward something God can actually receive — is the same redirection the prophets and psalmists were already making.