When he rises up, even the strongest are frightened; they are helpless with fear.

So Jacob said to his family and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods that you have; purify yourselves and put on clean clothes.

We are going to leave here and go to Bethel, where I will build an altar to the God who helped me in the time of my trouble and who has been with me everywhere I have gone."

and the LORD said to him, "Go to the people and tell them to spend today and tomorrow purifying themselves for worship. They must wash their clothes

"Yes," he answered. "I have come to offer a sacrifice to the LORD. Purify yourselves and come with me." He also told Jesse and his sons to purify themselves, and he invited them to the sacrifice.

The priests and the Levites performed ritual purification for themselves, the people, the gates, and the city wall.

The time for the Passover Festival was near, and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem to perform the ritual of purification before the festival.

Early the next morning Abraham cut some wood for the sacrifice, loaded his donkey, and took Isaac and two servants with him. They started out for the place that God had told him about.

you hear my voice in the morning; at sunrise I offer my prayer and wait for your answer.

Work hard at whatever you do, because there will be no action, no thought, no knowledge, no wisdom in the world of the dead---and that is where you are going.

Now take seven bulls and seven rams to Job and offer them as a sacrifice for yourselves. Job will pray for you, and I will answer his prayer and not disgrace you the way you deserve. You did not speak the truth about me as he did."

Noah built an altar to the LORD; he took one of each kind of ritually clean animal and bird, and burned them whole as a sacrifice on the altar.

Then Jethro brought an offering to be burned whole and other sacrifices to be offered to God; and Aaron and all the leaders of Israel went with him to eat the sacred meal as an act of worship.

Then he sent young men, and they burned sacrifices to the LORD and sacrificed some cattle as fellowship offerings.

If you are offering one of your cattle as a burnt offering, you must bring a bull without any defects. You must present it at the entrance of the Tent of the LORD's presence so that the LORD will accept you.

You shall kill the bull there, and the Aaronite priests shall present the blood to the LORD and then throw it against all four sides of the altar located at the entrance of the Tent.

He took twelve stones, one for each of the twelve tribes named for the sons of Jacob, the man to whom the LORD had given the name Israel.

So Paul took the men and the next day performed the ceremony of purification with them. Then he went into the Temple and gave notice of how many days it would be until the end of the period of purification, when a sacrifice would be offered for each one of them.

I am jealous for you, just as God is; you are like a pure virgin whom I have promised in marriage to one man only, Christ himself.

But now suppose you take away everything he has---he will curse you to your face!"

His wife said to him, "You are still as faithful as ever, aren't you? Why don't you curse God and die?"

There was a man whose father was an Egyptian and whose mother was an Israelite named Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri from the tribe of Dan. There in the camp this man quarreled with an Israelite. During the quarrel he cursed the LORD, so they took him to Moses,

put him under guard, and waited for the LORD to tell them what to do with him.

"Take that man out of the camp. Everyone who heard him curse shall put his hands on the man's head to testify that he is guilty, and then the whole community shall stone him to death.

and be put to death. Any Israelite or any foreigner living in Israel who curses the LORD shall be stoned to death by the whole community.

Get a couple of scoundrels to accuse him to his face of cursing God and the king. Then take him out of the city and stone him to death."

The two scoundrels publicly accused him of cursing God and the king, and so he was taken outside the city and stoned to death.

When the LORD saw how wicked everyone on earth was and how evil their thoughts were all the time,

Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart, so that you may be saved. How long will you go on thinking sinful thoughts?

"Who can understand the human heart? There is nothing else so deceitful; it is too sick to be healed.

I, the LORD, search the minds and test the hearts of people. I treat each of them according to the way they live, according to what they do."

For from the inside, from your heart, come the evil ideas which lead you to do immoral things, to rob, kill,

all these evil things come from inside you and make you unclean."

Repent, then, of this evil plan of yours, and pray to the Lord that he will forgive you for thinking such a thing as this.

So you should not pass judgment on anyone before the right time comes. Final judgment must wait until the Lord comes; he will bring to light the dark secrets and expose the hidden purposes of people's minds. And then all will receive from God the praise they deserve.

They should have desired the joy he gives; they should have constantly prayed to him.

so that we might be holy and righteous before him all the days of our life.

Now, will God not judge in favor of his own people who cry to him day and night for help? Will he be slow to help them?

Do all this in prayer, asking for God's help. Pray on every occasion, as the Spirit leads. For this reason keep alert and never give up; pray always for all God's people.