Psalms 50:8

50:8 I am not condemning ¹  you because of your sacrifices,

or because of your burnt sacrifices that you continually offer me. ² 

Psalms 51:16

51:16 Certainly ³  you do not want a sacrifice, or else I would offer it; ⁴ 

you do not desire a burnt sacrifice. ⁵ 

Psalms 51:1

Psalm 51 ⁶ 

For the music director; a psalm of David, written when Nathan the prophet confronted him after David’s affair with Bathsheba. ⁷ 

51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of ⁸  your loyal love!

Because of ⁹  your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts! ¹⁰ 

Psalms 15:1

Psalm 15 ¹¹ 

A psalm of David.

15:1 Lord, who may be a guest in your home? ¹² 

Who may live on your holy hill? ¹³ 

Isaiah 1:11

1:11 “Of what importance to me are your many sacrifices?” ¹⁴ 

says the Lord.

“I am stuffed with ¹⁵  burnt sacrifices

of rams and the fat from steers.

The blood of bulls, lambs, and goats

I do not want. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 66:3

66:3 The one who slaughters a bull also strikes down a man; ¹⁷ 

the one who sacrifices a lamb also breaks a dog’s neck; ¹⁸ 

the one who presents an offering includes pig’s blood with it; ¹⁹ 

the one who offers incense also praises an idol. ²⁰ 

They have decided to behave this way; ²¹ 

they enjoy these disgusting practices. ²² 

Jeremiah 7:21-23

7:21 The Lord said to the people of Judah, ²³  “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ²⁴  says: ‘You might as well go ahead and add the meat of your burnt offerings to that of the other sacrifices and eat it, too! ²⁵  7:22 Consider this: ²⁶  When I spoke to your ancestors after I brought them out of Egypt, I did not merely give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices. 7:23 I also explicitly commanded them: ²⁷  “Obey me. If you do, I ²⁸  will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you ²⁹  and things will go well with you.”

Hosea 6:6

6:6 For I delight in faithfulness, not simply in sacrifice;

I delight ³⁰  in acknowledging God, not simply in whole burnt offerings. ³¹ 

Matthew 9:13

9:13 Go and learn what this saying means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ ³²  For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 12:7

12:7 If ³³  you had known what this means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice,’ ³⁴  you would not have condemned the innocent.

Hebrews 10:5-12

10:5 So when he came into the world, he said,

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.

10:6 “Whole burnt offerings and sin-offerings you took no delight in.

10:7 “Then I said, ‘Here I am: ³⁵  I have come – it is written of me in the scroll of the book – to do your will, O God.’” ³⁶ 

10:8 When he says above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sin-offerings you did not desire nor did you take delight in them” ³⁷  (which are offered according to the law), 10:9 then he says, “Here I am: I have come to do your will.” ³⁸  He does away with ³⁹  the first to establish the second. 10:10 By his will ⁴⁰  we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 10:11 And every priest stands day after day ⁴¹  serving and offering the same sacrifices again and again – sacrifices that can never take away sins. 10:12 But when this priest ⁴²  had offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, he sat down at the right hand ⁴³  of God,

[50:8]  ¹ tn Or “rebuking.”

[50:8]  ² tn Heb “and your burnt sacrifices before me continually.”

[51:16]  ³ tn Or “For.” The translation assumes the particle is asseverative (i.e., emphasizing: “certainly”). (Some translations that consider the particle asseverative leave it untranslated.) If taken as causal or explanatory (“for”, cf. NRSV), the verse would explain why the psalmist is pleading for forgiveness, rather than merely offering a sacrifice.

[51:16]  ⁴ tn The translation assumes that the cohortative is used in a hypothetical manner in a formally unmarked conditional sentence, “You do not want a sacrifice, should I offer [it]” (cf. NEB). For other examples of cohortatives in the protasis (“if” clause) of a conditional sentence, see GKC 320 §108.e. (It should be noted, however, that GKC understands this particular verse in a different manner. See GKC 320 §108.f, where it is suggested that the cohortative is part of an apodosis with the protasis being suppressed.)

[51:16]  ⁵ sn You do not desire a burnt sacrifice. The terminology used in v. 16 does not refer to expiatory sacrifices, but to dedication and communion offerings. This is not a categorical denial of the sacrificial system in general or of the importance of such offerings. The psalmist is talking about his specific situation. Dedication and communion offerings have their proper place in worship (see v. 19), but God requires something more fundamental, a repentant and humble attitude (see v. 17), before these offerings can have real meaning.

[51:1]  ⁶ sn Psalm 51. The psalmist confesses his sinfulness to God and begs for forgiveness and a transformation of his inner character. According to the psalm superscription, David offered this prayer when Nathan confronted him with his sin following the king’s affair with Bathsheba (see 2 Sam 11-12). However, the final two verses of the psalm hardly fit this situation, for they assume the walls of Jerusalem have been destroyed and that the sacrificial system has been temporarily suspended. These verses are probably an addition to the psalm made during the period of exile following the fall of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. The exiles could relate to David’s experience, for they, like him, and had been forced to confront their sin. They appropriated David’s ancient prayer and applied it to their own circumstances.

[51:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “a psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him when he had gone to Bathsheba.”

[51:1]  ⁸ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ⁹ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ¹⁰ tn Traditionally “blot out my transgressions.” Because of the reference to washing and cleansing in the following verse, it is likely that the psalmist is comparing forgiveness to wiping an object clean (note the use of the verb מָחָה (makhah) in the sense of “wipe clean; dry” in 2 Kgs 21:13; Prov 30:20; Isa 25:8). Another option is that the psalmist is comparing forgiveness to erasing or blotting out names from a register (see Exod 32:32-33). In this case one might translate, “erase all record of my rebellious acts.”

[15:1]  ¹¹ sn Psalm 15. This psalm describes the character qualities that one must possess to be allowed access to the divine presence.

[15:1]  ¹² tn Heb “Who may live as a resident alien in your tent?”

[15:1]  ¹³ sn In this context the Lord’s holy hill probably refers to Zion/Jerusalem. See Isa 66:20; Joel 2:1; 3:17; Zech 8:3; Pss 2:6; 43:3; 48:1; 87:1; Dan 9:16.

[1:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Why to me the multitude of your sacrifices?” The sarcastic rhetorical question suggests that their many sacrifices are of no importance to the Lord. This phrase answers the possible objection that an Israelite could raise in response to God’s indictment: “But we are offering the sacrifices you commanded!”

[1:11]  ¹⁵ tn The verb שָׂבַע (sava’, “be satisfied, full”) is often used of eating and/or drinking one’s fill. See BDB 959 s.v. שָׂבַע. Here sacrifices are viewed, in typical ancient Near Eastern fashion, as food for the deity. God here declares that he has eaten and drunk, as it were, his fill.

[1:11]  ¹⁶ sn In the chiastic structure of the verse, the verbs at the beginning and end highlight God’s displeasure, while the heaping up of references to animals, fat, and blood in the middle lines hints at why God wants no more of their sacrifices. They have, as it were, piled the food on his table and he needs no more.

[66:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “one who slaughters a bull, one who strikes down a man.” Some understand a comparison here and in the following lines. In God’s sight the one who sacrifices is like (i.e., regarded as) a murderer or one whose worship is ritually defiled or idolatrous. The translation above assumes that the language is not metaphorical, but descriptive of the sinners’ hypocritical behavior. (Note the last two lines of the verse, which suggests they are guilty of abominable practices.) On the one hand, they act pious and offer sacrifices; but at the same time they commit violent crimes against men, defile their sacrifices, and worship other gods.

[66:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “one who sacrifices a lamb, one who breaks a dog’s neck.” Some understand a comparison, but see the previous note.

[66:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “one who offers an offering, pig’s blood.” Some understand a comparison, but see the note at the end of the first line.

[66:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “one who offers incense as a memorial offering, one who blesses something false.” Some understand a comparison, but see the note at the end of the first line. אָוֶן (’aven), which has a wide variety of attested nuances, here refers metonymically to an idol. See HALOT 22 s.v. and BDB 20 s.v. 2.

[66:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “also they have chosen their ways.”

[66:3]  ²² tn Heb “their being [or “soul”] takes delight in their disgusting [things].”

[7:21]  ²³ tn The words “The Lord said to the people of Judah” are not in the text but are implicit in the shift in addressee between vv. 16-20 and vv. 21-26.

[7:21]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[7:21]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Add your burnt offerings to your [other] sacrifices and eat the meat!” See the following sn for explanation. This is an example of the rhetorical use of the imperative for a sarcastic challenge. Cf. GKC 324 §110.a; cf. Amos 4:4, “Go to Bethel and sin!”

[7:22]  ²⁶ tn Heb “For” but this introduces a long explanation about the relative importance of sacrifice and obedience.

[7:23]  ²⁷ tn Verses 22-23a read in Hebrew, “I did not speak with your ancestors and I did not command them when I brought them out of Egypt about words/matters concerning burnt offering and sacrifice, but I commanded them this word:” Some modern commentators have explained this passage as an evidence for the lateness of the Pentateuchal instruction regarding sacrifice or a denial that sacrifice was practiced during the period of the wilderness wandering. However, it is better explained as an example of what R. de Vaux calls a dialectical negative, i.e., “not so much this as that” or “not this without that” (Ancient Israel, 454-56). For other examples of this same argument see Isa 1:10-17; Hos 6:4-6; Amos 5:21-25.

[7:23]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Obey me and I will be.” The translation is equivalent syntactically but brings out the emphasis in the command.

[7:23]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Walk in all the way that I command you.”

[6:6]  ³⁰ tn The phrase “I delight” does not appear in the Hebrew text a second time in this verse, but is implied from the parallelism in the preceding line.

[6:6]  ³¹ sn Contrary to popular misunderstanding, Hosea does not reject animal sacrifice nor cultic ritual, and advocate instead obedience only. Rather, God does not delight in ritual sacrifice without the accompanying prerequisite moral obedience (1 Sam 15:22; Pss 40:6-8; 51:16-17; Prov 21:3; Isa 1:11-17; Jer 7:21-23; Hos 6:6; Mic 6:6-8). However, if prerequisite moral obedience is present, he delights in sacrificial worship as an outward expression (Ps 51:19). Presented by a repentant obedient worshiper, whole burnt offerings were “an aroma pleasing” to the Lord (Lev 1:9, 13).

[9:13]  ³² sn A quotation from Hos 6:6 (see also Matt 12:7).

[12:7]  ³³ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[12:7]  ³⁴ sn A quotation from Hos 6:6 (see also Matt 9:13).

[10:7]  ³⁵ tn Grk “behold,” but this construction often means “here is/there is” (cf. BDAG 468 s.v. ἰδού 2).

[10:7]  ³⁶ sn A quotation from Ps 40:6-8 (LXX). The phrase a body you prepared for me (in v. 5) is apparently an interpretive expansion of the HT reading “ears you have dug out for me.”

[10:8]  ³⁷ sn Various phrases from the quotation of Ps 40:6 in Heb 10:5-6 are repeated in Heb 10:8.

[10:9]  ³⁸ tc The majority of mss, especially the later ones (א² 0278^vid 1739 Ï lat), have ὁ θεός (Jo qeo", “God”) at this point, while most of the earliest and best witnesses lack such an explicit addressee (so Ì⁴⁶ א* A C D K P Ψ 33 1175 1881 2464 al). The longer reading is a palpable corruption, apparently motivated in part by the wording of Ps 40:8 (39:9 LXX) and by the word order of this same verse as quoted in Heb 10:7.

[10:9]  ³⁹ tn Or “abolishes.”

[10:10]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “by which will.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[10:11]  ⁴¹ tn Or “daily,” “every day.”

[10:12]  ⁴² tn Grk “this one.” This pronoun refers to Jesus, but “this priest” was used in the translation to make the contrast between the Jewish priests in v. 11 and Jesus as a priest clearer in English.

[10:12]  ⁴³ sn An allusion to Ps 110:1.