10:10 “Also in the time when you rejoice, such as 1 on your appointed festivals or 2 at the beginnings of your months, you must blow with your trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, so that they may 3 become 4 a memorial for you before your God: I am the Lord your God.”
28:11 “‘On the first day of each month 5 you must offer as a burnt offering to the Lord two young bulls, one ram, and seven unblemished lambs a year old,
28:1 6 The Lord spoke to Moses:
23:1 7 Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”
1:13 Do not bring any more meaningless 8 offerings;
I consider your incense detestable! 9
You observe new moon festivals, Sabbaths, and convocations,
but I cannot tolerate sin-stained celebrations! 10
1:14 I hate your new moon festivals and assemblies;
they are a burden
that I am tired of carrying.
1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I look the other way; 11
when you offer your many prayers,
I do not listen,
because your hands are covered with blood. 12
1 tn The conjunction may be taken as explicative or epexegetical, and so rendered “namely; even; that is,” or it may be taken as emphatic conjunction, and translated “especially.”
2 tn The vav (ו) is taken here in its alternative use and translated “or.”
3 tn The form is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. After the instruction imperfects, this form could be given the same nuance, or more likely, subordinated as a purpose or result clause.
4 tn The verb “to be” (הָיָה, hayah) has the meaning “to become” when followed by the preposition lamed (ל).
5 tn Heb “of your months.”
6 sn For additional reading on these chapters, see G. B. Gray, Sacrifice in the Old Testament; A. F. Rainey, “The Order of Sacrifices in the Old Testament Ritual Texts,” Bib 51 (1970): 485-98; N. H. Snaith, The Jewish New Year Festival.
7 sn The first part of Balaam’s activity ends in disaster for Balak – he blesses Israel. The chapter falls into four units: the first prophecy (vv. 1-10), the relocation (vv. 11-17), the second prophecy (vv. 18-24), and a further location (vv. 25-30).
8 tn Or “worthless” (NASB, NCV, CEV); KJV, ASV “vain.”
9 sn Notice some of the other practices that Yahweh regards as “detestable”: homosexuality (Lev 18:22-30; 20:13), idolatry (Deut 7:25; 13:15), human sacrifice (Deut 12:31), eating ritually unclean animals (Deut 14:3-8), sacrificing defective animals (Deut 17:1), engaging in occult activities (Deut 18:9-14), and practicing ritual prostitution (1 Kgs 14:23).
10 tn Heb “sin and assembly” (these two nouns probably represent a hendiadys). The point is that their attempts at worship are unacceptable to God because the people’s everyday actions in the socio-economic realm prove they have no genuine devotion to God (see vv. 16-17).
11 tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”
12 sn This does not just refer to the blood of sacrificial animals, but also the blood, as it were, of their innocent victims. By depriving the poor and destitute of proper legal recourse and adequate access to the economic system, the oppressors have, for all intents and purposes, “killed” their victims.