Exodus 10:9

10:9 Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, and with our sheep and our cattle we will go, because we are to hold ¹  a pilgrim feast for the Lord.”

Exodus 10:24-26

10:24 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “Go, serve the Lord – only your flocks and herds will be detained. Even your families ²  may go with you.”

10:25 But Moses said, “Will you also ³  provide us ⁴  with sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may present them ⁵  to the Lord our God? 10:26 Our livestock must ⁶  also go with us! Not a hoof is to be left behind! For we must take ⁷  these animals ⁸  to serve the Lord our God. Until we arrive there, we do not know what we must use to serve the Lord.” ⁹ 

Proverbs 15:8

15:8 The Lord abhors ¹⁰  the sacrifices ¹¹  of the wicked, ¹² 

but the prayer ¹³  of the upright pleases him. ¹⁴ 

Proverbs 21:27

21:27 The wicked person’s sacrifice ¹⁵  is an abomination;

how much more ¹⁶  when he brings it with evil intent! ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 7:4

7:4 Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says, ¹⁸  “We are safe! ¹⁹  The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here!” ²⁰ 

Micah 6:6-7

6:6 With what should I ²¹  enter the Lord’s presence?

With what ²²  should I bow before the sovereign God? ²³ 

Should I enter his presence with burnt offerings,

with year-old calves?

6:7 Will the Lord accept a thousand rams,

or ten thousand streams of olive oil?

Should I give him my firstborn child as payment for my rebellion,

my offspring – my own flesh and blood – for my sin? ²⁴ 

[10:9]  ¹ tn Heb “we have a pilgrim feast (חַג, khag) to Yahweh.”

[10:24]  ² tn Or “dependents.” The term is often translated “your little ones,” but as mentioned before (10:10), this expression in these passages takes in women and children and other dependents. Pharaoh will now let all the people go, but he intends to detain the cattle to secure their return.

[10:25]  ³ tn B. Jacob (Exodus, 287) shows that the intent of Moses in using גַּם (gam) is to make an emphatic rhetorical question. He cites other samples of the usage in Num 22:33; 1 Sam 17:36; 2 Sam 12:14, and others. The point is that if Pharaoh told them to go and serve Yahweh, they had to have animals to sacrifice. If Pharaoh was holding the animals back, he would have to make some provision.

[10:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “give into our hand.”

[10:25]  ⁵ tn The form here is וְעָשִּׂינוּ (vÿ’asinu), the Qal perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive – “and we will do.” But the verb means “do” in the sacrificial sense – prepare them, offer them. The verb form is to be subordinated here to form a purpose or result clause.

[10:26]  ⁶ tn This is the obligatory imperfect nuance. They were obliged to take the animals if they were going to sacrifice, but more than that, since they were not coming back, they had to take everything.

[10:26]  ⁷ tn The same modal nuance applies to this verb.

[10:26]  ⁸ tn Heb “from it,” referring collectively to the livestock.

[10:26]  ⁹ sn Moses gives an angry but firm reply to Pharaoh’s attempt to control Israel; he makes it clear that he has no intention of leaving any pledge with Pharaoh. When they leave, they will take everything that belongs to them.

[15:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “an abomination of the Lord.” The term יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) functions as a subjective genitive: “the Lord abhors.” Cf. NIV “the Lord detests”; NCV, NLT “the Lord hates”; CEV “the Lord is disgusted.”

[15:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “sacrifice” (so many English versions).

[15:8]  ¹² sn The sacrifices of the wicked are hated by the Lord because the worshipers are insincere and blasphemous (e.g., Prov 15:29; 21:3; 28:9; Ps 40:6-8; Isa 1:10-17). In other words, the spiritual condition of the worshiper determines whether or not the worship is acceptable to God.

[15:8]  ¹³ sn J. H. Greenstone notes that if God will accept the prayers of the upright, he will accept their sacrifices; for sacrifice is an outer ritual and easily performed even by the wicked, but prayer is a private and inward act and not usually fabricated by unbelievers (Proverbs, 162).

[15:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “[is] his pleasure.” The 3rd person masculine singular suffix functions as a subjective genitive: “he is pleased.” God is pleased with the prayers of the upright.

[21:27]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the sacrifice of the wicked” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). This is a subjective genitive. The foundational clause states that ritual acts of worship brought by the wicked (thus a subjective genitive) are detestable to God. The “wicked” refers here to people who are not members of the covenant (no faith) and are not following after righteousness (no acceptable works). But often they participate in sanctuary ritual, which amounts to hypocrisy.

[21:27]  ¹⁶ sn This rhetorical device shows that if the act is abomination, the wicked heart is an even greater sin. It argues from the lesser to the greater.

[21:27]  ¹⁷ tn The noun זִמָּה (zimmah) means “plan; device; wickedness”; here it indicates that the person is coming to the ritual with “sinful purpose.” Some commentators suggest that this would mean he comes with the sacrifice as a bribe to pacify his conscience for a crime committed, over which he has little remorse or intent to cease (cf. NLT “with ulterior motives”). In this view, people in ancient Israel came to think that sacrifices could be given for any reason without genuine submission to God.

[7:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Stop trusting in lying words which say.”

[7:4]  ¹⁹ tn The words “We are safe!” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these (i.e., these buildings).” Elsewhere triple repetition seems to mark a kind of emphasis (cf. Isa 6:3; Jer 22:29; Ezek 21:27 [32 HT]). The triple repetition that follows seems to be Jeremiah’s way of mocking the (false) sense of security that people had in the invincibility of Jerusalem because God dwelt in the temple. They appeared to be treating the temple as some kind of magical charm. A similar feeling had grown up around the ark in the time of the judges (cf. 1 Sam 3:3) and the temple and city of Jerusalem in Micah’s day (cf. Mic 3:11). It is reflected also in some of the Psalms (cf., e.g., Ps 46, especially v. 5).

[6:6]  ²¹ sn With what should I enter the Lord’s presence? The prophet speaks again, playing the role of an inquisitive worshiper who wants to know what God really desires from his followers.

[6:6]  ²² tn The words “with what” do double duty in the parallelism and are supplied in the second line of the translation for clarification.

[6:6]  ²³ tn Or “the exalted God.”

[6:7]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is often translated “soul,” but the word usually refers to the whole person; here “the sin of my soul” = “my sin.”