Hebrews 10:4

10:4 For the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins. ¹ 

Psalms 50:8-13

50:8 I am not condemning ²  you because of your sacrifices,

or because of your burnt sacrifices that you continually offer me. ³ 

50:9 I do not need to take ⁴  a bull from your household

or goats from your sheepfolds.

50:10 For every wild animal in the forest belongs to me,

as well as the cattle that graze on a thousand hills. ⁵ 

50:11 I keep track of ⁶  every bird in the hills,

and the insects ⁷  of the field are mine.

50:12 Even if I were hungry, I would not tell you,

for the world and all it contains belong to me.

50:13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls?

Do I drink the blood of goats? ⁸ 

Isaiah 1:11

1:11 “Of what importance to me are your many sacrifices?” ⁹ 

says the Lord.

“I am stuffed with ¹⁰  burnt sacrifices

of rams and the fat from steers.

The blood of bulls, lambs, and goats

I do not want. ¹¹ 

[10:4]  ¹ tn Grk “for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

[50:8]  ² tn Or “rebuking.”

[50:8]  ³ tn Heb “and your burnt sacrifices before me continually.”

[50:9]  ⁴ tn Or “I will not take.”

[50:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “[the] animals on a thousand hills.” The words “that graze” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The term בְּהֵמוֹה (bÿhemot, “animal”) refers here to cattle (see Ps 104:14).

[50:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “I know.”

[50:11]  ⁷ tn The precise referent of the Hebrew word, which occurs only here and in Ps 80:13, is uncertain. Aramaic, Arabic and Akkadian cognates refer to insects, such as locusts or crickets.

[50:13]  ⁸ tn The rhetorical questions assume an emphatic negative response, “Of course not!”

[1:11]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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.