Isaiah 43:23-24

43:23 You did not bring me lambs for your burnt offerings;

you did not honor me with your sacrifices.

I did not burden you with offerings;

I did not make you weary by demanding ¹  incense.

43:24 You did not buy me aromatic reeds; ² 

you did not present to me ³  the fat of your sacrifices.

Yet you burdened me with your sins;

you made me weary with your evil deeds. ⁴ 

Micah 6:6-8

6:6 With what should I ⁵  enter the Lord’s presence?

With what ⁶  should I bow before the sovereign God? ⁷ 

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? ⁸ 

6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good,

and what the Lord really wants from you: ⁹ 

He wants you to ¹⁰  promote ¹¹  justice, to be faithful, ¹² 

and to live obediently before ¹³  your God.

Acts 17:25

17:25 nor is he served by human hands, as if he needed anything, ¹⁴  because he himself gives life and breath and everything to everyone. ¹⁵ 

Hebrews 10:4-6

10:4 For the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins. ¹⁶  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.

[43:23]  ¹ tn Heb “with.” The words “by demanding” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[43:24]  ² tn That is, “calamus” (so NIV); NCV, TEV, NLT “incense”; CEV “spices.”

[43:24]  ³ tn Heb “you did not saturate me”; NASB “Neither have you filled Me.”

[43:24]  ⁴ sn In vv. 22-24 the Lord appears to be condemning his people for failure to bring the proper sacrifices. However, this is problematic. If this refers to the nation’s behavior while in exile, such cultic service was impossible and could hardly be expected by the Lord. If this refers to the nation’s conduct before the exile, it contradicts other passages that depict Israel as bringing excessive sacrifices (see, e.g., Isa 1:11-14; Jer 6:20; Amos 4:4-5, 5:21-23). Rather than being a condemnation of Israel’s failure to bring sacrifices, these verses are better taken as a highly rhetorical comment on the worthlessness of Israel’s religious ritual. They may have brought sacrifices, but not to the Lord, for he did not accept them or even want them. See C. R. North, Second Isaiah, 127, and R. Whybray, Isaiah 40-66 (NCBC), 91.

[6:6]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Or “the exalted God.”

[6:7]  ⁴ 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.”

[6:8]  ⁵ sn What the Lord really wants from you. Now the prophet switches roles and answers the hypothetical worshiper’s question. He makes it clear that the Lord desires proper attitudes more than ritual and sacrifice.

[6:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “except.” This statement is actually linked with what precedes, “What does he want from you except….”

[6:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “to do,” in the sense of “promote.”

[6:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “to love faithfulness.”

[6:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “to walk humbly [or perhaps, “carefully”] with.”

[17:25]  ⁶ tn L&N 57.45 has “nor does he need anything more that people can supply by working for him.”

[17:25]  ⁷ tn Grk “he himself gives to all [people] life and breath and all things.”

[10:4]  ⁷ tn Grk “for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”