Jeremiah 6:20

6:20 I take no delight ¹  when they offer up to me ² 

frankincense that comes from Sheba

or sweet-smelling cane imported from a faraway land.

I cannot accept the burnt offerings they bring me.

I get no pleasure from the sacrifices they offer to me.’ ³ 

Amos 5:22

5:22 Even if you offer me burnt and grain offerings, ⁴  I will not be satisfied;

I will not look with favor on your peace offerings of fattened calves. ⁵ 

Malachi 1:8-13

1:8 For when you offer blind animals as a sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer the lame and sick, ⁶  is that not wrong as well? Indeed, try offering them ⁷  to your governor! Will he be pleased with you ⁸  or show you favor?” asks the Lord who rules over all. 1:9 But now plead for God’s favor ⁹  that he might be gracious to us. ¹⁰  “With this kind of offering in your hands, how can he be pleased with you?” asks the Lord who rules over all.

1:10 “I wish that one of you would close the temple doors, ¹¹  so that you no longer would light useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord who rules over all, “and I will no longer accept an offering from you. 1:11 For from the east to the west my name will be great among the nations. Incense and pure offerings will be offered in my name everywhere, for my name will be great among the nations,” ¹²  says the Lord who rules over all. 1:12 “But you are profaning it by saying that the table of the Lord is common and its offerings ¹³  despicable. 1:13 You also say, ‘How tiresome it is.’ You turn up your nose at it,” says the Lord who rules over all, “and instead bring what is stolen, lame, or sick. You bring these things for an offering! Should I accept this from you?” ¹⁴  asks the Lord.

[6:20]  ¹ tn Heb “To what purpose is it to me?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer.

[6:20]  ² tn The words “when they offer up to me” are not in the text but are implicit from the following context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:20]  ³ tn Heb “Your burnt offerings are not acceptable and your sacrifices are not pleasing to me.” “The shift from “your” to “their” is an example of the figure of speech (apostrophe) where the speaker turns from talking about someone to addressing him/her directly. Though common in Hebrew style, it is not common in English. The shift to the third person in the translation is an accommodation to English style.

[5:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “burnt offerings and your grain offerings.”

[5:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “Peace offering[s], your fattened calves, I will not look at.”

[1:8]  ⁶ sn Offerings of animals that were lame or sick were strictly forbidden by the Mosaic law (see Deut 15:21).

[1:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “it” (so NAB, NASB). Contemporary English more naturally uses a plural pronoun to agree with “the lame and sick” in the previous question (cf. NIV, NCV).

[1:8]  ⁸ tc The LXX and Vulgate read “with it” (which in Hebrew would be הֲיִרְצֵהוּ, hayirtsehu, a reading followed by NAB) rather than “with you” of the MT (הֲיִרְצְךָ, hayirtsÿkha). The MT (followed here by most English versions) is to be preferred because of the parallel with the following phrase פָנֶיךָ (fanekha, “receive you,” which the present translation renders as “show you favor”).

[1:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “seek the face of God.”

[1:9]  ¹⁰ tn After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with vav conjunction indicates purpose (cf. NASB, NRSV).

[1:10]  ¹¹ sn The rhetorical language suggests that as long as the priesthood and people remain disobedient, the temple doors may as well be closed because God is not “at home” to receive them or their worship there.

[1:11]  ¹² sn My name will be great among the nations. In what is clearly a strongly ironic shift of thought, the Lord contrasts the unbelief and virtual paganism of the postexilic community with the conversion and obedience of the nations that will one day worship the God of Israel.

[1:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “fruit.” The following word “food” in the Hebrew text (אָכְלוֹ, ’okhlo) appears to be an explanatory gloss to clarify the meaning of the rare word נִיב (niv, “fruit”; see Isa 57:19 Qere; נוֹב, nov, “fruit,” in Kethib). Cf. ASV “the fruit thereof, even its food.” In this cultic context the reference is to the offerings on the altar.

[1:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “from your hand,” a metonymy of part (the hand) for whole (the person).