Job 22:2

22:2 “Is it to God that a strong man is of benefit?

Is it to him that even a wise man is profitable? ¹ 

Job 35:6-7

35:6 If you sin, how does it affect God? ² 

If your transgressions are many,

what does it do to him? ³ 

35:7 If you are righteous, what do you give to God,

or what does he receive from your hand?

Psalms 16:2

16:2 I say to the Lord, “You are the Lord,

my only source of well-being.” ⁴ 

Psalms 50:8-13

50:8 I am not condemning ⁵  you because of your sacrifices,

or because of your burnt sacrifices that you continually offer me. ⁶ 

50:9 I do not need to take ⁷  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. ⁸ 

50:11 I keep track of ⁹  every bird in the hills,

and the insects ¹⁰  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? ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 7:20-23

7:20 So,” the Lord God ¹²  says, “my raging fury will be poured out on this land. ¹³  It will be poured out on human beings and animals, on trees and crops. ¹⁴  And it will burn like a fire which cannot be extinguished.”

7:21 The Lord said to the people of Judah, ¹⁵  “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹⁶  says: ‘You might as well go ahead and add the meat of your burnt offerings to that of the other sacrifices and eat it, too! ¹⁷  7:22 Consider this: ¹⁸  When I spoke to your ancestors after I brought them out of Egypt, I did not merely give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices. 7:23 I also explicitly commanded them: ¹⁹  “Obey me. If you do, I ²⁰  will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you ²¹  and things will go well with you.”

Amos 5:21-23

5:21 “I absolutely despise ²²  your festivals!

I get no pleasure ²³  from your religious assemblies!

5:22 Even if you offer me burnt and grain offerings, ²⁴  I will not be satisfied;

I will not look with favor on your peace offerings of fattened calves. ²⁵ 

5:23 Take away from me your ²⁶  noisy songs;

I don’t want to hear the music of your stringed instruments. ²⁷ 

Matthew 9:13

9:13 Go and learn what this saying means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ ²⁸  For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

[22:2]  ¹ tn Some do not take this to be parallel to the first colon, taking this line as a statement, but the parallel expressions here suggest the question is repeated.

[35:6]  ² tn Heb “him” (also in v. 7); the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[35:6]  ³ tn See Job 7:20.

[16:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “my good [is] not beyond you.” For the use of the preposition עַל (’al) in the sense of “beyond,” see BDB 755 s.v. 2.

[50:8]  ⁵ tn Or “rebuking.”

[50:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “and your burnt sacrifices before me continually.”

[50:9]  ⁷ tn Or “I will not take.”

[50:10]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “I know.”

[50:11]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn The rhetorical questions assume an emphatic negative response, “Of course not!”

[7:20]  ¹² tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.” The translation follows the ancient Jewish tradition of substituting the Hebrew word for God for the proper name Yahweh.

[7:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “this place.” Some see this as a reference to the temple but the context has been talking about what goes on in the towns of Judah and Jerusalem and the words that follow, meant as a further explanation, are applied to the whole land.

[7:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the trees of/in the field and the fruit of/in the ground.”

[7:21]  ¹⁵ tn The words “The Lord said to the people of Judah” are not in the text but are implicit in the shift in addressee between vv. 16-20 and vv. 21-26.

[7:21]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[7:21]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Add your burnt offerings to your [other] sacrifices and eat the meat!” See the following sn for explanation. This is an example of the rhetorical use of the imperative for a sarcastic challenge. Cf. GKC 324 §110.a; cf. Amos 4:4, “Go to Bethel and sin!”

[7:22]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “For” but this introduces a long explanation about the relative importance of sacrifice and obedience.

[7:23]  ¹⁹ tn Verses 22-23a read in Hebrew, “I did not speak with your ancestors and I did not command them when I brought them out of Egypt about words/matters concerning burnt offering and sacrifice, but I commanded them this word:” Some modern commentators have explained this passage as an evidence for the lateness of the Pentateuchal instruction regarding sacrifice or a denial that sacrifice was practiced during the period of the wilderness wandering. However, it is better explained as an example of what R. de Vaux calls a dialectical negative, i.e., “not so much this as that” or “not this without that” (Ancient Israel, 454-56). For other examples of this same argument see Isa 1:10-17; Hos 6:4-6; Amos 5:21-25.

[7:23]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Obey me and I will be.” The translation is equivalent syntactically but brings out the emphasis in the command.

[7:23]  ²¹ tn Heb “Walk in all the way that I command you.”

[5:21]  ²² tn Heb “I hate”; “I despise.”

[5:21]  ²³ tn Heb “I will not smell.” These verses are full of vivid descriptions of the Lord’s total rejection of Israelite worship. In the first half of this verse two verbs are used together for emphasis. Here the verb alludes to the sense of smell, a fitting observation since offerings would have been burned on the altar ideally to provide a sweet aroma to God (see, e.g., Lev 1:9, 13, 17; Num 29:36). Other senses that are mentioned include sight and hearing in vv. 22-23.

[5:22]  ²⁴ tn Heb “burnt offerings and your grain offerings.”

[5:22]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Peace offering[s], your fattened calves, I will not look at.”

[5:23]  ²⁶ tn In this verse the second person suffixes are singular and not plural like they are in vv. 21-22 and vv. 25-27. Some have suggested that perhaps a specific individual or group within the nation is in view.

[5:23]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew word probably refers to “harps” (NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “lutes” (NEB).

[9:13]  ²⁸ sn A quotation from Hos 6:6 (see also Matt 12:7).