Psalms 40:6

40:6 Receiving sacrifices and offerings are not your primary concern. ¹ 

You make that quite clear to me! ² 

You do not ask for burnt sacrifices and sin offerings.

Psalms 50:7-13

50:7 He says: ³ 

“Listen my people! I am speaking!

Listen Israel! I am accusing you! ⁴ 

I am God, your God!

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 

Psalms 50:16-17

50:16 God says this to the evildoer: ¹² 

“How can you declare my commands,

and talk about my covenant? ¹³ 

50:17 For you hate instruction

and reject my words. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 66:3

66:3 Say to God:

“How awesome are your deeds!

Because of your great power your enemies cower in fear ¹⁵  before you.

Isaiah 1:11

1:11 “Of what importance to me are your many sacrifices?” ¹⁶ 

says the Lord.

“I am stuffed with ¹⁷  burnt sacrifices

of rams and the fat from steers.

The blood of bulls, lambs, and goats

I do not want. ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 66:3

66:3 The one who slaughters a bull also strikes down a man; ¹⁹ 

the one who sacrifices a lamb also breaks a dog’s neck; ²⁰ 

the one who presents an offering includes pig’s blood with it; ²¹ 

the one who offers incense also praises an idol. ²² 

They have decided to behave this way; ²³ 

they enjoy these disgusting practices. ²⁴ 

Ezekiel 20:39

20:39 “‘As for you, O house of Israel, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Each of you go and serve your idols, ²⁵  if you will not listen to me. ²⁶  But my holy name will not be profaned ²⁷  again by your sacrifices ²⁸  and your idols.

Amos 5:21-22

5:21 “I absolutely despise ²⁹  your festivals!

I get no pleasure ³⁰  from your religious assemblies!

5:22 Even if you offer me burnt and grain offerings, ³¹  I will not be satisfied;

I will not look with favor on your peace offerings of fattened calves. ³² 

Micah 6:6-8

6:6 With what should I ³³  enter the Lord’s presence?

With what ³⁴  should I bow before the sovereign God? ³⁵ 

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? ³⁶ 

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

and what the Lord really wants from you: ³⁷ 

He wants you to ³⁸  promote ³⁹  justice, to be faithful, ⁴⁰ 

and to live obediently before ⁴¹  your God.

[40:6]  ¹ tn Heb “sacrifice and offering you do not desire.” The statement is exaggerated for the sake of emphasis (see Ps 51:16 as well). God is pleased with sacrifices, but his first priority is obedience and loyalty (see 1 Sam 15:22). Sacrifices and offerings apart from genuine allegiance are meaningless (see Isa 1:11-20).

[40:6]  ² tn Heb “ears you hollowed out for me.” The meaning of this odd expression is debated (this is the only collocation of “hollowed out” and “ears” in the OT). It may have been an idiomatic expression referring to making a point clear to a listener. The LXX has “but a body you have prepared for me,” a reading which is followed in Heb 10:5.

[50:7]  ³ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. God’s charges against his people follow.

[50:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “Israel, and I will testify against you.” The imperative “listen” is understood in the second line by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[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!”

[50:16]  ¹² tn Heb “evil [one].” The singular adjective is used here in a representative sense; it refers to those within the larger covenant community who have blatantly violated the Lord’s commandments. In the psalms the “wicked” (רְשָׁעִים, rÿsha’im) are typically proud, practical atheists (Ps 10:2, 4, 11) who hate God’s commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander, and cheat others (Ps 37:21).

[50:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “What to you to declare my commands and lift up my covenant upon your mouth?” The rhetorical question expresses sarcastic amazement. The Lord is shocked that such evildoers would give lip-service to his covenantal demands, for their lifestyle is completely opposed to his standards (see vv. 18-20).

[50:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and throw my words behind you.”

[66:3]  ¹⁵ tn See Deut 33:29; Ps 81:15 for other uses of the verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash) in the sense “cower in fear.” In Ps 18:44 the verb seems to carry the nuance “be weak, powerless” (see also Ps 109:24).

[1:11]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ 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.

[66:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “one who slaughters a bull, one who strikes down a man.” Some understand a comparison here and in the following lines. In God’s sight the one who sacrifices is like (i.e., regarded as) a murderer or one whose worship is ritually defiled or idolatrous. The translation above assumes that the language is not metaphorical, but descriptive of the sinners’ hypocritical behavior. (Note the last two lines of the verse, which suggests they are guilty of abominable practices.) On the one hand, they act pious and offer sacrifices; but at the same time they commit violent crimes against men, defile their sacrifices, and worship other gods.

[66:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “one who sacrifices a lamb, one who breaks a dog’s neck.” Some understand a comparison, but see the previous note.

[66:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “one who offers an offering, pig’s blood.” Some understand a comparison, but see the note at the end of the first line.

[66:3]  ²² tn Heb “one who offers incense as a memorial offering, one who blesses something false.” Some understand a comparison, but see the note at the end of the first line. אָוֶן (’aven), which has a wide variety of attested nuances, here refers metonymically to an idol. See HALOT 22 s.v. and BDB 20 s.v. 2.

[66:3]  ²³ tn Heb “also they have chosen their ways.”

[66:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “their being [or “soul”] takes delight in their disgusting [things].”

[20:39]  ²⁵ sn Compare the irony here to Amos 4:4 and Jer 44:25.

[20:39]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and after, if you will not listen to me.” The translation leaves out “and after” for smoothness. The text is difficult. M. Greenberg (Ezekiel [AB], 1:374) suggests that it may mean “but afterwards, if you will not listen to me…” with an unspoken threat.

[20:39]  ²⁷ sn A similar concept may be found in Lev 18:21; 20:3.

[20:39]  ²⁸ tn Or “gifts.”

[5:21]  ²⁹ tn Heb “I hate”; “I despise.”

[5:21]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ tn Heb “burnt offerings and your grain offerings.”

[5:22]  ³² tn Heb “Peace offering[s], your fattened calves, I will not look at.”

[6:6]  ³³ 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]  ³⁴ 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]  ³⁵ tn Or “the exalted God.”

[6:7]  ³⁶ 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]  ³⁷ 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]  ³⁸ tn Heb “except.” This statement is actually linked with what precedes, “What does he want from you except….”

[6:8]  ³⁹ tn Heb “to do,” in the sense of “promote.”

[6:8]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “to love faithfulness.”

[6:8]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “to walk humbly [or perhaps, “carefully”] with.”