Psalms 106:28

106:28 They worshiped ¹  Baal of Peor,

and ate sacrifices offered to the dead. ² 

Psalms 107:22

107:22 Let them present thank offerings,

and loudly proclaim what he has done! ³ 

Psalms 4:5

4:5 Offer the prescribed sacrifices ⁴ 

and trust in the Lord! ⁵ 

Psalms 50:5

50:5 He says: ⁶ 

“Assemble my covenant people before me, ⁷ 

those who ratified a covenant with me by sacrifice!” ⁸ 

Psalms 50:8

50:8 I am not condemning ⁹  you because of your sacrifices,

or because of your burnt sacrifices that you continually offer me. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 116:17

116:17 I will present a thank offering to you,

and call on the name of the Lord.

Psalms 40:6

40:6 Receiving sacrifices and offerings are not your primary concern. ¹¹ 

You make that quite clear to me! ¹² 

You do not ask for burnt sacrifices and sin offerings.

Psalms 51:16-17

51:16 Certainly ¹³  you do not want a sacrifice, or else I would offer it; ¹⁴ 

you do not desire a burnt sacrifice. ¹⁵ 

51:17 The sacrifices God desires are a humble spirit ¹⁶  –

O God, a humble and repentant heart ¹⁷  you will not reject. ¹⁸ 

Psalms 51:19

51:19 Then you will accept ¹⁹  the proper sacrifices, burnt sacrifices and whole offerings;

then bulls will be sacrificed ²⁰  on your altar. ²¹ 

Psalms 27:6

27:6 Now I will triumph

over my enemies who surround me! ²² 

I will offer sacrifices in his dwelling place and shout for joy! ²³ 

I will sing praises to the Lord!

[106:28]  ¹ tn Heb “joined themselves to.”

[106:28]  ² tn Here “the dead” may refer to deceased ancestors (see Deut 26:14). Another option is to understand the term as a derogatory reference to the various deities which the Israelites worshiped at Peor along with Baal (see Num 25:2 and L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 49).

[107:22]  ³ tn Heb “and let them proclaim his works with a ringing cry.”

[4:5]  ⁵ tn Or “proper, right.” The phrase also occurs in Deut 33:19 and Ps 51:19.

[4:5]  ⁶ sn Trust in the Lord. The psalmist urges his enemies to make peace with God and become his followers.

[50:5]  ⁷ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. God’s summons to the defendant follows.

[50:5]  ⁸ tn Or “Gather to me my covenant people.” The Hebrew term חָסִיד (khasid, “covenant people”) elsewhere in the psalms is used in a positive sense of God’s loyal followers (see the note at Ps 4:3), but here, as the following line makes clear, the term has a neutral sense and simply refers to those who have outwardly sworn allegiance to God, not necessarily to those whose loyalty is genuine.

[50:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “the cutters of my covenant according to sacrifice.” A sacrifice accompanied the covenant-making ceremony and formally ratified the agreement (see Exod 24:3-8).

[50:8]  ⁹ tn Or “rebuking.”

[50:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and your burnt sacrifices before me continually.”

[40:6]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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.

[51:16]  ¹³ tn Or “For.” The translation assumes the particle is asseverative (i.e., emphasizing: “certainly”). (Some translations that consider the particle asseverative leave it untranslated.) If taken as causal or explanatory (“for”, cf. NRSV), the verse would explain why the psalmist is pleading for forgiveness, rather than merely offering a sacrifice.

[51:16]  ¹⁴ tn The translation assumes that the cohortative is used in a hypothetical manner in a formally unmarked conditional sentence, “You do not want a sacrifice, should I offer [it]” (cf. NEB). For other examples of cohortatives in the protasis (“if” clause) of a conditional sentence, see GKC 320 §108.e. (It should be noted, however, that GKC understands this particular verse in a different manner. See GKC 320 §108.f, where it is suggested that the cohortative is part of an apodosis with the protasis being suppressed.)

[51:16]  ¹⁵ sn You do not desire a burnt sacrifice. The terminology used in v. 16 does not refer to expiatory sacrifices, but to dedication and communion offerings. This is not a categorical denial of the sacrificial system in general or of the importance of such offerings. The psalmist is talking about his specific situation. Dedication and communion offerings have their proper place in worship (see v. 19), but God requires something more fundamental, a repentant and humble attitude (see v. 17), before these offerings can have real meaning.

[51:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a broken spirit.”

[51:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “a broken and crushed heart.”

[51:17]  ¹⁷ tn Or “despise.”

[51:19]  ¹⁷ tn Or “desire, take delight in.”

[51:19]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “then they will offer up bulls.” The third plural subject is indefinite.

[51:19]  ¹⁹ sn Verses 18-19 appear to reflect the exilic period, when the city’s walls lay in ruins and the sacrificial system had been disrupted.

[27:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and now my head will be lifted up over my enemies all around me.”

[27:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “I will sacrifice in his tent sacrifices of a shout for joy” (that is, “sacrifices accompanied by a joyful shout”).