&#8220;No, please take them,&#8221; Jacob said.<n id="1" /> &#8220;If I have found favor in your sight, accept<n id="2" /> my gift from my hand. Now that I have seen your face and you have accepted me,<n id="3" /> it is as if I have seen the face of God.<n id="4" />

If some of the meat of his peace offering sacrifice is ever eaten on the third day it will not be accepted; it will not be accounted to the one who presented it, since it is spoiled,<n id="1" /> and the person who eats from it will bear his punishment for iniquity.<n id="2" />

&#8220;When an ox, lamb, or goat is born, it must be under the care of<n id="1" /> its mother seven days, but from the eighth day onward it will be acceptable as an offering gift<n id="2" /> to the <sc>Lordsc>.

The <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel chose me out of my father&#8217;s entire family to become king over Israel and have a permanent dynasty.<n id="1" /> Indeed,<n id="2" /> he chose Judah as leader, and my father&#8217;s family within Judah, and then he picked me out from among my father&#8217;s sons and made me king over all Israel.<n id="3" />

I know, my God, that you examine thoughts<n id="1" /> and are pleased with integrity. With pure motives<n id="2" /> I contribute all this; and now I look with joy as your people who have gathered here contribute to you.

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Speak kindly to<n id="1" /> Jerusalem,<n id="2" /> and tell herp> <p class="poetry">that her time of warfare is over,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">that her punishment is completed.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">For the <sc>Lordsc> has made her pay double<n id="5" /> for all her sins.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">Then the <sc>Lordsc> spoke about these people.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;They truly<n id="2" /> love to go astray.p> <p class="poetry">They cannot keep from running away from me.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">So I am not pleased with them.p> <p class="poetry">I will now call to mind<n id="4" /> the wrongs they have done<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">and punish them for their sins.&#8221;p>

Even if they fast, I will not hear their cries for help. Even if they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them.<n id="1" /> Instead, I will kill them through wars, famines, and plagues.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

For there on my holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel, declares the sovereign <sc>Lordsc>, all the house of Israel will serve me, all of them<n id="1" /> in the land. I will accept them there, and there I will seek your contributions and your choice gifts, with all your holy things.

When I bring you out from the nations and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, I will accept you along with your soothing aroma. I will display my holiness among you in the sight of the nations.

When the prescribed period is over,<n id="1" /> on the eighth day and thereafter the priests will offer up on the altar your burnt offerings and your peace offerings;<n id="2" /> I will accept you, declares the sovereign <sc>Lordsc>.&#8221;p>

For when you offer blind animals as a sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer the lame and sick,<n id="1" /> is that not wrong as well? Indeed, try offering them<n id="2" /> to your governor! Will he be pleased with you<n id="3" /> or show you favor?&#8221; asks the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all.

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;I wish that one of you would close the temple doors,<n id="1" /> so that you no longer would light useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all, &#8220;and I will no longer accept an offering from you.

You also say, &#8216;How tiresome it is.&#8217; You turn up your nose at it,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all, &#8220;and instead bring what is stolen, lame, or sick. You bring these things for an offering! Should I accept this from you?&#8221;<n id="1" /> asks the <sc>Lordsc>.

<p class="bodytext">But the leaders of the Philistines became angry with him and said<n id="1" /> to him, &#8220;Send the man back! Let him return to the place that you assigned him! Don&#8217;t let him go down with us into the battle, for he might become<n id="2" /> our adversary in the battle. What better way to please his lord than with the heads of these men?<n id="3" />