Mazmur 50:8-10

50:8 I am not condemning ¹  you because of your sacrifices,

or because of your burnt sacrifices that you continually offer me. ² 

50:9 I do not need to take ³  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. ⁴ 

Yeremia 7:21

7:21 The Lord said to the people of Judah, ⁵  “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁶  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! ⁷ 

Mikha 6:7-8

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? ⁸ 

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

and what the Lord really wants from you: ⁹ 

He wants you to ¹⁰  promote ¹¹  justice, to be faithful, ¹² 

and to live obediently before ¹³  your God.

[50:8]  ¹ tn Or “rebuking.”

[50:8]  ² tn Heb “and your burnt sacrifices before me continually.”

[50:9]  ³ tn Or “I will not take.”

[50:10]  ⁴ 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).

[7:21]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[7:21]  sn See the study notes on 2:19 and 7:3.

[7:21]  ⁷ 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!”

[7:21]  sn All of the burnt offering, including the meat, was to be consumed on the altar (e.g., Lev 1:6-9). The meat of the other sacrifices could be eaten by the priest who offered the sacrifice and the person who brought it (e.g., Lev 7:16-18, 32). Since, however, the people of Judah were making a mockery of the sacrificial system by offering sacrifices while disobeying the law, the Lord rejected the sacrifices (cf. 6:20). Since they were violating the moral law they might as well go ahead and violate the cultic law by eating the meat dedicated to God because he rejected it anyway.

[6:7]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “except.” This statement is actually linked with what precedes, “What does he want from you except….”

[6:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to do,” in the sense of “promote.”

[6:8]  ¹² tn Heb “to love faithfulness.”

[6:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “to walk humbly [or perhaps, “carefully”] with.”