They love sacrifice, they sacrifice meat and eat it, but the Lord is not pleased with them. Now he will remember their guilt and punish their sins; they shall return to Egypt.
Now, go and lead the people where I have told you. See, my angel will go before you. When it is time for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.
What do I care for the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. I have had enough of whole-burnt rams and fat of fatlings; In the blood of calves, lambs, and goats I find no pleasure.
Thus says the Lord about this people: They so love to wander that they cannot restrain their feet. The Lord takes no pleasure in them; now he remembers their guilt, and will punish their sins.
Of what use to me is incense that comes from Sheba, or sweet cane from far-off lands? Your burnt offerings find no favor with me, your sacrifices do not please me.
No longer shall they be security for the house of Israel, But a reminder of its iniquity in turning away to follow them. Then they shall know that I am the Lord God. Wages for Nebuchadnezzar.
They have again become useless, they have been like a treacherous bow. Their princes shall fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongues; thus they shall be mocked in the land of Egypt.
When they flee from the devastation, Egypt will gather them, Memphis will bury them. Weeds will overgrow their silver treasures, and thorns, their tents.
They have come, the days of punishment! they have come, the days of recompense! Let Israel know it! “The prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad!” Because your iniquity is great, great, too, is your hostility.
Even though you bring me your burnt offerings and grain offerings I will not accept them; Your stall-fed communion offerings, I will not look upon them.
Therefore, do not make any judgment before the appointed time, until the Lord comes, for he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will manifest the motives of our hearts, and then everyone will receive praise from God. Paul’s Life as Pattern.
The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt, by a route which I told you that you would never see again; and there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.
The great city was split into three parts, and the gentile cities fell. But God remembered great Babylon, giving it the cup filled with the wine of his fury and wrath.
But Samuel said: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to the Lord’s command? Obedience is better than sacrifice, to listen, better than the fat of rams.