“As for My slaughterings: they slaughter flesh and they eat. יהוה shall not accept them. Now does He remember their crookedness and punish their sins. Let them return to Mitsrayim!
And now, go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. See, My Messenger goes before you. And in the day of My visitation I shall visit their sin upon them.
“Of what use to Me are your many slaughterings?” declares יהוה. “I have had enough of ascending offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats.
Thus said יהוה to this people, “So they have loved to wander, they have not restrained their feet. Therefore יהוה has not accepted them. Now He does remember their crookedness and punish their sins.”
“What need have I of frankincense from Sheḇa, and sweet cane from a distant land? Your ascending offerings are not acceptable, and your slaughterings have not been sweet to Me.”
“And no longer is it to be the refuge of the house of Yisra’ĕl, bringing to remembrance their crookedness when they turned to follow them. And they shall know that I am the Master יהוה.” ’ ”
Is Gil‛aḏ wicked? Certainly, they have been false! In Gilgal they have slaughtered bulls. Also their slaughter-places are as heaps on a ploughed field.
“They return but not above. They have been like a slack bow. Their rulers fall by the sword for the cursings of their tongue. This is their scorn in the land of Mitsrayim.
For look, they shall go because of destruction – Mitsrayim gathers them up, Moph buries them, nettles possess their valuables of silver, thorns are in their tents.
The days of punishment have come, the days of retribution have come. Yisra’ĕl knows! The prophet is a fool, the ‘man of the Spirit’ is mad, because of the greatness of your crookedness, and great is the enmity.
So do not judge any at all before the time, until the Master comes, who shall bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the thoughts of the hearts. And then each one’s praise shall come from Elohim.
“And יהוה shall bring you back to Mitsrayim in ships, by a way of which I said to you, ‘You are never to see it again.’ And there you shall be sold to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one to buy.”
And the great city became divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Baḇel was remembered before Elohim, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.
Then Shemu’ĕl said, “Does יהוה delight in ascending offerings and slaughterings, as in obeying the voice of יהוה? Look, to obey is better than a slaughtering, to heed is better than the fat of rams.