Isaiah 43:23

Yahweh is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.

I know also, my God, that you try the heart, and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things. Now I have seen with joy your people, who are present here, offer willingly to you.

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice.

To what purpose does frankincense from Sheba come to me, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not pleasing to me.”

Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.

So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they might walk in their own counsels.

He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

“For I, Yahweh, love justice. I hate robbery and iniquity. I will give them their reward in truth and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

The houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, will be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the army of the sky and have poured out drink offerings to other gods.” ’ ”

I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”

He shall bring it to Aaron’s sons, the priests. He shall take his handful of its fine flour, and of its oil, with all its frankincense, and the priest shall burn its memorial on the altar, an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.

“On the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without defect, one ewe lamb a year old without defect, three tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, mixed with oil, and one log of oil.

Then let them take a young bull and its meal offering, fine flour mixed with oil; and another young bull you shall take for a sin offering.

with one tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, mixed with the fourth part of a hin of beaten oil.

Yahweh is near to all those who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

“What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.

Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moons, Sabbaths, and convocations: I can’t stand evil assemblies.

“ ‘As for you, house of Israel, the Lord Yahweh says: “Go, everyone serve his idols, and hereafter also, if you will not listen to me; but you shall no more profane my holy name with your gifts and with your idols.

For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.

“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Therefore give everyone what you owe: if you owe taxes, pay taxes; if customs, then customs; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears open to their prayer; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

He presented the meal offering, and filled his hand from there, and burned it upon the altar, in addition to the burnt offering of the morning.

The pig, because it has a split hoof, and is cloven-footed, but doesn’t chew the cud, is unclean to you.

He offered for his offering: one silver platter, the weight of which was one hundred thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering;

then he who offers his offering shall offer to Yahweh a meal offering of one tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one fourth of a hin of oil.

and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky.

If you forsake Yahweh, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you, after he has done you good.”

Samuel said, “Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying Yahweh’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

They abandoned all the commandments of Yahweh their God, and made molten images for themselves, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served Baal.

For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he raised up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel did, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served them.

I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them; so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had each fled to his field.

Hear, Yahweh, my righteous plea; Give ear to my prayer, that doesn’t go out of deceitful lips.

If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened.

When he is judged, let him come out guilty. Let his prayer be turned into sin.

Her ways are ways of pleasantness. All her paths are peace.

Guard your steps when you go to God’s house; for to draw near to listen is better than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they don’t know that they do evil.

But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. Therefore he turned and became their enemy, and he himself fought against them.

They shall bring all your brothers out of all the nations for an offering to Yahweh, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules, and on camels, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says Yahweh, as the children of Israel bring their offering in a clean vessel into Yahweh’s house.

They will spread them before the sun, the moon, and all the army of the sky, which they have loved, which they have served, after which they have walked, which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered or be buried. They will be like dung on the surface of the earth.

Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals.

They said to him, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.

Another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer. Much incense was given to him, that he should add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne.

If you do well, won’t it be lifted up? If you don’t do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it.”

and his offering was: one silver platter, the weight of which was one hundred thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering;

It is a continual burnt offering which was ordained in Mount Sinai for a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the stars of the sky, which I have not commanded,

“Now therefore fear Yahweh, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, in Egypt; and serve Yahweh.

They chose new gods. Then war was in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?

Go and cry to the gods which you have chosen. Let them save you in the time of your distress!”

Yes, when they had made themselves a molded calf, and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed awful blasphemies;

“Yes, forty years you sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing. Their clothes didn’t grow old, and their feet didn’t swell.

Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, and said, “It is a people that errs in their heart. They have not known my ways.”

Let my prayer be set before you like incense; the lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice.

My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the mountainside, let me see your face. let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.

Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around;

I was angry because of the iniquity of his covetousness and struck him. I hid myself and was angry; and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.

Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways. As a nation that did righteousness, and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God.

Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You don’t fast today so as to make your voice to be heard on high.

who sit among the graves, and spend nights in secret places; who eat pig’s meat, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;

I will destine you to the sword, and you will all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, you didn’t answer. When I spoke, you didn’t listen; but you did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn’t delight.”

“Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go to the gardens, behind one in the middle, eating pig’s meat, abominable things, and the mouse, they shall come to an end together,” says Yahweh.

Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances in which they should not live.

Ephraim is joined to idols. Leave him alone!

Then Haggai answered, “ ‘So is this people, and so is this nation before me,’ says Yahweh; ‘and so is every work of their hands. That which they offer there is unclean.

But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass justice and God’s love. You ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

But God turned, and gave them up to serve the army of the sky, as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

Now therefore why do you tempt God, that you should put a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

where your fathers tested me and tried me, and saw my deeds for forty years.

“ ‘When anyone offers an offering of a meal offering to Yahweh, his offering shall be of fine flour. He shall pour oil on it, and put frankincense on it.

The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination— how much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind!

He who kills an ox is as he who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as he who breaks a dog’s neck; he who offers an offering, as he who offers pig’s blood; he who burns frankincense, as he who blesses an idol. Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations:

For I didn’t speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices;

Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”