Bring your worthless offerings no more; your incense is detestable to Me—your New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations. I cannot endure iniquity in a solemn assembly.
Parallel translations
- WEB Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me; new moons, Sabbaths, and convocations: I can’t bear with evil assemblies.
- KJV Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
- NKJV Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.
- NASB “Do not go on bringing your worthless offerings, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and Sabbath, the proclamation of an assembly— I cannot endure wrongdoing and the festive assembly.
- NLT Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts; the incense of your offerings disgusts me! As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath and your special days for fasting— they are all sinful and false. I want no more of your pious meetings.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God rejects their offerings, incense, and sacred assemblies as worthless and even sinful. Religious observance combined with iniquity is an abomination to Him.
Overview
The very feasts God instituted become detestable when joined to injustice and unrepentant sin. 'I can't bear with evil assemblies' shows that mixing piety and wickedness provokes God. True acceptance before God requires the inward reality the rituals were meant to express, fulfilled in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Isa 66:3Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who slays a man; whoever sacrifices a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever presents a grain offering is like one who offers pig’s blood; whoever offers frankincense is like one who blesses an idol. Indeed, they have chosen their own ways and delighted in their abominations.
- Mal 1:10“Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle useless fires on My altar! I take no pleasure in you,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.
- Matt 15:9They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’”
- Ezek 20:39And as for you, O house of Israel, this is what the Lord GOD says: Go and serve your idols, every one of you. But afterward, you will surely listen to Me, and you will no longer defile My holy name with your gifts and idols.
- Lam 2:6He has laid waste His tabernacle like a garden booth; He has destroyed His place of meeting. The LORD has made Zion forget her appointed feasts and Sabbaths. In His fierce anger He has despised both king and priest.
- Joel 2:15Blow the ram’s horn in Zion, consecrate a fast, proclaim a sacred assembly.
- Ps 78:40How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!
- 1 Cor 11:17In the following instructions I have no praise to offer, because your gatherings do more harm than good.
- Eph 4:30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
- Exod 12:16On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly, and another on the seventh day. You must not do any work on those days, except to prepare the meals—that is all you may do.
- Lev 23:1–44Then the LORD said to Moses,
- 1 Chr 23:31Whenever burnt offerings were presented to the LORD on the Sabbaths, New Moons, and appointed feasts, they were to serve regularly before the LORD in the numbers prescribed for them.
- Jer 7:9–10Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known,
- Prov 21:27The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable—how much more so when brought with ill intent!
- Joel 1:14Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
- Luke 11:42Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint, rue, and every herb, but you disregard justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.
- Deut 16:1–22Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
- Num 28:1–29Then the LORD said to Moses,
- Phil 1:15It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 1:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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