Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
Parallel translations
- WEB Will I eat the meat of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
- KJV Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
- NKJV Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats?
- NASB “Shall I eat the flesh of bulls Or drink the blood of male goats?
- NLT Do I eat the meat of bulls? Do I drink the blood of goats?
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 does not eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats. Sacrifice is not about supplying Him food.
Overview
God pointedly asks whether He consumes the sacrifices, rejecting the pagan idea that offerings nourish the deity. The animal sacrifices were never meant to feed God but to express worship, atonement, and covenant. This redirects His people toward the heart-attitude that sacrifice was meant to embody.
Cross-references & the web
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 50:13 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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