As for the sacrifices of my offerings, they sacrifice meat and eat it; But Yahweh doesn’t accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins. They will return to Egypt.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    As for the sacrifices of my offerings, they sacrifice meat and eat it; But Yahweh doesn’t accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins. They will return to Egypt.

  • KJV King James Version

    They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but the LORD accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    As for the sacrifices that are made by fire unto Me, let them sacrifice flesh and eat it, for the LORD accepteth them not. Now will He remember their iniquity, and punish their sins; they shall return to Egypt.

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Examined in Scripture Analysis

Contradictions (1)

Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.

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Cross-references (22)

Passages linked to Hosea 8:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Hosea 9:6 For, behold, they have gone away from destruction. Egypt will gather them up. Memphis will bury them. Nettles will possess their pleasant things of silver. Thorns will be in their tents.
  • Hosea 9:9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity. He will punish them for their sins.
  • Amos 5:22 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.
  • Amos 8:7 Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their works.
  • Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
  • Deuteronomy 28:68 Yahweh will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I told to you that you would never see it again. There you will offer yourselves to your enemies for male and female slaves, and nobody will buy you.
  • Isaiah 1:11 “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.
  • Jeremiah 14:10 Yahweh says to this people, “Even so they have loved to wander. They have not restrained their feet. Therefore Yahweh does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish them for their sins.”
  • Hosea 5:6 They will go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Yahweh; but they won’t find him. He has withdrawn himself from them.
  • Hosea 9:3-4 They won’t dwell in Yahweh’s land; but Ephraim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Assyria. They won’t pour out wine offerings to Yahweh, neither will they be pleasing to him. Their sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat of it will be polluted; for their bread will be for their appetite. It will not come into Yahweh’s house.
  • Hosea 11:5 “They won’t return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian will be their king, because they refused to repent.
  • Exodus 32:34 Now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin.”
  • 1 Samuel 15:22 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.
  • Proverbs 21:27 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination— how much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind!
  • Jeremiah 7:21-23 Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. 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; but this thing I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. Walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’
  • Hosea 4:9 It will be, like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and will repay them for their deeds.
  • Hosea 7:2 They don’t consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own deeds have engulfed them. They are before my face.
  • Hosea 7:16 They return, but not to the Most High. They are like a faulty bow. Their princes will fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue. This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.
  • Hosea 12:11 If Gilead is wicked, surely they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls. Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the field.
  • 1 Corinthians 11:20 When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.
  • 1 Corinthians 11:29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body.
  • Revelation 16:19 The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (16 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain Interpreters think that the Israelites are here derided because…

Interpreters think that the Israelites are here derided because they trusted in their own ceremonies, and that their sacrifices are reproachfully called flesh. But we must see whether the words of the Prophet contain something deeper. For the word הבהב, ebeb, some rightly expound, in my judgment, as meaning “sacrifices,” either burnt or roasted; it is a word of four letters. Others derive it from יהב, ieb, which signifies “to give gifts;” and hence they render thus, “sacrifices of my gifts;” and this is the more received opinion. I view the Prophet here as not only blaming the Israelites for putting vain trust in their own ceremonies, which were perverted and vicious; but also as adducing something more gross, and by which it could be proved, that their folly was even ridiculous, yea, to profane men and children. When we only read, The sacrifices of my gifts, which they ought to have offered to me, the sense seems frigid; but when we read, “The sacrifices of my burnt-offerings! they offer flesh”, the meaning is, So palpable is their contempt, that they cannot but be condemned even by children. How so? Because for burnt-offerings they offer flesh to me; that is they fear lest any portion of the sacrifices should be lost: and when they ought, when offering burnt-sacrifices, to burn the flesh, they keep it entire, that they may stuff themselves. Hence they make a great display in sacrificing: and yet it appears to be palpable mockery, for they turn burnt-offerings into peace-offerings, that the flesh may remain entire for them to eat it. And no doubt, it has ever been a vice dominant in hypocrites to connect gain with superstitions. How much soever, then, idolaters may show themselves to be wholly devoted to God, they yet will take care that nothing be lost.

The Prophet then seems now to reprove this vice; I yet allow that the Israelites are blamed for thinking that God is pacified by sacrifices which were of themselves of no value, as we have had before a similar declaration. But I join both views together — that they offered to God vain sacrifices without piety, and then, that they offered flesh for burnt-offerings, and thus fed themselves and cared not for the worship of God. The sacrifices then of my burnt-offerings they offer; but what do they offer? Flesh Nor does he seem to have mentioned in vain the word flesh. Some say that all sacrifices are here called flesh by way of contempt; but there seems rather to me to be a contrast made between burnt sacrifices and flesh; because the people of Israel wished to take care of themselves and to have a rich repast, when the Lord required a burnt-offering to be presented to him: and he afterwards adds, and they eat By the word eating, he confirms what I have already said, that is, that he here reproves in the Israelites the vice of being intent only on cramming themselves, and of only putting forth the name of God as a vain pretence, while they were only anxious to feed themselves.

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It is the same with the Papists of our day, when they celebrate their festivals; they indulge themselves, and think that the more they drink and eat, the more God is bound to them. This is their zeal; they eat flesh, and yet think that they offer sacrifices to God. They offer, then, their stomach to God, when it is thus well filled. Such are the oblations of the Papists. So also the Prophet now says, “They eat the flesh which they ought to have burned.”

The Lord, he says, will not accept them Here again he briefly shows, that while hypocrites thus make pretences, they are self-deceived, and will at last find out how vainly they have lied to God and men: “God will not accept them.” He here repudiates, in the name of God, their sacrifices; for whatever they might promise to themselves, it was enough that they devised for themselves these modes of worship; for God had never commanded a word respecting them.

It then follows, Now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins The Prophet denounces a future punishment, lest hypocrites should flatter themselves, when God’s fury is not immediately kindled against them, for it is usual with them to abuse the patience of God. Hence Hosea now forewarns them, and says, “Though God may connive for a time, there is yet no reason for the Israelites to think that they shall be free from punishment: God will at length,” he says, “remember their iniquity.” He uses a common form of speaking, which everywhere occurs in Scripture: God is said to remember when he really, and as with a stretched-out hand, shows himself to be an avenger. “The Lord now spares you; but he will, in a short time, show how much he abominates these your impure sacrifices: He will remember, then, your iniquity Visitation follows this remembering, as the effect the cause.

They shall flee, he says, to Egypt The Prophet, I doubt not, intimates here, that vain would be all the escapes which the Israelites would seek; and though God might allow them to flee to Egypt, yet it would be, he says, without any advantage: “Go, flee to Egypt, but your flight will be useless.” The Prophet expressed this distinctly, that the people might know that they had to do with God, against whom they could make no defense, and that they might no longer deceive themselves by foolish imaginations. And though the people were blinded by so great an obstinacy, that this admonition had no effect; yet they were thus rendered the more inexcusable. It now follows —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Saying that they offer it to the Lord, but…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Hos 8:13 They sacrifice flesh [for] the sacrifices of…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain They sacrifice; or, As for sacrifices, my gifts, so…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings,
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain They shall return - Many shall fly from the…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 13. They sacrifice flesh] Bp. Newcome translates thus:…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Hos 8:13. They sacrifice flesh, &c., and eat it,…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of Mine offerings,…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Egypt, to escape the Assyrian, chap. ix. 3. (Calmet)…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain sacrifices of mine offerings--that is, which they offer to…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 13. They sacrifice, &c.] Rather, My sacrificial gifts they…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (13) They sacrifice flesh . . .—Should be, “They…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 13, 14. For the sacrifice of mine offerings,…
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 8:13 I do not accept their sacrifices: See 6:6;…

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