Isaiah 43:23 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 43:23
Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense.
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, hiphil perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
cattle
שֵׂ֣הseh
H7716
a member of a flock · noun, common both genders singular construct
offerings
עֹלֹתֶ֔יךָ'o.lo.Tei.kha
H5930
a step or (collectively · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
honoured
כִבַּדְתָּ֑נִיkhi.bad.Ta.ni
H3513
to be heavy · verb, piel perfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
sacrifices
וּזְבָחֶ֖יךָu.ze.va.Chei.kha
H2077
properly · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
serve
הֶעֱבַדְתִּ֙יךָ֙he.'e.vad.Ti.kha
H5647
to work (in any sense) · verb, hiphil perfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
offering
בְּמִנְחָ֔הbe.min.Chah
H4503
a donation · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
wearied
הוֹגַעְתִּ֖יךָho.ga'.Ti.kha
H3021
properly · verb, hiphil perfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
incense
בִּלְבוֹנָֽהbil.vo.Nah
H3828
frankincense (from its whiteness or perhaps that of its… · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Amos 5:25 Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
Zechariah 7:5-6 Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those sev…
Leviticus 2:1 And when any will offer a meat offering unto the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankince…
Proverbs 15:8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
Proverbs 21:27 The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?
Isaiah 66:3 He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if…
Jeremiah 7:22 For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or…
Amos 5:21-22 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 43:22–end
This charge (and a high charge it is which is here exhibited against Jacob and Israel, God's professing people) comes in here, 1. To clear God's justice in bringing them into captivity, and to vindicate that. Were they not in covenant with him? Had they not his sanctuary among them? Why then did the Lord deal thus with his land? Deu 29:24. Here is a good reason given: they had neglected God and had cast him off, and therefore he justly rejected them and gave them to the curse (Isa 43:28); and they must be brought to own this before they are prepared for deliverance; and they did so, Dan 9:5; Neh 9:33. 2. To advance God's mercy in their deliverance and to make that appear more glorious. Many…
small cattle--rather, the "lamb" or "kid," required by the law to be daily offered to God (Exo 29:38; Num 28:3).
sacrifices--offered any way; whereas the Hebrew for "holocaust," or "burnt offering," denotes that which ascends as an offering consumed by fire.
I have not caused thee to serve--that is, to render the the service of a slave (Mat 11:30; Rom 8:15; Jo1 4:18; Jo1 5:3).
offering--bloodless (Lev 2:1-2).
wearied--antithetical to Isa 43:22, "Thou hast been weary of Me." Though God in the law required such offerings, yet not so as to "weary" the worshipper, or to exact them in cases where, as in the Babylonish captivity, they were physically unable to render them; God did not requ…
Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings,.... The kids and the lambs, which, according to the law, should have been brought for burnt offerings daily, morning and evening; and much less did they bring the larger cattle of burnt offerings, as oxen and bullocks. The Targum and Vulgate Latin render it, "the rams of thy burnt offerings"; the Septuagint version, "the sheep"; and the Syriac and Arabic versions, "the lambs"; and these were not brought to him, but to their idols; or, however, were not brought in a right way and manner, and from right principles, and with right views. Kimchi thinks this refers to the times of Ahaz, when the service of God ceased in the temple,…
The Church Fathers
(Verses 23-24) You did not offer me the ram of your burnt offering, and you did not glorify me with your sacrifices. I did not make you serve in the offering, nor did I require labor from you in the burning of incense. You did not buy for me fragrant reeds with silver, and you did not satisfy me with the fat of your sacrifices. However, you served me in your sins: you provided labor for me in your iniquities. LXX: You have not brought me the sheep of your holocaust; nor have you magnified me with your sacrifices; nor have you made me serve with your offerings; nor have you bestowed upon me labor with frankincense; nor have you purchased for me with silver the sweet odor of your sacrifices; nor have you desired the fat of your victims; but you have defended yourself in your sins, and in your iniquities. But what you think you offered me as victims and sacrificed rams, know that they were not accepted by me, because they were common to me and idols. And he repeats the sense that he stated above: Why do I need the multitude of your victims, says the Lord? I am full of burnt offerings of rams, and fat of lambs, and blood of bulls and goats I do not desire. For I have not required anything precious from you, that I would make you labor in acquiring them. I have not required offerings from you, nor have I sought incense: not reed, nor incense, nor diverse kinds of pigments, with which you would intoxicate and satisfy me with their smoke. But I desired obedience, which is above sacrifice: and sacrifice, of which David says in the Psalms: Sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit: a broken and humbled heart God does not despise (Ps. 50:19), that is what I wanted, that is what I sought. But you have made me serve and labor in your sins, so that I am compelled to say: I have labored and endured; and I can no longer bear you. And through Hosea, God says the same: What shall I do to you, Ephraim? I will protect you, Israel. What shall I do? I will make you like Adam, and like Sodom. But what the Septuagint has is, I have defended you in your sins, and in your iniquities, so it can be connected to the previous statements, that it is God's labor and weariness to defend sinners.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Frankincense · Used as an incense — Used as an incense
Sacrifices · The Jews: Condemned for not offering — The Jews: Condemned for not offering
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Theft hast not brought to me. A question arises, "Why does the Prophet bring this reproach against the Jews, who, it is evident, were very careful to offer sacrifices according to the injunction of the Law?" Some refer this to the time of the captivity, when they could not have offered sacrifices to God though they had been willing to do so; for it was not lawful for them to offer sacrifices in any other place than Jerusalem, and therefore they could not appease God by sacrifices. (Deuteronomy 12:13.) But I rather think that it is a general reproach; for at the very time when the people were sacrificing, they could not boast of their merits or personal worth, as if they had laid God under ob…
It would be the praise of God, however, and not the merits of their own works, that they would have to relate; for there was nothing at all that could give them any claim to reward. There were not even acts of ceremonial worship, but only the guilt of grievous sins. "And thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, that thou shouldst have wearied thyself for me, O Israel! Thou hast not brought me sheep of thy burnt-offerings, and thou hast not honoured me with thy slain-offerings. I have not burdened thee with meat-offerings, and have not troubled thee about incense. Thou hast bought me no spice-cane for silver, nor hast thou refreshed me with fat of thy slain-offerings. No; thou hast wearied me w…
Israel’s history of rebellion had led them into crisis after crisis, yet their rebellion was so great that they stubbornly refused to ask God for help. When they did pray, their wickedness often caused their prayers not to be heard (1:15).
Rashi on Isaiah 43:23
You did not bring Me the lambs of your burnt offerings but to idolatry.
neither did I overwork you Cause you to do much work with the meal offering; merely a handful would be offered to the Most High, and even that I did not ordain upon you to sacrifice as an obligation but as a free-will offering.
