While Deuteronomy accommodates itself to pre- vailing customs, there are, on the other hand, say- ings of the prophets proper which cannot be under- stood except as absolutely disclaiming any demand on God’s part for sacrificial gifts—a proof, by the way, that these prophets, one and all, are as yet quite unacquainted with a law-book such as P, where sacrifice becomes asacred duty. Itis readily intelligible that for a long time there was a reluctance to admit this fact. Sacrifice appeared to form such an integral part of the religion of Israel that it wasa priori declared to be impossible that the prophets could have carried on a polemic against it. And so it is a favourite subterfuge still to say that the prophets never polemize against the offerings per se, but only against offerings that are presented hypocritically, without repentance and aright disposition, with blood-stained hands ; against the opera operata of the carnally-minded, half-heathen mass of the people. But such an interpretation is made possible only by doing violence to the clear language of the passages in question. When, in Am 5”, Jahweh, after very warmly repudiating the offerings of Israel (v.?!"), asks, ‘Did ye bring unto me sacrifices and _offer- ings in the wilderness forty years?’ He evidently expects the answer, No. And the practical appli- cation is equally self-evident: if Jahweh could do without their offerings then, He does not need them now. In like manner, it is perfectly futile to read out of Hos 68 anything else than a categorical rejection of sacrifice: ‘For I have pleasure in mercy and not in sacrifice, in the knowledge of
* That this did not imply such a mechanically conceived concentration of the sacrificial cultus as if only the one altar of burnt-offering could serve as a legitimate place of sacrifice, is shown by 1 K 864(D), where we read that Solomon consecrated the whole of the middle court because the brazen altar was too small for the multitude of offerings at the dedication of the temple.
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God and not in burnt-offerings!’* With regard to Is 11+ it has been maintained with some appear- ance of plausibility that the flat rejection there of offerings and festivals is intended to apply only to the false worship, which is coupled with a sinful disposition. But any one who reads the whole passage carefully must pronounce it impossible that the prophet, after the burning words (v.1*"), in which he impresses upon his hearers what are the real demands of God, could still have left room for the exhortation: ‘And then come and bring your offerings!’ On the contrary, once they have cleansed themselves, once they have helped the widow and the orphan to their rights, then they have done what God asks of them, and there need be no word of sacrifice. The very same meaning attaches to the words of Micah (6°8), The people are still under the delusion that it may be possible by multiplying their offerings—in an extreme case by perhaps giving up even their firstborn son—to atone for their sin, and thus, as it were, compel the favour of Jahweh. But the prophet does not go on to answer the questions put by those who are so deluded. In this way he gives it to be clearly understood that they are questions that are not worth discussing. Instead he points them to the requirements of God which were made known to them long ago, and in which everything is comprehended that is well- pleasing to God— namely, to do justly, and to show love, and to walk humbly with their God. Alongside of this threefold command there is plainly no room for requiring any outward services. Much about the same time, it not somewhat later (for the téraphim are already reckoned among the apparatus of idolatry), we may place 18 15". It is true that here obedience is only declared to be better than sacrifice, and disobedience put on the same level as idolatry. But the whole tone of the statement leaves no doubt that we are listening to the words of a narrator who has penetrated deeply into the thoughts of the true prophets of Jahweh, and who shares their conviction of the utter worthlessness of outward offerings,
A final testimony, and that of the strongest kind, to this judgment of the sacrificial cultus is found in Jeremiah. Already in 6% the prophet combats the notion that Jahweh has any pleasure either in the incense of Saba and the costly cane from a distant land, or in the burnt-offerings and slain beasts of the people. Still his language here might be explained as amounting only to a rejec- tion of sacrifice as a hypocritical opws operatwm. But when, in 7“, Jahweh says, ‘Add your burnt- offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat ye flesh,’ this can mean only that it is to Him a matter of pure indifference whether they themselves eat not only the sacrificial meals but the burnt-offerings (which, according to very ancient custom, had to be wholly consumed by fire). And when He goes on (v.”) to say, ‘For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt [t.e. at the time when the foundation of the theocracy was laid], concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices,’ this is intended to show that it is a complete delusion to suppose that God requires any such offerings or makes His favour depend upon them. Not out- ward services, but obedience to His will is what He demands ; in other words, a moral life, for this and nothing else is the meaning of the words (v.”°), ‘Walk ye in all the way that I command you.’