Why need I all your
sacrifices? This is not a pitch for the abolition of sacrifice but rather
an argument against a mechanistic notion of sacrifice, against the idea that
sacrifice can put man in good standing with God regardless of human behavior.
The point becomes entirely clear at the end of verse 15, when the prophet says
that it is hands stained with blood stretched out in payer that are utterly
abhorrent to God. Thus, the grain offering is “false” (or “futile”) because it
is brought by people who have oppressed the poor and failed to defend widows
and orphans. (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W.
Norton & Company, 2019], 2:623)
