Ecclesiastes 5:1

¹⁹So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger;

²⁸Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let’s have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, ²⁹for our God is a consuming fire.

⁸The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

¹Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking, ²as newborn babies, long for the pure spiritual milk, that with it you may grow,

¹²When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts? ¹³Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moons, Sabbaths, and convocations— I can’t stand evil assemblies. ¹⁴My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. ¹⁵When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. ¹⁶Wash yourselves. Make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. ¹⁷Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.” ¹⁸“Come now, and let’s reason together,” says the LORD: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. ¹⁹If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land; ²⁰but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured with the sword; for the LORD’s mouth has spoken it.”

⁸I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me. ⁹I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens. ¹⁰For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills. ¹¹I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine. ¹²If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. ¹³Will I eat the meat of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? ¹⁴Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High. ¹⁵Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” ¹⁶But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips, ¹⁷since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you? ¹⁸When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers.

¹⁵The prince of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals, for the place on which you stand is holy.” Joshua did so.

⁵He said, “Don’t come close. Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing on is holy ground.”

²⁷The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination— how much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind!

⁷a very awesome God in the council of the holy ones, to be feared above all those who are around him?