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Apart from the sanctuaries, the Israelites also celebrated God’s goodness together in their
native villages. The story of Samuel gives several good illustrations of this custom (cf. 1
Sam. 9:13; 16:2-3).
The prophets looked with condemnation on apostate Israel’s “sacrifices”: “To what
purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt
offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or
of lambs, or of he goats” (Isa. 1:11). Hosea spoke about the necessity of Israel’s love for
God: “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt
offerings” (Hos. 6:6). Samuel the prophet rebuked Saul with the familiar words: “Hath
the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the
Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1
Sam. 15:22). David knew the proper response to God when he had sinned: “For thou
desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not
despise” (Ps. 51:16-17).
The Septuagint gives the following translation:
$
(“sacrifice; offering”). The
KJV
gives these senses: “sacrifice; offering.”
TO SANCTIFY
A. Verb.
%
(
$
, 6942), “to sanctify, be holy.” This verb also appears in Phoenician,
biblical Aramaic, and Ethiopic. In Ugaritic
%/ /
signifies “sanctuary,” and in Old
Babylonian
%
$
means “shine.”
+
appears about 170 times in biblical Hebrew
and in all periods of the language. In the primary stem the verb signifies an act whereby,
or a state wherein, people or things are set aside for me in the worship of God: they are
consecrated or “made sacred.” By this act and in this state the thing or person consecrated
is to be withheld from workaday use (or profane use) and to be treated with special care
as a possession of God. The first use of
%
in this stem focuses on the act: “And thou
shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon
Aaronand upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon the garments of his sons with
him: and he shall be hallowed, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons’ garments
with him” (Exod. 29:21). There are also overtones of ethicalmoral (spiritual) holiness
here since the atoning blood was applied to the people involved. The state appears to be
emphasized when the word is used in Exod. 29:37: “Seven days thou shalt make an
atonement for the altar, and sanctify it, and it shall be an altar most holy: whatsoever
toucheth the altar shall be holy.” Thus, whatever touches the altar enters into a new state.
Now it belongs to God to be used solely by Him in the way He sees fit. In some cases this
means destruction (2 Sam. 6:6ff.), while in others it means such things are to be used
only by those who are ritualistically pure (Num. 4:15; 1 Sam. 21:6). It might mean that
such things are to be used in the sanctuary itself (Num. 16:37ff.) In some passages
%
seems to mean the opposite of “holy,” defiled so as not to be usable to Israel
(God’s consecrated people): “Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with [two kinds ofseeds:
lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled”
(Deut. 22:9; cf. Ezek. 44:19; 46:20, etc.).