Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and cereal offerings, I will not accept them, and the peace offerings of your fatted beasts I will not look upon/When you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings I will not accept them: I will not accept the animals you have fattened to bring me as offerings. The three specific Hebrew words for offerings used here are not often directly translatable, because not all peoples offer such sacrificial gifts. For many parts of the Old Testament the translator has to develop new terms. In this context, however, it may be better not to make a distinction in the first part of the verse: “When you bring me (any kind of/different kinds of) offerings I will not accept them.” If it is necessary to make up new terms for these offerings, the translator should do this in a way that is natural for the receptor language but should avoid long descriptive and interpretative phrases. Burnt offerings were sacrifices in which the whole animal was burned up completely on the altar, being “sent up” to God in smoke. Cereal offerings/grain offerings were presentations of grain, offered to God as from an inferior to a superior. Sometimes it is possible to translate with such concise expressions as “thing-sacrifice to burn (or: by burning)” and “thing to give.” In other languages it is not possible to speak of “offerings” but only of “gifts,” and so the translation should be something like “burnt gift,” “food gift,” etc.

It is not certain what specific kind of offering is meant by the third Hebrew term as can be seen from the different translations which have been used: “Peace offerings” (Revised Standard Version, New American Bible), “thank-offerings” (Smith-Goodspeed), “shared-offerings” (New English Bible, The Translator’s Old Testament). There is a possibility that it was the offering for the end of the feast. The fat of the animal was burnt on the altar and offered to the Lord; the rest of the animal was eaten by the people. The important part is certainly the fat offered and not the meal. Good News Translation gives a meaningful restructuring the animals you have fattened to bring me as offerings; this can serve as a model. I will not accept is literally in Hebrew I will not look upon, “I will not notice.” Such verbs are used to mean rejection in many languages.

Quoted with permission from de Waard, Jan & Smalley, William A. A Handbook on Amos. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1979. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .