Psalms 50:9

Psa 50:9 I will take no bullock out of thy house, [nor] he goats out of thy folds.

Ver. 9. I will take no bullock out of thy house, &c.] q.d. Keep them to thyself, I need them not; thou settest a high price upon them, and thinkest to ingratiate with me by them; I value them not, nay, I loathe them, Sordet in conspectu Iudicis quod fulget in conspectu operantis. "That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God," Luk 16:15. Displeasing service is double dishonour.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. (Psa 50:9) I will not take from thy house a bullock, (nor) from thy folds he-goats. Here begins the correction of the false and foolish notion, extensively prevalent among the heathen, and not unknown among the ancient Jews, especially in times of great corruption, that the sacrifices were designed to satisfy some physical necessity on God's part, whether in the way of food or otherwise. In opposition to this impious absurdity, it is argued that, even if God needed such supplies, he would not be dependent on the worshipper, who is here addressed directly as an individual, with great advantage to the liveliness and force of the whole passage. "If I needed bulls and goats, as you imagine, I would not be under the necessity of seeking them at your hands."

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

50:9 Unlike pagan gods, God does not need food; instead, he wants his people to serve him with a right heart (50:14-15).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

9 I will take no calf out thy house Two reasons are given in this and the succeeding verses to prove that he cannot set any value upon sacrifices. The first is, that supposing him to depend upon these, he needs not to be indebted for them to man, having all the fullness of the earth at his command; and the second, that he requires neither food nor drink as we do for the support of our infirm natures. Upon the first of these he insists in the ninth and three following verses, where he adverts to his own boundless possessions, that he may show his absolute independence of human offerings. He then points at the wide distinction betwixt himself and man, the latter being dependent for a frail subsistence upon meat and drink, while he is the self-existent One, and communicates life to all beside. There may be nothing new in the truths here laid down by the Psalmist; but, considering the strong propensity we have by nature to form our estimate of God from ourselves, and to degenerate into a carnal worship, they convey a lesson by no means unnecessary, and which contains profound wisdom, that man can never benefit God by any of his services, as we have seen in Psalm 16:2, “My goodness extendeth not unto thee.” In the second place, God says that he does not require any thing for his own us but that, as he is sufficient in his own perfection, he has consulted the good of man in all that he has enjoined. We have a passage in Isaiah to a similar effect,

“The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me, and where is the place of my rest? For all these things hath mine hand made.” — (Isaiah 66:1, 2,)

In these words

God asserts his absolute independence; for while the world had a beginning, he himself was from eternity. From this it follows, that as he subsisted when there was nothing without him which could contribute to his fullness, he must have in himself a glorious all-sufficiency.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(9-18) Notice the fine tone of irony that pervades this rebuke, the best weapon against ritualistic errors.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I will take no bullock out of thy house,.... That is, will accept of none; such sacrifices being no more agreeable to the will of God, Heb 10:5; the "bullock" is mentioned, that being a principal creature used in sacrifice; as also the following,

nor he goats out of thy folds; the reasons follow.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

I will take no bullock out of thy house - Bullocks were offered regularly in the Hebrew service and sacrifice Exo 29:11, Exo 29:36; Lev 4:4; 1Ki 18:23, 1Ki 18:33; and it is with reference to this that the language is used here. In obedience to the law it was right and proper to offer such sacrifices; and the design here is not to express disapprobation of these offerings in themselves considered. On this subject - on the external compliance with the law in this respect - God says Psa 50:8 that he had no cause to complain against them. It was only with respect to the design and the spirit with which they did this, that the language in this verse and the following verses is used. The idea which it is the purpose of these verses to suggest is, that God did not “need” such offerings; that they were not to be made “as if” he needed them; and that if he needed such he was not “dependent” on them, for all the beasts of the earth and all the fowls of the mountains were his, and could be taken for that purpose; and that if he took what was claimed to be theirs - the bullocks and the goats - he did not wrong them, for all were his, and he claimed only his own.

Nor he-goats out of thy folds - Goats were also offered in sacrifice. Lev 3:12; Lev 4:24; Lev 10:16 : Num 15:27.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

But be not so vain and foolish as to imagine that thou dost lay any obligations upon me by thy sacrifices; or that I required them because I had need of them, or took any pleasure in them for themselves, or for my own satisfaction by them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 9. I will take no bullock out of thy house. Foolishly they dreamed that bullocks with horns and hoofs could please the Lord, when indeed he sought for hearts and souls. Impiously they fancied that Jehovah needed these supplies, and that if they fed his altar with their fat beasts, he would be content. What he intended for their instruction, they made their confidence. They remembered not that "to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." Nor he goats out of thy folds. He mentions these lesser victims as if to rouse their common sense to see that the great Creator could find not satisfaction in mere animal offerings. If he needed these, he would not appeal to their scanty stalls and folds; in fact, he here refuses to take so much as one, if they brought them under the false and dishonouring view, that they were in themselves pleasing to him. This shows that the sacrifices of the law were symbolical of higher and spiritual things, and were not pleasing to God except under their typical aspect. The believing worshipper looking beyond the outward was accepted, the unspiritual who had no respect to their meaning was wasting his substance, and blaspheming the God of heaven.

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds. The offerings of those who offer amiss will not be accepted. God declines to receive them.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Bullock - Be not so foolish, as to imagine that thou dost lay any obligations upon me by thy sacrifices.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

folds

areas surrounded by walls in which sheep and goats are kept

the cattle on a thousand hills

The phrase "on a thousand hills" does not represent the total number of cattle that God owns. The number is an exaggeration that emphasizes that God owns all of the cattle in the world. The verb may be supplied from the previous phrase. AT: "all the cattle in the world are mine" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization and Ellipsis)

thousand hills

"1,000 hills" (See: Numbers)

I know all the birds

Here the word "know" implies ownership. AT: "I own all the birds" (See: Idiom and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

translationWords

cow

house

goat

beast

know

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

I will not take from your household a bull They are not yours but Mine.

from your pens Heb. ממכלאתיך. That is a sheepfold, as (Habakkuk 3:17): “the flock shall be cut off from the fold (ממכלה).” Parc in French, pen.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.