15:8

Notice the parallel parts that contrast in meaning:

8a
The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD,

8b but the prayer of the upright is His delight.

Some versions order the parallel parts of this verse in the form of a chiasm. For example:

8a
The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked,

8b but the prayer of the upright pleases him. (New International Version)

In Hebrew, there is no chiasm. You may order the parallel parts in whatever way provides a natural contrast in your language.

15:8a–b

The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight: Jewish worship in OT times involved both sacrifices and prayer. These two ways of worshipping the LORD often accompanied each other. So this verse does not make a contrast between sacrifice and prayer. Instead, it contrasts the LORD’s different responses toward the wicked and the upright.

See the second set of meaning lines in the Display for 15:8a and 15:8b for one way to express this contrast clearly.

15:8a

The sacrifice of the wicked: The word sacrifice usually refers to an animal that a person offers to the LORD as an act of worship. However, the nature of the sacrifice is not in focus here. In some languages, it may be possible to use a more general term. For example:

The LORD detests what wicked people offer to him
-or-
The Lord is disgusted by gifts from the wicked (Contemporary English Version)

is detestable to the LORD: For detestable, see the note on “detests” in 11:1a.

15:8b

but the prayer of the upright is His delight: This is the first time that the word prayer occurs in Proverbs. In general, prayer refers to expressing our thoughts or words to God. These may be words of praise, thanksgiving, or request. The context here does not specify what kind of prayer is in focus. So you should use a general term if possible.

For upright, see the note on 11:3a. For is His delight, see the note on 11:1b.

General Comment on 15:8a–b

In Hebrew and most English versions, the negative part of the contrast is in 15:8a. The positive part is in 15:8b. If this is not natural in your language, you may want to reorder the two lines so that the positive statement comes first. For example:

8b The Lord is pleased when good people pray,

8a but hates the sacrifices that the wicked bring him. (Good News Translation)

However, note that in 15:9, the Good News Translation maintains the same order as the Hebrew text and puts the negative statement before the positive one. Use whatever order expresses the meaning more effectively in your language.

© 2012, 2016, 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.