This verse details other religious practices that distress Yahweh.
Bring no more vain offerings: Yahweh does not wish to receive further sacrifices of the kind described in verse 11. As noted in the discussion on the previous verse, no more probably should remain part of this verse. Vain means the sacrifices are empty of meaning and value; they do not achieve the expected results. The Hebrew word rendered offerings normally refers to offerings of grain, but the sense here seems to be more general, referring to any kind of offering. The whole line may be rendered “Do not bring me any more offerings that do not please me,” if the word vain is difficult to render.
Incense is an abomination to me: Yahweh is not saying he no longer wants incense to be offered at all. Rather, for the reasons that will be given in verses 16-17, any kind of offering, including incense, has become unacceptable. Incense is a sweet-smelling substance derived from a tree or shrub. It is often in grain or powder form, and it produces a sweet smell when burned. It has been used traditionally in religious worship. If translators do not have a specific word for incense, perhaps “burning sweet-smelling bark [or, grains]” can be used. The Hebrew word for abomination is a very strong expression, one often associated with idols (see Deut 7.25-26). A modern equivalent is “something detestable/disgusting/repulsive.” In this context another possibility is “foul smell.” The whole line may be translated “I find the incense you offer to be nothing but a foul smell.” Since this line is parallel with the previous line, the implicit second command here may be expressed by saying “and stop bringing me your foul-smelling incense!” Revised Standard Version (also Good News Translation, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New International Version, the Septuagint) has altered the Masoretic Text punctuation in the first two lines to produce a translation that speaks of offerings and incense, both rejected by the LORD. The Hebrew literally reads “Do not continue to bring a worthless [grain] offering; it is incense of abomination to me.” The Hebrew joins “incense” and “abomination” together as one phrase, meaning “abominable incense,” which makes it a metaphor for the grain offering. New Jerusalem Bible and Bible en français courant agree with this interpretation. Instead of “incense,” they speak of the “smoke” of the sacrifices. New Jerusalem Bible has “Bring no more futile cereal offerings, the smoke from them fills me with disgust.” Bible en français courant translates “Stop offering me sacrifices, it’s useless; stop offering me the smoke of sacrifices, it horrifies me.” A crude way to say this is “Stop bringing me cereal sacrifices, [because] they stink!” However, most translations see these two lines as separate statements, and in the second line they do not put the Hebrew words for incense and abomination in the same phrase. Instead of “incense of abomination,” they have “incense is an abomination.” Both interpretations are acceptable.
New moon and sabbath and the calling of assemblies: Three special religious observances are mentioned here. The subject and verb for this line are found in the next one: I cannot endure. In the Hebrew text the three noun phrases here are placed before the verb to give them special emphasis. For naturalness in English, Good News Translation begins with the subject and verb: “I cannot stand.”
New moon refers to a special religious celebration held at the time of the new moon each month (Ezek 46.6-7). It could be translated “The feast at the time of the new moon.”
Sabbath probably refers first of all to the seventh day of the week on which regular worship was held. It was the day of rest. The New Moon Festival and the Sabbath are mentioned together in Ezek 46 and Amos 8.5, indicating that they were important times of worship. However, there was a wide range of Sabbaths, including Sabbatical years. We can think of sabbath here as representing the entire system of Sabbaths. Since sabbath is a traditional biblical term, it may be difficult to translate it. It may be best to transcribe it, spelling it according to the normal spelling rules of the receptor language (for example, Sabato). It may also be necessary to add a qualification to the expression, saying “time [or, day] of the Sabbath.” A footnote or an entry in the glossary could explain the term; for example, “The Sabbath is the traditional holy day in the Jewish week. It was a day for worship and complete rest. See Gen 2.3.” Translators should not render sabbath by using the name for “Saturday” or, even less, “Sunday.”
Calling of assemblies presumably also has a religious meaning in this context, referring to large public gatherings for worship. Here it may be rendered “[big] meetings called [specially] to honor me.”
I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly: I cannot endure means “I am unable to tolerate.” Iniquity renders a Hebrew word that means “trouble,” but it often has the sense of something evil, done deliberately. The LORD cannot accept people who practice evil. Their worship is unacceptable to him. The second thing that the LORD cannot tolerate is their solemn assembly. In Hebrew this refers to a special kind of gathering, and the context suggests that it is for religious purposes (see Amos 5.21), although the word for solemn assembly has a more general meaning as well. Since assemblies in the previous line and solemn assembly are near synonyms, translators may like to use the same expression for both, for example, “big meeting.” Good News Translation combines them by saying “religious gatherings.” Good News Translation also expresses iniquity as a description of the three religious observances here: “they are all corrupted by your sins.” Good News Translation does not view iniquity and solemn assembly as two separate items, but rather as two expressions for the same reality. This implies that Israel’s religious assemblies are evil. See the examples below.
Translation examples for this verse are:
• Don’t bring me any more of your empty sacrifices!
Your incense offerings are foul smelling.
Your gathering for worship at the New Moon Festival and the Sabbath
and at other festivals are evil things I can no longer tolerate.
• Your sacrifices are of no value. Don’t make them any more!
The incense you offer is a foul smell to me.
When you come to worship at the New Moon Festival and each Sabbath,
or at major festivals,
I cannot stand it—you gather for evil purposes.
Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .