God does not need sacrifices. It is not a matter of his needs but of his people’s needs. If God were to get hungry he wouldn’t have to go and ask his people for food, since all the world and everything in it belong to him (see 24.1). So I would not tell you in verse 12a does not mean only that he would not inform them of his hunger; rather, God is saying he would not ask them to feed him. Bible en français courant, closer to the Hebrew, translates “If I were hungry, I would not need to tell you about it.”

In picturesque language God denies the need of sacrifices: he doesn’t eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats. This is to be understood against the background of certain primitive beliefs that sacrifices were actually eaten by the gods. The two rhetorical questions in this verse will require replies of “No!” in some languages in which rhetorical questions normally take a reply.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .