Isa 1:12

“As for the burdensome sacrifices and the troublesome scrupulousness of their ceremonies and oblations, no one should blame the Jews, as if God specially required them for himself.… But he should see in those sacrifices a careful provision on God's part, which showed his wish to bind to his own religion a people who were prone to idolatry and transgression by that kind of services wherein consisted the superstition of that period. He did this in order to call them away from idolatry, while requesting sacrifices to be performed to himself, as if he desired that no sin should be committed in making idols.”

“Now this is the spiritual victim which has set aside the earlier sacrifice.… The gospel teaches what God demands. "The hour is coming," he says, "when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth." … We are the true worshipers and true priests who, offering our prayer in the spirit, offer sacrifice in the spirit—that is, prayer—as a victim that is appropriate and acceptable to God; this is what he has demanded and what he has foreordained for himself.”

“It is obvious that sacrifices were established as an instruction to inspire right living in the people and were not given as an end in themselves. When the people refused to do those works that were necessary in order to busy themselves with only sacrifices, God said that he would no longer accept the sacrifices.The entire book of Leviticus offers laws that are very strict regarding sacrifices. Moreover, there are numerous laws concerning sacrifices scattered throughout the book of Deuteronomy, as well as other books. How then can God ask, "Who has required these things from your hands?" This is to teach us that God's will was not to make laws in this way but that the people suffered from slothfulness in not abiding by this command.”

“When ye come to appear before me,.... At the grand festivals of the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles, at which times all the males in Israel appeared before God, Exo 23:17. who hath required this at your hand; either to appear at such times, these feasts being no more to be observed; or to offer the above sacrifices; these were not required of the Israelites when they first came out of Egypt, Jer 7:22 nor were they necessary to appear before God with, or to introduce them to the throne of his grace, Mic 6:6 and much less under the Gospel dispensation, being abolished by the sacrifice of Christ; or this relates to what follows, to tread my courts? in that unbecoming and hypocritical way they did, and with such wicked hearts and bloody hands. "Courts" are mentioned, because, as Kimchi observes, the Israelites stood in the courts of the Lord's house, and did not go into the temple, only the priests.”

“appear before me--in the temple where the Shekinah, resting on the ark, was the symbol of God's presence (Exo 23:15; Psa 42:2). who hath required this--as if you were doing God a service by such hypocritical offerings (Job 35:7). God did require it (Exo 23:17), but not in this spirit (Mic 6:6-7). courts--areas, in which the worshippers were. None but priests entered the temple itself.”

“Jeremiah says this with regard to the sacrifices (Isa 7:22); Isaiah also applies it to visits to the temple: "When ye come to appear before my face, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?" לראות is a contracted infinitive niphal for להראות (compare the hiphil forms contracted in the same manner in Isa 3:8; Isa 23:11). This is the standing expression for the appearance of all male Israelites in the temple at the three high festivals, as prescribed by the law, and then for visits to the temple generally (cf., Psa 42:3; Psa 84:8). "My face" (panai): according to Ewald, 279, c, this is used with the passive to designate the subject ("to be seen by the face of God"); but why not rather take it as an adverbial accusative, "in the face of," or "in front of," as it is used interchangeably with the prepositions ל, את, and אל? It is possible that לראות is pointed as it is here, and in Exo 34:24 and in Deu 31:11, instead of לראות - like יראוּ for יראוּ, in Exo 23:15; Exo 34:20, - for the purpose of avoiding an expression which might be so easily misunderstood as denoting a sight of God with the bodily eye. But the niphal is firmly established in Exo 23:17; Exo 34:23, and Sa1 1:22; and in the Mishnah and Talmud the terms ראיה and ראיון are applied without hesitation to appearance before God at the principal feasts. They visited the temple diligently enough indeed, but who had required this at their hand, i.e., required them to do this? Jehovah certainly had not. "To tread my courts" is in apposition to this, which it more clearly defines. Jehovah did not want them to appear before His face, i.e., He did not wish for this spiritless and undevotional tramping thither, this mere opus operatum, which might as well have been omitted, since it only wore out the floor.”