Better Bull

Let me praise God’s name in song, and let me extol Him in thanksgiving.  And let it be better to the LORD than oxen, than a horned bull with it hooves.  Psalm 69:31-32 [Hebrew Bible]  Robert Alter

Than oxen – There’s no problem with the translation here, or in most English Bibles.  The Hebrew is šôr, literally, an ox, a bull (not plural), seems straightforward.  Of course, some Bibles render the theological implication “sacrifice,” apparently believing that the reader is too stupid to see the connection.  But the actual Hebrew poetry is much more sophisticated.  Here are the two verse (31-32) in Hebrew (I have highlighted the words we want to explore).

אֲהַֽלְלָ֣ה שֵׁם־אֱלֹהִ֣ים בְּשִׁ֑יר וַֽאֲגַדְּלֶ֥נּוּ בְתוֹדָֽה

וְתִיטַ֣ב לַֽ֖יהֹוָה מִשּׁ֥וֹר פָּ֗ר מַקְרִ֥ן מַפְרִֽיס

You will immediately recognize that the sound of these two words is very similar (disregard the prefix, please).  Alter points out that this is a “shrewd pun: the Hebrew for ‘song’ is shir and for “oxen” (literally, a singular, ‘ox’) is shor, so shir is offered as an efficacious substitute for shor.  The idea that God will gladly accept song instead of sacrifice . . .”[1]  Better bull.

Aside from the clever manipulation of the words, David makes an important point.  Later the prophets will say:

For I desire loyalty rather than sacrifice,
And the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.  Hosea 6:6

What use to me is frankincense that comes from Sheba, or sweet cane from a distant land?  Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.  Jeremiah 6:20

I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.  Isaiah 1:11

What God wants is heartfelt commitment, not religious substitutes.  Song, not bull.  It’s what God has always wanted.  The sacrifices were to be an expression of the heart, not a fulfillment of duty.  Duty alone is just bull.

Topical Index: ox, bull, shor, song, shir, sacrifice, heart, Psalm 69:31-32

[1] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: Volume 3 Writings, p. 169, fn. 32.