(14) Your new moons and your appointed feasts.--The latter word included the sabbaths (Leviticus 23:3). The words add nothing to what had been said before, but they come with all the emphasis of iteration.

My soul.--The words are in one sense anthropomorphic. With man the "soul" expresses the full intensity of life and consciousness, and so, in the language of the prophets, it does with God.

Verse 14. - Your new moons. (For the ceremonies to be observed at the opening of each month, see Numbers 28:11-15.) Your appointed feasts. The "appointed feasts" are the great festival-times - the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. They do not include the sabbath or the "new moon, "with which they are, both here and elsewhere (1 Chronicles 23:31; 2 Chronicles 31:3), contrasted. They are a trouble unto me; literally, an encumbrance (see Deuteronomy 1:12).

1:10-15 Judea was desolate, and their cities burned. This awakened them to bring sacrifices and offerings, as if they would bribe God to remove the punishment, and give them leave to go on in their sin. Many who will readily part with their sacrifices, will not be persuaded to part with their sins. They relied on the mere form as a service deserving a reward. The most costly devotions of wicked people, without thorough reformation of heart and life, cannot be acceptable to God. He not only did not accept them, but he abhorred them. All this shows that sin is very hateful to God. If we allow ourselves in secret sin, or forbidden indulgences; if we reject the salvation of Christ, our very prayers will become abomination.Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth,.... The Targum is,

"my Word abhorreth;''

the Messiah, the essential Word. These are the same as before.

They are a trouble unto me; as they were kept and observed, either when they should not, or in a manner unbecoming:

I am weary to bear them; because of the sins with which they made him to serve, Isaiah 43:24.