Jehovah expects his people to offer him their best. God first expresses his love for his people. Nevertheless, the priests are despising his name by accepting from the people blind, sick, and lame animals for sacrifice. Jehovah has no delight in the self-serving priests or in the inferior offerings of their hands.

1:13​—The faithless priests had come to view the sacrifices as a tiresome ceremony, a burden. They sniffed at, or scorned, Jehovah’s sacred things. Never should we allow “the young bulls of our lips” to be offered as a mere formality!​—Hosea 14:2; Hebrews 13:15.