Sacrifice for Sacrifice

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, liturgy for liturgy.

Isaiah warns those who forsake Yahweh by preparing sacrificial feasts for Fortune and Destiny (65:11). The judgment for this sacrificial infringement is itself sacrificial. 

Those who worship Destiny are “destined” (65:12; the Hebrew verb is from manah, also the root of the word Destiny) for the sword. They prepare a table for Fortune, slaughter the sacrifice for a feast; the Lord will pull out His own sacrificial sword against them. They have bowed to idols; He will make them bow in defeat and fatigue, not to their favored gods, Fortune and Destiny, but to a god they want to avoid – tevach, slaughter (65:12).

The danger when Israel sacrifices to false gods is not that sacrifice will come to an end, but that the sacrifice is just beginning.