To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba
In Persia or Arabia, from whence incense was brought, and perhaps the best; see ( Isaiah 60:6 ) , and yet the offering of this was of no esteem with God, when the words of the prophet, and the law of his mouth, were despised; see ( Isaiah 1:13 ) : and the sweet cane from a far country?
either from the same place, Sheba, which was a country afar off, ( Joel 3:8 ) , or from India, as Jerom interprets it; this was one of the spices in the anointing oil, ( Exodus 30:23 ) and though this was of divine appointment, and an omission of it is complained of, ( Isaiah 43:24 ) yet when this was brought with a hypocritical heart, and to atone for neglects of the moral law, and sins committed against that, it was rejected by the Lord: your burnt, offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet
unto me:
being offered up with a wicked mind, and without faith in Christ, and in order to expiate the guilt of black crimes unrepented of, and continued in; they were not grateful to God, nor could he smell a sweet savour in them, but loathed and abhorred them; see ( Isaiah 1:11 ) .
The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.