1 Samuel 15:22

15:22 Then Samuel said,

“Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices

as much as he does in obedience? ¹ 

Certainly, ²  obedience ³  is better than sacrifice;

paying attention is better than ⁴  the fat of rams.

Psalms 40:6

40:6 Receiving sacrifices and offerings are not your primary concern. ⁵ 

You make that quite clear to me! ⁶ 

You do not ask for burnt sacrifices and sin offerings.

Psalms 50:8-17

50:8 I am not condemning ⁷  you because of your sacrifices,

or because of your burnt sacrifices that you continually offer me. ⁸ 

50:9 I do not need to take ⁹  a bull from your household

or goats from your sheepfolds.

50:10 For every wild animal in the forest belongs to me,

as well as the cattle that graze on a thousand hills. ¹⁰ 

50:11 I keep track of ¹¹  every bird in the hills,

and the insects ¹²  of the field are mine.

50:12 Even if I were hungry, I would not tell you,

for the world and all it contains belong to me.

50:13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls?

Do I drink the blood of goats? ¹³ 

50:14 Present to God a thank-offering!

Repay your vows to the sovereign One! ¹⁴ 

50:15 Pray to me when you are in trouble! ¹⁵ 

I will deliver you, and you will honor me!” ¹⁶ 

50:16 God says this to the evildoer: ¹⁷ 

“How can you declare my commands,

and talk about my covenant? ¹⁸ 

50:17 For you hate instruction

and reject my words. ¹⁹ 

Psalms 51:16-17

51:16 Certainly ²⁰  you do not want a sacrifice, or else I would offer it; ²¹ 

you do not desire a burnt sacrifice. ²² 

51:17 The sacrifices God desires are a humble spirit ²³  –

O God, a humble and repentant heart ²⁴  you will not reject. ²⁵ 

Hosea 6:6

6:6 For I delight in faithfulness, not simply in sacrifice;

I delight ²⁶  in acknowledging God, not simply in whole burnt offerings. ²⁷ 

Matthew 9:13

9:13 Go and learn what this saying means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ ²⁸  For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Mark 12:33

12:33 And to love him with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength ²⁹  and to love your neighbor as yourself ³⁰  is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

[15:22]  ¹ tn Heb “as [in] listening to the voice of the Lord.”

[15:22]  ² tn Heb “look.”

[15:22]  ³ tn Heb “listening.”

[15:22]  ⁴ tn The expression “is better” is understood here by ellipsis (see the immediately preceding statement).

[40:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “sacrifice and offering you do not desire.” The statement is exaggerated for the sake of emphasis (see Ps 51:16 as well). God is pleased with sacrifices, but his first priority is obedience and loyalty (see 1 Sam 15:22). Sacrifices and offerings apart from genuine allegiance are meaningless (see Isa 1:11-20).

[40:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “ears you hollowed out for me.” The meaning of this odd expression is debated (this is the only collocation of “hollowed out” and “ears” in the OT). It may have been an idiomatic expression referring to making a point clear to a listener. The LXX has “but a body you have prepared for me,” a reading which is followed in Heb 10:5.

[50:8]  ⁷ tn Or “rebuking.”

[50:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “and your burnt sacrifices before me continually.”

[50:9]  ⁹ tn Or “I will not take.”

[50:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[the] animals on a thousand hills.” The words “that graze” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The term בְּהֵמוֹה (bÿhemot, “animal”) refers here to cattle (see Ps 104:14).

[50:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I know.”

[50:11]  ¹² tn The precise referent of the Hebrew word, which occurs only here and in Ps 80:13, is uncertain. Aramaic, Arabic and Akkadian cognates refer to insects, such as locusts or crickets.

[50:13]  ¹³ tn The rhetorical questions assume an emphatic negative response, “Of course not!”

[50:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Most High.” This divine title (עֶלְיוֹן, ’elyon) pictures God as the exalted ruler of the universe who vindicates the innocent and judges the wicked. See especially Pss 7:17; 9:2; 18:13; 21:7; 47:2.

[50:15]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “call [to] me in a day of trouble.”

[50:15]  ¹⁶ sn In vv. 7-15 the Lord makes it clear that he was not rebuking Israel because they had failed to offer sacrifices (v. 8a). On the contrary, they had been faithful in doing so (v. 8b). However, their understanding of the essence of their relationship with God was confused. Apparently they believed that he needed/desired such sacrifices and that offering them would ensure their prosperity. But the Lord owns all the animals of the world and did not need Israel’s meager sacrifices (vv. 9-13). Other aspects of the relationship were more important to the Lord. He desired Israel to be thankful for his blessings (v. 14a), to demonstrate gratitude for his intervention by repaying the vows they made to him (v. 14b), and to acknowledge their absolute dependence on him (v. 15a). Rather than viewing their sacrifices as somehow essential to God’s well-being, they needed to understand their dependence on him.

[50:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “evil [one].” The singular adjective is used here in a representative sense; it refers to those within the larger covenant community who have blatantly violated the Lord’s commandments. In the psalms the “wicked” (רְשָׁעִים, rÿsha’im) are typically proud, practical atheists (Ps 10:2, 4, 11) who hate God’s commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander, and cheat others (Ps 37:21).

[50:16]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “What to you to declare my commands and lift up my covenant upon your mouth?” The rhetorical question expresses sarcastic amazement. The Lord is shocked that such evildoers would give lip-service to his covenantal demands, for their lifestyle is completely opposed to his standards (see vv. 18-20).

[50:17]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and throw my words behind you.”

[51:16]  ²⁰ tn Or “For.” The translation assumes the particle is asseverative (i.e., emphasizing: “certainly”). (Some translations that consider the particle asseverative leave it untranslated.) If taken as causal or explanatory (“for”, cf. NRSV), the verse would explain why the psalmist is pleading for forgiveness, rather than merely offering a sacrifice.

[51:16]  ²¹ tn The translation assumes that the cohortative is used in a hypothetical manner in a formally unmarked conditional sentence, “You do not want a sacrifice, should I offer [it]” (cf. NEB). For other examples of cohortatives in the protasis (“if” clause) of a conditional sentence, see GKC 320 §108.e. (It should be noted, however, that GKC understands this particular verse in a different manner. See GKC 320 §108.f, where it is suggested that the cohortative is part of an apodosis with the protasis being suppressed.)

[51:16]  ²² sn You do not desire a burnt sacrifice. The terminology used in v. 16 does not refer to expiatory sacrifices, but to dedication and communion offerings. This is not a categorical denial of the sacrificial system in general or of the importance of such offerings. The psalmist is talking about his specific situation. Dedication and communion offerings have their proper place in worship (see v. 19), but God requires something more fundamental, a repentant and humble attitude (see v. 17), before these offerings can have real meaning.

[51:17]  ²³ tn Heb “a broken spirit.”

[51:17]  ²⁴ tn Heb “a broken and crushed heart.”

[51:17]  ²⁵ tn Or “despise.”

[6:6]  ²⁶ tn The phrase “I delight” does not appear in the Hebrew text a second time in this verse, but is implied from the parallelism in the preceding line.

[6:6]  ²⁷ sn Contrary to popular misunderstanding, Hosea does not reject animal sacrifice nor cultic ritual, and advocate instead obedience only. Rather, God does not delight in ritual sacrifice without the accompanying prerequisite moral obedience (1 Sam 15:22; Pss 40:6-8; 51:16-17; Prov 21:3; Isa 1:11-17; Jer 7:21-23; Hos 6:6; Mic 6:6-8). However, if prerequisite moral obedience is present, he delights in sacrificial worship as an outward expression (Ps 51:19). Presented by a repentant obedient worshiper, whole burnt offerings were “an aroma pleasing” to the Lord (Lev 1:9, 13).

[9:13]  ²⁸ sn A quotation from Hos 6:6 (see also Matt 12:7).

[12:33]  ²⁹ sn A quotation from Deut 6:5.

[12:33]  ³⁰ sn A quotation from Lev 19:18.