For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices,
Parallel translations
- WEB For I didn’t speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
- KJV For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
- NKJV For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.
- NASB For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.
- NLT When I led your ancestors out of Egypt, it was not burnt offerings and sacrifices I wanted from them.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God says that when He brought Israel from Egypt, His primary concern was not burnt offerings and sacrifices. Ritual was never meant to stand on its own apart from obedience.
Overview
This verse uses a Hebrew way of stating priority: God's first and chief command was not sacrifice but obedient relationship. It does not deny that God gave sacrificial laws, but insists they were always secondary to a heart that obeys. The point clarifies in the next verse, where 'listen to my voice' is named as the core command.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Hos 6:6For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
- 1 Sam 15:22But Samuel declared: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams.
- Ps 51:16–17For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings.
- Matt 9:13But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
- Ps 40:6Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require.
- Ps 50:8–17I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices, and your burnt offerings are ever before Me.
- Mark 12:33and to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, which is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 7:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.