¶You have not desired sacrifice and meal offering; You have opened my ears; You have not required burnt offering and sin offering.
Parallel translations
- WEB Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire. You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering.
- KJV Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
- BSB Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require.
- NKJV Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
- NLT You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings. Now that you have made me listen, I finally understand— you don’t require burnt offerings or sin offerings.
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 desires obedience more than mere sacrifice and has opened David's ears to hear. Ritual without a willing heart cannot satisfy God.
Overview
David grasps that God prizes a heart attentive to His will above ceremonial offerings. Hebrews 10:5-7 applies this passage to Christ, who came to do God's will and offer the perfect, final sacrifice. The verse points beyond the old offerings to the obedient Servant.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Heb 10:5–12Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, “Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire, but you prepared a body for me.
- Isa 1:11“What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.
- 1 Sam 15:22Samuel said, “Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying Yahweh’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
- Ps 51:16For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering.
- Hos 6:6For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
- Matt 9:13But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
- Matt 12:7But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.
- Amos 5:22Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals.
- Jer 7:21–23Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat meat.
- Isa 66:3He who kills an ox is as he who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as he who breaks a dog’s neck; he who offers an offering, as he who offers pig’s blood; he who burns frankincense, as he who blesses an idol. Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations:
- Job 33:16Then he opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction,
- Ps 50:8I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
- Isa 50:4–5The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary. He wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
- Exod 21:6then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 40:6 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.