For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings.
Parallel translations
- WEB For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering.
- KJV For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
- NKJV For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.
- NASB For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You do not take pleasure in burnt offering.
- NLT You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering.
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
David recognizes that God does not delight in mere sacrifice; ritual alone cannot atone for his sin. God looks for something deeper.
Overview
David understands that offering animals could not, by itself, satisfy God or cover his deliberate sin, for sacrifices were never meant to substitute for a repentant heart. This does not abolish the sacrificial system but exposes its limit when the heart is wrong. It points beyond all offerings to the contrite heart God desires and, ultimately, to Christ's perfect sacrifice.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Hos 6:6For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
- Ps 40:6Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require.
- Heb 10:5–6Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me.
- 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 51:6Surely You desire truth in the inmost being; You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
- Isa 1:11–15“What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
- Prov 21:27The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable—how much more so when brought with ill intent!
- Prov 15:8The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.
- Jer 7:22–23For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices,
- Amos 5:21–23“I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.
- Ps 50:8I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices, and your burnt offerings are ever before Me.
- Num 15:30–31But the person who sins defiantly, whether a native or foreigner, blasphemes the LORD. That person shall be cut off from among his people.
- Exod 21:14But if a man schemes and acts willfully against his neighbor to kill him, you must take him away from My altar to be put to death.
- Jer 7:27When you tell them all these things, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer.
- Deut 22:22If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.
- Num 35:31You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death.
- Num 15:27Also, if one person sins unintentionally, he is to present a year-old female goat as a sin offering.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 51:16 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
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