For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
Parallel translations
- WEB For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering.
- BSB For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings.
- 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 desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
- Ps 40:6Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
- Heb 10:5–6Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
- 1 Sam 15:22And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
- Ps 51:6Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
- Isa 1:11–15To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
- Prov 21:27The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?
- Prov 15:8The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
- Jer 7:22–23For 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:
- Amos 5:21–23I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
- Ps 50:8I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.
- Num 15:30–31But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
- Exod 21:14But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.
- Jer 7:27Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee.
- Deut 22:22If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.
- Num 35:31Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death.
- Num 15:27And if any soul sin through ignorance, then he shall bring a she goat of the first year for a sin offering.
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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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