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22 (A)But Samuel said:

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
    as much as in obedience to the Lord’s command?
Obedience is better than sacrifice,
    to listen, better than the fat of rams.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 15:22 Samuel’s reprimand echoes that of the prophets. Cultic practice is meaningless, even hypocritical, unless accompanied by an attentiveness to God’s will.

[a]Sacrifice and offering you do not want;(A)
    you opened my ears.
Holocaust and sin-offering you do not request;
    so I said, “See; I come
    with an inscribed scroll written upon me.
I delight to do your will, my God;
    your law is in my inner being!”(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 40:7–9 Obedience is better than sacrifice (cf. 1 Sm 15:22; Is 1:10–20; Hos 6:6; Am 5:22–25; Mi 6:6–8; Acts 7:42–43 [quoting Am 5:25–26]). Hb 10:5–9 quotes the somewhat different Greek version and interprets it as Christ’s self-oblation.

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord,(A)
    but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

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To do what is right and just(A)
    is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 21:3 External rites or sacrifices do not please God unless accompanied by internal worship and right moral conduct; cf. 15:8; 21:27; Is 1:11–15; Am 5:22; Mal 1:12.

For it is loyalty that I desire, not sacrifice,
    and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.(A)

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