Verse 3

To do what is right and true is more pleasing to the Lord than an offering.

Referenced Verses

  • 1 Sam 15:22 : 22 And Samuel said, Has the Lord as much delight in offerings and burned offerings as in the doing of his orders? Truly, to do his pleasure is better than to make offerings, and to give ear to him than the fat of sheep.
  • Prov 15:8 : 8 The offering of the evil-doer is disgusting to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright man is his delight.
  • Hos 6:6 : 6 Because my desire is for mercy and not offerings; for the knowledge of God more than for burned offerings.
  • Mic 6:6-8 : 6 With what am I to come before the Lord and go with bent head before the high God? am I to come before him with burned offerings, with young oxen a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of sheep or with ten thousand rivers of oil? am I to give my first child for my wrongdoing, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has made clear to you, O man, what is good; and what is desired from you by the Lord; only doing what is right, and loving mercy, and walking without pride before your God.
  • Mark 12:33 : 33 And to have love for him with all the heart, and with all the mind, and with all the strength, and to have the same love for his neighbour as for himself, is much more than all forms of offerings.
  • Isa 1:11-17 : 11 What use to me is the number of the offerings which you give me? says the Lord; your burned offerings of sheep, and the best parts of fat cattle, are a weariness to me; I take no pleasure in the blood of oxen, or of lambs, or of he-goats. 12 At whose request do you come before me, making my house unclean with your feet? 13 Give me no more false offerings; the smoke of burning flesh is disgusting to me, so are your new moons and Sabbaths and your holy meetings. 14 Your new moons and your regular feasts are a grief to my soul: they are a weight in my spirit; I am crushed under them. 15 And when your hands are stretched out to me, my eyes will be turned away from you: even though you go on making prayers, I will not give ear: your hands are full of blood. 16 Be washed, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; let there be an end of sinning; 17 Take pleasure in well-doing; let your ways be upright, keep down the cruel, give a right decision for the child who has no father, see to the cause of the widow.
  • Jer 7:21-23 : 21 These are the words of the Lord of armies, the God of Israel: Put your burned offerings with your offerings of beasts, and take flesh for your food. 22 For I said nothing to your fathers, and gave them no orders, on the day when I took them out of Egypt, about burned offerings or offerings of beasts: 23 But this was the order I gave them, saying, Give ear to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people: go in all the way ordered by me, so that all may be well for you.
  • Ps 50:8 : 8 I will not take up a cause against you because of your offerings, or because of your burned offerings, which are ever before me.