⁸ Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;

⁶ Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?

⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

¹⁵ Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

¹⁶ And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.

¹⁷ All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

⁶ For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

⁷ But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.

⁸ I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.

⁹ I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.

¹⁰ For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

¹¹ I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.

¹² If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

³⁰ I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.

³¹ This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.

²² And 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.