Obedience Over Sacrifice

²¹ This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves,^{(A) 22} for when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them^(B) or command them concerning burnt offering and sacrifice. ²³ However, I did give them this command: Obey Me, and then I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you.^{(C) 24} Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention^(D) but followed their own advice and according to their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward.^{(E) 25} Since the day your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent all My servants the prophets^(F) to you time and time again.^{[a](G) 26} However, they wouldn’t listen to Me or pay attention but became obstinate;^[b](H) they did more evil than their ancestors.^(I)