1 Samuel 15:22

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1 Samuel 15:20–24 · Berean Standard Bible

20 “But I did obey the LORD,” Saul replied. “I went on the mission that the LORD gave me. I brought back Agag king of Amalek and devoted the Amalekites to destruction.

21 The troops took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of the things devoted to destruction, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.”

22 But Samuel declared: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams.

23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance is like the wickedness of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you as king.”

24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned; I have transgressed the LORD’s commandment and your instructions, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

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Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

Psalms 50:8

I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices, and your burnt offerings are ever before Me.

Psalms 50:9

I have no need for a bull from your stall or goats from your pens,

Psalms 51:16

For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings.

Psalms 51:17

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

Proverbs 21:3

To do righteousness and justice is more desirable to the LORD than sacrifice.

Isaiah 1:11

“What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

Isaiah 1:12

When you come to appear before Me, who has required this of you— this trampling of My courts?

Isaiah 1:13

Bring your worthless offerings no more; your incense is detestable to Me— your New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations. I cannot endure iniquity in a solemn assembly.

Isaiah 1:14

I hate your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them.

Isaiah 1:15

When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.

Isaiah 1:16

Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil!

Isaiah 1:17

Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.”

Jeremiah 7:22

For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices,

Jeremiah 7:23

but this is what I commanded them: Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must walk in all the ways I have commanded you, so that it may go well with you.

Hosea 6:6

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Amos 5:21

“I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.

Amos 5:22

Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard.

Amos 5:23

Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

Amos 5:24

But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Micah 6:6

With what shall I come before the LORD when I bow before the God on high? Should I come to Him with burnt offerings, with year-old calves?

Micah 6:7

Would the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

Micah 6:8

He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Matthew 9:13

But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 12:7

If only you had known the meaning of ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

Matthew 23:23

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

Hebrews 10:4

because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Hebrews 10:5

Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me.

Hebrews 10:6

In burnt offerings and sin offerings You took no delight.

Hebrews 10:7

Then I said, ‘Here I am, it is written about Me in the scroll: I have come to do Your will, O God.’”

Hebrews 10:8

In the passage above He says, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire, nor did You delight in them” (although they are offered according to the law).

Hebrews 10:9

Then He adds, “Here I am, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first to establish the second.

Hebrews 10:10

And by that will, we have been sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Exodus 19:5

Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.

Ecclesiastes 5:1

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.

Jeremiah 11:4

which I commanded your forefathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, ‘Obey Me, and do everything I command you, and you will be My people, and I will be your God.’

Jeremiah 11:7

For from the time I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt until today, I strongly warned them again and again, saying, ‘Obey My voice.’

Jeremiah 26:13

So now, correct your ways and deeds, and obey the voice of the LORD your God, so that He might relent of the disaster He has pronounced against you.

Matthew 5:24

leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

Mark 12:33

and to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, which is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”