Proverbs 21:3

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Proverbs 21:1–5 · Berean Standard Bible

1 The king’s heart is a waterway in the hand of the LORD; He directs it where He pleases.

2 All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart.

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

4 Haughty eyes and a proud heart— the guides of the wicked—are sin.

5 The plans of the diligent bring plenty, as surely as haste leads to poverty.

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.

Proverbs 15:8

The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.

1 Samuel 15:22

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.

Psalms 50:8

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

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 7:21

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!

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.

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?

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.”