Mark 12:33

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

⁶How shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? ⁷Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? ⁸He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does the LORD require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

²²Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the LORD’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

¹³But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

⁷But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’you wouldn’t have condemned the guiltless.

¹If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing. ³If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing.

²¹I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies. ²²Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals. ²³Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. ²⁴But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

¹¹“What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says the LORD. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats. ¹²When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts? ¹³Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moons, Sabbaths, and convocations— I can’t stand evil assemblies. ¹⁴My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. ¹⁵When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. ¹⁶Wash yourselves. Make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. ¹⁷Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”

⁸I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me. ⁹I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens. ¹⁰For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills. ¹¹I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine. ¹²If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. ¹³Will I eat the meat of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? ¹⁴Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High. ¹⁵Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

²¹The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. ²²For I didn’t speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices; ²³but this thing I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. Walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’