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.
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1 Samuel 15:20-24
Tyndale Open Study Notes (CC BY-SA 4.0).
15:22 What is more pleasing: God values obedience much more than ritual (see also Ps 40:6; Hos 6:6; Matt 12:7). • the fat of rams: The choicest parts of the animal were offered to God.
Other Bible passages linked to this one, most cited first.
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Authorship: the book itself or Christian tradition. Approximate dates, as in Carson and Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament, and Longman and Dillard, An Introduction to the Old Testament.