And Samuel said: Has Jehovah as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in to obey the voice of Jehovah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.

He sits in the lurking places of the villages; in the secret places he murders the innocent; his eyes are hidden against the unfortunate ones.

He lies low and crouches, and the poor unfortunate ones have fallen by his might.

Arise, O Jehovah! O Mighty God, lift up Your hand! Forget not the lowly poor.

I will take no bull out of your house, nor goats out of your folds;

For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.

What good to Me are your many sacrifices, says Jehovah? I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of well-fed cattle; nor do I delight in the blood of bulls, of lambs, or he goats.

Bring no more vain sacrifices; its incense is an abomination to Me. I cannot endure the new moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies, and the wicked festivals.

And when you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you. Even though you multiply prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

And Lebanon is not enough to burn, nor the beasts of it enough for a burnt offering.

Thus says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel: Snatch away your burnt offerings from your sacrifices, and eat flesh.

For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.

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

Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not be pleased; nor will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals.

when my steps were bathed in butter, and the rock poured out rivers of oil for me;

then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, shall surely be Jehovah's, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.

And it was so at the end of two months that she returned to her father, and he did to her according to the vow which he had vowed. She had known no man. And it became a custom in Israel,

Then he took his firstborn son who would have reigned in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great wrath against Israel; so they departed from him and returned to their own land.

But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He also made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom Jehovah had cast out before the children of Israel.

He also made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and fortunetelling, and consulted necromancers and mediums. He did much evil in the eyes of Jehovah, to provoke Him to anger.

And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of the sons of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech.

They have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I did not command them, nor did it even come into My heart.

They have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I never commanded nor spoke, nor did it even come into My mind.

Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter,

that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the fire?

For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and even sacrificed their sons whom they bore to Me, passing them through the fire, to devour them.

I am sending him back. You therefore receive him, that is, my own heart,