Then Samuel said: "Has 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 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 secretly fixed on the helpless.

So he crouches, he lies low, That the helpless may fall by his strength.

Arise, O LORD! O God, lift up Your hand! Do not forget the humble.

I will not take a bull from 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.

"To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats.

Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies -- I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.

When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

And Lebanon [is] not sufficient to burn, Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat.

"For I did not 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.

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 accept [them,] Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.

When my steps were bathed with cream, And the rock poured out rivers of oil for me!

"then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD'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 carried out his vow with her which he had vowed. She knew no man. And it became a custom in Israel

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

But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel; indeed he made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out from before the children of Israel.

Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke [Him] to anger.

And he defiled Topheth, which [is] in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech.

"And 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, nor did it 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 did not command or speak, nor did it 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,