To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice.
Parallel Translations
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To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice.
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To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
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To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Proverbs 21:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Samuel 15:22 Samuel said, “Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying Yahweh’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
- Hosea 6:6 For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
- Proverbs 15:8 The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
- Micah 6:6-8 How shall I come before Yahweh, and bow myself before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will Yahweh 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? He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh 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 the heart, and with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
- Isaiah 1:11-17 “What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “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. When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts? Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moons, Sabbaths, and convocations: I can’t stand evil assemblies. My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. When 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. Wash yourselves. Make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”
- Jeremiah 7:21-23 Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. For 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; but 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.’
- Psalms 50:8 I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Pro 21:3 To do justice and judgment [is] more…
Pro 21:3 To do justice and judgment [is] more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
Ver. 3. Is more acceptable to the Lord.] Qui non vult ex rapina holocaustum, as heathens could see and say by the light of nature. The Jews thought to expiate their miscarriages toward men, and to set off with God by their ceremonies and sacrifices. {Isa 1:11-15 Jer 7:21-26 Mic 6:6-8} Some heathens also, as that Roman emperor, could say, Non sic deos coluimus ut ille nos vinceret, We have not been at so much charge with the gods that they should give us up into the enemy’s hands. But the Scripture gave the Jews to understand that "to obey was better than sacrifice," that God "would have mercy and not sacrifice," and that for a man to "love God above all, and his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burntofferings and sacrifices." {Mar 12:33} The heathens also were told as much by their sages, as Plato in his book intituled περι προσευχης, where Socrates, reprehending the gilt horned bulls of the Greeks, and the sumptuous sacrifices of the Trojans at length infers - και γαρ αν δεινον εη, &c. It were a grievous thing if the gods should more respect men’s offerings and sacrifices than the holiness of their hearts, and the righteousness of their lives, &c. Aristotle in his Rhetorics, ‘Oυκ εικος Yεον χαιρεινταις δαπαναις, &c., saith he. It is not likely that God takes pleasure in the costliness of sacrifices, but rather in the good conversation of the sacrificers.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Justice and judgment; the conscientious performance of all our…
Justice and judgment; the conscientious performance of all our duties to men.
Than sacrifice; than the most costly outward services offered to God, joined with the neglect of our moral duties to God or men. The same thing is affirmed 1Sa 15:22; Hos 6:6; Mic 6:7.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here, 1. It is implied that many deceive themselves…
Here, 1. It is implied that many deceive themselves with a conceit that, if they offer sacrifice, that will excuse them from doing justice, and procure them a dispensation for their unrighteousness; and this makes their way seem right, Pro 21:2. We have fasted, Isa 58:3. I have peace-offerings with me, Pro 7:14. 2. It is plainly declared that living a good life (doing justly and loving mercy) is more pleasing to God than the most pompous and expensive instances of devotion. Sacrifices were of divine institution, and were acceptable to God if they were offered in faith and with repentance, otherwise not, Isa 1:11, etc. But even then moral duties were preferred before them (Sa1 15:22), which intimates that their excellency was not innate nor the obligation to them perpetual, Mic 6:6-8. Much of religion lies in doing judgment and justice from a principle of duty to God, contempt of the world, and love to our neighbour; and this is more pleasing to God than all burnt-offerings and sacrifices, Mar 12:33.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain To do justice and judgment,.... The moral duties of…
To do justice and judgment,.... The moral duties of religion, what is holy, just, and good, which the law requires; what is agreeably to both tables, piety towards God, and justice to men; that which is just and right between man and man; which, especially if done from right principles and with right views,
is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice; not than any sacrifice; than the sacrifice of a broken heart, or the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, or of acts of goodness and beneficence, or of a man's whole self to the Lord; but than ceremonial sacrifices; which, though of divine institution, and typical of Christ, and when offered up in the faith of him, were acceptable to God, while in force; yet not when done without faith and in hypocrisy, and especially when done to cover and countenance immoral actions; and, even when compared with moral duties, the latter were preferable to them; see Sa1 15:22.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. To do justice and judgment] The words…
Verse 3. To do justice and judgment] The words of Samuel to Saul. 1Sa 15:23.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Compare the marginal reference. The words have a special…
Compare the marginal reference. The words have a special significance as coming from the king who had built the temple, and had offered sacrifices that could not be numbered for multitude” 1Ki 8:5.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Charles Bridges 1846 · Public Domain Did Solomon mean to undervalue sacrifice? Never did man…
Did Solomon mean to undervalue sacrifice? Never did man more highly honor it. (1Ki 3:4 ; 1Ki 8:64 .) Perhaps the splendor of his sacrificial service may have given rise to the frequent national perverted trust in external forms. Sacrifice was appointed as a type of the Great Sacrifice for sin. (Heb 10:12 .) Buta never was it intended to take the place of that universal moral obedience, which the law of God had from the beginning indispensably required. Yet how soon did man mistake the intention of the ordinance! How easily did he substitute the offering of bulls and goats for the more self-denying service of the heart.†1 Israel abounded in the observance of their outward ceremonials, while indulging the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah.†2 The Corban sacrifice stood in the room of filial obligation. The lesser services of "anise and cummin" were scrupulously observed to the neglect of "the weightier matters of the law — judgment, mercy, and faith."†3 Justly therefore did our Lord commend the "discretion" of the scribe, who gave the due place and proportion to the ceremonial and moral service.†4 Both are his requirements; and a soundly-instructed conscience will aim at both. Yet plainly has he in some instances dispensed with the former;†5 never with the latter.†6 He has accepted the moral without the ceremonial; but never the ceremonial without the moral, observance. What would the world be without that justice and judgment, which at once "established the throne" (Pro 16:12 ), "exalt the nation" (Pro 14:34 ), and realize to their disciples a true interest in that richest of all possessions — the love of God! (Pro 15:9 . Compare Isa 64:5 .)
We indeed have no sacrifice to place in the stead of these invaluable principles. But the same preference, and indeed exaltation, of external service prevail among us. Whether under the proper form of Popery, or the more plausible cover of Tractarian delusion, it is the true religion of man’s heart — something to recommend us to the favor of God; something easier and less humbling than the "living sacrifice" (Rom 12:1 ) for his service. Christian professor! mark carefully the character of thy service. Let it be free and cheerful; else is it penance, not acceptable duty. Though it be in weakness, let it ever be in willingness, with the flower and strength of thy love. Look to it — art thou resting in the shell and surface, or art thou worshipping in the spirituality of service? Dost thou hear the voice calling thee from the dead forms, to seek the living power of godliness? Cain brought the sacrifice, not the heart. If thou speakest more, "what dost thou more than others?" (Mat 5:47 .) Remember those externals, that stand in the place of a consecrated heart, are the delusion of the great deceiver. Let thine heart be with God, walking with him in the sound exercise of Christian obligation; honoring the Divine stamp on every commandment; making conscience of every duty; and though we come short of every one, yet daring not to neglect any. (Psa 119:5-6, Psa 119:128 .)
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Footnotes:
†1 1Sa 15:22 . Isa 1:13-14 .
†2 Isa 1:11. Jer 7:22 . Hos 6:6 . Amo 5:21 . Act 7:42 . Mic 6:6-8 .
†3 Mat 23:23.
†4 Mar 12:34.
†5 Mat 12:7. Act 10:34-35 .
†6 Mat 22:37-39.
Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs (1846) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Mercy. Septuagint, "justice and truth." (Haydock) See Osee vi.…
Mercy. Septuagint, "justice and truth." (Haydock) See Osee vi. 6. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain (Compare Psa 50:7-15; Isa 1:11, Isa 1:17).
(Compare Psa 50:7-15; Isa 1:11, Isa 1:17).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. More acceptable — Is chosen, is preferred. “This…
3. More acceptable — Is chosen, is preferred. “This maxim was a bold saying then; it is a bold saying still; but it well unites the wisdom of Solomon with that of his father David, in the Fifty-first Psalm, and with the inspiration of the prophets.” — Dean Stanley. Compare Pro_15:8; 1Sa_15:22; Hos_6:6; Mic_4:7-8; Psa_51:16-17; Mat_9:13; Mat_12:7, etc.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. Comp. 1Sa_15:22; Hos_6:6; Mic_6:6-8.
3. Comp. 1Sa_15:22; Hos_6:6; Mic_6:6-8.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) To do justice and judgment, &c—See above on…
(3) To do justice and judgment, &c—See above on Pro_10:2.
Is more acceptable than sacrifice.—See above on 15:8.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to…
To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. The superiority of moral obedience to ceremonial worship is often inculcated. (see note on Pro_15:8, and below, ver. 27; and Mic_6:6-8 and comp. Mat_12:7) "Justice" and "judgment" (tsedakah and mishpat) are combined in Gen_18:19 Job_37:23 Isa_56:1, etc. They imply equity and justice proceeding, not from bare regard to law, but from the principle of love. Septuagint, "To do justify and to speak the truth are more pleasing to God than the blood of sacrifices.
Devotion and duty.
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It is certainly noticeable that this truth should be expressed by Solomon. For the one great work of his life was the erection of the temple wherein sacrifice should be offered to the Lord. He might have been excused if his leaning had been toward the ceremonial rather than the moral. But he was not the first Hebrew thinker to give utterance to the idea. It is interesting to trace
I ITS HISTORY IN HEBREW THOUGHT. We find:
1. Samuel holding this view, and declaring it in firm and powerful language. (1Sa_15:22)
2. David filled with a deep sense of it as he humbled his soul before God. (Psa_51:10, Psa_51:15-19)
3. Asaph powerfully affected by it as he wrote his sacred song. (Psa_50:8-15)
4. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah insisting upon this truth in strong and fervent words. (Isa_1:11-17 Jer_7:22, 23 Mic_6:6-8)
5. John the Baptist making nothing of ceremonial religion, and making everything of a true and genuine repentance.
6. Our Lord himself; by his teaching and his attitude, preferring the penitent publican and harlot to the much-sacrificing but hard-hearted Pharisee; while by his own sacrificial death he removed forever the need of any further offering on any altar whatsoever.
7. His inspired apostles declaring the needlessness of any sacrifice except those which are of a spiritual order. (Rom_12:1 Heb_9:28 Heb_10:12 Heb_13:15, Heb_13:16)
II ITS SIGNIFICANCE TO OURSELVES. We naturally ask What is the relation of devotion to duty or righteousness? and we answer:
1. No measure of devotion can make up for moral laxity. We might be worshipping in the house of the Lord day and night; but if we were false, or cruel, or dishonest, or impure in our daily practice, we should certainly incur his righteous anger.
2. Moral probity by itself will not take the place of the direct approach of our hearts to God. It is much that a man should be just in all his dealings, kind in his various relationships, blameless in his bearing and behaviourvery much. But it is not everything; it, leaves out one essential thing. God desires and demands of us that we ourselves come into close and living union and communion with himself, that we look to him and address him, and trust and love him as our Divine Father and Redeemer. And no propriety of behaviour, no excellency of life, will take the place of this.
3. Devotion and duty must coexist, and will sustain one another.
(1) We should so worship God that we shall be stronger to obey his commandments in the home and in the school and in the shop everywhere. We may safely conclude that our sacrifice on the sabbath is altogether imperfect and unsatisfactory if it does not lead to a worthier life in the week.
(2) And we should so act in all the various paths of life that" with clean hands and a pure heart" we can go up to the house of the Lord, and render acceptable service of prayer and praise as we bow before him in the sanctuary. They are complementary one to the other; and no wise man will disregard or disparage either. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain To do Justice and Judgment is more acceptable to…
Pro_21:3
To do Justice and Judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
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Ceremonial and moral duties
This text is a complete and independent sentence. Confirm the proposition deduced from the text--
I. From other places of Scripture. We find God rejecting and abhorring sacrifices if they were not accompanied with a real repentance and inward sincerity of mind, and the outward works of mercy and justice (Pro_21:27; Mic_6:6-7; Isa_1:11).
II. From the different nature of these two duties, and the different grounds from whence ariseth our obligation to them. Sacrifice was grounded upon a positive precept and institution, but justice has its foundation in the nature of God. If we consult merely natural light, we shall discover no necessary foundations in that for sacrifices. As the notion of God includes in it all possible and conceivable perfection, we discern justice to be one of His most essential attributes.
III. From the different ends of these two duties. Sacrifice was not enjoined for its own sake, but justice always was, and is, and ever will be. Sacrifices were ordained to be types of Christ, who was to be offered up in the fulness of time upon the Cross. Sacrifices were enjoined to be as a guard and security for other duties, to be as a hedge and a fence for the moral precepts, and especially to defend the Jews against idolatry. Evidently the goodness of this duty of sacrifice was not natural and intrinsical, but relative and external. But justice was, and is, and ever will be, enjoined for its own sake. It has a natural goodness and beauty in it which, at all times, and in all ages, recommends it to the practice of mankind. Justice is a duty that ariseth from the moral frame and constitution of our souls, and we must offer violence to ourselves, if we be not just to others.
IV. From the different effects of these two duties. The effect of sacrifices was the expiation of legal guilt. For deeper guilt no sacrifices were appointed. It is otherwise in the distribution of justice. An impartial execution of that in magistrates and judges does not only put a stop to the growth and increase of sin, but it also appeaseth the wrath and disarms the severity of God. (William Stainforth, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_21:3
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_21:3
THE MORE ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE
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I. The sacrifices of the Mosaic law were acceptable to God as ceremonial signs. They were instituted by God, and therefore He expected them to be offered, and was displeased when His commands concerning them were disregarded. But they were but the means to an end, and if they did not lead to that end they were worthless in His sight. They were intended to awaken a sense of sin, and to be accompanied by observance of higher precepts and by obedience to more enduring laws. It availed nothing for a man to offer his bullock or his goat unless he laid his will upon the altar at the same time—no sin-offering could be acceptable to God unless the sin was put away, and no meat-offering could be regarded with favour if the heart of the offerer was without love to his neighbour and his life was marked by acts of injustice to him. It was of no avail to come before the Lord with “thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil” unless the higher requirement was fulfilled—to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God (Mic_6:7-8).
II. The doing of justice and judgment is more acceptable to God because it is a moral reality. To love our neighbour as ourself is in itself good,—it is a moral attribute, an element of character, a part of the man himself. It is an expression of love to God and of obedience to His commands which can be made anywhere and at all times, for to do justice and judgment is the law of the moral universe, and belongs to heaven as much as to earth. It is to do what God has been doing from all eternity, for it is written that they “are the habitation of His throne” (Psa_89:14). All other offerings without these are “vain oblations” and even “an abomination” (Isa_1:13) unto Him who owns “every beast of the forest and the cattle upon a thousand hills” (Psa_50:10). To expect a holy and spiritual Being to accept anything less than a moral reality is to expect Him to be satisfied with less than would often content a fellow-creature.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Sacrifice; literally, slaughter. But with slender exceptions, the slaughter is a slaughter for sacrifice.… He did not love the slaughtering of His Son upon the cross. He did not love the slaughtering of beasts year by year continually. On the contrary, He does love righteousness, and, therefore, He does love, in the severities that men impugn, that very element of right which is the attribute that they would bring into the question. Doing righteousness Himself, He prefers the right-doing of His creatures to any form of sacrifice or possible service they can ever render.—Miller.
“Sacrifice” at best is only circumstantially good—rectitude is essentially so. Sacrifice, at best, is only the means and expression of good; rectitude is goodness itself. God accepts the moral without the ceremonial, but never the ceremonial without the moral. The universe can exist without of the ceremonial, but not without the moral.—David Thomas.
This maxim of the Proverbs was a bold saying then—it is a bold saying still; but it well unites the wisdom of Solomon with that of his father in the 51st Psalm, and with the inspiration the later prophets.—Stanley.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain v. 3. To do justice and judgment, to exercise…
v. 3. To do justice and judgment, to exercise the principles of righteousness and justice in all our dealings, is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice, for all outward acts of worship are hollow sham without true piety of the heart.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 To do what is right
To do what is right
"To do what Yahweh thinks is right"
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To do what is ... just
"To treat people the way Yahweh wants people to treat other people"
just is more acceptable to Yahweh
"just—Yahweh wants this more"
Haughty eyes and a proud heart
The words "eyes" and "heart" are synecdoches for a person who considers himself better than other people and wants other people to know it. AT: "People who want others to think that they are better than other people" (See: Synecdoche and Doublet)
Haughty eyes
This is a synecdoche for a person who wants others to know that he thinks he is better than they are. (See: Synecdoche)
proud heart
This is a synecdoche for a person who thinks he is better than others. (See: Synecdoche)
the lamp of the wicked
The things that help the wicked are spoken of as a lamp. AT: "the things that help a wicked person like a lamp helps to see in the dark" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
just
Yahweh
sacrifice
haughty
proud
heart
lamp
evil
sin
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 21:3 God is not pleased with worship unless godly…
21:3 God is not pleased with worship unless godly actions flow from a godly heart (see Ps 40:6-8; Mic 6:6-8).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.