“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
    as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,^(A)
    and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

⁹ I have no need of a bull^(A) from your stall
    or of goats^(B) from your pens,^(C)
10 for every animal of the forest^(D) is mine,
    and the cattle on a thousand hills.^(E)
11 I know every bird^(F) in the mountains,
    and the insects in the fields^(G) are mine.
¹² If I were hungry I would not tell you,
    for the world^(H) is mine, and all that is in it.^(I)
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
    or drink the blood of goats?

¹⁶ You do not delight in sacrifice,^(A) or I would bring it;
    you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
¹⁷ My sacrifice,^(B) O God, is^[a] a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart^(C)
    you, God, will not despise.

¹⁸ May it please you to prosper Zion,^(D)
    to build up the walls of Jerusalem.^(E)
19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,^(F)
    in burnt offerings^(G) offered whole;
    then bulls^(H) will be offered on your altar.

⁶ For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,^(A)
    and acknowledgment^(B) of God rather than burnt offerings.^(C)