8  Not for your sacrifices ^ado I rebuke you;

your burnt offerings are continually before me.

6  For ^kI desire steadfast love¹ and not sacrifice,

^lthe knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

16  ^wFor you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;

you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

6  ^hIn sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,

but you have given me an open ⁱear.¹

Burnt offering and sin offering

you have not required.

7  Then I said, “Behold, I have come;

in the scroll of the book it is written ^jof me:

8  ^kI delight to do your will, O my God;

your law is ^lwithin my heart.”

11  ^a“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?

says the Lord;

I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams

and the fat of well-fed beasts;

I do not delight in the blood of bulls,

or of lambs, or of goats.

12  “When you come to ^bappear before me,

who has required of you

this trampling of my courts?

13  Bring no more vain offerings;

incense is an abomination to me.

^cNew moon and Sabbath and the ^dcalling of convocations—

I cannot endure ^einiquity and ^fsolemn assembly.

14  Your ^cnew moons and your appointed feasts

my soul hates;

they have become a burden to me;

I am weary of bearing them.

15  When you ^gspread out your hands,

I will hide my eyes from you;

^heven though you make many prayers,

I will not listen;

ⁱyour hands are full of blood.

16  ^jWash yourselves; make yourselves clean;

remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;

^kcease to do evil,

17  learn to do good;

^lseek justice,

correct oppression;

^mbring justice to the fatherless,

plead the widow’s cause.

18  “Come now, ⁿlet us reason¹ together, says the Lord:

though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as ^owhite as snow;

though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool.

19  ^pIf you are willing and obedient,

you shall eat the good of the land;

20  but if you refuse and rebel,

you shall be eaten by the sword;

^qfor the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

21  How the faithful city

^rhas become a whore,²

^sshe who was full of justice!

Righteousness lodged in her,

but now murderers.

22  ^tYour silver has become dross,

your best wine mixed with water.

23  Your princes are rebels

and companions of thieves.

Everyone ^uloves a bribe

and runs after gifts.

^vThey do not bring justice to the fatherless,

and the widow’s cause does not come to them.

24  Therefore the ^wLord declares,

the Lord of hosts,

the ^xMighty One of Israel:

“Ah, I will get relief from my enemies

^yand avenge myself on my foes.

25  ^zI will turn my hand against you

and will smelt away your ^adross as with lye

and remove all your alloy.

26  And I will restore your judges ^bas at the first,

and your counselors as at the beginning.

Afterward ^cyou shall be called the city of righteousness,

the faithful city.”

27  ^dZion shall be redeemed by justice,

and those in her who repent, by righteousness.

28  ^eBut rebels and sinners shall be broken together,

and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

29  ^fFor they³ shall be ashamed of ^gthe oaks

that you desired;

and you shall blush for ^hthe gardens

that you have chosen.

30  For you shall be ⁱlike an oak

whose leaf withers,

and like a garden without water.

31  And the strong shall become ^jtinder,

and his work a spark,

and both of them shall burn together,

with ^knone to quench them.

^c“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,

but a body have you prepared for me;

6  in burnt offerings and sin offerings

you have taken no pleasure.

7  Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,

as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”