Proverbs 21:3

Doing what is right and fair is more acceptable to Yahweh than bringing sacrifices to him.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.

In Context

2People always think that what they do is right, but Yahweh judges our ◄motives/reasons for doing things► [MTY].

4Being proud and arrogant [DOU] is like a lamp [MTY] that guides wicked people; being proud and arrogant characterizes ◄wicked people’s whole behavior/everything that wicked people do►.

Read all of Proverbs 21

Cross References

Psalms 40:7So I said to you, “Yahweh, here I am, to do the things that have been written in the scroll that contains your laws, things that you want me to do.”

Proverbs 15:8Yahweh detests the sacrifices that are offered by wicked people; what delights/pleases him very much are the prayers of righteous/good people.

Isaiah 1:17Learn to do things that are good! Try to cause people to do what is just. Help people who are ◄oppressed/treated cruelly►. Defend orphans and widows when people take them to court.”

Hosea 6:6I want my people to faithfully love me more than I want them to offer sacrifices to me; I want them to know me more than I want them to completely burn sacrifices on the altar.

Micah 6:8No, because he has shown each of us what is good to do; he has shown [RHQ] us what he requires each of us to do: He wants us to do what is just/fair and to love and to be merciful to others, and he wants us to live humbly while we fellowship with him, our God.

Mark 12:33You have also said correctly that we ◄ should/must show that we► love God by all that we are, by all that we think, and by the way that we live. And you have said correctly that we must love ◄people with whom we come in contact/others► as much as we love ourselves. And you have also implied that doing these things pleases God more than offering/giving animals to him or burning other sacrifices.”

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 21:3

2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts. Note, 1. We are all apt to be partial in judging of ourselves and our own actions, and to think too favourably of our own character, as if there was nothing amiss in it: Every way of a man, even his by-way, is right in his own eyes. The proud heart is very ingenious in putting a fair face upon a foul matter, and in making that appear right to itself which is far from being so, to stop the mouth of conscience. 2. We are sure that the… Read the whole commentary →

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