Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on his throne as king to rule for the LORD your God. Because of the love of your God for Israel and his desire to uphold them forever, he has made you king over them, to maintain justice and righteousness.

Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him.

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire— but my ears you have opened— burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. … For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

SS 7:10; 2Ch 9:8; 2Sa 14:14; Ps 40:6; Is 55:10-11, Ho 6:6

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