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Psalm 40:6
Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire. You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering.
4Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, and doesn’t respect the proud, nor such as turn away to lies.
5Many, LORD, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts which are toward us. They can’t be declared back to you. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be counted.
6Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire. You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering.
7Then I said, “Behold, I have come. It is written about me in the book in the scroll.
8I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.”
Notice
Opened ears interrupt the list of sacrifices, turning attention toward God’s work in the worshiper and the listening that the next verses connect with obedience.
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Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Hebrews 10:5–12Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, “You didn’t desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me.Hebrews repeats the statement that God did not desire sacrifice and offering, with a prepared body where the psalm speaks of opened ears.
Isaiah 1:11“What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says the LORD. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed animals. I don’t …Both passages say that sacrifices and burnt offerings, despite their place in worship, are not themselves what God desires.
1 Samuel 15:22Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the LORD’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to …Opened ears in the psalm connect with Samuel’s emphasis on listening to God’s voice, which he ranks above sacrifice.
Psalm 51:16For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering.Both psalms address God with the acknowledgment that sacrifice and burnt offering do not give him delight.
Hosea 6:6For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.Both passages challenge sacrifice as an expression of what God desires; Hosea names mercy and knowledge of God.
Matthew 9:13But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”Both speak of sacrifice God does not desire; Matthew records Jesus quoting Hosea as he explains his call to sinners.
Matthew 12:7But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you wouldn’t have condemned the guiltless.God’s desire concerning sacrifice links these texts; Jesus connects that desire with mercy and the wrong of condemning the guiltless.
Jeremiah 7:22For 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;Both passages speak of burnt offerings and sacrifices that God did not require, with Jeremiah locating his statement at the exodus.
Amos 5:22Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals.Both texts deny that bringing offerings guarantees God’s pleasure; Amos states that God will refuse the offerings being brought.
Jeremiah 7:21–23The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat.Both mention burnt offerings and sacrifices; Jeremiah’s command to eat the meat differs from the psalm’s statement about God’s desire.
Job 33:16then he opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction,God opens human ears in both passages, and Job connects that opening with instruction.
Isaiah 66:3He who kills an ox is as he who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as he who breaks a dog’s neck; he who offers an offering, as he who offers pig’s blood; …Both texts challenge the assumption that sacrifice secures God’s approval; Isaiah describes offerings made by people who have chosen evil.
Where this verse fits
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One step
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Encouragement
God is the one who opens ears. In the verses that follow, hearing takes shape as delight in his will and a heart that keeps his law.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).