OBEDIENCE OVER SACRIFICE

21 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves,z 22 for when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak with themaa or command them concerning burnt offering and sacrifice. 23 However, I did give them this command: ‘Obey me, and then I will be your God, and you will be my people. Follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you.’ab 24 Yet they didn’t listen or pay attentionac but followed their own advice and their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward.ad