Psalms 51:16
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
For you desire not sacrifice; else would I give it: you delight not in burnt offering.
American King James Version (AKJV)
For you desire not sacrifice; else would I give it: you delight not in burnt offering.
American Standard Version (ASV)
For thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou hast no pleasure in burnt-offering.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
You have no desire for an offering or I would give it; you have no delight in burned offerings.
Webster's Revision
For thou desirest not sacrifice: else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt-offering.
World English Bible
For you don't delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering.
English Revised Version (ERV)
For thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it: thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering.
Clarke's Psalms 51:16 Bible Commentary
For thou desirest not sacrifice - This is the same sentiment which he delivers in Psalm 40:6 (note), etc., where see the notes. There may be here, however, a farther meaning: Crimes, like mine, are not to be expiated by any sacrifices that the law requires; nor hast thou appointed in the law any sacrifices to atone for deliberate murder and adultery: if thou hadst, I would cheerfully have given them to thee. The matter is before thee as Judge.
Barnes's Psalms 51:16 Bible Commentary
For thou desirest not sacrifice ... - On the words rendered in this verse "sacrifice" and "burnt-offering," see the notes at Isaiah 1:11. On the main sentiment here expressed - that God did not "desire" such sacrifices - see the notes at Psalm 40:6-8. The idea here is, that any mere external offering, however precious or costly it might be, was not what God required in such cases. He demanded the expression of deep and sincere repentance; the sacrifices of a contrite heart and of a broken spirit: Psalm 51:17. No offering without this could be acceptable; nothing without this could secure pardon. In mere outward sacrifices - in bloody offerings themselves, unaccompanied with the expression of genuine penitence, God could have no pleasure. This is one of the numerous passages in the Old Testament which show that the external offerings of the law were valueless unless accompanied by the religion of the heart; or that the Jewish religion, much as it abounded in forms, yet required the offerings of pure hearts in order that man might be acceptable to God. Under all dispensations the real nature of religion is the same. Compare the notes at Hebrews 9:9-10. The phrase "else would I give it," in the margin, "that I should give it," expresses a willingness to make such an offering, if it was required, while, at the same time, there is the implied statement that it would be valueless without the heart.
Wesley's Psalms 51:16 Bible Commentary
51:16 Not sacrifice - This is not to be understood absolutely, with respect to David's crimes, which were not to be expiated by any sacrifice.