Psalms 40:6 → Leviticus 1

Psalm 40:6 declares "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire (לֹא־חָפַצְתָּ, lo-chafatsta); but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require." This directly engages the Levitical system of Leviticus 1, which prescribes detailed procedures for burnt offerings (עֹלָה, olah) as means of approaching God. The psalmist does not reject the sacrificial system outright but asserts that God's deeper desire is obedience — "I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart" (v. 8). The tension between the Levitical prescriptions and the psalmist's claim creates an internal OT critique of ritualism divorced from heart-obedience, anticipating the prophetic tradition of Hosea 6:6 and Micah 6:6-8. The verse in fact deploys four sacrificial terms—zevach (sacrifice), minchah (offering), olah (burnt offering), and chatta'ah (sin offering)—sweeping in virtually the entire array of Levitical offerings, not the burnt offering alone.