Later text
For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
Intertextuality Pair
Allusion
Later text
For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
Earlier text
"If someone sins by failing to testify when he hears a public charge about something he has witnessed, whether he has seen it or learned of it, he shall bear the iniquity. Or if a person touches anything unclean—whether the carcass of any unclean wild animal or livestock or crawling creature—even if he is unaware of it, he is unclean and guilty. Or if he touches human uncleanness—anything by which one becomes unclean—even if he is unaware of it, when he realizes it, he is guilty. Or if someone swears thoughtlessly with his lips to do anything good or evil—in whatever matter a man may rashly pronounce an oath—even if he is unaware of it, when he realizes it, he is guilty in the matter. If someone incurs guilt in one of these ways, he must confess the sin he has committed, and he must bring his guilt offering to the LORD for the sin he has committed: a female lamb or goat from the flock as a sin offering. And the priest will make atonement for him concerning his sin.
Psalm 51:16-17 asserts "You do not delight in sacrifice (זֶבַח, zevach), or I would bring it... The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart." Leviticus 5:1-6 prescribes specific guilt offerings (אָשָׁם, asham) for various sins — a lamb or goat as a sin offering. The psalmist does not deny the validity of Levitical sacrifice but recognizes its insufficiency for deliberate, high-handed sin like adultery and murder. David's sin with Bathsheba exceeded the scope of the guilt offering system, which addressed primarily inadvertent transgressions. The "broken heart" (לֵב נִשְׁבָּר, lev nishbar) becomes the offering God will not despise — an internal disposition that transcends and grounds the external ritual.