Proverbs 21:27

Proverbs 21:27, in plain English

An offering from someone who has done wrong is disgusting to God—but it's even worse if they're making that offering while intending more evil.

Why it's here

The Israelites brought sacrifices as part of worship and as attempts at making peace with God. But Solomon reminds his listeners that God cares about what's inside you. A sacrifice meant to cover up continued wrongdoing, or offered by hands planning more mischief, is actually an insult.

Who's speaking

Solomon, explaining what makes worship acceptable or abhorrent to God

Where it sits in the story

This is central to the prophets' message—that God desires obedience and genuine repentance more than rituals. Samuel told Saul, 'To obey is better than sacrifice.' Jesus quoted Hosea: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' Outward religious acts mean nothing without internal transformation.

The scholarly reading

A sacrifice offered by the wicked is inherently abominable to God; when such a sacrifice is furthermore brought with ulterior motives and deception, the offense is magnified exponentially—intention corrupts the act.

Language and setting

The Judean cult operated with the assumption that proper sacrifice required not merely correct ritual form but right internal disposition (*kavvanah*, though the term is later rabbinic); a wicked person's offering, no matter how materially correct, fundamentally violates the sacrificial logic. The Hebrew *zevach* specifically denotes the peace offering—the most intimate and communal offering—making its corruption particularly egregious.

Voice

The wisdom tradition, drawing on prophetic critique (Isaiah 1:10-17, Jeremiah 7:21-26) that had already established that external ritual divorced from righteousness is not merely ineffective but an affront to the divine nature.

Significance

This directly anticipates Jesus's cleansing of the temple and his teaching that God desires mercy rather than sacrifice (Matthew 9:13, quoting Hosea 6:6); it also undergirds the epistle to the Hebrews' argument that the old sacrificial system pointed toward Christ's singular, interior offering of himself—the sacrifice that transforms intention and action into perfect unity.

25The craving of the slacker kills him because his hands refuse to work.

26All day long he covets more, but the righteous give without restraint.

27The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable— how much more so when brought with ill intent!

28A lying witness will perish, but the man who listens to truth will speak forever.

29A wicked man hardens his face, but the upright man makes his way sure.

Read all of Proverbs 21 — The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever He will. Even power submits to providence.