Ecclesiastes 5:1 {4:17}
Good News Translation
Be careful about going to the Temple. It is better to go there to learn than to offer sacrifices like foolish people who don't know right from wrong.

New Revised Standard Version
Guard your steps when you go to the house of God; to draw near to listen is better than the sacrifice offered by fools; for they do not know how to keep from doing evil.

Contemporary English Version
Be careful what you do when you enter the house of God. Fools go there to offer sacrifices, because all they do is sin. But it's best just to listen when you go to worship.

New American Bible
Guard your step when you go to the house of God. Draw near for obedience, rather than for the fools’ offering of sacrifice; for they know not how to keep from doing evil.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Keep thy foot, when thou goest into the house of God, and draw nigh to hear. For much better is obedience, than the victims of fools, who know not what evil they do.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Keep thy foot, when thou goest into the house of God, and draw nigh to hear. For much better is obedience, than the victims of fools, who know not what evil they do.

thy foot

Genesis 28:16,17 And when Jacob awaked out of sleep, he said: Indeed the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. . . .

Exodus 3:5 And he said: Come not nigh hither, put off the shoes from thy feet; for the place, whereon thou standest, is holy ground.

Leviticus 10:3 And Moses said to Aaron: This is what the Lord hath spoken. I will be sanctified in them that approach to me: and I will be glorified in the sight of all the people. And when Aaron heard this, he held his peace.

Joshua 5:15 Loose, saith he, thy shoes from off thy feet: for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did as was commanded him.

2 Chronicles 26:16 But when he was made strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction, and he neglected the Lord his God: and going into the temple of the Lord, he had a mind to burn incense upon the altar of incense.

Psalm 89:7 God, who is glorified in the assembly of the saints: great and terrible above all them that are about him.

Isaiah 1:12 When you came to appear before me, who required these things at your hands, that you should walk in my courts?

1 Corinthians 11:22 What, have you no houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God and put them to shame that have not? What shall I say to you? Do I praise you? In this I praise you not.

Hebrews 12:28,29 Therefore, receiving an immoveable kingdom, we have grace: whereby let us serve, pleasing God, with fear and reverence. . . .

ready

Acts 10:33 Immediately therefore I sent to thee: and thou hast done well in coming. Now, therefore, all we are present in thy sight to hear all things whatsoever are commanded thee by the Lord.

Acts 17:11 Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, who received the word with all eagerness, daily searching the scriptures, whether these things were so.

James 1:19 You know, my dearest brethren. And let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak and slow to anger.

1 Peter 2:1,2 Wherefore laying away all malice and all guile and dissimulations and envies and all detractions, . . .

give

Genesis 4:3-5 And it came to pass after many days, that Cain offered, of the fruits of the earth, gifts to the Lord. . . .

1 Samuel 13:12,13 I said: Now will the Philistines come down upon me to Galgal, and I have not appeased the face of the Lord. Forced by necessity, I offered the holocaust. . . .

1 Samuel 15:21,22 But the people took of the spoils, sheep and oxen, as the firstfruits of those things that were slain, to offer sacrifice to the Lord their God in Galgal. . . .

Psalm 50:8-18 I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices: and thy burnt offerings are always in my sight. . . .

Proverbs 15:8 The victims of the wicked are abominable to the Lord: the vows of the just are acceptable.

Proverbs 21:27 The sacrifices of the wicked are abominable, because they are offered of wickedness.

Isaiah 1:12-15 When you came to appear before me, who required these things at your hands, that you should walk in my courts? . . .

Isaiah 66:3 He that sacrificeth an ox, is as if he slew a man: he that killeth a sheep in sacrifice, as if he should brain a dog: he that offereth an oblation, as if he should offer swine's blood; he that remembereth incense, as if he should bless an idol. All these things have they chosen in their ways, and their soul is delighted in their abominations.

Jeremiah 7:21-23 Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat ye the flesh. . . .

Hosea 6:6,7 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice: and the knowledge of God more than holocausts. . . .

Malachi 1:10,11 Who is there among you, that will shut the doors, and will kindle the fire on my altar gratis? I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts: and I will not receive a gift of your hand. . . .

Hebrews 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after having the knowledge of the truth, there is now left no sacrifice for sins:

Context
Approaching God with Awe
1Keep thy foot, when thou goest into the house of God, and draw nigh to hear. For much better is obedience, than the victims of fools, who know not what evil they do.2Speak not any thing rashly, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.…
Cross References
Exodus 3:5
And he said: Come not nigh hither, put off the shoes from thy feet; for the place, whereon thou standest, is holy ground.

Exodus 30:18
Thou shalt make also a brazen laver with its foot to wash in: and thou shalt set it between the tabernacle of the testimony and the altar. And water being put into it:

1 Samuel 15:22
And Samuel said: Doth the Lord desire holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed? For obedience is better than sacrifices: and to hearken rather than to offer the fat or rams.

Proverbs 15:8
The victims of the wicked are abominable to the Lord: the vows of the just are acceptable.

Proverbs 21:27
The sacrifices of the wicked are abominable, because they are offered of wickedness.

Isaiah 1:12
When you came to appear before me, who required these things at your hands, that you should walk in my courts?

Ecclesiastes 4:16
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