Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageFor on the day I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I did not speak to them or give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GFor on the day I brought your fathers out of the land of Mitzrayim, I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.
KJV
King James VersionFor I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
BSB
Berean Standard BibleFor when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices,
Footnotes
This verse has generated sustained exegetical discussion. The plain reading might seem to deny that God commanded sacrifices at Sinai — which Leviticus clearly records. Three converging solutions clarify: (1) *Prophetic antithesis*: the rhetoric of 'not A, but B' asserts priority, not absolute exclusion — identical to Hos. 6:6 ('I desire *hesed*, not sacrifice') and 1 Sam. 15:22, both of which presuppose sacrificial commands while subordinating them to obedience. (2) *Temporal precision*: the Exodus day itself preceded the Sinai covenant; the relational bond preceded the ritual system designed to express it. (3) *Purposive reading*: YHWH's intent in the Exodus was covenantal relationship (v.23), not cultic machinery — sacrifice was to serve that relationship, never replace it. Both translations preserve the rhetorical bluntness rather than smoothing it away.