Jeremiah 7:21

Put your burnt offerings, etc.] Multiply your victims ad libitum. It will avail you nought.

22, 23. This need not be more than a forcible oratorical expression, not meaning that no ceremonial laws were given to Israel when brought out of Egypt, but that in the promulgation of the Ten Commandments on Sinai there was no direction concerning sacrifice. These were the only precepts which had the honour of being treasured up in the ark. Thus from the first they were shown to hold the chief place: cp. Isaiah 1:11. 'The law of obedience was the earliest law of all (Genesis 2:16.), and the most important; that of sacrifice was of secondary importance' (Deane).