Hosea 6:6

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice,.... That is, the one rather than the other, as the next clause explains it.

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. For I desired mercy - put for piety in general, of which mercy or charity is a branch.

I so hewed and slew them, because they did not what I most of all required, approved, and could accept of; they were full of sacrifices, and spared them not, but either to idols, or else in formality and pride. These sacrificers were either abominable idolaters, as were they of Ephraim, or proud hypocrites, as were too many of Judah. I desired mercy; compassion and charity towards men, this one principal duty of the second table put for all works of godly humanity, pleaseth me, in this I delight. I had found little of this among you, nor could I persuade you to it; though this was it that I required, . And not sacrifice; rather than, or more than, sacrifice, for it is not an absolute, but a comparative negative. Mercy to man who needed it, without a sacrifice to me who need it not, was more pleasing than a sacrifice (though required) with cruelty to man, which I forbade. The knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings: hearty, affectionate knowledge of God, which fills the mind with reverence of his majesty, fear of his goodness, love of his holiness, trust in his promise, and submission to his will; knowledge of God’ s law, the rule of our obedience, of his favour, the reward of our obedience, and knowledge of his omniscience, discerning and judging it, with those excellent effects, proper fruits hereof; are more than all sacrifice, as though they were burnt-sacrifices, which of all other were entirely given to God. But truth is, who knows God aright, and doth keep his heart for God, gives God more than he that brings whole burnt-offerings; for these are but ceremonies and signs, empty and insipid to God, without the heart. In short, these people acted all so contrary to this temper of their God, gave him so much of that he valued not, and so little of that he did most value, that he could not be too severe against them, nor is it any wonder he was so displeased with their sacrifices.

Hosea 6:6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.Ver. 6. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice] That is, rather than sacrifice: I prefer the marrow and pith of the second table before the ceremony and surface of the first. I desired mercy] Heb. ητςϊι I desired it with singular delight and complacency. Aurea certe sententia, saith Rivet. This is a golden sentence, twice quoted by Christ himself, Matthew 9:13; Matthew 12:7, which noteth the eminence of it. And with it agreeth that answer of the scribe so much approved of by our Saviour, Mark 12:38, "To love thy neighbour as thyself is more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." And that of the author to the Hebrews, "But to do good and to communicate forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased," Hebrews 13:16; a great deal better pleased than with all the outward services and sacrifices of the law, which yet were commanded by God, but not to be rested in. These be famous sentences indeed; such as a man would fetch upon his knees from Rome or Jerusalem, as a reverend man saith of certain brave sayings of Luther, which he had recited (Mr Sam. Clark, Life of Luther). Mercy is here put for all the duties of charity; as the knowledge of God is for those other of piety, whereof it is the rise and foundation. Mercy is set first non ut potior sed ut notior, not as better, but as better known, and more noticed. They are set together, because they must not be sundered in our practice. Obedience must be universal, extending to the compass of the whole law. A man must not be funambulus virtutum, as Tertullian speaks, going in a narrow track of obedience, pinking and choosing what he will do and what not; following God in such duties as will suit with him and no farther. He must follow after God as Caleb, Numbers 14:14, have respect to all God’ s commandments, and do all his wills, as David, Acts 13:22, walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, as Zacharias and Elizabeth, Luke 1:6. These partial and perverse Jews walked in all the ordinances, but they cared not for the commandments; they were altogether for the ceremonial law, but neglected the moral. Or if they did anything that way, it was but the outward act of a commandment, which men may naturally perform. Thus Ahab humbled himself: and some think that Urijah which Isaiah calleth the faithful witness, the same with him that brought in the altar of Damascus, 2 Kings 16:10, yet reputed a faithful man of his word. A hypocrite may show mercy, but not love mercy, Micah 6:8, and know God, but not effectively, practically, according to that of St John, "Hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments," 1 John 2:28.

(6) Mercy.—Better rendered, love. This passage is richly sustained by our Lord’s adoption of its teaching (Matthew 9:13; Matthew 12:7). Mark 12:33 shows that according to even Old Testament teaching, the moral ranks above the ceremonial, that ritual is valueless apart from spiritual conformity with Divine will.

Verse 6. I desired mercy, and not sacrifice] I taught them righteousness by my prophets; for I desired mercy. I was more willing to save than to destroy; and would rather see them full of penitent and holy resolutions, than behold them offering the best and most numerous victims upon my altar. See Matthew 9:13.

6. A further explanation of these severe judgments, the moral effect of which the prophet has been considering. For I desired mercy and not sacrifice] Rather, for I delight in piety and not in sacrifice. The Hebrew is vague; khιsedh ‘dutiful love’ may mean either ‘piety’ or ‘kindness’,—love to God or love to man. The parallel clause favours the former, the context at first sight the latter; but we may keep ‘piety’, for both love to God and the knowledge of God are regarded as leading to the imitation of God’s φιλανθρωπία (comp. Jeremiah 22:16 ‘was not this to know me’, and 2 Samuel 9:3 ‘that I may show the kindness of God unto him’). As Aben Ezra well remarks, it is stedfast love which the prophet means, not that which is like a cloud (Hosea 6:4). ‘And not sacrifice’ = ‘rather than sacrifice’; the prophet thinks comparatively little of sacrifices, but does not denounce them as positively displeasing to God. Comp. Isaiah 1:11-20; Micah 6:6-8; Jeremiah 7:22-23 (though this is of doubtful interpretation). The sacrifices alluded to are those which the Israelites will at a future time offer in the vain hope of propitiating Jehovah (Hosea 5:6). This first half of the verse is twice quoted by our Lord (Matthew 9:13; Matthew 12:7). A striking parallel occurs in a saying ascribed to Buddha, who, however, unlike our Lord, denounced animal sacrifices as in themselves wrong: ‘If a man live a hundred years, and engage the whole of his time and attention in religious offerings to the gods, sacrificing elephants and horses, and other life, all this is not equal to one act of pure love in saving life’ (Beal’s Texts from the Buddhist Canon).

For I desired mercy and not sacrifice - God had said before, that they should “seek” Him “with their flocks and herds, and not find” Him.

6. Why does Jehovah use these severe means? Because he has for the people a lofty ideal of righteousness to which they are strangers and against which they rebel. His ideal is mercy — R.V.