Hosea 6:6

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; khésedh-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).