King James Version
Hosea 6:6
6For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Hosea 6:6 in other versions
- New International Version (NIV)For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
- English Standard Version (ESV)For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
- New King James Version (NKJV)For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
- New Living Translation (NLT)I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.
Context of Hosea 6:6
4O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. 5Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. 7But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me. 8Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.
Read all of Hosea 6Hosea 6:6 word by word
כִּ֛י חֶ֥סֶד חָפַ֖צְתִּי וְלֹא־זָ֑בַח וְדַ֥עַת אֱלֹהִ֖ים מֵעֹלֽוֹת׃Read the interlinear
Cross-references for Hosea 6:6
- 1 Samuel 15:22And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
- Psalms 50:8I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.
- Proverbs 21:3To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
- Ecclesiastes 5:1Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.
- Isaiah 1:11To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
- Isaiah 58:6Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
- Jeremiah 7:22For 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:
- Daniel 4:27Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity.
- Amos 5:21I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
- Micah 6:6Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
- Matthew 5:7Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
- Matthew 9:13But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
- Matthew 12:7But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
- Hosea 4:1Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
- 1 Chronicles 28:9And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.
- Jeremiah 22:16He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the Lord.
Commentaries on Hosea 6:6
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 6I 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.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 6For I desired mercy and not sacrifice - God had said before, that they should “seek” Him “with their flocks and herds, and not find” Him. So here He anticipates their excuses with the same answer wherewith He met those of Saul, when he would compensate for disobedience by burnt-offerings. The answer is, that all which they did to win His favor, or turn aside His wrath, was of no avail, while they willfully withheld what He required of them. Their mercy…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 4-11Verses 4-11 Sometimes Israel and Judah seemed disposed to repent under their sufferings, but their goodness vanished like the empty morning cloud, and the early dew, and they were as vile as ever. Therefore the Lord sent awful messages by the prophets. The word of God will be the death either of the sin or of the sinner. God desired mercy rather than sacrifice, and that knowledge of him which produces holy fear and love. This exposes the folly of those…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 6In one of Hosea’s key verses, God highlights the most important qualities for the Israelites' covenant lives with him: The Lord wants his people to show love more than he wants sacrifices. Love (the Hebrew word khesed, meaning loyal love shown through steady faithfulness) includes being faithful in relationships (see Hosea 4:1; 6:4). God is always faithful (Psalm 136), and he expects the same from his people. The Lord wants Israel to know him more than he…Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 66. mercy--put for piety in general, of which mercy or charity is a branch. not sacrifice--that is, "rather than sacrifice." So "not" is merely comparative (Ex 16:8; Joe 2:13; Joh 6:27; 1Ti 2:14). As God Himself instituted sacrifices, it cannot mean that He desired them not absolutely, but that even in the Old Testament, He valued moral obedience as the only end for which positive ordinances, such as sacrifices, were instituted--as of more importance than…Read the comment
Topics related to Hosea 6:6
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Hosea 6
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
King James Version — Public Domain except in the United Kingdom (Crown rights)
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