New International Version
Hosea 6:6
6For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
Hosea 6:6 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more 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
4“What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears. 5Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth— then my judgments go forth like the sun. For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. 7As at Adam, they have broken the covenant; they were unfaithful to me there. 8Gilead is a city of evildoers, stained with footprints of blood.
Read all of Hosea 6Hosea 6:6 word by word
כִּ֛י חֶ֥סֶד חָפַ֖צְתִּי וְלֹא־זָ֑בַח וְדַ֥עַת אֱלֹהִ֖ים מֵעֹלֽוֹת׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Hosea 6:6
- 1 Samuel 15:22But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
- Psalms 50:8I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.
- Proverbs 21:3To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
- Ecclesiastes 5:1Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.
- Isaiah 1:11“The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
- Isaiah 58:6“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
- Jeremiah 7:22For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices,
- Daniel 4:27Therefore, Your Majesty, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue.”
- Amos 5:21“I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me.
- Micah 6:6With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
- Matthew 5:7Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
- Matthew 9:13But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
- Matthew 12:7If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.
- Hosea 4:1Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.
- 1 Chronicles 28:9“And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.
- Jeremiah 22:16He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares 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
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