SEV Biblia, Chapter 6:6
Porque misericordia quise, y no sacrificio; y conocimiento de Dios más que holocaustos.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Hosea 6:6
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 Matt. ix. 13.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 6. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice , etc.] That is, the one rather than the other, as the next clause explains it. Sacrifices were of early use, even before the law of Moses; they were of divine appointment, and were approved and accepted of by the Lord; they were types of Christ, and led to him, and were continued unto his death; but in comparison of moral duties, which respect love to God, and to our neighbour, the Lord did not will them, desire them, and delight in them; or he had more regard for the former than the latter; (see 1 Samuel 15:22 Mark 12:33,34); nor did he will or accept at all of the sacrifices ordered to the calves at Daniel and Bethel; nor others, when they were not such as the law required, or were not offered up in the faith of Christ, attended with repentance for sin, and in sincerity, and were brought as real expiatory sacrifices for sin, and especially as now abrogated by the sacrifice of Christ. And as these words are twice quoted by our Lord, at one time to justify his mercy, pity, and compassion, to the souls of poor sinners, by conversing with them, ( Matthew 9:13); and at another time to justify the disciples in an act of mercy to their bodies when hungry, by plucking ears of corn on the sabbath day, ( Matthew 12:7); “mercy” may here respect both acts of mercy shown by the Lord, and acts of mercy done by men; both which the Lord wills, desires, and delights in: he takes pleasure in showing mercy himself, as appears by his free and open declarations of it; by the throne of grace and mercy he has set up; by the encouragement he gives to souls to hope in his mercy; by the objects of it, the chief of sinners; by the various ways he has taken to display it, in election, in the covenant of grace, in the mission of Christ, in the pardon of sin by him, and in regeneration; and by his opposing it to everything else, in the affair of salvation. And he likewise has a very great regard to mercy as exercised by men; as this is one of the weightier matters of the law, and may be put for the whole of it, or however the second table of it, which is love to our neighbours, and takes in all kind offices done to them; and especially designs acts of liberality to necessitous persons; which are sacrifices God is well pleased with, even more than with the ceremonious ones; these being such in which men resemble him the merciful God, who is kind to the unthankful, and to the evil; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings ; which were reckoned the greatest and most excellent sacrifices, the whole being the Lord’s; but knowledge of God is preferred to them; by which is meant, not the knowledge of God, the light of nature, which men might have, and not him; nor by the law of Moses, as a lawgiver, judge, and consuming fire; but a knowledge of him in Christ, as the God and Father of Christ, as the God of all grace, gracious and merciful in him; as a covenant God and Father in him, which is through the Gospel by the Spirit, and is eternal life, ( John 17:3); this includes in it faith and hope in God, love to him, fear of him and his goodness, and the whole worship of him, both internal and external. These words seem designed to expose and remove the false ground of trust and confidence in sacrifices the people of Israel were prone unto; as we find they were in the times of Isaiah, who was contemporary with Hoses; (see Isaiah 1:12-15). The Targum interprets them of those that exercise mercy, and do the law of the Lord.
Matthew Henry Commentary
The Divine judgments against Israel. (Hos. 5:1-7) Approachin desolations threatened. (Hos. 5:8-15)
Hos. 5:1-7 The piercing eye of God saw secret liking and disposition to sin, the love the house of Israel had to their sins, and the dominio their sins had over them. Pride makes men obstinate in other sins. An as Judah was treading in the same steps, they would fall with Israel By dealing treacherously with the Lord, men only deceive themselves Those that go to seek the Lord with their flocks and their herds only and not with their hearts and souls, cannot expect to find him; no shall any speed who do not seek the Lord while he may be found. See ho much it is our concern to seek God early, now, while it is the accepte time, and the day of salvation.
Hos. 5:8-15 The destruction of impenitent sinners is not mere talk, to frighten them, it is a sentence which will not be recalled. And it is mercy that we have timely warning given us, that we may flee from the wrath to come. Compliance with the commandments of men, who thwart the commandments of God, ripens a people for ruin. The judgments of God ar sometimes to a sinful people as a moth, and as rottenness, or as worm; as these consume the clothes and the wood, so shall the judgment of God consume them. Silently, they shall think themselves safe an thriving, but when they look into their state, shall find themselve wasting and decaying. Slowly, for the Lord gives them space to repent Many a nation; as well as many a person, dies of a consumption Gradually, God comes upon sinners with lesser judgments, to preven greater, if they will be wise, and take warning. When Israel and Juda found themselves in danger, they sought the protection of the Assyrians, but this only helped to make their wound the worse. The would be forced to apply to God. He will bring them home to himself, by afflictions. When men begin to complain more of their sins than of their afflictions, then there begins to be some hope of them; and when under the conviction of sin, and the corrections of the rod, we mus seek the knowledge of God. Those who are led by severe trials to see God earnestly and sincerely, will find him a present help and a effectual refuge; for with him is plenteous redemption for all who cal upon him. There is solid peace, and there only, where God is __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
כי 3588 חסד 2617 חפצתי 2654 ולא 3808 זבח 2077 ודעת 1847 אלהים 430 מעלות׃ 5930
