Hoseachapter 6
11 verses · KJVHosea book hub →
Key verse
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
It stands in Your goodness is a morning cloud: I desire mercy, verses 4 to 6.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The people's repentance song opens the chapter ('he hath torn, and he will heal us… after two days will he revive us: on the third day he will raise us up') and the church has never read those words apart from Christ's rising. But God tests the song: 'O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? … your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth early away.' He has hewn them by the prophets. Then the line Jesus quotes twice in Matthew: 'I desire goodness, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings' (6:6).
Context
Prophecy · Hosea · Hosea overview
The world behind this chapter
Hosea 6The history
The chapter opens with what sounds like a hymn, and probably was one, the sort of liturgy sung at a shrine after a defeat. The answer that follows treats it as words without weight, which tells us the ceremony was familiar enough to be predictable.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The two images God uses against it are both about things that do not last. The morning cloud burns off within an hour of sunrise. The dew in that climate is heavy at dawn and gone by mid-morning, it genuinely waters the ground, and it genuinely disappears.
The rains named at the end run the farming year. The early rain in October and November softened ground baked hard by summer so it could be ploughed; the latter rain in March and April filled out the grain before harvest. Both were reliable, both were expected, and that reliability is the comparison being made.
Two crimes are named as evidence. Gilead, east of the Jordan, is called a city of evildoers tracked with blood, and priests are accused of committing murder on the road to Shechem, a pilgrim route, which means bands of priests were robbing and killing worshippers on their way to worship. Shechem was also one of the cities of refuge, which makes the charge worse.
What it meant to them
The line the first hearers could not have missed is the one Jesus would later quote twice: I desire mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. It does not abolish the altar. It says the altar was never the point.
For a nation that had made repentance into a service with a running order, being told their loyalty had the shelf life of morning dew was an accusation aimed straight at their best moments, not their worst.
Sources cited
- Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: The Minor Prophets
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
Where the chapter sits
Hosea 6 falls in The LORD's controversy with Israel (chapters 4–14). Oracles against the northern kingdom's idolatry, political faithlessness, and corruption, closing with the great call ‘O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God’ (14:1).
The call to return. ‘I desired mercy, and not sacrifice’, cited by Jesus in Matt 9:13 and 12:7.
Before it: The marriage and the children, chapters 1–3.
The whole shape of Hosea→The structure of this chapter
People1
Places1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Come, let us return; he will bind us upvv. 1-3
Come, and let us return unto the Lord: The plea answers 5:15's until they acknowledge their offence directly, the nation itself speaking now, come and let us return, confessing that the Lord who tore is the same Lord who will heal, the same hand that smote will bind up. After two days will he revive us, in the third day he will raise us up carries readings the bench holds apart without a verdict: the older commentators, Christian and some earlier Jewish readers among them, hear a foreshadowing of resurrection on the third day, while much of the modern critical bench reads the two-and-three as a short, indefinite span, a Hebrew idiom for soon rather than a specific count, the nation's restoration in view rather than any single body raised. His going forth is prepared as the morning, coming to them as the rain, is read by the older writers as a plea for the certain, seasonal reliability of God's mercy against Israel's own inconstancy, named in the next verse.
Hosea 6:1
"In their affliction they will rise early to me: come and let us return to the Lord, for he has taken us, and he will heal us; he will wound us and he will cure us; he will bring us to life after two days, and on the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight: we shall know and we shall follow, that we may know the Lord."
Jerome· written before 420· Commentary on Hosea 6:1-2patristic
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Hosea 6:1
“Come and let us return unto the Lord - These words depend closely on the foregoing. They are words put into their mouth by God Himself, with which or with the like, they should exhort one another to return to God.”
Hosea 6:1
“They are at the same time persuaded of the mercy of God, which persuasion is the starting-point of true repentance, and without which men would not seek, but hate and flee from God. Though our wound be severe, it is not past hope of recovery; there is room for grace, and a hope of pardon.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Hosea 6:2
Hear what the prophet says: "God will revive us after two days, and on the third day we shall arise and live in his sight." The first day is the passion of the Savior for us. The second is the day on which he descended into hell. The third day is the day of resurrection. Therefore on the third day "God went before them, by day in a column of cloud, by night in a column of fire."
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5patristic
3 more voices on this verse
Hosea 6:2
“After two days will he revive - Such is his power that in two or three days he can restore us. He can realize all our hopes, and give us the strongest token for good. In the third day he will raise us up - In so short a time can he give us complete deliverance.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Hosea 6:2
“After two days - After some short time of suffering, God will shew us his favour, and revive our dead state. Revive us - Though we were as dead men, buried in our miseries, yet our merciful God will quicken us. Live - Flourish in peace, wealth, and joy; in righteousness and safety.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Hosea 6:2
“And it is every way suitable that a prophecy of Christ's rising should be thus expressed, "He will raise us up, and we shall live," for Christ rose as the first-fruits, and we revive with him, we live through him; he rose for our justification, and all believers are said to be risen with Christ.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 6:3
I MUST first remove the moldy piece from the text, and that is the word, "if," which has no sort of business here whatever. You notice that the translators put it in italics, to intimate to us that it was no Word of God, but one of their own words which they thought necessary to complete the sense. We might read—and we should, to be far nearer the sense—"Then shall we know when we follow on to know the Lord."
3 more voices on this verse
Hosea 6:3
“We shall know, we shall follow to know, the Lord, (so the words are); and it may be taken as the fruit of Christ's resurrection, and the life we live in God's sight by him, that we shall have not only greater means of knowledge, but grace to improve in knowledge by those means. Note, When God designs mercy for a people he gives them a heart to know him, Jer. xxiv.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 6:3
“Know - What worship he requires. And the knowledge of God shall be to us a spring of all holy, righteous, sober conversation. Follow on - By a diligent attendance to the word, and works of God, we shall know experimentally, how holy, how good, how faithful God is.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Hosea 6:3
"Then" implies the consequence of the revival in Ho 6:2. The "if" is not so much conditional, as expressive of the means which God's grace will sanctify to the full enlightenment of Israel in the knowledge of Him.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
B. Your goodness is a morning cloud: I desire mercy
1. (vv. 4-5)
Hosea 6:4
“O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? - This is the answer of the Lord to the above pious resolutions; sincere while they lasted, but frequently forgotten, because the people were fickle. Their goodness (for goodness it was while it endured) was like the morning cloud that fadeth away before the rising sun, or like the early dew which is speedily evaporated by heat. Ephraim and Judah had too much goodness in them to admit of their total rejection, and too much evil to admit of their being placed among the children.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Hosea 6:4
“What their conduct was towards God: Their goodness, or kindness, was as the morning cloud. Some understand it of their kindness to themselves and their own souls, in their repentance; it is indeed mercy to ourselves to repent of our sins, but they soon retracted that kindness to themselves, undid it again, and wronged their own souls as much as ever.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 6:4
“See opening remarks on this chapter. goodness--godliness. morning cloud--soon dispersed by the sun (Ho 13:3). There is a tacit contrast here to the promise of God's grace to Israel hereafter, in Ho 6:3. His going forth is "as the morning," shining more and more unto the perfect day; your goodness is "as a morning cloud," soon vanishing.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Hosea 6:4
“VERY simple is the way of salvation—very plain is the road home. The chapter begins with it—"Come, and let us return unto the Lord." By going away from the Lord we have lost our privileges, have become wounded and have lost ourselves. To find all these things again we must go back to the Lord, from Whom we have wandered. We must cry with the repenting prodigal, "I will arise and go to my Father"—and if we at once begin to carry out the resolve—the way home is not far to seek.”
Hosea 6:5
“Hewed them - I have severely, and unweariedly reproved, and threatened them. By thy words - As I did by word foretel, so I did effect in due time. Thy judgments - The punishments threatened, which fell upon this people, did so fully answer the prediction that every one might see them clear as the light, and as constantly executed as the morning.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 6:5
“Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets - Since they despised God’s gentler warnings and measures, He used severer. “He hewed” them, He says, as men hew stones out of the quarry, and with hard blows and sharp instruments overcome the hardness of the stone which they have to work. Their piety and goodness were light and unsubstantial as a summer cloud; their stony hearts were harder than the material stone.”
Hosea 6:5
“The prophet turns to him and acknowledges, Thy judgments are as the light that goes forth, evidently just and righteous. Note, Though sinners be not reclaimed by the pains that ministers take with them, yet thereby God will be justified when he speaks and clear when he judges.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee?: The Lord's answer turns from the people's confession to a lament over its shallowness: what shall I do unto thee, a question of exasperated love rather than uncertainty, since their goodness vanishes like a morning cloud or the early dew the sun burns off within the hour. The bench reads this as the failure the confession of verses 1-3 was always liable to, repentance offered in words that do not outlast the moment it takes to speak them. Therefore I have hewed them by the prophets and slain them by the words of my mouth names the preaching itself as an instrument of judgment, cutting away what will not last, and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth, the Lord's verdicts as plain and unavoidable as daybreak.
2. (v. 6)
Hosea 6:6
For the Word of God Himself tells us that He prefers the performance of His commandments to the offering of sacrifice. God proclaims this, Moses declares it to the people, Paul preaches it to the Gentiles. Do that which you understand is most profitable for the time. "I prefer mercy," it is said, "rather than sacrifice." Are they not, then, rather Christians in truth who condemn their own sin, than they who think to defend it? "The just is an accuser of himself in the beginning of his words."
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· Letter 51:15patristic
4 more voices on this verse
Hosea 6:6
“For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice,.... That is, the one rather than the other, as the next clause explains it.”
Hosea 6:6
“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 Mat 9:13.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Hosea 6:6
“In this I delight, I have found little of this among you. Not sacrifice - Rather than sacrifice. The knowledge of God - The 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.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Hosea 6:6
“Our Saviour quotes this to show that moral duties are to be preferred before rituals whenever they come in competition, and to justify himself in eating with publicans and sinners, because it was in mercy to the souls of men, and in healing on the sabbath day, because it was in mercy to the bodies of men, to which the ceremony of singularity in eating and the sabbath-rest must give way, Matt. ix.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 6:6
- Quoted inMatthew 12:7“If only you had known the meaning of ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.”
'I will have mercy, and not sacrifice', Sabbath grainfield defense
- Quoted inMatthew 9:13But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
'I will have mercy, and not sacrifice' ('go ye and learn what that meaneth')
Hosea 6:6-7
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice: , and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings is the chapter's center, and Matthew records the Lord quoting it twice, once to the Pharisees over his eating with sinners (Matt 9:13) and once over the disciples plucking corn on the sabbath (Matt 12:7), both times telling them to go and learn what it means, the ritual never meant to stand apart from mercy and knowledge of God. The bench reads the verse not as sacrifice condemned outright but as sacrifice without mercy exposed as worthless, the same charge the earlier chapters bring against a priesthood that offered rites while forgetting God. They like men have transgressed the covenant takes readings the older writers name both ways: like men, ordinary and faithless as any man, or like Adam, the Hebrew word carrying both senses, a first betrayal of covenant echoed in Israel's own.
C. Priests who murder on the road to Shechem
1. (v. 7)
Hosea 6:7
“But they like men - Or (better as in the E. M) “like Adam, have transgressed the covenant.” As Adam our first parent, in Paradise, not out of any pressure, but wantonly, through self-will and pride, broke the covenant of God, eating the forbidden fruit, and then defended himself in his sin against God, casting the blame upon the woman: so these, in the good land which God had given them, “that they should” therein “keep His covenant and observe His laws” Psa 105:44, wantonly and petulantly broke that covenant; and then obstinately defended their sin.”
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 6:7
“There is something sacred and binding in a man's covenant (as the apostle shows, Gal. iii. 15 ), but much more in the covenant of God, which yet they made small account of; and there in that covenant they dealt treacherously, promised fair, but performed nothing.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 6:7
“Not as Margin, "like Adam," Job 31:33. For the expression "covenant" is not found elsewhere applied to Adam's relation to God; though the thing seems implied (Ro 5:12-19). Israel "transgressed the covenant" of God as lightly as men break everyday compacts with their fellow men. there--in the northern kingdom, Israel.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2. (vv. 8-10)
Hosea 6:8
“Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity,.... The chief city in the land of Gilead, which lay beyond Jordan, inhabited by Gad and Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh; and so belonged to the ten tribes, whose sins are here particularly observed. It had its name from the country, or the country from that, or both from the mountain of the same name.”
3 more voices on this verse
Hosea 6:8
“Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity - In this place Jacob and Laban made their covenant, and set up a heap of stones, which was called Galeed, the heap of testimony; and most probably idolatry was set up here. Perhaps the very heap became the object of superstitious adoration.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Hosea 6:8
Galaad a city of idolaters, supplanted by blood, and like the throats of robbers (or "the city of a robber") for both readings are possible. The Septuagint: "There Galad despised me, a city that is devoted to vanity, and disturbs the water, and your strength, O violent men."
Jerome· written before 420· Commentary on Hosea 6:8patristic
Hosea 6:8
“A city - A city full of notorious transgressors, the inhabitants though Levites and priests, work all manner of wickedness. With blood - Murders committed there.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Hosea 6:9
“And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent - Or (more probably) “in the way to Shechem.” Shechem too was a “city of refuge” Joh 20:7, and so also a city of Levites and priests Joh 21:21. It was an important city. For there Joshua assembled all Israel for his last address to them, and made a covenant with them John 24:1, 25. There, Rehoboam came to be accepted by Israel as their king 1Ki 12:1, and was rejected by them.”
3 more voices on this verse
Hosea 6:9
“And as troops of robbers wait for a man,.... As a gang of highwaymen or footpads lie in wait in a ditch, or under a hedge, or in a cave of a rock or mountain, for a man they know will come by that way, who is full of money, in order to rob him; or, as Saadiah interprets it, as fishermen stand upon the banks of a river, and cast in their hooks to draw out the fish; and to the same purpose is Jarchi's note from R.”
Hosea 6:9
"The participation of the priests on the road of those going to kill from Shechem: for they have committed a crime." LXX: "The priests have hidden" "the way of the Lord and killed Shechem: for they have committed iniquity."
Jerome· written before 420· Commentary on Hosea 6:9patristic
Hosea 6:9
“The image is from oxen putting their shoulders together to pull the same yoke [RIVETUS]. MAURER translates, "in the way towards Shechem." It was a city of refuge between Ebal and Gerizim; on Mount Ephraim (Jos 20:7; 21:21), long the civil capital of Ephraim, as Shiloh was the religious capital; now called Naploos; for a time the residence of Jeroboam (1Ki 12:25).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Hosea 6:10
“In the house of Israel, I saw dreadful things; there were the fornications of Ephraim, Israel is defiled; and, Judah, I will put a harvest for you, when I will return the captivity of my people. From this crime and terrible horror, Jeremiah also spoke: "The heavens were astounded at this and the earth became deeply afraid" (Jeremiah 2). For what is more terrible than ten tribes suddenly turning to the worship of idols?”
Jerome· written before 420· Commentary on Hosea 6:10-11patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 6:10
“Of Ephraim - Which was brought in by an Ephraimite, by Jeroboam, two hundred years ago, and is there still. Israel is defiled - It hath overspread all Israel.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Gilead is a city: Gilead is named a city of workers of iniquity, polluted with blood, and the bench reads the charge against a specific place east of the Jordan long associated with violence going back to Jephthah's era, a reputation the prophet revives rather than invents. The company of priests is likened to troops of robbers lying in wait for a traveler, murdering by consent on the very roads pilgrims traveled toward the shrines, the older commentators taking this either literally, of priests turned to banditry, or as a figure for the spiritual murder of leading the people astray, the readings named together. I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel returns the whoredom charge of chapters 1-3 and 4 to the nation once more, Ephraim's defilement stated as a settled fact the Lord himself has witnessed.
3. (v. 11)
Hosea 6:11
“Also, O Judah, He hath set a harvest for thee, when I returned - (rather, when I return) the captivity of My people. The “harvest” may be either for good or for bad. If the harvest is spoken of, as bestowed upon the people, then, as being of chief moment for preserving the life of the body, it is a symbol of all manner of good, temporal or spiritual, bestowed by God.”
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 6:11
“The general judgment is compared to a harvest ( Matt. xiii. 39 ), so are particular judgments, Joel iii. I have appointed a time to call thee to account, even when I returned the captivity of my people, that is, when those captives of Judah which were taken by the men of Israel were restored, in obedience to the command of God sent them by Oded the prophet, 2 Chron. xxviii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 6:11
“This prophecy was delivered under Pekah [LUDOVICUS DE DIEU]. MAURER explains, When Israel shall have been exiled for its sins, and has been subsequently restored by Me, thou, Judah, also shalt be exiled for thine. But as Judah's punishment was not at the time when God restored Israel, LUDOVICUS DE DIEU'S explanation must be taken.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest: The chapter closes by turning to Judah, an harvest set for her too, and the bench reads the harvest either as the coming judgment reaped in its season, the same figure Joel and Nahum use of an enemy gathered in, or as the gracious ingathering of a returned captivity, the clause when I returned the captivity of my people naming restoration rather than ruin. The ambiguity is the older writers' own, and the note lets it stand rather than choosing, since either reading keeps Judah under the same terms already set for Ephraim across the chapter. The single verse hands the book forward into chapter 7's return to Ephraim's own corruption, judgment and hope still running side by side.
This page carries no textual note on Hosea 6. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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