For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
For I desired mercy - put for piety in general, of which mercy or charity is a branch. The connection of the "For" is (Hosea 5:6), God had said, "They shall go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord, but they shall not find Him;" for He adds here, "I desired mercy, and not sacrifice." Do not excuse yourselves by thinking of the sacrifices you have offered to me: these were not what I required, so much as mercy and general goodness and piety on your parts: but these are the very duties which you failed to fulfill in obedience to me, and without which, your sacrifices are vain. And not sacrifice - i:e., 'rather than sacrifice.' So not is merely comparative (Exodus 16:8; Joel 2:13; John 6:27; 1 Timothy 2:14, "Adam was deceived, but the woman"). Since God Himself instituted sacrifices, it cannot mean that He desired them not absolutely, but that, even in the Old Testament, He valued moral obedience, inasmuch as being the only end for which positive ordinances, such as sacrifices, were instituted-as of more importance than a mere external ritual obedience (1 Samuel 15:22; Psalms 50:8-9; Psalms 51:16-17; Isaiah 1:11-12; Micah 6:6-8, "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord ... shall I come before him with burnt offerings ... shall I give my first-born for my transgression ... what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Matthew 9:13; Matthew 12:7).
And the knowledge of God - experimental and practical, not merely theoretical (Hosea 6:3; Jeremiah 22:16; 1 John 2:3-4). "Mercy" refers to the second table of the law, our duty to our fellow-man; "the knowledge of God" to the first table, our duty to God, including inward spiritual worship. The second table is put first, not as superior in dignity, for it is secondary, but in the order of our understanding.