Therefore have I hewed [them] by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth and my judgment goeth forth as the light.
Hosea 6 opens with people saying the right words about returning to the Lord. Yet their goodness fades like a morning cloud. Verse 5 is God's answer to that fading. He says what He has already done about it, and His instrument was not an army but a message.
The chapter opens with the prophet pleading. By verse 5 the speaker has changed:
It is the language of Jehovah, as the earlier verses were the prophet's appeal. From there he slides, so to speak, into the language of Him who gave him his office. A prophet was really the voice of Jehovah. So, beginning as a prophet, he rises to the language that suits Jehovah Himself. The hewing of the people by the prophets is a vivid picture of God's moral dealings, which did not spare the wicked. "I have slain them by the words of my mouth," he adds, to make still plainer what kind of slaying it was.
(Kelly works from an older translation reading "their judgments are as the light that goes forth"; the ESV has "my judgment goes forth as the light.")
Their love for God kept fading, and that shaped the message the prophets brought:
The morning cloud looks beautiful, turned gold by the rays of the rising sun. But the heat of the sun soon makes it disappear. The dew glitters in the early morning, but soon it is gone. That was their love — unsteady and changing… So the prophets He had sent to them came with words of condemnation, instead of words of comfort and cheer. They came to hew, as stone or wood is hewn. The message of judgment they preached condemned them. That is what the words mean: "I have slain them by the words of My mouth."
Verse 5 runs straight on into verse 6, where the reason is given. The people were careful about religious ceremony while their lives were corrupt. This writer quotes verse 6 in an older wording — its "mercy" is "steadfast love" in the ESV:
Both Ephraim and Judah (Hosea 5, 6) had badly corrupted themselves. Yet at the same time they seem to have been strict about their sacrificial ceremonies, as if attention to outward forms could win God's favour. "Therefore," says the prophet, speaking in Jehovah's name, "I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth… for I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." That is, character and state — the character and state produced by the knowledge of Jehovah as a God of mercy — were of more value before God than outward observances. Those observances were completely worthless unless they were the sign of a spiritual condition.
The hewing was not a sudden reaction. It came after centuries of patience with the same people:
But for centuries in the land He bore with their lawless behaviour. He pleaded with them by the love He had shown them from the time He first stepped in to help them. He hewed them by His prophets. He slew them by the words of His mouth. He disciplined them with the rod of the land's original inhabitants, who were barbs in their eyes and thorns in their sides. He whipped them with the attacks of the nations, until from head to foot they were wounds and bruises and festering sores. No one had bound them up or soothed them with ointment — and all to no purpose.
Centuries later the pattern repeated, and the One who had sent the prophets spoke in person:
Who does not recall here Hosea 6:5, where He said, "I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth"? Listen to the One whose voice once shook the earth: "Blind guides," "whitewashed tombs," "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?"
The same word still divides its hearers, and the outcome depends on the response:
The truth either brings repentance or resentment. Those who resent the truth of God's word pressing on their conscience, and do not answer it, are morally slain before God. They have missed their opportunity. They are judged because they refused that word. It is wise for us to obey the word of God when we hear it pricking our conscience. We do not fight back, but accept what God has to say to us.
- Voice — The prophet's plea gives way to God's own speech, because a prophet was the voice of the Lord Himself.
- Tool — God's instrument is His word: He hews as stone or wood is hewn, and the slaying is moral, not military.
- Cause — The blow fell because ceremony had replaced character. God wanted mercy and the knowledge of Himself, not offerings.
- Patience — The hewing was one stage in centuries of pleading and discipline. The people still refused.
- Reach — That same voice later confronted the religious leaders in person. Today the word still brings repentance, or it leaves the hearer morally slain.
For I delight in loving-kindness, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings.
Israel kept up its sacrifices, yet God says He wants something else. That raises two hard questions: why would God refuse the sacrifices He Himself commanded, and what is the "knowledge of God" He prefers?
The chapter opens with the prophet pleading with the people. By verse 6 the speaker has changed.
It is the language of Jehovah, as the earlier verses were the prophet's exhortation. From there he slides, so to speak, into the language of Him who gave him his office. A prophet was the voice of Jehovah. So he begins as a prophet, then rises to speak what belongs to Jehovah Himself.
God is not only refusing something here. He is naming what He loves. (Where the ESV says "steadfast love," older translations read "mercy" or "loving-kindness," and the writers quoted here use those words.)
But of mercy He speaks. "For I desired mercy" — this is what He loves, and to this end, that He may be morally vindicated in displaying it.
The people were not neglecting worship. That was the problem.
Both Ephraim and Judah had corrupted themselves badly. Yet they seem to have been careful about their sacrificial ceremonies, as if outward forms could win them God's favour... That is, God valued character and state more than outward observances — the character and state that come from knowing Jehovah as a God of mercy. Those observances are worthless unless they show a real spiritual condition.
If sacrifices were not the point, what was? One writer says God was after the relationship, not the ceremony.
In the heart and mind of God it was not a question of outward forms; the moral relationship with God had failed. He had raised up prophets, as a means of relationship with Himself, to bring back the hearts of the people. But, like Adam in the garden of Eden, they had broken the covenant. Their enjoyment of all the blessings God had heaped on them depended on that covenant.
The phrase "the knowledge of God" is not about information. Earlier in the same book, not knowing the LORD is what blocks Israel's return.
This too stood in the way of their return to God: "they know not the LORD" (Hosea 5:4). But God will work repentance in them and raise them up to live before Him. Then they will know Him, and will "press on to know the LORD" (Hosea 6:3). They will learn that this pleases God more than anything else: "the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings."
Mercy is not the only thing God ranks above sacrifice.
Sacrifice without obedience — a solemn truth — is no better than idol worship. The first mark of faith is obedience... Besides, there are many things God prefers to sacrifice.
The Pharisees prized ceremony. Jesus turned this verse against them.
What counts before Him is moral, not ceremonial. By Hosea God said, "I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice"; and the Lord quoted this twice (Matt. 9:13; Matt. 12:7). So we see the hypocrisy that came into full display and reached its peak in the Pharisees when our Lord was on earth.
Commentators differ on what Jesus meant by the quotation. Some read it as a rebuke of empty ritual. Another writer says the point is what Christ Himself was doing.
The words of the prophet, as the Lord uses them here, show what He was doing in receiving tax collectors and sinners. He was carrying out the divine work of displaying mercy, and that agreed with the will of God. God did not want sacrifice from people whose hearts were far from Him, like the Pharisees. The Servant of Jehovah, the "sunrise from on high," had visited His people to forgive sins, not to judge them.
- Mercy is what God loves. The verse is not God rejecting worship. He is naming His own delight — "this is what He loves" — and He works so that He may be morally justified in showing it.
- Mercy known produces character. Knowing God as a God of mercy shapes character. God valued that character more than ceremonies, which were worthless without it.
- Mercy refused breaks relationship. Outward forms were never the question. The relationship with God had failed. Like Adam, they had broken the covenant their blessings depended on.
- Mercy sought is knowledge gained. Not knowing the LORD blocked their return. Pressing on to know Him pleases God more than burnt offerings.
- Mercy shown is Christ. Jesus quoted this verse twice. In receiving tax collectors and sinners, He was doing the divine work of showing the mercy the verse calls for.