Matthew Chapter 12 verse 7 Holy Bible
But if ye had known what this meaneth, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
read chapter 12 in ASV
But if these words had been in your minds, My desire is for mercy and not for offerings, you would not have been judging those who have done no wrong.
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But if ye had known what is: I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
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But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
read chapter 12 in KJV
read chapter 12 in WBT
But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless.
read chapter 12 in WEB
and if ye had known what is: Kindness I will, and not sacrifice -- ye had not condemned the blameless,
read chapter 12 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 7. - Matthew only. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I wilt have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless (on the quotation, see Matthew 9:13, note). Had you learned the simple Bible truth that God places the exercise of your moral faculties, particularly those of kindness, above merely external observances, you would not have committed this sin of taking up the position of wrong judges. He traces their error up to its true source, ignorance of the first principles of religion, ignorance of what God really desires. Condemned. Formally and officially (καταδικάζω). The guiltless. As were the very priests (ver. 5).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(7) I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.--Yet a third argument follows from the Old Testament (Hosea 6:6). The teachers or interpreters of the Law had failed to catch the meaning of the simplest utterances of the prophets. "Mercy and not sacrifice," moral and not positive duties, these made up the true life of religion, and were alone acceptable to God. It was because they had inverted the right relation of the two that they had, in this instance, condemned those whom our Lord now declares to have been in this respect absolutely guiltless.