21 “I hate,(A) I despise your religious festivals;(B)
    your assemblies(C) are a stench to me.
22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings(D) and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them.(E)
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
    I will have no regard for them.(F)
23 Away with the noise of your songs!
    I will not listen to the music of your harps.(G)
24 But let justice(H) roll on like a river,
    righteousness(I) like a never-failing stream!(J)

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“What can I do with you, Ephraim?(A)
    What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist,
    like the early dew that disappears.(B)
Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,
    I killed you with the words of my mouth(C)
    then my judgments go forth like the sun.[a](D)
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,(E)
    and acknowledgment(F) of God rather than burnt offerings.(G)

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Footnotes

  1. Hosea 6:5 The meaning of the Hebrew for this line is uncertain.

The Calling of Matthew(A)

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,”(B) he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”(C)

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’[a](D) For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”(E)

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Footnotes

  1. Matthew 9:13 Hosea 6:6

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