Matthew 9:13 Meaning and Explanation
“But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →A rabbi telling trained scholars to go and learn something is a sharp move, and Jesus makes it deliberately. The verse answers a question that outlives its setting: when devotion to God and kindness to a struggling neighbour seem to pull apart, which one has God already told us he prizes? Hosea supplied the answer centuries earlier.
Jesus sends his critics back to Hosea. God desires mercy above sacrifice, and the Son who came calling sinners to repentance is acting on that stated preference, at a table, in front of them.
The Context of Matthew 9:13
This is the second half of Jesus' reply to the Pharisees in verse 11, who had asked the disciples why their Master ate with publicans and sinners. Matthew has just recorded his own call from the receipt of custom in verse 9 and the meal that followed in verse 10. The quoted words come from Hosea 6:6, a line Matthew's Gospel returns to again in chapter 12 during a dispute about the sabbath. Immediately after this saying, the disciples of John arrive in verse 14 with a question about fasting, keeping the theme of religious practice in view.
What Does Matthew 9:13 Mean?
Three moves crowd into one sentence. 'Go ye and learn what that meaneth' is a teacher's assignment, handed to men who prided themselves on knowing the text. 'I will have mercy, and not sacrifice' is God speaking in Hosea, ranking what he delights in when the two are set against each other by human hands. Then comes the personal statement of purpose: Jesus came to call sinners to repentance. The word 'call' carries invitation and summons together, and 'repentance' keeps the invitation from collapsing into simple approval. Jesus names his own errand in the same breath as he cites Scripture, which places his ministry inside God's long-declared preference.
Hosea spoke to a nation whose worship continued while its loyalty drained away. The sacrifices God had given through Moses were genuine gifts, and the prophet's complaint fell on hearts that offered them while dealing treacherously with each other. Jesus applies that prophetic word to a moment when scrupulous men watched a meal and saw contamination where God saw an opportunity for mercy. Within Matthew 9 the point gathers force. A paralytic hears his sins forgiven, a tax collector leaves his booth, a bleeding woman is restored. Each scene shows mercy reaching people whose situations made careful observers keep their distance.
The closing clause gives one of the plainest statements of purpose Jesus makes in this Gospel, and everything later confirms it. He eats with Zacchaeus in Luke 19, he receives a thief's request from the neighbouring cross, he sends his disciples to all nations. The mercy Hosea described took flesh and went looking. Matthew 20:28 will describe the Son of man giving his life a ransom for many, which shows how costly this call to sinners proved to be. The sentence begun over dinner in Capernaum finds its completion at Golgotha, where mercy and sacrifice meet in one person.
Matthew 9:13 in the Original Language
eleos (ἔλεος), 'mercy' -- steady kindness shown to someone in need, the term the Greek Old Testament uses in Hosea 6:6 for the Hebrew word chesed, God's covenant loyalty. Matthew keeps that vocabulary, so the mercy in view is faithful love in action toward real people.
Bible Verses Related to Matthew 9:13
“For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
- Hosea 6:6
“But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.”
- Matthew 12:7
“And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”
- 1 Samuel 15:22
“I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
- Luke 5:32
Where Matthew 9:13 Echoes in Scripture
Matthew 12:7 brings the same Hosea line back, this time when the Pharisees object to disciples plucking grain on the sabbath. Jesus tells them that knowing what Hosea meant would have kept them from condemning the guiltless. Two disputes, one text: the Gospel writer wants readers to notice that Jesus treated Hosea 6:6 as a settled rule for reading God's will, applied first to table fellowship and then to sabbath practice.
How to Apply Matthew 9:13 Today
Assignments are meant to be done, and this one is still open. We can take an hour with Hosea 6 and read it slowly, asking where our own religious care has grown sharper than our compassion. In practical terms that might mean checking whether we speak more precisely about a neighbour's failings than we pray for them, or whether the person hardest to welcome at our table is the one Christ would seat first. Mercy learned this way changes how we handle a difficult relative, a struggling colleague, a stranger asking for help.
Reflection & Prayer
If Jesus handed us Hosea 6:6 as homework this week, what would we discover about ourselves by Friday? A prayer: Father, you have told us plainly what pleases you. Teach me mercy in the places where I am most confident of being right, and let my repentance be as real as your call. Through Jesus Christ, Amen.