Micah 6:8

But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Only be careful, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children’s children—

But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you wouldn’t have condemned the guiltless.

Guard your steps when you go to God’s house; for to draw near to listen is better than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they don’t know that they do evil.

If therefore there is any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion,

Samuel said, “Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying Yahweh’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.

with all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man you will show yourself perfect.

You will also decree a thing, and it will be established to you. Light will shine on your ways.

A man’s pride brings him low, but one of lowly spirit gains honor.

Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey Yahweh your God’s voice; then Yahweh will relent from the evil that he has pronounced against you.

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Then your light will break out as the morning, and your healing will appear quickly; then your righteousness shall go before you, and Yahweh’s glory will be your rear guard.

Yahweh says: “Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong. Do no violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place.

In love of the brothers be tenderly affectionate to one another; in honor preferring one another;

Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?

Yahweh is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.

See how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in unity!

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Be of the same mind one toward another. Don’t set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Don’t be wise in your own conceits.

Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,

Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart.

“What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.

For my hand has made all these things, and so all these things came to be,” says Yahweh: “but I will look to this man, even to he who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.

For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

As it is written, “He has scattered abroad. He has given to the poor. His righteousness remains forever.”

Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might.

Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;

For God is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the labor of love which you showed toward his name, in that you served the saints, and still do serve them.

Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth through the Spirit in sincere brotherly affection, love one another from the heart fervently,

Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

For though Yahweh is high, yet he looks after the lowly; but he knows the proud from afar.

The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor, than to divide the plunder with the proud.

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice.

The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me, because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to those who are bound,

For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and protesting, saying, “Obey my voice.”

“Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.

You fathers, don’t provoke your children to wrath, but nurture them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,

For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Finally, all of you be like-minded, compassionate, loving as brothers, tenderhearted, courteous,

For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that Yahweh may bring on Abraham that which he has spoken of him.”

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him who lives forever; for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.’

We love him, because he first loved us.

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine;

With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man, you will show yourself perfect.

which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace,’ saying, ‘Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you; so you shall be my people, and I will be your God;

House of David, Yahweh says, ‘Execute justice in the morning, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my wrath go out like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass justice and God’s love. You ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

For the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, says: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

“Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

“Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful.

After Methuselah’s birth, Enoch walked with God for three hundred years, and became the father of more sons and daughters.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless.

You shall walk after Yahweh your God, fear him, keep his commandments, and obey his voice. You shall serve him, and cling to him.

because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before Yahweh, when you heard what I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and have torn your clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard you,’ says Yahweh.

Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that Yahweh’s wrath didn’t come on them in the days of Hezekiah.

His prayer also, and how God was entreated of him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places in which he built high places, and set up the Asherah poles and the engraved images, before he humbled himself: behold, they are written in the history of Hozai.

He didn’t humble himself before Yahweh, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but this same Amon trespassed more and more.

because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God, when you heard his words against this place, and against its inhabitants, and have humbled yourself before me, and have torn your clothes, and wept before me, I also have heard you,” says Yahweh.

All day long he deals graciously, and lends. His offspring is blessed.

But it is good for me to come close to God. I have made the Lord Yahweh my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

Light dawns in the darkness for the upright, gracious, merciful, and righteous.

He has dispersed, he has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted with honor.

This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.

Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”

But let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for I delight in these things,” says Yahweh.

It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.

Again, when I say to the wicked, “You will surely die;” if he turns from his sin, and does that which is lawful and right;

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven; for all his works are truth, and his ways justice; and those who walk in pride he is able to abase.

Therefore turn to your God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait continually for your God.

Seek Yahweh, all you humble of the land, who have kept his ordinances. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of Yahweh’s anger.

He said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

For I say through the grace that was given me, to every man who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think reasonably, as God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith.

And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.

You shall follow that which is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which Yahweh your God gives you.

You shall therefore obey Yahweh your God’s voice, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today.”

He plots iniquity on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He doesn’t abhor evil.

Yes, Yahweh will give that which is good. Our land will yield its increase.

For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts?

For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.

Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say.

These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates,

Therefore whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets.

but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.