If only you had known the meaning of ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.
7. But if you knew This Third argument is also mentioned by Matthew alone. Christ conveys an indirect reproof to the Pharisees, for not considering why ceremonies were appointed, and to what object they are directed. This has been a common fault in almost every age; and therefore the prophet Hosea (6:6) exclaims against the men of his own age for being too much attached...
The Jewish teachers had corrupted many of the commandments, by interpreting them more loosely than they were intended; a mistake which Christ discovered and rectified (ch. 5) in his sermon on the mount: but concerning the fourth commandment, they had erred in the other extreme, and interpreted it too strictly.
Commenting on Matthew 12:1-13
But if ye had known what this meaneth, The passage of Scripture in Hos 6:6 I will have mercy, and not sacrifice; of the sense of which, see Gill on Mat 9:13. ye would not have condemned the guiltless. Our Lord taxes the Pharisees both with ignorance of the Scriptures, in which they pretended to be very knowing, and took upon them to be the...