And as the dew that goeth early away....
For I desire mercy and not sacrifice;
And the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings.
But they like Adam have transgressed the covenant:
[or, as the Revisers’ “margin” would render it,
“But they are as men that have transgressed a covenant”:]
There have they dealt treacherously against me”[540]
[Therein have they proved unfaithful to the requirements of the blood-covenant on which they assumed to be resting, in their sacrifices].
And so, all the way along through the prophets, in repeated emphasis of the incompleteness of the blood-covenanting symbols in the ritual sacrifices.