He Described Mercy With 'Go Learn,' Not 'Listen'
The only time Jesus commanded someone to go study scripture, the lesson he assigned was a single half-verse about mercy.
In Matthew 9:13, Jesus gives what sounds like a homework assignment: 'But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.' The command is remarkable on several counts. First, 'go and learn' (Greek: poreuthentes mathete) is a rabbinic idiom — a teacher's instruction to a student to go study a text until its meaning is grasped. Jesus uses it here not to a disciple seeking instruction, but to Pharisees criticizing his table fellowship with tax collectors and sinners. Second, the text he assigns is Hosea 6:6, but he does not cite it as 'Hosea' or 'the prophet' — he quotes only the first clause and stops, presenting the words as self-sufficient: 'I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.' Third, this is the only occurrence in all four gospels where Jesus issues the imperative 'go and learn' directed at educated religious opponents. He does not say 'have you not read?' as he does elsewhere (Matthew 12:3, 12:5, 19:4; Mark 12:26), which merely challenges their reading. 'Go and learn' implies they have not yet understood what they already know. The mercy text he sends them to study is, in his framing, not a proof-text for his behavior but a rebuke of theirs — and he repeats the identical assignment a second time in Matthew 12:7, suggesting it was intentional pedagogy, not a passing remark.
Red Letter Sources
Matthew 9:13Matthew 12:7Matthew 12:3Matthew 12:5Matthew 19:4Mark 12:26
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.
But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;
Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?
And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?
Evidence Notes
Matthew 9:13 and Matthew 12:7 both cite Hosea 6:6 ('I will have mercy, and not sacrifice') in Jesus's own words — the only two times he quotes this text. 'Go ye and learn' appears as a direct imperative only in Matthew 9:13. The 'have ye not read' formula appears in Matthew 12:3, 12:5, 19:4, and Mark 12:26 as an alternative challenge to opponents — a different rhetorical register from 'go and learn.'
Greek Note
The imperative poreuthentes mathete ('go and learn') in Matthew 9:13 reflects the rabbinic formula zil g'mor, used when a teacher dismisses a student to work out the implication of a text independently. It is distinct from the anagnote ('have ye not read') formula, which challenges whether a text has been consulted at all. The two imperatives address different levels of failure: anagnote implies ignorance; mathete implies incomprehension.