Gregory the Dialogist : But it is one thing to show mercy for sins, another to sin for the sake of showing mercy, which cannot really be called mercy since it does not issue in sweet fruit, since it is embittered through the influence of a diseased root. For here the Lord rebukes such sacrifices through the prophet, saying, "I, the Lord, love justice and hate robbery with whole burnt offerings." … Such people also often withdraw from the poor what they give to God. But the Lord shows how strongly he disowns and censures such conduct. — The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 3, Chapter 21 Jerome : (Vers. 8, 9.) And I will give their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. And their seed will be known among the nations, and their offspring in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them, that they are the offspring whom the Lord has blessed. LXX: And I will give their labor to the righteous, and I will establish an eternal covenant with them. And their seed will be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples. Everyone who sees them will recognize them, that they are the blessed offspring of God. O God, who loves justice and judgment, and detests violent holocausts (for whatever is stolen is considered as the wages of a prostitute, and the price of a dog), you will give labor to those who possess the land secondly and whom you will crown with double joy, to the righteous, or as it is better understood in Hebrew, in truth: so that it may not be like the shadow of truth in the Law, but that it may be the truth itself. And you will make an everlasting covenant, not like the one Moses gave, which has passed away, but the covenant of the Gospel, about which Christ speaks: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away (Matthew 24:35). And then the Apostolic seed will be known among the nations, and all future generations will receive the seed of the doctrine of God, not saying at all in which the people of circumcision previously erred, saying: For what else, except for the seed, does God seek? Anyone who sees them will recognize from the first appearance that they are the seed to whom the Lord has blessed. For who, from the order of life, gentleness, self-control, hospitality, and all virtues, does not understand the people of God? And who does not detest the bloody hands of the Israelis, against whom the Prophet curses, saying: Fill their faces with shame, O Lord (Ps. LXXXII, 17). — Commentary on Isaiah John Cassian : "If you offer rightly, but do not reason rightly, have you not sinned?" For those offerings of fasts, which we extort without thought by violently wrenching our stomachs and fancy that we rightly offer to the Lord, he who "loves mercy and judgment" denounces, saying: "I the Lord love judgment, but I hate robbery in a burnt offering." Similarly, those also who take the main part of their offerings, that is, their offices and actions, to benefit the flesh for their own use, but leave the remains as a tiny portion for the Lord, are also condemned as fraudulent workers by the Divine Word, saying: "Cursed is the one who does the work of the Lord fraudulently." — CONFERENCE 21:22