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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Amos 5:21-27

The scope of these verses is to show how little God valued their shows of devotion, nay, how much he detested them, while they went on in their sins. Observe, I. How unpleasing, nay, how displeasing, their hypocritical services were to God. They had their feast-days at Bethel, in imitation of those at Jerusalem, in which they pretended to rejoice before God. They had their solemn assemblies for religious worship, in which they put on the gravity of those who come before God as his people come,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Amos 5:21

I hate, I despise your feast days ,.... Kimchi thinks this is said, and what follows, with respect to the kingdom of the house of Judah, which kept the feast the Lord commanded; but it is not necessary so to understand it; for doubtless the ten tribes imitated the worship at Jerusalem, and kept the feasts as the Jews did there, in the observance of which they trusted; but the Lord rejects their vain confidence, and lets them know that these were no ways acceptable to him; and were so far... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Amos 5:22

Though ye offer me burnt offerings, and your meat offerings, I will not accept them ,.... The daily burnt offerings, morning and night, and others which were wholly the Lord's; and the "minchah", or bread offering, which went along with them; in which they thought to do God service, and to merit his favour; but instead of that they were unacceptable to him, being neither offered up in a proper place, if in a right manner according to the law of Moses; however, not in the faith of the great... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:21

I hate, I despise your feast days - I abominate those sacrificial festivals where there is no piety, and I despise them because they pretend to be what they are not. This may refer to the three annual festivals which were still observed in a certain way among the Israelites. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:22

The peace-offerings of your fat beasts - מריאיכם merieychem probably means buffaloes; and so Bochart. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:21

Verse 21 Here the Prophet, anticipating an objection, shows that the Israelites deceived themselves, for they believed that God was pacified by their sacrifices: he declares all these to be useless; not only, as I think, because they themselves were impure; but because all their sacrifices were mere profanations. We have said elsewhere that sacrifices are often reprehended by the Prophets, when not accompanied by godliness and sincerity: for why did God command sacrifices to be offered to him... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:22

Verse 22 When ye offer me sacrifices and your gift, etc. מנחה, meneche, properly means a gift of flour, which was an addition to the sacrifice; but it is often taken generally for any kind of offering. It is indeed certain that the Prophet meant, that however much the Israelites accumulated their ritual observances, they did nothing towards appeasing God, inasmuch as they observed not the law that was given them; and they turned also to a wrong purpose their sacrifices; for they did not... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Amos 5:18-27

The prophet enforces the threat by denouncing woe on those that trust to their covenant relation to God, expecting the day when he would punish the heathen for their sakes, and thinking that external, heartless worship was acceptable to him. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Amos 5:21

Outward, formal worship will not avert the threatened danger or secure the favour of God in the day of visitation. Your feast days ( chaggim ); your feasts ; your counterfeit worship, the worship of the true God under an idol symbol (compare God's repudiation of merely formal worship in Isaiah 1:11-15 ). I will not smell; οὐ μὴ ἀσφρανθῶ θυσίας . No sweet savour ascends to God from such sacrifices; so the phrase is equivalent to "I will not accept," "I will take no delight... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Amos 5:21-23

The autograph of the unreal. Wicked Israel, strange to say, was worshipping Israel still. Theirs was sanctimonious sinning. It was done more or less in a religious connection. It was accompanied, and attempted to be covered, by an unstinted dressing of pietistic cant. But it only smelled the more rank to Heaven. Unreal worship is no mitigation, but only an aggravation, of the guilt of unholy living. I. INSINCERITY IS OFTEN SCRUPULOUS ABOUT ALL THE CIRCUMSTANTIALS OF ... read more

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