“I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.
Parallel translations
- WEB I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.
- KJV I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
- NKJV “Ihate, I despise your feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies.
- NASB ¶“I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your festive assemblies.
- NLT “I hate all your show and pretense— the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God declares that he hates and despises Israel's religious feasts and assemblies. Worship divorced from justice and true devotion is offensive to him.
Overview
Israel kept the appointed festivals diligently, yet God rejects them because their hearts and hands were corrupt. Ritual without righteousness is not neutral but detestable to God. This exposes the emptiness of mere external religion and points to the need for the new heart and true worship that come only through Christ, who fulfills and cleanses all worship.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Isa 1:11–16“What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
- Prov 28:9Whoever turns his ear away from hearing the law, even his prayer is detestable.
- Lev 26:31I will reduce your cities to rubble and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will refuse to smell the pleasing aroma of your sacrifices.
- Isa 66:3Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who slays a man; whoever sacrifices a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever presents a grain offering is like one who offers pig’s blood; whoever offers frankincense is like one who blesses an idol. Indeed, they have chosen their own ways and delighted in their abominations.
- Jer 6:20What use to Me is frankincense from Sheba or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please Me.”
- Prov 15:8The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.
- Hos 8:13Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the LORD does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt.
- Prov 21:27The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable—how much more so when brought with ill intent!
- Gen 8:21When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
- Matt 23:13Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.
- Eph 5:2and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.
- Jer 7:21–23This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves!
- Phil 4:18I have all I need and more, now that I have received your gifts from Epaphroditus. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Amid judgment on injustice, Amos promises the raising up of David's fallen tent — read by James in Acts 15 as the ingathering of the nations into the kingdom of the risen Christ.
How Amos 5:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.