I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
Parallel translations
- WEB I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.
- BSB “I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of 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 1:11–16To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
- Prov 28:9He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.
- Lev 26:31And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.
- Isa 66:3He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.
- Jer 6:20To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.
- Prov 15:8The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
- Hos 8:13They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but the LORD accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.
- Prov 21:27The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?
- Gen 8:21And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
- Matt 23:13But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
- Eph 5:2And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
- Jer 7:21–23Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
- Phil 4:18But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.
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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
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