New International Version
Amos 5:21
21“I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me.
Amos 5:21 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
- English Standard Version (ESV)"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
- New King James Version (NKJV)“I hate, I despise your feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies.
- New Living Translation (NLT)“I hate all your show and pretense— the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
Context of Amos 5:21
19It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. 20Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light— pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. 22Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. 23Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
Read all of Amos 5Amos 5:21 word by word
שָׂנֵ֥אתִי מָאַ֖סְתִּי חַגֵּיכֶ֑ם וְלֹ֥א אָרִ֖יחַ בְּעַצְּרֹֽתֵיכֶֽם׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Amos 5:21
- Proverbs 15:8The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him.
- Proverbs 21:27The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable— how much more so when brought with evil intent!
- Proverbs 28:9If anyone turns a deaf ear to my instruction, even their prayers are detestable.
- Isaiah 1:11“The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
- Isaiah 66:3But whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a person, and whoever offers a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig’s blood, and whoever burns memorial incense is like one who worships an idol. They have chosen their own ways, and they delight in their abominations;
- Jeremiah 6:20What do I care about incense from Sheba or sweet calamus from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please me.”
- Jeremiah 7:21“ ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves!
- Hosea 8:13Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to me, and though they eat the meat, the Lord is not pleased with them. Now he will remember their wickedness and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt.
- Genesis 8:21The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
- Leviticus 26:31I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings.
- Ephesians 5:2and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
- Philippians 4:18I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.
Commentaries on Amos 5:21
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 21I 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 the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 21I hate, I despise your feasts - Israel clave to its heart‘s sin, the worship of the true God, under the idol-form of the calf; else, it would fain be conscientious and scrupulous. It had its “feasts” of solemn “joy” and the “restraint” of its “solemn assemblies”, which all were constrained to keep, abstaining from all servile work. They offered “whole burnt offerings,” the token of self-sacrifice, in which the sacrificer retained nothing to himself, but…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 18-27Verses 18-27 Woe unto those that desire the day of the Lord's judgments, that wish for times of war and confusion; as some who long for changes, hoping to rise upon the ruins of their country! but this should be so great a desolation, that nobody could gain by it. The day of the Lord will be a dark, dismal, gloomy day to all impenitent sinners. When God makes a day dark, all the world cannot make it light. Those who are not reformed by the judgments of…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 21-27Amos again confronts the religious hypocrisy and spiritual unfaithfulness of the Israelites. They practiced worship outwardly, but their lives did not match faithfulness to God (see Amos 4:4–5; Isaiah 1:10–20).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2121. I hate, I despise--The two verbs joined without a conjunction express God's strong abhorrence. your feast days--yours; not Mine; I do not acknowledge them: unlike those in Judah, yours are of human, not divine institution. I will not smell--that is, I will take no delight in the sacrifices offered (Ge 8:21; Le 26:31). in your solemn assemblies--literally, "days of restraint." Is 1:10-15 is parallel. Isaiah is fuller; Amos, more condensed. Amos…Read the comment
Topics related to Amos 5:21
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Amos 5
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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