Amos 5:22

22 That if ye offer to me your burnt sacrifices, and gifts, I shall not receive, and I shall not behold the avows of your fat things. (And if ye offer me your burnt sacrifices, and gifts, I shall not receive them, and I shall not look upon the fat beasts of your vows, or of your offerings.)

Amos 5:22 Meaning and 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 sacrifice, Christ; nor attended with repentance towards God: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts;
even though their peace offerings were of the best of the herd. Aben Ezra says the creature here meant is the same which in the Ishmaelitish or Arabic language is called <arabic> "giamus", a creature bigger than an ox, and like one, which is called a buffle or buffalo. And so Ben Melech says it means one of the kinds of the larger cattle; for not a lamb, a ram, or a sheep, is meant, as the word is sometimes rendered by the Septuagint, but a creature like an ox; not larger, or the wild ox, as the above Hebrew writers, but smaller; with which agrees the description Bellonius F14 gives of the Syrian "bubalus" or "buffalo", which he calls a small ox, full bodied, little, smooth, sleek, fat, and well made; and is no doubt the same the Arabs call "almari", from its smoothness.


FOOTNOTES:

F14 Apud Bochart. Hierozoic. p. 1. l. 2. c. 28. col. 283.

Amos 5:22 In-Context

20 Whether the day of the Lord shall not be darknesses, and not light; and mist, and not shining therein? (Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light; and cloud, or fog, and not sunshine, or brightness.)
21 I hated and casted away your feast days, and I shall not take the odour of your companies. (I hated and threw away your feast days, and I shall not receive the aroma from your offerings.)
22 That if ye offer to me your burnt sacrifices, and gifts, I shall not receive, and I shall not behold the avows of your fat things. (And if ye offer me your burnt sacrifices, and gifts, I shall not receive them, and I shall not look upon the fat beasts of your vows, or of your offerings.)
23 Do thou away from me the noise of thy songs, and I shall not hear the songs of thine harp.
24 And doom shall be showed as water, and rightwiseness as a strong stream. (Let justice flow like a river, and righteousness like a strong stream.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.