Amos 5:21

21 “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me.

Amos 5:21 in Other Translations

KJV
21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
ESV
21 "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
NLT
21 “I hate all your show and pretense— the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
MSG
21 "I can't stand your religious meetings. I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions.
CSB
21 I hate, I despise your feasts! I can't stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.

Amos 5:21 Meaning and 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 from atoning for their sins, that they were hated, abhorred, and despised by him, being observed in such a manner and with such a view as they were; and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies;
a sweet savour of rest, as in ( Genesis 8:21 ) ; take no pleasure in their duties and services performed, in their solemn assemblies convened together for religious purposes, nor accept of them; but, on the contrary, dislike and abhor them; see ( Isaiah 1:11-14 ) .

Amos 5:21 In-Context

19 It 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.
20 Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light— pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?
21 “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me.
22 Even 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.
23 Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

Cross References 3

  • 1. Jeremiah 44:4
  • 2. S Leviticus 26:31; S Hosea 2:11
  • 3. S Ezekiel 23:18; Isaiah 1:11-16
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