Amos, the leader of
the chorus, says (iv.4 seq.),
"Come to Bethel to sin, to Gilgal to sin yet more, and bring your
sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days, for so ye
like, ye children of Israel."
In passing sentence of rejection upon the value of the cultus he
is in opposition to the faith of his time; but if the opinion had
been a current one that precisely the cultus was what Jehovah had
instituted in Israel, he would not have been able to say, "For so
ye like." "Ye," not Jehovah; it is an idle and arbitrary worship.
He expresses himself still more clearly in v.21 seq.
"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I smell not on your holy days;
though ye offer me burnt-offerings and your gifts, I will not accept
them; neither do I regard your thank-offerings of fatted calves.
Away from me with the noise of thy songs, the melody of thy viols
I will not hear; but let judgment roll on like waters, and
righteousness like a mighty stream. Did ye offer unto me
sacrifices and gifts in the wilderness the forty years, O house
of Israel?"
In asking this last question Amos has not the slightest fear
of raising any controversy; on the contrary, he is following
the generally received belief.
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