Charles Ellicott Commentary Amos 5:21-22

"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Yea, though ye offer me your burnt-offerings and meal-offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts." — Amos 5:21-22 (ASV)

These verses closely resemble the condemnation that Isaiah pronounces (Amos 1:10–15) upon mere ritual, however meticulous, and mere profession of orthodoxy, however strict, that was not accompanied by righteousness and mercy, and was not the expression of inward penitence and purity.

Will not smell in your ... —A strong expression for “I take no delight in them.”

That Baal worship, as well as the worship of the true God, was characterized by similar offerings and sacrificial terms is indicated by a Phoenician tablet inscribed with a code of sacrificial dues, discovered at Marseilles.

The word rendered peace offering should be translated as in the margin. The word for “meat offering” is better interpreted as “meal offerings,” since it consisted of vegetable products used in food: meal, oil, cakes, etc.