Amos 4:5

And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven,.... Which some observe was contrary to the law, which forbids all leaven in a meat offering; or "burning" it in any offering, Leviticus 2:11; which

And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord GOD. And offer - literally, burn incense.

Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven; as all the rest of your will-worship, so this also is against the express law, , but yet you will persist in it; and do so at your peril, try whether it end in good to you. Proclaim and publish the free-offerings; publicly, frequently, and earnestly persuade your people to voluntary sacrifices, in which you think to please me; but you offer them all to idols; this your religion is impiety. This liketh you; as you invented it, so it pleaseth you, and you will not be reclaimed. Ye children of Israel; ye idolatrous, apostate Israelites. Saith the Lord God; for these you shall be punished by the Lord your God.

Amos 4:5 And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim [and] publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.Ver. 5. And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven] Which I have flatly forbidden to be done, Leviticus 2:11. Neither leaven nor honey (which hath a leavening property in it) might be burnt in any offering made by fire; to show how God hateth hypocrisy; which, as leaven, soureth, swelleth, impureth, both us and our services. Out with it, therefore, 1 Corinthians 5:7. God indeed permitted his people to offer leavened bread with the peace offerings, Leviticus 7:13, ut ostenderetur, Deum ferre nostram infirmitatem, saith Alsted, to show that God beareth with our infirmities. But those leavened loaves were not to be burnt upon the altar; they were only for food to be eaten. And proclaim and publish the free offerings] That you may not seem in anything to come short of my most forward worshippers; nor to be without your holy convocations solemnly proclaimed. Atque ita omnino in caepta idololatria strenue pergite, and so show yourselves thorough idolaters (Tarnov.); as the historian saith of our Richard III, that knowing it was no good policy to play the villain by half deal, he resolved to suffer never a rub to lie in his way that might hinder the true running of his heart. For this liketh you] Heb. so ye love. Idolatry is marvellously pleasing to corrupt nature; as is to be seen in little ones delighting in babies. The whole world wondered after the beast, Revelation 13:3. The papacy with its pomp and pleasure is an alluring, tempting, bewitching religion. The great whore with her cup of fornications may easily boast, as that harlot in Aelian did, that she could soon get scholars from Socrates; not he from her. But what an odd or rather sad thing is it, that men should so like that which will be their bane? and that God should be put to complain, as here, and Jeremiah 5:31, "My people love to have it so; and what will ye do in the end thereof?" Polybius saith, that whereas man is counted the wisest of all creatures here below, to him he seemeth to be the most foolish; for other things love and seek their own preservation, Solus homo ab aevo ad aevum peccat fere in iisdem et punitur. Man only persisteth in sin, and is punished, as if he were ambitious for destruction.

(5) The margin is more correct, and gives the key to the passage. Render, and offer by burning your thank-offering of leaven. Leaven was not allowed in any sacrifice offered by fire. Amos ironically calls upon them to break the Levitical law (Leviticus 7:13; Leviticus 23:17), as he knew they were in the habit of doing.

Verse 5. Over a sacrifice of thanksgiving] To the senseless metal, and the unfeeling stock and stone images, from which ye never did, and never could receive any help. Proceed yet farther, and bring free-will offerings; testify superabundant gratitude to your wooden and metallic gods, to whom ye are under such immense imaginary obligations! Proclaim and publish these offerings, and set forth the perfections of the objects of your worship; and see what they can do for you, when I, Jehovah, shall send drought, and blasting, and famine, and pestilence, and the sword among you.

5. offer] make into sweet smoke (the Homeric κνίση, Il. I. 319), a term used technically of the consumption of sacrifices upon the altar (Leviticus 1:9, &c.). The idea is that of a repast: comp. Genesis 8:19. The root ḳ ?atara in Arabic signifies to exhale an odour in roasting. a sacrifice of thanksgiving] The tτdβh, or thanksgiving-offering, of Jeremiah 17:26; Jeremiah 33:11; Leviticus 7:12-13; Leviticus 7:15; Leviticus 22:29; 2 Chronicles 29:31; 2 Chronicles 33:16; Psalms 56:12, c. title, Psalms 107:22, Psalms 116:17. with leaven] of that which is leavened (R.V.). “Leaven,”—a term including, as Leviticus 2:11 shews, not only yeast, but also dibs or grape-honey,—was forbidden as an ingredient in sacrifices (Exodus 23:18; Leviticus 2:11; Leviticus 6:17) on account of its liability to putrefy. In Leviticus 7:14 cakes of leavened bread are, it is true, to be offered with the thanksgiving offering: they are not, however, to be consumed upon the altar, but to be eaten by the offerer, with the flesh of the offering, at a sacrificial feast: the leaven was thus not a part of the sacrifice itself. The custom of not offering leaven prevailed, it may be inferred, at Beth-el: the Israelites of Amos’s day, however, with mistaken zeal, thought to make their thanksgiving-offerings more acceptable by using yeast or grape-honey in their preparation. It is not improbable that luscious sacrifices of this kind were a feature in the Canaanite worship of Baal, and were for this reason viewed with particular disfavour by the prophet (cf. Hosea 3:1; W. R. Smith, O.T.J.C.1, p. 434; Rel. Sem.2 p. 220 f.). proclaim free-will offerings and publish them] i.e. announce them ostentatiously (cf. Matthew 6:2; Matthew 23:5), and invite all the world to the sacrificial feast accompanying them. The free-will offerings are such as were prompted by the spontaneous devotion of the worshipper: they are mentioned in Deuteronomy 12:6; Deuteronomy 12:17 as a common form of sacrifice. this liketh you] lit. so ye love (Jeremiah 5:31): this is what pleases you; act accordingly: it is not Jehovah’s choice, and will not deliver you from the impending doom. To like in Old English = to please: so Deuteronomy 23:16, Esther 8:8.

And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven - But amid this boastful service, all was self-will. In little or great, the calf-worship at Bethel, or the use of leaven in the sacrifice, they did as they willed.

4, 5. A mistaken zeal. Beth-el — See on Amos 3:14. Gilgal — The first camping ground of the Israelites west of the Jordan. Its very name (circle, that is, of stones — cromlech) testifies to its sacred character.