Amos 4:5

Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand on the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers;

“When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Most certainly, I tell you, they have received their reward.

But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass justice and God’s love. You ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves;

But they didn’t listen or turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. The sacrifice of the feast of the Passover shall not be left to the morning.

He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

But God turned, and gave them up to serve the army of the sky, as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

He shall offer his offering with the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving with cakes of leavened bread.

and that we should bring the first fruits of our dough, our wave offerings, the fruit of all kinds of trees, and the new wine and the oil, to the priests, to the rooms of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground to the Levites; for they, the Levites, take the tithes in all the cities of our tillage.

They joined themselves also to Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.

Many men claim to be men of unfailing love, but who can find a faithful man?

“Woe to the rebellious children”, says Yahweh, “who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,

They don’t know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see; and their hearts, that they can’t understand.

“For my people are foolish. They don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but they don’t know how to do good.”

Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances in which they should not live.

For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

“Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.

Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.

He who acts unjustly, let him act unjustly still. He who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous, let him do righteousness still. He who is holy, let him be holy still.”

Don’t eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; with its head, its legs and its inner parts.

“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. The fat of my feast shall not remain all night until the morning.

“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.

Israel joined himself to Baal Peor, and Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel.

You shall roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God chooses. In the morning you shall return to your tents.

So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they might walk in their own counsels.

They don’t know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.

He rescued them many times, but they were rebellious in their counsel, and were brought low in their iniquity.

Let them offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his deeds with singing.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man can’t find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end.

The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;

But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

Your habitation is in the middle of deceit. Through deceit, they refuse to know me,” says Yahweh.

For according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.’

I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute, nor your brides when they commit adultery; because the men consort with prostitutes, and they sacrifice with the shrine prostitutes; so the people without understanding will come to ruin.

The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror for the calves of Beth Aven; for its people will mourn over it, Along with its priests who rejoiced over it, for its glory, because it has departed from it.

“But woe to you who are rich! For you have received your consolation.

who in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.

Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie;

not paying attention to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.

They profess that they know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.

Yahweh said to Moses, “Pharaoh won’t listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”

Moses said to the people, “Remember this day, in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand Yahweh brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.

Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and no leavened bread shall be seen with you. No yeast shall be seen with you, within all your borders.

You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of Yahweh your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

“You shall observe the feast of weeks with the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest at the year’s end.

“You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground to the house of Yahweh your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

“ ‘When you offer an offering of a meal offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.

That which is left of it Aaron and his sons shall eat. It shall be eaten without yeast in a holy place. They shall eat it in the court of the Tent of Meeting.

“When you sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to Yahweh, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted.

“ ‘All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is Yahweh’s. It is holy to Yahweh.

for they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods. The people ate and bowed down to their gods.

“ ‘Also in the day of the first fruits, when you offer a new meal offering to Yahweh in your feast of weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work;

You shall give him the first fruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep.

Samuel said, “Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying Yahweh’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you?

Charge them with crime upon crime. Don’t let them come into your righteousness.

I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call on Yahweh’s name.

None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life.

He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice.

Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moons, Sabbaths, and convocations: I can’t stand evil assemblies.

Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees;

Men will call them rejected silver, because Yahweh has rejected them.”

But we will certainly perform every word that has gone out of our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then had we plenty of food, and were well, and saw no evil.

“ ‘ “But they rebelled against me, and would not listen to me. They didn’t all throw away the abominations of their eyes. They also didn’t forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the middle of the land of Egypt.

I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will respond there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God.

Ephraim is joined to idols. Leave him alone!

Don’t rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations; for you were unfaithful to your God. You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor.

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season; but they came to Baal Peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they loved.

Misery is mine! Indeed, I am like one who gathers the summer fruits, as gleanings of the vineyard: There is no cluster of grapes to eat. My soul desires to eat the early fig.

“Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother.

leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Therefore when you do merciful deeds, don’t sound a trumpet before yourself, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may get glory from men. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward.

But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

But they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

On the first day of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Passover, his disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare that you may eat the Passover?”

He said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Wake up righteously, and don’t sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

and not to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which cause disputes, rather than God’s stewardship, which is in faith—

Even as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind, who concerning the faith are rejected.

Don’t be carried away by various and strange teachings, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not by food, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.

These are those who cause divisions and are sensual, not having the Spirit.

They shall eat the meat in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.

You shall bring out of your habitations two loaves of bread for a wave offering made of two tenths of an ephah of fine flour. They shall be baked with yeast, for first fruits to Yahweh.

And in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine rules made by men.’ ”

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;