And proclaim aloud the voluntary offerings,
For you love to do so, O Israelites!"

The sarcastic smile, however, suddenly faded from the speaker's lips,
as he asked:

"Did ye bring me sacrifices and meal-offerings in the wilderness,
forty years, O House of Israel?"

Then, with the power and fervor of the God-inspired man he was, Amos
denounced bitterly the whole system of worshiping God by means of
sacrifices, and delivered a message, new to his hearers, relating to
what God really expected from Israel:

"I hate, I despise your feasts,
And I will take no delight in your festivals;
With your meal-offerings I will not be pleased,
And the peace-offerings of your fattlings I will not regard
with favor.
Banish from me the noise of your songs;
To the melody of your viols I will not listen.
But let justice roll down as waters,
And righteousness as a never-failing stream."

These concluding sentences literally stunned the crowd. Priest and
people gasped at the Prophet's proclamation that God did not command
the sacrifices at Sinai and did not care for them, but that, instead,
He demanded justice and righteousness on the part of His people. The
Prophet had upset all their ideas and traditions regarding their
religious forms and practices, and he claimed God for his authority!