Bible Strands
Amos 4:5
Offer leavened bread as a thank offering, and loudly proclaim your freewill offerings. For that is what you children of Israel love to do,” declares the Lord GOD.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Lord GOD addresses the children of Israel through the prophet Amos during a sequence of divine judgments where He reminds them of their continued rebellion despite His past afflictions.
The words — The Hebrew verb וְ/קַטֵּ֤ר (ka.Ter) literally means "make smoke" or offer a sacrifice, paired with מֵֽ/חָמֵץ (cha.Metz), which denotes "from a thing leavened."
The thread — The text contrasts Israel's loud proclamation of thank and freewill offerings with the broader scriptural pattern of God yielding stubborn hearts to their own devices (Psalms 81:12) and the historical reality of Israel's initial faithfulness being replaced by rebellion (Hosea 9:10).
Why it lands — The verse records Israel's preference for noisy ritual over genuine obedience, demanding that a reader recognize the contradiction between outward religious performance and inward spiritual condition.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 22:18 “Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the Israelites and tell them, ‘Any man of the house of Israel or any foreign resident who presents a gift for a burnt offering to the LORD, whether to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering,
- Psalms 81:12 So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.
- Hosea 9:10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the firstfruits of the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to Shame; so they became as detestable as the thing they loved.
- Leviticus 7:12 If he offers it in thanksgiving, then along with the sacrifice of thanksgiving he shall offer unleavened cakes mixed with olive oil, unleavened wafers coated with oil, and well-kneaded cakes of fine flour mixed with oil.
- Hosea 9:1 Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations, for you have played the harlot against your God; you have made love for hire on every threshing floor.
- Matthew 6:2 So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
- Matthew 15:13 But Jesus replied, “Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by its roots.
- Matthew 23:23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
- Leviticus 23:17 Bring two loaves of bread from your dwellings as a wave offering, each made from two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with leaven, as the firstfruits to the LORD.
- Deuteronomy 12:6 To that place you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and heave offerings, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, as well as the firstborn of your herds and flocks.