And that it was on account of the sins of your people and on account of their idolatries—and not because He had need of such offerings—that He commanded these things likewise to be done, hear how He speaks concerning them through Amos, one of the Twelve, crying out:
'Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord! Why is this day of the Lord to you? It is darkness and not light. As when a man flees from the face of a lion, and a bear meets him; or he goes into his house and leans his hand against the wall, and a serpent bites him. Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it? I have hated, I have rejected your feasts, and I will take no delight in the savour of your solemn assemblies.'
'For though you offer Me your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, I will not accept them, neither will I regard the peace offerings of your appearings. Take away from Me the multitude of your songs and psalms; I will not hear your instruments. But let judgment roll down like water, and righteousness like an impassable torrent. Did you offer Me slain beasts and sacrifices in the wilderness, O house of Israel? says the Lord. And you took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Raphan, the images which you made for yourselves.'
'And I will carry you away beyond Damascus, says the Lord; God the Almighty is His name. Woe to those who live at ease in Zion, and to those who trust in the mountain of Samaria! They who are named among the chief of the nations, and who have plundered the first-fruits of the nations—into them has the house of Israel entered. Pass over all of you to Calneh and see, and from there go on to Hamath the great, and go down from there to Gath of the Philistines, the mightiest of all these kingdoms; are their borders greater than your borders?'
'You who are coming to the evil day, who draw near and lay hold of false sabbaths, who lie upon beds of ivory and live in luxury upon their couches, who eat lambs from the flocks and sucking calves from the midst of the herds, who beat time to the sound of the instruments, reckoning them as enduring and not as fleeting, who drink wine from bowls and anoint yourselves with the finest ointments, and were not grieved at all over the affliction of Joseph. Therefore now they shall be the first to go into captivity from among the rulers of those who are carried away, and the dwelling of the evildoers shall be removed, and the neighing of horses shall be taken away from Ephraim.'
And again, through Jeremiah: 'Gather together your flesh and your sacrifices and eat, for I gave your fathers no command concerning sacrifices or drink offerings in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.'
And again, through David in the forty-ninth psalm, He spoke thus: 'The Lord, the God of gods, has spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion is the perfection of His beauty. God will come openly, our God, and will not keep silence; fire shall burn before Him, and round about Him a mighty tempest. He shall summon the heaven above and the earth, that He may judge His people. Gather to Him His holy ones, who have made a covenant with Him over sacrifices. And the heavens shall declare His righteousness, for God is judge.'
'Hear, O My people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against you: I am God, even your God. I will not reprove you concerning your sacrifices; your burnt offerings are continually before Me. I will take no bull-calf out of your house, nor he-goats out of your folds, for all the beasts of the field are Mine, the cattle on the mountains and the oxen; I know all the birds of the heaven, and the beauty of the field is with Me.'
'If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and its fullness. Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High; and call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me. But to the sinner God said: Why do you declare My statutes, and take up My covenant in your mouth? You have hated instruction, and cast My words behind you.'
'When you saw a thief, you ran with him, and with the adulterer you cast in your lot. Your mouth abounded in malice, and your tongue framed deceits. You sat and spoke against your brother, and laid a stumbling block against your own mother's son. These things you did, and I kept silence; you supposed in your iniquity that I would be like yourself. I will reprove you, and set your sins before your face. Consider this now, you who forget God, lest He tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver. The sacrifice of praise shall glorify Me, and there is the way by which I will show him My salvation.'
So then He neither receives sacrifices from you, nor did He command them to be made at the outset as one in need, but on account of your sins. For indeed He acknowledged the temple in Jerusalem, called by His name, as His house or court—not as though He had need of it, but so that, in attending to Him in this also, you might not commit idolatry. And that this is so, Isaiah says: 'What house will you build Me? says the Lord. Heaven is My throne, and the earth is the footstool of My feet.'