“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
The Prophet shows in this place, that he not only reproved hypocrisy in the Israelites in obtruding on God only external display of ceremonies without any true religion in the heart; but that he also condemned them for having departed from the rule of the law.
Their feasts and assemblies, their songs and viols, all were abominations to Him because their hearts were not with Him. Nothing is more hateful than this hypocrisy, this pretense of respect when none exists. God will not smell what is offensive; He despises services meant to buy leave to go on sinning.
AI summary
Commenting on Amos 5:21-27
Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings,.... No; they were not offered to God, but to devils, to the golden calf, and to the host of heaven: so their fathers did in the wilderness forty years; where sacrifices were omitted during that time, a round number for a broken one, it being about thirty eight years; and these their children were imitators of them...