What Does Amos 5:22 Mean in the King James?

Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

Amos 5:22 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The burnt offerings are literally “ascents,” yet rising toward God does not compel God’s acceptance.

THE MEANING

An offering can be presented to God without receiving God’s acceptance. The burnt offerings ascend, yet God refuses them; even the peace offering is not regarded. The verse speaks directly: outward ritual does not compel divine regard.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie it undoes is that the sacredness of an offering guarantees that God receives it.

THE ROOT

עֹלוֹת

ʿolot

GROWS FROM

עלה

rise, ascend

“burnt offerings” in this verse is ʿolot. ⁨עֹלוֹת⁩ (ʿolot) grows from ⁨עלה⁩ (ʿalah, rise or ascend): it names the sacrifice as something that rises. Here, that upward movement ends in refusal, the offering’s ascent is not the same as being received.

ALSO GROWS

ʿalah: to rise, go up

עָלָה

This verb shares the root ⁨עלה⁩ and makes the movement inside the offering’s name audible.

maʿalah: ascent, step, upward course

מַעֲלָה

This noun carries the same root into the idea of an ascent, keeping the offering’s upward motion visible.

שֶׁלֶם

shelem

GROWS FROM

שלם

be whole, complete

“peace offering” in this verse is shelem. ⁨שֶׁלֶם⁩ (shelem) carries the root’s sense of wholeness, also heard in ⁨שָׁלוֹם⁩ (shalom, wholeness). The same consonants form ⁨שִׁלֵּם⁩ (shillem, repay or make good), placing wholeness beside restoration; even an offering named for wholeness is not regarded here.

ALSO GROWS

shalom: wholeness, well-being

שָׁלוֹם

It shares all three consonants with ⁨שֶׁלֶם⁩ and makes the wholeness carried by the offering’s name explicit.

shillem: to repay, make good

שִׁלֵּם

It shares the root ⁨שלם⁩ and links wholeness with making something good or complete.

THE PATTERN

When justice is absent, ritual cannot secure God’s regard; justice and concrete care express worship’s substance.

But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Amos 5:24 · KJVThe next verse names justice and righteousness as the flowing counterpart to the rejected offerings.

Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Isaiah 1:17 · KJVIt makes justice tangible in seeking judgment, relieving oppression, and pleading for the widow.

But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

Hebrews 13:16 · KJVIt calls doing good and sharing sacrifices that please God, placing lived generosity alongside worship.

THE THREAD

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

Isaiah 1:11 · KJV

The Hebrew for “burnt offerings” in both verses is ⁨עֹלוֹת⁩ (ʿolot), from ⁨עלה⁩ (ʿalah, to ascend). Isaiah names the same ascending offering while describing God’s refusal, so the shared root makes the repeated pattern visible.

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