Amos 5:23Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Are you aware that God despises the worship offered to Him with instruments like drums, harps, and lyres? He has declared, "Depart from Me; I will not listen to the sound of your songs or the music of your instruments." When God says, "Depart from Me," do you then choose to listen to the trumpets?

In conjunction with festivals and fruitless offerings, the Lord disregards the pleasing sounds of musical instruments, directing honor not toward lifeless entities but rather entrusting those who express praises born from a pure spirit with the immense task of glorification, for such worship is both exquisite and acceptable to God. However, the praises of the Jews, which arise from instruments not truly theirs, can be likened to a mere redundant and vain echo, lacking in substance and power. To illustrate this folly of Jewish misconception, it is noted, “The song of thy organs,” suggesting that this practice does not belong to Him since it surpasses the law, which was silent on this matter.

“Remove from Me the sound of your music.” The Lord, having seen the rejection of His sacrifices and celebrations by the Jewish people, withdraws His acceptance of their songs during these observances. He desires to quiet the melodies they sing, for through these songs, they have created festivities in honor of their idols.

Remove from Me the clamor of your songs, and I will not listen to the melody of your lyre. LXX: Take away from Me the sound of your music, and the song from your psaltery, I will not pay attention to. The lovely hymns of the Levites, in which they exalted God, are deemed a chaotic and disordered noise, as ‘praise is not acceptable from the lips of a sinner’ (Sir 15:9-10), since they often offered similar songs to idols. Likewise, the prayers of the Jews and the psalms chanted in the synagogues, along with the elaborate praises of heretics, are mere noise to the Lord, comparable, figuratively speaking, to the grunting of swine and the braying of donkeys, particularly reflecting the works of Israel.

The Lord declares, I am filled with the burnt offerings of sheep and with the fat of lambs, and with the blood of young bulls and goats; I will not desire (Isaiah 1:11). Following this, He lists all the offerings made to Him according to the law, asserting that He detests them all equally. Likewise, He stated that He despises the festivals and will not accept the sacrifices presented in the gatherings; for it is written, I will not smell, which signifies I will not accept. Similarly, the blessed Moses indicated that even during Noah’s time, the Lord God perceived the odor of the offerings (Gen. 8:21), meaning He acknowledged the intentions of those who presented them. For the Lord does not require sacrifices.

The miraculous acts of Jesus took place in Samaria, the homeland of one of the lepers. Samaria was distinct from Israel, having been the area where Jeroboam settled the ten tribes that had turned away, as foretold by the prophet Ahijah. Moreover, the Samaritans took great pride in their ancestral mountains and wells. In the Gospel of John, a Samaritan woman engages in a dialogue with the Lord at the well, asking, "Are you greater ...?" and she adds, "Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where you should worship is in Jerusalem" (John 4:12, 20). Jesus firmly directed the healed Samaritan to present himself to the priests, who were located solely at the Temple, thereby indicating that Samaria was under the spiritual authority of Judea. This reveals that salvation is "from the Jews" (John 4:22), available to both the Israelites and the Samaritans.