Deeper Commentary
Amos 4:1 Listen to this word you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their husbands, Bring us drinks!- Having made clear that judgment was about to burst in Am. 3, Amos now desperately appeals for repentance. I noted on Am. 2:7,13 that economic abuse of the poor and the weak by the 'strong' is described as crushing them. But here we read that it was the obese women of Bashan who did this. The idea is that they demanded of their husbands a lifestyle that meant their husbands abused the poor. God sees all things, and every human motivation. And so they were all condemned for their part in the abuse. These obese women were "on the mountain of Samaria"; perhaps referring to the cult shrine there, just as the mountain of Zion referred to the temple. The drinks they demanded would have been wine offerings, drunk supposedly to Yahweh through their worship of the calves. Their sin was the worse because it was tied up with religious and pseudo spiritual justification.
Oppressing and crushing the poor and needy uses the same Hebrew words
as found in Dt. 24:14 about not oppressing poor and needy people,
including Gentiles living amongst them. And this was what Israel and Judah
had done (Ez. 22:29). It was appropriate therefore that it was Gentiles
who would "oppress", "crush" and spoil Israel (Dt. 28:29,33 s.w.). The
motivation for not oppressing the poor was to be a continual awareness and
reflection upon the fact that they had been the poor, needy and oppressed
in Egypt, but had been saved from that by God's grace, just as Messiah
would save the poor and needy and destroy the oppressor (Dt. 24:18; Ps
72:4). This is why Amos seeks to remind Israel of their spiritual
beginnings and often alludes to the great salvation from Egypt (Am. 3:1).
We too need to ever be aware of our salvation by grace alone, from our
spiritual poverty. To oppress another will not come at all naturally if we
are ever aware of our personal experience of grace. God is particularly
sensitive to how we treat the poor or the weak in whatever sense. What we
do to them, we do to Him; for he who oppresses the poor reproaches his
maker (Prov. 14:31). The "oppression" of Israel by the Assyrians was
therefore just and appropriate (Jer. 50:33); and yet Is. 52:4 says that
the Assyrians "oppressed them without cause". I take this therefore as the
in-loveness of God, imputing righteousness and innocence to His
disobedient people.
Amos 4:2 The Lord Yahweh- "Lord" is adon, the same word
used for "husband" in :1. Instead of being partners in abuse with their
husbands, they ought to have had Yahweh as their lord.
Has sworn by His holiness that, behold, the days shall come on you that they will take you away with hooks, and the last of you with fish hooks- Clearly a reference to the captivities at the hands of Babylon and Assyria, where hooks were placed in the bodies of the captives. This was the judgment upon Egypt, to be captured by hooks (Ez. 29:4). They had acted as Egypt had towards them (see on :7) and so were to be punished as Egypt- all because they had oppressed the poor. Abuse of the weak by the strong, in whatever sense, makes us as the world, as Egypt; and such abuse is not limited simply to financial abuse. For we are all the strong in some contexts. But the original is difficult and the LXX offers: "And fiery destroyers shall cast those with you into boiling caldrons", which would explain why the same Hebrew word for "hooks" is used of the pot or cauldron which Jerusalem would become (Ez. 11:3; 24:3,6).
Amos 4:3 You will go out at the breaks in the wall, each one straight
before her; and you will cast yourselves into Harmon, says Yahweh-
The "her" reminds us that the subject of these words are the obese women
of :1, who had grown fat as a result of abusing the poor. This attempted
escape through the breaches in the wall is exactly what happened when
Zedekiah and the royal family sought to escape the Babylonian siege, and
we can assume that something similar happened when the Assyrians
surrounded Samaria. They were to go out "straight before", as if they were
fattened calves being led out of their pens to slaughter. As explained on
:1, they had fattened themselves for the slaughter by abusing others. The
allusion to calves is appropriate because they had worshipped the calves
of Jeroboam rather than Yahweh; they became like that they worshipped, and
were judged appropriately. We become like what we worship, and the desire
to worship something is coded within our natures. It's a case of choosing
to exclusively worship the Lord and being totally devoted to Him rather
than anything else.
The LXX has: "And ye shall be brought forth naked in the presence of each other; and ye shall be cast forth on the mountain Romman". This could refer to a mountain in Assyria; where in scenes reminiscent of the holocaust, the Israelite women would be cast down naked. But (NEV) "you will cast yourselves"- they had done this to themselves.
Amos 4:4 Go to Bethel, and sin; to Gilgal, and sin more- This
could equally be read as meaning that this is what they had done. But we
can also read it, as NEV, as God encouraging them in their sin. This is
how He works; a holy spirit from Him encouraging us in righteousness, and
an "evil spirit from the Lord" encouraging sinners in the downward spiral
they delight in. This is why we can never take a break from our spiritual
path; we are being propelled in constant motion, in the direction we
choose.
Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days- We see here how the Israelites were mixing Yahweh worship with their paganism at the calf shrines of Bethel and Gilgal. For it was to Yahweh that morning and evening sacrifices were to be made; and the three yearly tithe is that referred to as due to Yahweh in Dt. 14:28; 26:12. This is the biting challenge of Amos and the situation he describes; we can mix Yahweh worship with our idolatry and consider that because we have a semblance of devotion to Him, then all shall be well with us. This is the danger of organized religion. The organized side of it is perhaps a necessary evil; but it can so easily take away from the true spirituality which is so essential to acceptable worship and relationship with God.
Amos 4:5 Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened,
and proclaim freewill offerings and brag about them: for this pleases you,
you children of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh- As noted on :4, Israel
were using elements of Yahweh worship in their devotions to the idols at
Bethel and Gilgal. Yet they offered thank offerings with leaven,
representing their malice and wickedness (1 Cor. 5:8). They even liked to
claim that they offered voluntary offerings to Yahweh, over and above
those required. And it 'pleased' Israel to do this, they liked doing it.
It is no bad exercise to set ourselves the task of working out how we
might do so today. Buying and boasting about luxury goods and homes, which
we claim are part of our care for the needy when they are really for our
own indulgence; proclaiming strict adherence to Divine principles as a
means of shunning those we have a gut dislike of... and so we could
continue the list.
Amos 4:6 I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
and lack of bread in every town; yet you haven’t returned to Me, says
Yahweh- God had already tried to bring Israel to repentance. The
threatened invasion was but the last of a series of attempts to bring them
back to God. He had given them famine to try to make them "return",
implying they had already as it were gone away from Him into Gentile lands
from which they would have to "return" (s.w.) to God. Their exile and
captivity was therefore but a reflection of their own distancing of
themselves from God. We noted on :1 that the wealthy women were obese; and
yet this was achieved during a time of want and famine in the land. Their
abuse of the poor for their own luxury at such a time was therefore the
more obnoxious.
Amos 4:7 I also have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet
three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, and
caused it not to rain on another city. One place was rained on, and the
piece where it didn’t rain withered- This selective rain was to
recall how the Egyptians suffered some of the plagues but the Israelites
didn't. As noted on :1, God was seeking to remind Israel of their
salvation from Egypt (see on Am. 3:1). They had been saved by grace, but
by oppressing their brethren as the Egyptians had oppressed them, they
were no better than the Egyptians. They had therefore reversed the exodus;
they were now the Egyptians, because in their hearts they had returned
there. The allusions to the Egyptian plagues continue in :9,10.
Amos 4:8 So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water,
and were not satisfied: yet you haven’t returned to Me, says Yahweh-
The drought was intended to make the people go to God; but instead they
went to try to get water from elsewhere. We wonder which city had water
whereas the others didn't; possibly it was a Gentile city, or a city where
there were members of the righteous remnant. "Staggered" or 'wander' is
the word used about Israel's wandering away from God (Jer. 14:10) and into
captivity (Am. 9:9; Lam. 4:15). The drought therefore gave them a
foretaste of what condemnation and judgment would be like; but they
stubbornly refused to perceive it. We also see such foretastes of
judgment; in Scripture, in our lives and those of others. And it is for us
to respond.
Amos 4:9 I struck you with blight and mildew- Literally,
"blasting" (as AV). Again the allusion is to Egypt, whose corn was
likewise blasted (Gen. 41:6).
Many times in your gardens and your vineyards- "Many times" reflects the multiple efforts of God with Israel. He so many times nudged them to perceive the similarities with Egypt.
And your fig trees and your olive trees have the swarming locust devoured: yet you haven’t returned to Me, says Yahweh- See on :7. Locusts were one of the plagues on Egypt; but the fig and the olive, the very symbols of Israel, were now being treated like the Egyptians. They were supposed to perceive these multiple prods and nudges, to join the dots and see the picture. But like so many today, they refused.
Amos 4:10 I sent plagues among you like I did upon Egypt. I have slain
your young men with the sword, and have carried away your horses; and I
filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you haven’t
returned to Me, says Yahweh- See on :7. The "camps" were again to
recall Egypt; "horses" typically came from Egypt, and were the symbol of
human strength, which the law of Moses forbad the kings of Israel to use;
see on:11. Already there had been incursions into the land, and young men
and horses killed or carried away. By all means God had tried to prod and
nudge Israel to repentance without an all out invasion and devastation of
the land. The various seals of judgment upon the land and people of Israel
in the last days, as detailed in Revelation, are intended to have the same
effect; and will be augmented by our witness to Israel and Jewish people.
For all these multiple nudges and opportunities to repent, Israel refused.
Amos 4:11 I have overthrown some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom
and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire;
yet you haven’t returned to Me, says Yahweh- As noted on :10, there
were incursions of the land before the main invasion in order to try to
bring them to repentance. Hence "some of you". They were as Sodom, as
Isaiah 1 makes clear; but were treated like Lot who was saved out of the
burning by grace alone. This was undeserved grace. And yet still they
didn't learn; they were saved from rightful judgment, but still they
wouldn't perceive God's grace and repent. The historical situation is that
of 2 Kings 13, where in the time of Amos, "The anger of Yahweh was kindled
against Israel, and He delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of
Syria, and into the hand of Ben Hadad the son of Hazael, continually.
Jehoahaz begged Yahweh, and Yahweh listened to him; for He saw the
oppression of Israel, how that the king of Syria oppressed them. Yahweh
gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the
Syrians; and the children of Israel lived in their tents as before.
Nevertheless they didn’t depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam,
with which he made Israel to sin, but walked therein. There remained the
Asherah also in Samaria. For the king of Syria didn’t leave to Jehoahaz of
the people any more than fifty horsemen, ten chariots and ten thousand
footmen; for the king of Syria destroyed them, and made them like the dust
in threshing" (2 Kings 13:3-7). We note here the destruction of their
horses, which is mentioned here in Am. 4:10.
Amos 4:12 Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel; and because
I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel- Amos
speaks of Israel’s final judgment as a day of their meeting their God, and
he urges them to prepare to meet Him. This was no grim fatalism, as if an angry final statement. The language is
shot through with allusion to how both Israel and Moses were told to prepare
to meet Yahweh at Sinai (Ex. 19:11,15; 34:2). But that meeting involved a
declaration of God’s Name, the foremost characteristic of which was that God
is a God full of mercy and love for His people.
Amos 4:13 For, behold, He who forms the mountains, and creates the
wind, and declares to man what is his thought; who makes the morning
darkness, and treads on the high places of the earth: Yahweh, the God of
Armies, is His name- The armies of Babylonians and Assyrians were
God's armies. The very mountains around Samaria alluded to in Am. 3:9 had
been created by God. The God of endless physical ability has the same
boundless abilities when it comes to matters of the spirit or "wind"; He
who created all things knows the thought of man. And this was where
repentance needed to occur. He could invert His creative work, making
light into darkness; and He would destroy the "high places" of the land
through the forthcoming invasion. The invaders typically destroyed the
shrines of those whom they conquered; hence the God of those armies would
as it were tread on their high places, just as they had trampled upon the
poor (see on :1).
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