Deeper Commentary
Amos 5:1 Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over
you, O house of Israel- "Lamentation" is literally a funeral lament. It
was as if they were already dead, and now God and Amos were as it were
lamenting at the funeral; although the lamentation was yet future (:16). But
although the prophetic word of destruction was so certain, yet there was
still space to repent. In this was the desperate urgency of the appeal Amos
is making. Israel were being asked to "listen" to their own funeral
lamentation. We too can try to fast forward in time and reflect what could
legitimately be said about us.
Amos 5:2 The virgin of Israel has fallen; she shall rise no more. She is
cast down on her land; there is no one to raise her up- But the idea of
the restoration was that God would raise up Israel. So terms like "no more"
and "never again" are relative to that generation, at that time; see another
example in 2 Kings 24:7. This is quite normal language usage within Semitic
thought, but it can cause difficulties of understanding and interpretation
for more literalistic Western readers. All the same, that generation would
fall and die, their bodies cast out in the open (Ez. 29:5; 32:4); and they
were being asked to imagine the scene of their death and the funeral lament
over them- and repent to avert that judgment. The present and past tenses
are used to bring home how certain are God's words of fulfilment.
Amos 5:3 For thus says the Lord Yahweh: The city that went forth a
thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth one hundred
shall have ten left to the house of Israel- As with the destruction
of Jerusalem, there was always a remnant left. Samaria was to be left with
just 10% of its former population; a major destruction. And it was with
this tiny remnant that God hoped to work. They were perhaps the tenth, the
tithe, which were intended for God's work. The idea of only a tenth
surviving is repeated in Am. 6:10.
Amos 5:4 For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel: Seek Me, and you
will live- We are frequently reminded in the prophets that the
spiritual way of life is one which is seeking God. We are to seek
His face (Ps. 24:6; 27:8)- which it is impossible to behold (Ex. 33:20).
Actually finding God in the ultimate sense is therefore unattainable in this
life; but our whole mortal life must be lived in this spirit of seeking
ultimate perfection. Seeking God is often defined in the prophets as
forsaking our sins and desiring to be righteous (Amos 5:5,8,14,15). None of
us are completely successful in our seeking of God in terms of quitting
every sin and becoming perfect, and therefore it follows
that none of is completely forsakes all our sinfulness.
Amos 5:5 But don’t seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and don’t pass to Beersheba- Which required passing right across Judah. Judah too had her idol shrines in addition to Yahweh's temple.
For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing- There is a word play here, as if to say "For Gilgal shall taste the gall of exile"- "Ha-Gilgal galoh yigleh". And likewise "Bethel", the house of God, "shall become an idolatry / idol house". No mention is made of Beersheba's judgment, perhaps because there appeared more hope for Judah's repentance.
Amos 5:6 Seek Yahweh, and you will live- "Seeking" God is
explained on :4.
Lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel- Tiglath-Pileser first took into captivity all Gilead and Galilee, the majority of the territory of the ten tribes (2 Kings 10:32,33); but didn't touch the territory of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph. That earlier invasion had been a warning; the outpouring of wrath upon Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, could yet be averted. The fire had started, but it could still be quenched by repentance. But despite the message being so clear, they refused to repent; just as we can see the writing on the wall and refuse to note it. This blindness is a sad feature of human nature.
Amos 5:7 You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness
to the earth- This is the thought of Am. 6:7 "But you have turned
justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness".
Israel's judgment was to be cast down to the earth (Is. 28:2; Dan. 8:12),
and wormwood was to be their condemnation (Jer. 9:15; 23:15; Lam. 3:15).
It was serving other gods which would lead to the bitterness of wormwood
(s.w. Dt. 29:18). But they are condemned here not for idolatry, but for
injustice, abusing the weak so that they left them with a bitter taste in
their mouth, just as we feel when we have been misused or ripped off. This
was the essential sin, and it was the egoism and selfishness behind that
abuse which led further to idolatry. By making others feel this
bitterness, by refusing to show justice / righteousness [the two ideas are
closely connected in Hebrew], the abusers were securing their own
condemnation when they would taste as it were the bitterness of wormwood.
Amos 5:8 Seek Him who made the Pleiades and Orion- This is
emphasized because Israel are rebuked for worshipping the star of Remphan
in :26 (cp. Acts 7:43). God had made not just one star but the "seven
stars" (NEV "Pleiades"), all of them, and the entire constellation of
stars seen in "Orion".
He who turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, Yahweh is His name- According to God's Name / essential character, He would reverse the creation process. Darkness would become night, and the waters of the sea, representing the armies of the invaders, would be poured out by Him upon the surface of the eretz / land promised to Abraham, just as they were at the flood. The same imagery is used in Revelation, where judgments are poured out as if from bowls / vials upon the same geographical area.
Amos 5:9 He who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that
destruction comes on the fortress- The citadel of Samaria, their
human strength and defence, would be destroyed. It would be sudden, in
that they had previously trusted in their various alliances. This is the
nature of divine judgment- to reveal all human strength as hopelessly
weak, and it is for the faithful to perceive that before judgment comes.
We live in an age when such human strength has been perfected and honed as
never before, with insurance against every eventuality. "The strong" refer
to the group within Israel who were abusing the weak. The lesson for us is
not simply regarding financial exploitation of the poor. We can all be
strong in some contexts. You may be standing in line at a check out, and
the person in front of you doesn't speak the local language. You suddenly
become the strong, and they the weak; it is not for you to be impatient
and irritated with the weak. You may be an accepted member of a family or
community; and an outsider comes within the circle. You are the strong,
and they the weak.
Amos 5:10 They hate him who reproves in the gate- Perhaps a
reference to Amos who stood in the gate of Samaria or Bethel delivering
his warnings.
And they detest him who speaks blamelessly- Insofar as Amos spoke God's words. This detesting of Amos led to him being banned from Israel, as he records in Am. 7.
Amos 5:11 Forasmuch therefore as you trample on the poor, and take
taxes of wheat from him- therefore you who have built houses of cut stone
will not dwell in them. You who have planted pleasant vineyards shall not
drink their wine- The taxes demanded had to be paid in kind, in
agricultural produce, because the poor had nothing else to give; see on
Am. 7:1. And Am. 4:6-9 has explained that this was at a time of famine.
The strong took away what little food the poor had, just in order to
continue their own opulent living. We live in a world where there is every
opportunity to do this, and on a global scale. In time of famine, everyone
had to go down a step on the ladder. But the motivation for taxing the
hungry and therefore taking their little food from them was because it was
unthinkable that the strong should take a step down on the ladder. And
this again is a principle which cuts to the core of our society. When it
comes to actually stepping down a peg and going without some aspects of
our current lifestyle, all within us rebels against it. We may be
generous, but only if our current level of living is not undercut. And if
circumstances require us to downsize or downgrade in whatever way, it is
human nature to do literally anything, at any cost to the weak, in order
to save us from doing so.
Amos 5:12 For I know how many are your offences, and how great are your
sins- Israel like us were tempted to think that the apparent silence
of God meant that He had as it were not noticed their sins. But God is
deeply sensitive, and every offence was noted and felt, and the magnitude
of it. But His sensitivity never turns off. What was apparently just an on
paper series of offences are described here as "your mighty sins". What we
may shrug off as just surface level failure are "mighty sins" to God.
You who afflict the just- We note it was the righteous who were abused, in this case. The poor are not always "the just", for poverty is no guarantee of spirituality of itself. So it was the righteous remnant who were being abused, and God was particularly sensitive to that.
Who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy in the courts- Is. 29:21 uses the same phrase but adds that they turned aside the needy for "a thing of nothing". The bribes they received were very small, just as Judas betrayed the Lord for a mere 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave, that couldn't even buy more than a small parcel of muddy, useless land. Amos has made this complaint elsewhere, that even for a pair of sandals, cheap shoes, the cause of the righteous was perverted (Am. 2:6; 8:6). The allusion may be to Num. 35:31, where bribes are forbidden to cover murder. By hating their brothers and abusing them, they had effectively murdered them. And the Lord confirmed in His teaching that hatred is as murder in God's book.
Amos 5:13 Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for
it is an evil time- The reference may be to the righteous keeping
silent in respect of the rightness of Divine judgments (Lev. 10:3; Ps.
39:9). The "evil time" was to come because they had themselves sought
"evil" (:14). Constantly we see that the judgments which came were
essentially that which they themselves sought. See on Am. 6:10.
Amos 5:14 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh,
the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say- They claimed that
Yahweh was with them, when He was not (Mic. 3:11). Hence they claimed to
desire the day of Yahweh, when in fact it would be their condemnation
(:18). The promises of the Kingdom, the comfort of God's love, are often
appropriated by passive believers in times of crisis. But these promises,
and the active presence of God, are to be experienced in daily life now.
And this requires a seeking of good, rather than of evil. The unjust
profiteers and materialists would likely have objected to the charge of
actively seeking evil; but this is how God sees anything other than
seeking good.
Amos 5:15 Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It
may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of
Joseph- The prophets called upon men to “hate evil and love good”, to have some passion about our positions.
Amos 5:16 Therefore thus says Yahweh the God of Armies, the Lord: Wailing will be in all the boulevards; and they will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’, and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skilful in lamentation to wailing- As noted on :1, it was as if the lamentation was already in progress, so certain was it that Israel would perish in the judgment to come. But that future reality could still be changed by repentance, such was and is God's sensitivity to human repentance. "The farmer" seems to be used in order to give the impression that there would be mourning from city streets to country areas.
Amos 5:17 In all vineyards there will be wailing; for I will pass
through the midst of you, says Yahweh- See on :1,16. The passing
through the midst in judgment is the language of God's judgment of Egypt
on Passover night (Ex. 12:12). Israel had returned to Egypt in spirit and
were judged accordingly, as Egypt. The wailing or funeral mourning was in
the vineyards because they were symbolic of the wealthy life (:11). But
those vineyards had already been smitten by the drought (Am. 4:9). They
ought to have learnt the lesson, that the wealthy life and symbols of
opulence were already of no meaning. But they continued in their hope that
their vineyards would again flourish. We too are at times given
premonitions about the meaninglessness of wealth and opulence. And if we
don't take the lesson, that wealth will be removed totally at the last
day.
Amos 5:18 Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for
the day of Yahweh? It will be darkness for you, and not light- This
and Mal.
3:1,2 warn that just desiring the coming of the Lord isn’t enough; for
what end will it be, if we don’t truly love His appearing? Yet
Amos goes on to say that Israel “put far away” the reality of the day of
the Lord, in their minds (Am. 6:3). And yet they desired it. We can study
prophecy, but not really love His appearing in seriously preparing
ourselves for that day. Indeed, we can subconsciously put it far from us.
When we grasp for a fleeting moment how very near is the second
coming for us; can we dwell upon it, retain that intensity? Or would we
rather put it “far away”? This is surely why the Lord brings the list of
signs of His coming to a close with some chilling parables concerning the
need for personal watchfulness. It’s as if He could foresee generations of
believers straining to interpret His words carefully, correctly matching
them with trends in the world... and yet missing the essential point: that
we must watch and prepare ourselves for His coming, whenever it may be for
us. Having given so many indicators of His soon appearing, the Lord then
says that His coming will be unexpected by the believers (Mt. 24:36,44).
He wasn’t saying ‘Well, you’ll never properly interpret what I’ve just
said’. He meant rather: ‘OK you’ll know, more or less, when my return is
imminent; but all the same, in reality it will be terribly
unexpected for most of you unless you prepare yourselves. You need to make
personal changes, and be watchful of yourselves; otherwise all the correct
prophetic interpretation in the world is meaningless’. Those described in
Rom. 1:32 know the judgment of God; they know it will come. But they have
a mind “void of [an awareness of] judgment” (Rom. 1:28 AVmg.). We can
know, know it all. But live with a mind and heart void of it. Tit. 1:16
AVmg. uses the same word to describe those who “profess that they know
God” but are “void of judgment”. We can know Him, but have no real
personal sense of judgment to come. These are sobering thoughts.
Amos 5:19 As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him- The allusion may be to the idea that the lion may spare its prostrate prey, but the bear will not do so. This idea may be incorrect, but God uses it here; if they had repented to God prostrate before the invaders, then the judgment could have been averted. But they did not, and so they faced the merciless destruction of a bear.
Or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him- They may flee for refuge into their houses, so often criticized by Amos, but find no safety there either. Again, human wealth and strength is to be no refuge. The point is so repeated by Amos because we are so slow to accept it. See on Am. 6:9.
Amos 5:20 Won’t the day of Yahweh be darkness for you, and not light?
Even very dark, and no brightness in it?- They were perhaps grabbing
hold of the promises in Joel about the day of Yahweh being of bright
light, a new dawn for Israel. But it would not be so for them. It's rather
like an uncommitted nominally Christian person grabbing hold of words of
comfort about the future Kingdom of God coming on earth; the question is,
will that day be of judgment or salvation for us? The question here,
rather than a simple statement, is to desperately appeal for them to
imagine what judgment day would be like, and change the outcome by their
repentance.
Amos 5:21 I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t tolerate your
solemn assemblies-
The feasts and related gatherings are repeatedly described as feats of
Yahweh, assemblies of Yahweh. But Israel had hijacked God's religion and
made His table, His feasts, their own- hence "your feasts". The
New Testament likewise describes the feats as "feasts of the Jews" and
Yahweh's temple as the temple of the Jews. By making the Lord's table
effectively ours, we are doing the same; taking over His house as our own,
with all the house rules of our denominationalism. The same language is
used of God's anger at the sacrifices and feasts held in the Jerusalem
temple in Judah (Is. 1:10-15). Again we see that the shrines and rituals
of the calves in the ten tribe kingdom were imitations of the Jerusalem
temple.
Amos 5:22 Yes, though you offer Me your burnt offerings and meal
offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace
offerings of your fat animals-
They had failed to appreciate what the New Testament makes apparent- that
the blood of sacrifices, the performance of religious ritual of itself,
was not a ground for acceptability. Rather was a contrite, repentant heart
required, and the cleansing was from God's response to that rather than
for the sake of the blood itself. And as noted on :21, we see that they in
the ten tribe kingdom were carefully imitating the Mosaic rituals of the
Jerusalem temple. But they were doing so in worship of their calves.
Amos 5:23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen
to the music of your harps-
The same language is used of how God was angry with the songs and harp
music of the Jerusalem temple (Is. 1:14; 24:8; Ez. 26:13). The calf
shrines of the ten tribes were imitations of the Jerusalem temple worship.
They were therefore the more irritating to God.
Amos 5:24 But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like
a mighty stream- In Hebrew, the word for justice is that for
judgment. So we have here a double meaning; God was to send judgment upon
Israel like mighty rivers, and such rivers are Biblical imagery for
invading armies, Assyria especially (Is. 8:6). And yet this could be
averted, if the country became awash with the justice which Amos so
frequently appeals for.
"Mighty stream" suggests "Ethanim", the seventh month, just before the early rains, was called Ethanim, the month of the perennial streams. Perhaps the idea is that the final Assyrian judgment was to come in this month.
Amos 5:25 Did you really bring to Me sacrifices and offerings in the
wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel?- The historical record
says that they did, so the idea is that although they did, God didn't
accept them because they were also offering to other gods. This is a
biting, incisive challenge to all of us who perform religious rituals,
such as collective meetings, prayer, breaking of bread etc. We can do all
these things, but not do them as God accepts. Such things are all a
natural and correct part of communal life together, but they are also part
of organized religion, and human nature tends to seek justification
through ritual and religion rather than heartbroken faith in the God who
saves by grace.
Amos 5:26 You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your
images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves
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