Deeper Commentary

Amos 8:1 Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: Behold, a basket of summer fruit- "Summer" translates a Hebrew word very similar to that used for "end" in :2. These final visions in Amos may be in response to him being exiled from Israel as recorded in Am. 7. Israel had stated finally that they didn't want God's word, and so Amos now gives visions of the end, and yet concludes with the gracious hope of restoration.

Amos 8:2 He said, Amos, what do you see? I said, A basket of summer fruit- The apparently obvious question was to help Amos be clear in his own mind. We too at times have to be asked 'What is this?', because verbalizing the reply is helpful for our own understanding. The 'end fruit' (see on :1) was the fruit of Israel's behaviour. All our days and years are spent cultivating, and the fruit shall surely come. For Israel, the fruit they bore meant "the end" for them.

Then Yahweh said to me, The end has come on My people Israel. I will not again change My mind about them any more- Amos had successfully persuaded God to change His mind, but God says He will do so no more. And yet even then, there were changes in His plans, influenced always by His passionate desire to save at least some. The Divine statement here is proof enough that God does change His mind, as we see clearly in His altering of purpose regarding Israel's destruction (Num. 14:34) and that of Nineveh. He is only unchanging in His essential grace, in that the sons of Jacob are not consumed when they ought to be (Mal. 3:6).

Amos 8:3 The songs of the temple will be wailings in that day, says the Lord Yahweh- These visions seem particularly addressed to the ten tribes (:14), but most of Amos' words also have relevance to Judah; for he prophesied to both kingdoms (Am. 1:1). I have noted earlier that the idol shrines of the ten tribe kingdom were conscious imitations of the worship at the Jerusalem temple; so "the songs of the temple" could refer to the musical worship at the shrine in Samaria. A historical fulfilment would have been in how the songs of Zion, the temple mount, became laments in Judah's captivity (Ps. 137:3,4 s.w.). But the immediate context seems to concern wailing for the dead bodies in the temple / sanctuary.

The dead bodies will be many. In every place they will throw them out in silence- This "silence" is that spoken of in Am. 6:10 (see note there). The bodies would be thrown out and not buried. Perhaps the reference is to what happened when the literal sanctuary at Bethel collapsed during the Assyrian invasion and destroyed those who had taken refuge there; see on Am. 9:2.

Amos 8:4 Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy- The awful judgments of :3 were due to the abuse of the poor. We might have thought that the idolatry was the main reason, yet the sin which apparently angered God even more than that was the abuse of poor brethren. As they had swallowed up or devoured the needy (s.w. Am. 2:7), so they would be swallowed up by the invaders (s.w. Is. 42:14; Ez. 36:3). To care for "the needy" was a major theme of the Mosaic law (s.w. Ex. 23:6; Dt. 15:4,7,9,11 etc.). We have noted earlier in Amos that the poor were swallowed up for tiny amounts, such was the avarice of the wealthy.

And cause the poor of the land to fail- "Fail" is the same word as "sabbath" in the next verse. These "poor" were the ones left in the land by the Babylonians (2 Kings 25:12; Jer. 39:10; 40:7) and it seems the Assyrians did likewise. There was no economic advantage in taking the dirt poor away into captivity. It was they who therefore remained in the land whilst she 'kept her sabbaths' (2 Chron. 36:21). The word play is making the point that it was the abused who were the ones who would also 'sabbath' in the land. It was this abused minority with whom God hoped to work and bring about a restored Kingdom.

Amos 8:5 Saying, ‘Oh when will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel large, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit- We marvel that whilst God's people were involved in such major idolatry and abuse, they would bother to religiously keep the sabbath. But they did, and this is exactly the warning to the religious man and woman- that external observance of spiritual rites and even obedience to Divine commandments is no reflection of spirituality. It was the kind of apparently petty, hidden sin which clearly weighed heavier with God than the more evident sin of idolatry. For tweaking balances would have resulted in only relatively petty gain for the trader, otherwise it would have been noticeable and lacking in credibility. Likewise Paul begins his critique of the Corinthians by speaking of their divisiveness, and only later addresses their drunkenness at the breaking of bread, use of prostitutes, denial of the resurrection etc. Hosea lamented the use of the same "balances of deceit", and saw how this was all part of an attempt to even deceive God (Hos. 11:12; 12:7 s.w.). Micah likewise (Mic. 6:11). This secret tweaking of balances was noticed by God and it was a consistent issue He had with Israel; it was "an abomination unto Yahweh" (Prov. 20:23), using the very word typically used for idol worship.

Amos 8:6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the sweepings along with the wheat?’- As noted on :5, the deceit and abuse practiced was for very petty gain on each transaction. This is where greed leads. The poor were sold into slavery for "a pair of shoes", or sandals. "Pay me what you owe me" was the attitude (Mt. 18:28), and for petty amounts, the debtor was forced into slavery. And the Lord quotes this attitude as pertinent to us today if we do not forgive our brother from the heart. The chaff or left over grain of the wheat should have been left for the poor of the land; we recall Ruth gleaning such corn. But Israel swept it up and sold it to the poor. And remember that such attitudes are being cited as reason for "the end" finally coming upon Israel (:1,2).

Amos 8:7 Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob- This could mean that the judgment was coming because of Jacob / Israel's pride; or that He swore as the One whom Jacob / Israel were proud of. I have noted throughout Amos that the people were kidding themselves that they were Yahweh's people and He would preserve them in the coming day of Yahweh; perhaps it was exactly because of this that He was so insistent that He would never forget or pass by judgment of their sins.

 

Surely I will never forget any of their works- There is within us all the tendency to assume that the passage of time works a kind of atonement for our sins; we forget them, or the reality of them fades, and we can assume that this is so likewise with God. But He doesn't deal with sin like that. He doesn't suffer from memory loss or the diminishing of felt reality simply due to the passage of time. Israel forgot God's works, as the Psalmist laments, but God didn't forget theirs. This is why it's so critical to repent of our sins immediately, before the passing of time leaves us feeling that elapsed time has dealt with them, as if God operates some kind of statute of limitations. But He doesn't. We need to throw ourselves upon God's grace for past sins, and repent immediately when we sin. It is likewise important to realize that because God doesn't forget sin, in terms of memory, then we must the more urgently throw ourselves upon His grace and believe we are saved due to our status in Christ.

Amos 8:8 Won’t the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells in it?- This is the earthquake mentioned in Am. 1:1 and Am. 9:5 (see notes there). The things in view are the apparently lesser, secret sins of the previous verses. We would expect an earthquake in response to idolatry, but an earthquake for tweaking balances and demanding what is legitimately owed to us (:6)... ? In secular terms, it seems a disproportionate response. But this is the major message in the minor prophets; that it is exactly those sins which are so major to God. And they are the very sins we are likely to commit.

Yes, it will rise up wholly like the River; and it will be stirred up and sink again, like the River of Egypt- The allusion is to how the Nile rises and falls, spreading debris on its flood plain. Because they had trusted in Egypt, they would rise and fall like Egypt. And in physical terms this would refer to the literal rising and falling of the land as a result of the prophesied earthquake.

Amos 8:9 It will happen in that day, says the Lord Yahweh, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the day time- Darkness is often associated in the OT with mourning. Am. 8:9,10 speaks of earthquake and darkness at noon because "I will make it as the mourning for an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day", i.e. a funeral. The darkness at the cross was a sign of Almighty God mourning for His Son. The cross was the judgment of the Jewish world.

But the extinguishing of the noon day sun speaks of individuals and a society being cut off at the apparent zenith of their glory. The destruction of Israel was to be relatively sudden; they were to be cut down in the midst of the revived prosperity which had been brought about by Jeroboam II. There is every indication in Amos that their judgment would be unexpected by them. And so shall it be in the last day.

Amos 8:10 I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day- The way Israel kept the Mosaic feasts and sung David's temple songs in their idol shrines, mixing idolatry with the trappings of Yahweh worship, was so upsetting to God. The mourning in view is very bitter and intense, and looks forward to the mourning of the rejected in the last day. Then, too late, the rejected Jews will mourn for the crucified, only Son of God. They will then mourn for Him in repentance (Mt. 24:30; Rev. 1:7), but too late. They will see Him when resurrected to judgment and hail Him (Mt. 23:39; 26:64) but not be accepted by Him. See on Mt. 16:28.

Amos 8:11 Behold, the days come, says the Lord Yahweh, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Yahweh- Amos had been exiled from Israel because they didn't want to hear Yahweh's word from him (Am. 7:12). But they would desperately want to hear it later, just as Zedekiah earnestly sought to hear the word from Yahweh but too late. A literal famine had already been sent in the land, and this was to provide Israel with warning that just as they had gone around the land seeking for food and water in the time of Ahab's famine, so they would spiritually. If we don't accept God's word now, and love it, then we shall desire to do so in the time of condemnation, but all too late. Now is the time to hear and apply ourselves to His word.

Amos 8:12 They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run back and forth to seek the word of Yahweh, and will not find it- This desperate seeking of God's word is commentary upon the way that Amos had been forbidden to speak God's word in the ten tribe kingdom (Am. 7:12). The day would come, as for all who reject God's word, when they would desperately seek that which they had no time for or rejected. "Sea to sea" may refer to the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean, for the reference here is specifically to the ten tribe kingdom. North to east may refer to the location of their shrines. To seek and not find spirituality and salvation is going to be why the rejected bang their teeth as a result of their condemnation. It's the foolish girls earnestly seeking to fill their lamps with oil, but all too late.

Amos 8:13 In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint for thirst- The thirst is defined in :11 as a thirst for God's word. Now, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled (Mt. 5:6). The process of condemnation will not be met with indifference by those condemned; they will seek desperately to be righteous and to be accepted, but it will be too late. Life is the time to seek and serve the Lord. This is particularly directed by Amos at young men and women; the intellectual and physical energy of youth is intended to be directed to God's word. And if it is not, then it may be too late at the last day.

Amos 8:14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, ‘As your god, Dan, lives'- The golden calf is described as Israel's sin (Dt. 9:21). "The sin of Samaria" / the ten tribe kingdom therefore refers to the golden calf at Bethel, rather than to the sin in Samaria. Yahweh is the only living God; that truth is repeated so often in Scripture. To claim that any idol is alive is to reject the one and only living God. 

 

And, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives;’ they will fall, and never rise up again- "The way" can be an idiom to mean a system of worship, just as Christianity was at times called "the way", i.e. the only, one and true way. Beersheba was in Judah, but it is repeatedly mentioned as being the place of sin for the ten tribes; and the references to Isaac in Amos (see on Am. 7:9,16) are because he had built an altar there, which had been taken over as an idol shrine. The particular sin at Beersheba for the ten tribes was perhaps in that they considered they could just hop over the border and sin secretly. The whole mentality of hopping off for secret sin was and is so abhorrent to God. I noted on Hos. 4:15 that Judah were condemned for having this same mentality.