Chapter Two

1–3. God’s judgment upon the Moabites. 4–5. God’s judgment upon Judah. 6–14. Proclamation of God’s judgment upon Israel and denunciation of its transgressions.

Amos 2:1. Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment of it; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime. The Moabites are charged with the desecration of the corpse of an Edomite king, whose bones they burned to lime. The blessed Jerome in his commentary on Amos 2:1 reports the supposition of contemporary rabbis that the fact of which the prophet speaks took place during the invasion of the Moabite land by the Israelite king Joram and the Judean king Jehoshaphat in alliance with Edomites (2 Sam 3). But from the narrative of 2 Sam 3 it is not evident that during the mentioned invasion the Idumean king fell or was taken captive. In general, it is difficult to say what event the prophet has in mind in verse 1. Recent commentators propose an emendation of the Masoretic text in verse 1, changing the prophet’s report; instead of the words sarfu azemoth melech-edom laschschid, “burned the bones of the king of Edom,” Condamen reads sarfu azemoth lamolech adam lesched, “burned bodies to Molech, humans — to the demon” (Hoonacker). But there is no basis for changing the Masoretic text, which gives a thought fully intelligible and natural.

Amos 2:2. But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it will devour the palaces of Kerioth: and Moab will die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. Kerioth — a Moabite city identical with the one mentioned by Isaiah (Isa 15:1) in the inscription of Mesha Kir-Moab (Jer 48:24). This was the center of the cult of Chemosh. It is supposed that Kerioth was located on the site of the present ruins of Koriath or Kuriyat. The LXX rendered the Hebrew hakerioth from kirah city and, understanding it in the sense of common noun, translated: πὀλεων αὐτης, Slavic “its cities.” — “And Moab will die,” from Hebrew “and will die (umeth) Moab”; the prophet personifies the nation and therefore its destruction is called death. Hebrew beschaon, “with tumult,” the LXX translated: ἐν ἁδυναμία; hence in the Slavic “with weakness.”

Amos 2:3. And I will cut off the judge from the midst of it, and will slay all the princes of it with him, says the Lord. “And I will cut off the judge from the midst of it”: by judge in verse 3 is meant the king of Moab.

Amos 2:4. Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment of it; because they have despised the law of the Lord, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked. Amos 2:5. But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem. Judgment upon Judah (Slavic “upon the sons of Judah”) is declared for the reason that Judah rejected both the entire divinely revealed law as a whole (thorah), and individual commandments of it (chkkaj), and turned aside after idols (kisbejchem — their lies, that is false gods. Cf. Ps 40:5).

Amos 2:6. Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment of it; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes. From verse 6 the prophet turns to Israel, which becomes the subject of all his further speeches. Israel is charged with the violation of the rights of the poor, violation of moral laws and the desecration of places of public worship. — “They sold the righteous (zadik) for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes”: the prophet speaks of judges, or generally of powerful men, who for the sake of gain violated the rights of others (zadik — righteous in the juridical sense) and for the sake of a pair of shoes, for the sake of a trifling debt (Lev 25:39), sold the debtor.

Amos 2:7. That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in to the same maid, to profane my holy name. “That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor”: the prophet expresses the idea of extreme oppression of the poor, when everything — both right, and honor, and property — is as it were trampled to the ground (Yungerov). In the Slavic text according to the translation of the LXX the beginning of verse 7 is rendered somewhat differently: “those going on the dust of the earth (in accordance with the preceding “on shoes”), and beat with the fist on the heads of the poor.” — “And turn aside the way of the meek,” that is fill with sorrows and miseries the life-path of the defenseless (meek) people. — “And a man and his father will go in to the same maid, to profane my holy name”: some commentators (Wellhausen, Nowack) suppose that the prophet speaks of harlots connected with the cult (hierodules). But the form of expression of the prophet (cf. Jer 30:6) does not give basis for such an understanding. The prophet probably speaks of immorality in general. Hebrew hannaarah (to a maid) can be understood in the sense of maidservant, slave woman, belonging to a household (Hoonacker). Then in the words cited one can find a continuation of the thought about the oppression of the weak by the strong.

Amos 2:8. And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god. The prophet speaks of the conduct of the nobles and strong men in the house of worship. According to the opinion of some (LXX, the blessed Jerome), by the house of their God (beith elogeichem) the prophet means the house of Jehovah, but according to the opinion of others (Slavic and Russian translations), the house where unlawful cult is performed, that is the sanctuary of the calves, that is the sanctuary in Bethel or Dan (Yungerov). With the latter understanding one must agree, since the prophet uses the expression their gods, showing thereby that he himself believes in another God. The prophet denounces in verse 8 the Samarian nobles for the fact that by goods obtained through injustice and violence they made use of during religious celebrations, namely they reclined upon garments taken from the poor and drank wine improperly collected from the accused. In the LXX and in our Slavic text the beginning of verse 8 is rendered freely: “and they bind their garments with cords, curtains they make at the altars.” According to the explanation of the Church teachers, the Greek text of verse 8 indicates the commission of licentiousness in the Israelite sanctuaries, the fact that from garments they fashioned in the sanctuaries tents for licentiousness. Amos 2:9-12. In contrast to the people’s relations toward Jehovah the prophet points to Jehovah’s relations toward the people, thereby denouncing the people for ingratitude.

Amos 2:9. Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath. Amos 2:10. Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. The prophet first recalls the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. By the Amorite the prophet understands all the Canaanite tribes (cf. Josh 24:15; Num 21:21; Deut 2:26).

Amos 2:11. And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites: is it not even thus, O you children of Israel? says the Lord. The prophet points to the privileges by which the Israelite people was distinguished from others: prophecy and Naziriteship (Slavic “to holiness”).

Amos 2:12. But you gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Do not prophesy. “And commanded the prophets, saying: Do not prophesy”: the facts confirming the words of Amos are reported in 1 Sam 17-22 and refer to the activity of Elijah and Micaiah, son of Imlah. Amos 2:13-16. In verses 13–16 the prophet proclaims judgment upon Israel. The images employed by the prophet in describing the judgment are intended to point to the severity and unavoidableness of the calamity. What kind of calamity the prophet is speaking of is unclear. It is supposed (Yungerov) that the prophet proclaims a terrible earthquake, about which he speaks repeatedly in his book (Amos 1:1). Ancient rabbis related the words of the prophet to Israelite kings — Jeroboam, Baasha, Omri, Pekah, and Hoshea.

Amos 2:13. Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves. Verse 13 is translated and understood by commentators differently, since the word meik (“am pressed”) is a hapax legomenon. In the LXX and Slavic text it reads: “Behold, I will turn under you, as a cart full of straw turns.” In the opinion of recent commentators: “Behold, I will make the earth tremble under you, as the earth trembles under a cart full of sheaves” (Nowack, Hoonacker).