Chapter Five

1–17. Denunciation of Israel for the violation of justice and the proclamation of punishment. 18–20. The Day of the Lord. 21–27. Denunciation for hypocritical service to God.

Amos 5:1. Hear this word that I take up for you, a lament, O house of Israel. With chapter V, a new discourse begins, in which the prophet denounces Israel for the violation of justice and proclaims God’s judgment. The prophet already sees this judgment in the spirit as having come to pass; Israel has already fallen. Therefore, the prophet raises a lament over the house of Israel. “Lament,” Hebrew kinah, is a mournful song on account of the death of a hero or on account of the ruin of a city. Among the Hebrews, as among other peoples, it was customary to compose such mournful songs, and the Bible preserves specimens of them: such is the elegy of David upon the death of Saul and Jonathan (2 Sam 1:17-27), as well as the entire book known as “The Lamentations of Jeremiah.” Mournful songs or kinoth were composed by biblical writers with the observance of a special meter, which is commonly called the kinah meter (Budde. Das Voikslied Israels im Munde d. Propheten. Zeit. AIt. Wiss. II, 1). The essence of the kinah meter consists in this: the song is set forth in the form of bipartite verses, where the second member is always shorter than the first, as if in dependence on the sorrow that filled the poet’s soul. In the mournful song of the prophet Amos, the kinah meter is also observed. The words “house of Israel,” which constitute an address, in the text of the LXX are taken in the sense of the subject, the predicate for which is found in v. 2 (he fell); from this in the Slavonic “the house of Israel fell.”

Amos 5:2. Fallen is the virgin Israel; she rises no more: she is cast down upon her own ground, and there is no one to raise her up. By “virgin Israel” the prophet means the people of Israel. The personification of a nation or inhabitants of a city in the image of a virgin in ancient literature was customary; by this personification the thought is conveyed that the city or people had not been conquered before (Nowack). In the prophet Amos, the personification of Israel in the image of a virgin has, according to the interpretation of church fathers, another meaning as well: “the people Israel is called a virgin not because it remained in moral purity, but because it once, like a virgin, was in union with the Lord. And the prophet is commanded to raise a lament over it, because it will never return to its former state of virginity” (the blessed Theodoret).

Amos 5:3. For thus says the Lord God: the city that marched out a thousand strong will have a hundred left, and the city that marched out a hundred strong will have ten left, in the house of Israel. In v. 3, the foundation of the prophet’s mournful song is indicated in the coming extreme diminishment of the number of inhabitants of the kingdom. “The city that marched out (hajjozeth) a thousand strong”: the verb jazah (to march out) denotes marching out to war. The reduction in the number of warriors sent out by cities by a ratio of 1 to 10 presumably corresponds to a reduction of the general population of the country as well. The subsequent history of the ten-tribe kingdom confirmed the prophet’s words (2 Sam 14:26).

Amos 5:4. For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: seek me, and you shall live. In v. 4–13, the prophet proves the justice of God’s punishment of Israel. The designation “house of Israel” in v. 4 is used by the prophet not of the whole chosen people, as in (Amos 3:1), but only of the ten-tribe kingdom, to the inhabitants of whom the invitation to seek the Lord is addressed.

Amos 5:5. Do not seek Bethel, and do not go to Gilgal, and do not cross over to Beersheba, for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nothing. The prophet points to the deviation from the way of Jehovah, to the worship at Bethel, at Gilgal, and at Beersheba. Bethel and Gilgal were centers of worship of the calves. A special worship at Beersheba is also mentioned in (Hos 4:15) and (Amos 8:14). The city of Beersheba belonged to the kingdom of Judah and was located on the southern border of this kingdom, twenty miles south of Hebron, at the place of the present Ber es-Seba. Beersheba is first mentioned in the history of the patriarchs (Gen 21:33). Here Abraham made a covenant with Abimelech, king of Gerar, and called upon the name of the Lord God eternal (Gen 21:33). Isaac, having received a theophany at Beersheba, set up an altar there (Gen 26:25). About Jacob, too, it is reported that, having come to Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac (Gen 46:1). Sacred from the memories of patriarchal times, Beersheba during the period of the existence of the ten-tribe kingdom became a place of the worship of high places (2 Sam 23:8). By mentioning wandering to distant Beersheba, the prophet wishes to make more evident the futility of the people’s zeal. Some commentators (Hoonacker) consider the words “and do not cross over to Beersheba” to be a later insertion, since the inhabitants of the ten-tribe kingdom, to whom the prophet speaks, supposedly could not have had relations with Beersheba. But in view of the lack of detailed information about the religious life of the ten-tribe kingdom, there is hardly reason to accept the noted opinion. In the LXX, the proper name Beersheba is replaced by a common noun “the well of the oath”; in the Slavonic: “and to the well of the oath do not go.”

Amos 5:6. Seek the Lord, and you shall live, lest he break out like fire upon the house of Joseph, and it devours him, with no one to quench it in Bethel. The prophet urges the people to seek the Lord, so as not to perish. “The house of Joseph”—the ten-tribe kingdom, in which the tribe of Ephraim (the son of Joseph) always predominated. “And there will be no one to quench it in Bethel”: the LXX, apparently finding the mention of Bethel in v. 6 unintelligible, instead of the name Bethel substituted the words: “the house of Israel.” But all ancient texts agree with the Hebrew and read the name Bethel in the place in question. Modern commentators consider the word to be a later gloss (Nowack).

Amos 5:7. O you who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground! The prophet points out why worship at Bethel, Beersheba, and Gilgal cannot be considered a seeking of the Lord: Israel “turned justice into bitterness” (laanah, literally, bitterness, bitter plant) and righteousness “cast to the ground.” The LXX, in view of v. 8, understood v. 7 to speak of God and translated: “The Lord who makes justice into a high place and puts righteousness upon the earth,” Slavonic: “The Lord who makes justice on high and puts righteousness on earth.” According to some commentators (Vallon, Hoonacker), the LXX read a text different from the Masoretic text (chophech lemaalah mischschaphat), according to others (Yungerov), they erroneously rendered the present Hebrew.

Amos 5:8. He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into morning, and darkens the day into night, he who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth,—the Lord is his name! To show the gravity of transgression against God’s laws, the prophet points to the almightiness of God. The expression of the prophet should not be understood, together with Keil and others, in a figurative sense: the prophet speaks precisely of the creative almightiness of God. “He who made (oseh—the maker) the Pleiades (chimah) and Orion” (chesil): chinah and chesil are the names of two constellations—the Great Bear and Orion (cf. Job 9:9). “He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth”: apparently, destructive floods are meant. The LXX rendered the words chimah and chesil as proper names in (Job 9:9) and (Job 38:31) (the LXX words as “Arcturus and the Pleiades”), but in the verse in question translated them as common nouns; from this in the Slavonic: “who makes all and turns.” In the latter part of the verse, instead of the words “the Lord is his name,” in the Slavonic according to the LXX, there is an addition: “the Lord God Almighty is his name.”

Amos 5:9. He strengthens the strong against the mighty, and the strong invades the fortress. The meaning of the verb hammablig, with which v. 9 begins, is not precisely known, since balag is an hapax legomenon. In the Russian text, v. 9 is rendered conjecturally and by other translators differently. Assuming in v. 9 a direct continuation of the thought in v. 8, Hoffman gives the translation: “He who makes the constellation of the Bull (schor instead of schod Masoretic text) rise after Capella (ez instead of az) and the constellation of the Bull sets after.” This translation cannot be accepted: it gives an image too weak to express the thought of almightiness; moreover, neither in the Hebrew text nor in other ancient texts is the name of any constellation mentioned in v. 9. According to Hoonacker, v. 9 should be translated: “He causes salvation to shine upon the unfortunate and threatens strength with destruction.” According to Yungerov: “He strengthens the ruin of the mighty, and ruin enters the fortress.” According to the accepted Russian text, the thought of the prophet is that the Lord, as the Almighty, against a mighty nation boasting of its fortresses, can raise up an even more mighty destroyer; thus, the punishments sent by God to Israel, no one can turn aside. This same thought about the almightiness of God is expressed in the Slavonic text of v. 9: “who divides destruction upon strength, and brings calamity upon fortress” (in the LXX: “who divides the breaking upon strength, and brings hardship upon the fortified places.”)

Amos 5:10. They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they loathe the one who speaks the truth. The prophet continues in v. 10–13 the denunciation of the violation of justice. “They hate the one who reproves (mochicha) in the gate”: the one who reproves in the gate is he who strives to prove the truth during the administration of justice, which was ordinarily carried out at the gate of the city (cf. Job 13:15). “And they loathe the one who speaks the truth,” that is, the one who speaks the truth in court.

Amos 5:11. Therefore, because you trample upon the poor and exact from him levied grain, though you have built houses of hewn stone, you shall not dwell in them; though you have planted pleasant vineyards, you shall not drink their wine. “You trample upon the poor”: in the Slavonic according to the LXX—“with fists you beat the poor.” “And exact from him levied grain,” Hebrew umaseathbar tikchü bar means both choice kinds of bread (Gen 41:35; Ps 71:16) and in general what is finest or choice (Job 11:4; Song 6:9-10); from this in the Slavonic: “and choice gifts you accepted.” The prophet speaks not only of unjust gifts which judges demanded, but in general about the exploitation of the poor. At the same time, the prophet threatens that the oppressors will not profit from the fruits of their exploitation.

Amos 5:12. For I know how manifold are your transgressions, and how great are your sins: you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who thrust aside the needy in the gate. “You take a bribe”: in the LXX, the word kopher (ransom, bribe) is rendered as “exchange”; from this in the Slavonic “accepting changes.” “And who thrust aside the needy in the gate”: the Russian translators conveyed the meaning of the prophet’s words more closely to the letter of the original; in the Slavonic “and the poor from the gates remove.”

Amos 5:13. Therefore the prudent keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time. “Therefore the prudent keeps silent in such a time”: the prophet speaks of his own time; the prudent one is he who knows his own interest. The prophet neither gives counsel nor praises anyone (cf. Sir 20:7), but only states the fact.

Amos 5:14. Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord God of hosts will be with you, as you have said. Amos 5:15. Hate what is evil, and love what is good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. The prophet repeats his exhortation to the people to love what is good and justice. “The remnant of Joseph”—that small part of the population of the Israelite kingdom which will be saved from the calamities about to befall the kingdom. The opening words of v. 15 are understood by the LXX as the words of the Israelites, not as an invitation directed to the Israelites by the prophet; from this in the Slavonic “you hated what is evil and loved what is good.”

Amos 5:16. Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, the Lord: In all the squares there shall be wailing, and in all the streets they shall say, “Alas! alas!” and they shall call the farmers to mourning, and those skilled in lamentation to wailing, Amos 5:17. And in all the vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through the midst of you, says the Lord. Despairing of awakening the people to good by exhortations alone, the prophet adds a threat as well. The prophet proclaims the coming of a time of universal lamentation. Explaining the cause of this lamentation, the prophet from the mouth of the Lord speaks: “For I will pass through the midst of you” (v. 17). The image is taken from (Exod 12:12-30); the prophet wishes to remind them of the tenth plague of Egypt. Consequently, according to the prophet’s thought, universal lamentation will be caused by a great number of the dead—both from diseases and from wars.

Amos 5:18. Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! For what good is the day of the Lord to you? It is darkness, not light, Amos 5:19. as if a man fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into a house and leaned with his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. Amos 5:20. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light? and gloom with no brightness in it.? As is evident from v. 18, the contemporaries of Amos not only did not fear the day of God’s judgment, but, on the contrary, awaited it with impatience, hoping that for them, as belonging to the chosen people, the day of judgment would be a day of special happiness. The prophet destroys these false hopes. According to his depiction, the day of judgment will be a day of deadly dangers, so that if someone escaped from one danger, he would fall into another, and escaping from this, he would be exposed to a new one.

Amos 5:21. I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in the sacrifices at your solemn assemblies. The false hopes of Israel and its stubbornness were based on the conviction that by their sacrifices and the performance of rituals, they pleased God. The prophet reveals the error of such a conviction and shows the inadequacy of external worship of God alone. “At your solemn assemblies,” Slavonic: “in your gatherings”; Hebrew beazzerotheichem can be understood both in the sense of festive gatherings in general (2 Chr 7:9), and as the designation of concluding assemblies on the last day of great festivals (Deut 16:8; Lev 23:36; Num 29:35).

Amos 5:22. If you offer to me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offering of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. The prophet enumerates the sacrifices (oloth uminchotheichem) in the order of (Lev 1-3). Instead of the words “and I will not look upon the peace offering (schelem) from your fat animals” (meriejchem), the Slavonic text reads: “and upon your peace offerings I will not look”: the LXX apparently understood schelem in a general sense—peace, salvation (σωτηρίους), and rendered the word meriejchem (meri—fat animals) from mareh, appearance, and translated it “your appearances.”

Amos 5:23. Remove from me the noise of your songs; the melody of your harps I will not listen to. From the context of the speech, one should conclude that the prophet speaks of music and singing at the time of sacrifices or at the feasts that followed the offering of sacrifices.

Amos 5:24. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a perennial stream! The thought of the prophet in v. 24 is understood differently by different commentators. Some commentators (Hitzig, Keil, Hoonacker) see in the verse a discourse about the Justice of God and a prediction of punishment for Israel. Others (Nowack, Yungerov) understand the prophet’s words as an appeal directed to Israel—restore justice. The words mischapat (justice) and zedakah (righteousness), which are used both of divine Justice, are used by the prophet Amos in (Amos 5:7) in an ethical sense, of human righteousness. In this sense it is better to understand these words in v. 24 as well. “Like a perennial stream”: Hebrew nachal ethan means a stream that flows both in summer and in winter. Just as such a stream, justice should not be a casual and temporary impulse, but should be a constant norm of life. The LXX apparently understood v. 24 as concerning God’s judgment; from this in the Slavonic: “and justice shall roll down like water, and righteousness like an impassable watercourse.”

Amos 5:25. Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel? The meaning of v. 25 and its connection with what precedes is understood differently. According to the opinion of most commentators, the prophet expects a negative answer to his question: the Israelites did not bring sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness for forty years. What is the purpose of the prophet pointing to this? According to some, in order to show the futility of Israel’s hopes in its numerous sacrifices (Yungerov)—to show the unimportance of sacrifices in themselves, by referring to the fact that during the period of the flourishing of the theocratic order, Israel did not bring sacrifices, and yet enjoyed special favor of God. According to other commentators, on the contrary, the prophet denounces the Israelites in v. 25 precisely because they did not bring sacrifices even in the wilderness, and in the next verse explains this negligence regarding sacrifices by the Israelites’ turning to idolatry. The first understanding better corresponds to the context of the speech: in v. 22–24, the prophet speaks of the uselessness of sacrifices not united with moral life; therefore, it is difficult immediately after v. 22–24 to expect a reproach for the failure to bring sacrifices. Evidently, by his question in v. 25, the prophet intends to point to the unimportance of sacrifices in themselves. But it is hardly likely that the prophet assumes a negative answer to his question, since in the wilderness, in fact, Israel did bring sacrifices (cf. Exod 24:5; Lev 7:14-21). The flow of the prophet’s thought apparently was different, and he assumes, as Hoonacker supposes, a positive answer to his question. The prophet wanted to say that in spite of the bringing of sacrifices, Israel nevertheless for forty years had to wander in the wilderness and be under God’s wrath. From this, the prophet’s listeners should have drawn the conclusion that sacrifices alone are not enough to obtain God’s mercy.

Amos 5:26. You shall take up the shrine of your king, and the pedestal of your star-god, your images that you have made for yourselves. V. 26 is translated in our text only conjecturally. The verse represents one of the most obscure and disputed passages in the Old Testament books. Commentators understand differently both the individual expressions of the verse and its general meaning and its connection with what precedes it. The beginning of the verse, unesathem, is translated: “you carried” (Russian text), “did you not carry” (Yungerov), “you shall carry” (Nowack, Hoonacker). The following words of v. 26, el sikkuth malkohem, corresponding to the translation of the LXX (σκηνὴν τοῦ Μολόχ), in our text are rendered: “the shrine of your king” (that is, sikkuth is taken as a common noun, and melech as a proper name). Modern commentators, however, consider sikkuth or sakkuth to be the proper name of the Assyrian god Adar, and understand the word malkchem in the sense of a common noun; the entire expression they translate: Sakkut (Adar), your king (Nowack, Mitchell, Hoonacker). The further words of the prophet in v. 26, Veet kijun zaimechem kochav elogechem, the LXX translated: “and the star of your god Raiphan, the images.” According to this, in the Russian text, one reads: “and the star of your god Remfan, the images that you have made for yourselves.” The translation of the LXX and the Russian and Slavonic texts presume a word arrangement different from that in the original. The Hebrew kijjun, transmitted by the LXX as Raiphan, is an hapax legomenon, and its meaning is disputed. According to the usual understanding, kijjun, corresponding to the Arabic kaivan (Raiphan—Kaina) and the Assyrian kaavanu, is the name of the planet Saturn, and also of the god Adar, whose symbol is Saturn. Thus, sikkuth and kijjun are two names of one and the same deity, found also in Assyrian hymns (Hoonacker). According to the opinion of modern commentators, the entire verse should be translated: “you shall carry Sakkut, your king, and the star of your god (your star-god) Kevan, your idols, which you made for yourselves” (Nowack, Hoonacker). With such a translation, it appears that the prophet denounces his contemporaries for the worship of Assyrian deities and threatens them with the captivity of these deities, powerless to save their worshippers. The prophet wishes to say that just as in the past the bringing of sacrifices in the wilderness did not save the people from punishment, so now sacrifices to Assyrian deities will not save the people from captivity. However, the interpretation set forth in v. 26 encounters difficulties: 1) Amos nowhere denounces his contemporaries for worshipping foreign deities; 2) the carrying of gods by Old Testament writers is ordinarily attributed to the conquerors, not to the conquered (Hos 10:5; Isa 46:1; Jer 48:7; Jer 49:3); consequently, in threatening with captivity, the prophet could not say to the Israelites—you shall carry Sakkut, and so forth; 3) in the LXX in (Acts 7:42-43), in the speech of the archdeacon Stephen, the words of the prophet are interpreted as a denunciation of the Jews for the worship of pagan deities during their stay in the wilderness. In the same sense v. 26 is understood by our native interpreters of the book of Amos—bishop Palladius and professor P. A. Yungerov. The shrine of Moloch is a special tent in which images of Moloch were carried. “The star (kochav) of your god”—that is, your star-god or—the god worshipped in the image of a star. Remfan is the name of a star-god—possibly Saturn, which on Egyptian monuments was hieroglyphically depicted: repanneteru (Yungerov). The worship of Moloch during the Hebrews’ stay in the wilderness is mentioned in the Pentateuch (Lev 18:21). The worship at that same time of the star-god Remfan is first mentioned only in the prophet Amos. But already the second commandment of the Decalogue presumes knowledge by the Hebrews of the worship of the heavenly luminaries and an inclination toward it (Exod 20:4; Deut 4:19). The Hebrews could have become acquainted with the star-cult in Egypt, for according to the testimony of Herodotus (II, 42, 145) and Diodorus (I, 11, 25), the Egyptians worshipped the sun, moon, and stars. With the interpretation given, the connection of v. 26 with what precedes will not be direct.

Amos 5:27. Therefore I will take you into exile beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is God of hosts. “Therefore I will take you into exile beyond Damascus”: the prophet does not directly indicate the place of the exile of the Israelites, but apparently he has in view Assyro-Babylonia. Supplementing the words of the prophet, the archdeacon Stephen in his speech said: “And God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: O house of Israel! Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness for forty years? You took up the shrine of Moloch, and the star of your god Remfan, the images which you made to worship them: and I will remove you beyond Babylon” (Acts 7:42-43).