←Amos 5→BSB

In This Chapter 5 people 12 places 60 terms

People

Israel 8 Joseph 4 Jacob (Patriarch) Jeshurun (Israel) Zaphenath-paneah (Joseph)

Places

    Key Terms

    Gift (Tribute) 5 Peace Offering 4 Sin 3 To Be Kindly Disposed 3 Mischief 2 Complete 2 Rebellion (Offense) 2 Have Insight 2 Love 2 Burnt Offering 2 Lamentation Be Complete Complete Certainty Be Fully Assured Rebel (Act) Be Rebellious Rebel (Against Authority) Rebellion Rebelliousness To Sin Guilt (State) Transgression Sin (Act) Sin (Incur Guilt) Guilty (Responsible) Guilt (Consequence) Guiltiness Trespass (Sin) Sinful Sin (Offense) To Stand Guilty Sin (Guilty) Sin (Wrongdoing) Guilty Considered Guilty Guilty Of Sin Previously Sin Against To Love Love (Appreciation) Woe (Future Suffering) Offering Sin Offering Offering Made by Fire Offering (Contribution) Drink-Offering Guilt-Offering Sacrifice (Offering) Wave-Offering Voluntary Offering Gift (Offering) Dedication (Ceremony) Offer Sacrifice Sacrifice (Act) Sacrifice (Ritual) Whole Burnt Offering Offering (Special) Offering (Voluntary) Sin Offering (Guilt Removal) Slaughtering

    A Lamentation against Israel

    ⓘ The charges against Israel had been filed (3:1–2;...

    The charges against Israel had been filed (3:1–2; 4:1–3); now it was time for judgment. Amos made this point clear by singing a funeral song for Israel, as though the nation were already dead.

    1Hear this word, O house of Israel, this lamentation I take up against you:

    2“Fallen is Virgin Israel,never to rise again.She lies abandoned on her land,with no one to raise her up.”

    3This is what the Lord GOD says:

    “The city that marches out a thousand strongwill have but a hundred left,and the one that marches out a hundred strongwill have but ten left in the house of Israel.”

    A Call to Repentance

    (Joel 1:13–20; Zephaniah 2:1–3; Luke 13:1–5)

    4For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel:

    “Seek Me and live!
    5Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal;do not journey to Beersheba,for Gilgal will surely go into exile,and Bethel will come to nothing.†6Seek the LORD and live,or He will sweep like fire through the house of Joseph;it will devour everything,with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.
    7There are those who turn justice into wormwoodand cast righteousness to the ground.
    ⓘ Amos quotes a second hymn fragment (see 4:13;...
    • Amos quotes a second hymn fragment (see 4:13; 9:5–6). Once again, the prophet emphasizes the contrast between the cosmic God and the local gods.
    • Stars, celestial bodies, and constellations such as Pleiades and Orion were regarded as deities in the ancient world. Not so, says Amos; the Lord made them and placed them in the sky.
    • water: The ancients had observed a process that they did not understand (evaporation and condensation). However, the Lord understands and controls natural processes that seem mysterious to humans.
    8He who made the Pleiades and Orion,who turns darkness into dawnand darkens day into night,who summons the waters of the seaand pours them over the face of the earth—the LORD is His name—9He flashes destruction on the strong,so that fury comes upon the stronghold.
    10There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gateand despise him who speaks with integrity.11Therefore, because you trample on the poorand exact from him a tax of grain,you will never livein the stone houses you have built;you will never drink the winefrom the lush vineyards you have planted.
    12For I know that your transgressions are manyand your sins are numerous.You oppress the righteous by taking bribes;you deprive the poor of justice in the gate.13Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times,for the days are evil.
    14Seek good, not evil,so that you may live.And the LORD, the God of Hosts,will be with you, as you have claimed.15Hate evil and love good;establish justice in the gate.Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts,will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

    Woe to Rebellious Israel

    (Acts 7:39–43)

    ⓘ crying... mourning... wailing: Grief would result from the...

    crying . . . mourning . . . wailing: Grief would result from the widespread and certain destruction that lay ahead (5:1–2).

    16Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says:

    “There will be wailing in all the public squaresand cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets.The farmer will be summoned to mourn,and the mourners to wail.17There will be wailing in all the vineyards,for I will pass through your midst,”says the LORD.
    ⓘ The pronouncements of sorrow in this section develop...

    The pronouncements of sorrow in this section develop two themes: (1) Israel’s apostasy would make the “day of the Lord” a day of judgment, not salvation; and (2) Judah’s spiritual complacency would also bring judgment.
    18Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD!What will the Day of the LORD be for you?It will be darkness and not light.19It will be like a man who flees from a lion,only to encounter a bear,or who enters his house and rests his hand against the wall,only to be bitten by a snake.20Will not the Day of the LORDbe darkness and not light,even gloom with no brightness in it?
    ⓘ Amos again confronts the religious hypocrisy and spiritual...

    Amos again confronts the religious hypocrisy and spiritual unfaithfulness of the Israelites (see 4:4–5; Isa 1:10–20).
    21“I hate, I despise your feasts!I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.22Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings,I will not accept them;for your peace offerings of fattened cattleI will have no regard.23Take away from Me the noise of your songs!I will not listen to the music of your harps.24But let justice roll on like a river,and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
    ⓘ Although the people of Israel claimed that God...

    Although the people of Israel claimed that God had to bless them because of the Sinai covenant, Amos demonstrated that they had been fundamentally pagan from the very earliest days of the covenant.
    25Did you bring Me sacrifices and offeringsforty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
    ⓘ The names that appear in 5:26 have given...

    The names that appear in 5:26 have given rise to several conjectures, but many interpreters consider them to be names of unidentified pagan gods. The king god may well be Molech, god of the Ammonites (see 1:15). The word translated you served may mean you will lift up, in which case the prophet is making a contrast between Israel or Judah, who carried their idols, and God, who carries his people (see Isa 46:1–7).
    26You have taken along Sakkuth your kingand Kaiwan your star god,†the idols you made for yourselves.27Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,”†says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts.