Amos 7
Summary for Amos 7:1-9:10: 7:1–9:10 a This section contains five visions. It is helpful to compare the progression of these five visions with the judgments listed in 4:6-11 b (famine, drought, crop devastation, plagues, destruction).Summary for Amos 7:1-6: 7:1-6 c The first two visions set up a mood of hopeful expectancy. God calls for judgment but then revokes it at the prophet’s intercession. 7:1 d Locusts (see 4:9 e) were one of the plagues brought upon Egypt (Exod 10:4 f). Great swarms of locusts periodically invaded these lands, typically in times of drought.
• king’s share: The first harvest went to the king as taxes, whereas the later harvest of the main crop fed the farmer and his family. However, if locusts devoured this crop, starvation would follow.
7:2 g Israel is so small: The population base of the kingdom was not large enough to survive such radical depletion.
Summary for Amos 7:3-6: 7:3-6 h The Lord relented twice in response to Amos’s intercession.
7:4 i This fire symbolizes oppressive heat and drought.
• depths of the sea: Although the Hebrew word properly indicates the sea, Amos probably did not suppose that the Mediterranean would disappear. More likely, this is a poetic reference to large bodies of fresh water (such as the Kinnereth Sea/Sea of Galilee) that Israel could use to irrigate its fields.
Summary for Amos 7:7-9: 7:7-9 j This vision begins like the previous two (7:2-3 k, 4-6 l), but this time the Lord allows no intercession. The abrupt shift in outcome contributed to the power of Amos’s message.
7:8 m The Hebrew word translated plumb line (Hebrew ’anak) is similar to the word for groaning (’anakhah, see Isa 35:10 n; Lam 1:22 o), alluding to great suffering when God would hold Israel accountable.
7:9 p pagan shrines ... temples: Every vestige of the apostate Israelite religion, from the common high places to the royal shrine at Bethel, would be destroyed.
• of your ancestors (literally of Isaac): Isaac stands for Israel’s ancestors, the fathers of the nation.
• dynasty of King Jeroboam: Jeroboam II died of natural causes (2 Kgs 14:29 q), but the murder of his son and successor, Zechariah, after a reign of less than a year (2 Kgs 15:8-10 r; see 2 Kgs 10:28-31 s), initiated instability in Israel’s government that it never overcame (2 Kgs 15:10-31 t).
Summary for Amos 7:10-17: 7:10-17 u This section graphically depicts the corruption of the priesthood, reinforcing the point of the visions on either side of it, that judgment is inescapable.
7:11 v Amaziah misinterpreted Amos’s words as a threat on Jeroboam’s life. Amos was calling the people to repentance, not sedition.
7:12 w Go on back to ... Judah, and earn your living by prophesying: Amaziah assumed that the supposedly backward people of Judah would appreciate Amos’s words, and that Amos was looking to be paid for his preaching.
7:13 x king’s sanctuary: According to Amaziah, the urbane and sophisticated Israelites did not appreciate the prophet. Amaziah’s loyalties were clearly to the throne; he wanted to keep the king happy in order to keep his job.
7:14 y Amos was not a professional prophet or even a disciple in training. He had no financial incentive to leave his livelihood in order to prophesy.
• shepherd: The Hebrew word here is not the same as in 1:1 z and is not found elsewhere in the Old Testament. It is related to a word for cattle, suggesting that Amos may have raised cattle as a breeder or herder (see Amos Book Introduction, “The Prophet Amos”).
• The sycamore-fig was gathered for cattle feed.
7:15 aa Amos was not motivated by financial gain. Instead, the Lord’s voice (see 1:2 ab; 3:8 ac) moved Amos to prophesy.
7:16 ad against my people (literally against the house of Isaac): Isaac represents all Israel (see also study note on 7:9; cp. 5:6 ae, 15 af; 6:6 ag).
7:17 ah Because Amaziah had tried to silence Amos (7:12-13 ai), the Lord confronted Amaziah with a grim prophecy of what his life would be like after the Assyrian siege.
Amos 8
8:1 aj This vision resumes the prophetic sermon begun in 7:1 ak and interrupted by the dialogue with Amaziah.8:2 al ripe for punishment (literally the end has come): Amos makes a play on words between ripe fruit (Hebrew qayits) and the end has come (Hebrew ba’ haqqets). The end had come for God’s people, Israel, because they were ripe fruit, ready to be harvested in judgment.
Summary for Amos 8:4-14: 8:4-14 am This section expands the indictments and judgments listed earlier (read with 2:6–6:14 an).
8:5 ao Work was explicitly forbidden on the Sabbath day (Exod 20:9-10 ap); Amos implies that shops were closed during pagan new-moon religious festivals as well.
• Merchants were cheating their customers by measuring grain with small ephahs and cheating their suppliers by using heavy shekels on the scales. This practice was forbidden by God’s law (Lev 19:35-36 aq; Deut 25:13-16 ar; see Prov 11:1 as; 16:11 at; 20:10 au, 23 av).
8:7 aw the Pride of Israel: The same Hebrew phrase alludes in 6:8 ax to Israel’s arrogance. Here, the phrase is probably a name for God, who is the legitimate object of Israel’s pride. Elsewhere (Ps 47:4 ay; Nah 2:2 az), this phrase refers to the Promised Land under a king from David’s line (cp. Jer 13:9 ba; Ezek 32:12 bb). If the phrase here means the land, it would spotlight Israel’s perverse pride in its national and geographic identity.
8:9 bc The day of the Lord would invert the cosmos. Jeremiah used similar imagery to describe the desecration of Judah as the Babylonian armies approached (Jer 4:23 bd; see also Isa 13:10 be; 34:4 bf; 50:3 bg; Ezek 32:7-8 bh; Joel 2:10 bi, 31 bj; Mic 3:6 bk).
Summary for Amos 8:11-14: 8:11-14 bl famine ... of hearing the words of the Lord: God sent prophets to Israel to speak his words directly to them, but Israel commanded the prophets not to prophesy (2:11-12 bm). Now they had what they wanted, but it was a silence more terrible than his roar and thunder: God became distant (see Ezek 7:26 bn; 20:3 bo; Mic 3:4 bp, 7 bq). The time for speaking was over; the time of judgment had come.
8:12 br from border to border: The natural boundaries of Israel were from sea to sea: the Mediterranean Sea on the west and the Dead Sea on the east. The other borders are simply called the north and the east.
8:14 bs The god of Dan refers to the northern shrine of the gold calf established by Jeroboam I (see 1 Kgs 12:28-29 bt; 2 Kgs 10:29 bu).
• the god of Beersheba: Evidently Beersheba had become a center of worship in the southern kingdom. Archaeologists have found the remains of a horned altar in the ruins of Beersheba.
Amos 9:1-10
9:1 bv I saw ... the Lord (see 7:1 bw): God ceased to reveal how or why he would punish Israel; he was now poised to act.• beside the altar: Judgment must begin with the center of worship (cp. 1 Pet 4:17 bx). This altar probably refers to the Bethel shrine, although it could refer to the Temple in Jerusalem.
Summary for Amos 9:2-4: 9:2-4 by God is inescapable (cp. Ps 139:7-12 bz). When people trust, believe, and obey God, his inescapability is a great blessing. But because Israel rejected God’s revelation, his presence would mean judgment, not comfort. 9:2 ca to the place of the dead (literally to Sheol): In the Old Testament, Sheol is a place beneath the earth where the dead have their abode.
9:3 cb Though Mount Carmel is not the highest mountain in the region, its lofty grandeur often represents the beauty and richness of the land.
• sea serpent: In the ancient Near East, the sea was a symbol of chaos, often pitted against the national god (cp. Pss 74:14 cc; 89:10 cd; 104:26 ce). However, the biblical text does not grant divine status to the sea monster (“Leviathan,” also called “Rahab”; Ps 89:9-10 cf) but sees it as subject to the Lord’s command and judgment (Isa 27:1 cg). Here, Amos portrays God’s sovereign power to summon the sea serpent to his service.
Summary for Amos 9:5-6: 9:5-6 ch Amos uses a third hymn fragment (also 4:13 ci; 5:8-9 cj) to remind Israel that God’s domain is universal.
9:7 ck the Ethiopians (literally the Cushites): Cush (see Gen 10:6-7 cl) was south of the Second Cataract of the Nile (cp. Isa 18:1 cm) and was often linked with Egypt, its neighbor to the north.
• Israel’s exodus out of Egypt is compared to two other ancient migrations: the Philistines from Crete (see also Jer 47:4 cn) and the Arameans out of Kir (cp. Amos 1:5 co; 2 Kgs 16:9 cp).
9:8 cq Although God would severely punish Israel by uprooting and scattering them, he would never completely destroy them. A remnant would always exist.
Summary for Amos 9:9-10: 9:9-10 cr Even the Lord’s most severe judgment is just. Only the sinners are destroyed, but not one true kernel will be lost; God will save the righteous, who are faithful to him.
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