AMOS
Amos was one of the “minor prophets” of the Old Testament and made his prophecies around 760 - 755 B.C. during the reign of idolatrous king Jeroboam II of the Northern kingdom of Israel (768-746 B.C.) and king Uzziah of Judah (783 - 739 B.C.) and was a likely contemporary of the prophets Isaiah and Hosea.
Apparently a major earthquake shook the area in about 760 B.C. referred to by Amos in his prologue. Evidence of this earthquake has been uncovered and points to a magnitude of 8.2 and was the strongest earthquake in Israel to occur during the last 4,000 years.
Amos was from the small village of Tekoa which is in the mountains of southern Judah south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, although he made his prophecies in the Northern kingdom of Israel.
AMOS 1:1-2
1 The words of Amos, who was among the sheepbreeders of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
2 And he said: “The Lord roars from Zion, and utters His voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers.”
Amos was a simple shepherd, and speaks of the power of the Lord when He commands, saying that the fields dry up and the top of Mount Carmel which is normally covered in luxuriant vegetation withers in drought.
AMOS 1:3-5
3 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with implements of iron.
4 But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad.
5 I will also break the gate bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the Valley of Aven, and the one who holds the scepter from Beth Eden. The people of Syria shall go captive to Kir,” says the Lord.
In 732 B.C. king Pekah of the Northern kingdom of Israel had allied himself with king Rezin of Syria to try to stop the Assyrians from rampaging through the area and had tried to get king Ahaz of Judah to join them. Ahaz refused, and Pekah then invaded Judah and took some of the people captive to Samaria, the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel. The combined armies of Israel and Syria appeared outside the walls of Jerusalem and demanded its surrender with the plan of placing a friendly puppet-king and ally on the throne. King Ahaz of Judah then sent tribute to the king of Assyria for help.
About 80 years earlier Syrians under the rule of king Hazael had viciously attacked the Jews living in Gilead, east of the Jordan river according to the prophecy of Elisha who, weeping, had said to Hazael;
2 KINGS 8:12
12 And Hazael said, “Why is my lord weeping?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel: their strongholds you will set on fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword; and you will dash their children, and rip open their women with child.”
It is interesting that an actual threshing instrument with iron teeth has been found in ruins in Gilead.
Amos is prophesying the near future destruction of Syria which occurred when Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III attacked and absorbed Syria into the Assyrian empire in 734 B.C., killing its king and impaling its nobles on tall, sharpened stakes while they were still alive, a common and feared method of Assyrian and Babylonian execution.
AMOS 1:6-8
6 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they took captive the whole captivity to deliver them up to Edom.
7 But I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza, which shall devour its palaces.
8 I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and the one who holds the scepter from Ashkelon. I will turn My hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,” says the Lord God.
In one of the “prisms” (6-sided clay cylinders) of Assyrian king Sennacherib denoting his conquests, he describes conquering all of Judah in 701 B.C., (except Jerusalem) and distributing the conquered land to the kings of the cities of Philistines (Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Ekron). From the verses above, it seems that the Philistines sold the people of Judah to the Edomites, Judah’s enemies to the south, as slaves.
And in fulfillment of God’s promise, in 604 B.C. Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed all four Philistine cities putting a final end to Israel’s ancient enemies.
AMOS 1:9-10
9 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood.
10 But I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre, which shall devour its palaces.”
Apparently the people of Tyre, Lebanon had sold the Jews left in Samaria after Assyrian king Sargon II had destroyed Samaria in 721 B.C., and had sold their captives to the Edomites as well.
The “covenant of brotherhood” God spoke of was the brotherly covenant between king Hiram of Tyre and king Solomon of Israel. Hiram had provided cedar and cypress wood and woodcutters from Lebanon to help Solomon build the Temple, and Solomon had in turn given him 20 cities in Galilee. Scripture then records;
I KINGS 9:12-13
12 Then Hiram went from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, but they did not please him.
13 So he said, “What kind of cities are these which you have given me, my brother?” And he called them the land of Cabul, as they are to this day.
AMOS 1:11-12
11 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off all pity; his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever.
12 But I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.”
The Edomites were actually brothers to the Jews, being descended from Jacob’s brother Esau. They had settled in the mountainous desert regions to the south of Judah and over time became bitter enemies of Israel.
When Israel came out of their 430 year captivity in Egypt they requested to pass through Edom on their way to Canaan. Scripture records;
NUMBERS 20:14-21
14 Now Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom. “Thus says your brother Israel: ‘You know all the hardship that has befallen us,
15 how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians afflicted us and our fathers.
16 When we cried out to the Lord, He heard our voice and sent the Angel and brought us up out of Egypt; now here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your border.
17 Please let us pass through your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards, nor will we drink water from wells; we will go along the King’s Highway; we will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.’ ”
18 Then Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through my land, lest I come out against you with the sword.”
19 So the children of Israel said to him, “We will go by the Highway, and if I or my livestock drink any of your water, then I will pay for it; let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.”
20 Then he said, “You shall not pass through.” So Edom came out against them with many men and with a strong hand.
21 Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory; so Israel turned away from him.
There were bitter wars between Judah and Edom, and somewhere between 792 and 796 B.C. king Amaziah of Judah killed 10,000 Edomite soldiers in the “valley of Salt”, at the southern end of the Dead Sea (2 KINGS 14:7). Edom was destroyed by the Babylonians in roughly 586 B.C. after Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed Judah.
AMOS 1:13-15
13 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of the people of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they ripped open the women with child in Gilead, that they might enlarge their territory.
14 But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour its palaces, amid shouting in the day of battle, and a tempest in the day of the whirlwind.
15 Their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together,” says the Lord.
The Ammonites were cousins of the Jews, descended from Ben-Ammi, the son of Lot, Abraham’s nephew. They dwelt next to Israel on the east side of the Jordan River and were cruel, bitter enemies of Israel.
The Jewish tribes of Gad, Reuben and half the tribe of Manasseh had settled in the land of Gilead, east of the Jordan River when they came out of Egypt, with enemies the Moabites (also cousins to the Jews through Moab, another son of Lot, Abraham’s nephew), to the south and the Ammonites to the north.
The Ammonites, seeking greater territory, had attacked the Jews to the south, cementing their reputation for barbaric cruelty by cutting open the stomachs of pregnant women, allowing the unborn fetus to fall out and die while the dying mother watched.
Assyrian king Ashurbanipal conquered the Ammonites in about 620 B.C., making the Ammonites a vassal kingdom.
AMOS 2:1-3
1 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime.
2 But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth; Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting and trumpet sound.
3 And I will cut off the judge from its midst, and slay all its princes with him,” says the Lord.
Moab, on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea was destroyed by Babylonian king Nebuchanezzar’s armies as they swept through the area in 586 B.C. God had prophesied through Jeremiah;
JEREMIAH 48:16
15 Moab is plundered and gone up from her cities; her chosen young men have gone down to the slaughter,” says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
16 “The calamity of Moab is near at hand, and his affliction comes quickly.
There is no record of the event in verse 1 above, but burning of the bones of the king of Edom was more than likely an act of desecration meant as an insult to the deceased king and an abomination to the Edomites.
AMOS 2:4-5
4 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they have despised the law of the Lord, and have not kept His commandments. Their lies lead them astray, lies which their fathers followed.
5 But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.”
In 586 B.C., Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, killing or deporting the people to Babylon for 70 years as prophesied through Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Isaiah.
AMOS 2:6-8
6 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals.
7 They pant after the dust of the earth which is on the head of the poor, and pervert the way of the humble. A man and his father go in to the same girl, to defile My holy name.
8 They lie down by every altar on clothes taken in pledge, and drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.
The greatest sins of the Northern kingdom of Israel was their greediness and pursuit of immoral pleasures. They swindled people in business, taking their possessions, then if the people they cheated still owed money, they would sell the debtors as servants.
AMOS 2:9-10
9 “Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was as strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath.
10 Also it was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.
The term “Amorite” is a loose term used to describe the peoples of the Middle East including the Assyrians, Babylonians and Canaanites. Abraham, the father of the Jews was an Amorite from Ur in Haran (just south of present-day Turkey).
The giant stature of the Amorites in Canaan is spoken of in Scripture, when the spies sent into Canaan by Moses just before Israel entered the Promised Land. 12 spies were sent in and when they came back, 10 of them brought a discouraging report;
NUMBERS 13:32-33
32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.
33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Goliath was one of the descendants of Anak, a giant in stature whose height ranges from 7-9 feet tall, depending on the measure of a “cubit” used at the time. Considering that the average Israeli was about 5'3" - 5'5" inches at the time, the giants would be huge indeed!!
The Book of Numbers (chapter 41) also describes Og, the king of Bashan (present day northern Jordan) who attacked Israel as they came out of Egypt as having an iron bedframe measuring 13 feet long. It is interesting to note that in 1918 a stone dolmen (tomb) was discovered just outside Jordan’s capital Amman which fits the bed size given in the book of Numbers. Other stone dolmens of similar size have been found only in Hebron, (in ancient Judah) where the giant descendants of Anak (Goliath and his brethren) lived.
Yet Israel seemed to forget that they defeated the giants they encountered in battle, forgetting God’s help in the matter.
AMOS 2:11-16
11 I raised up some of your sons as prophets, and some of your young men as Nazirites. Is it not so, O you children of Israel?” says the Lord.
12 “But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets saying, ‘Do not prophesy!’
13 “Behold, I am weighed down by you, as a cart full of sheaves is weighed down.
14 Therefore flight shall perish from the swift, the strong shall not strengthen his power, nor shall the mighty deliver himself;
15 He shall not stand who handles the bow, the swift of foot shall not escape, nor shall he who rides a horse deliver himself.
16 The most courageous men of might shall flee naked in that day,” says the Lord.
A Nazirite (not to be confused with a Nazarene, an inhabitant of the village of Nazareth) was a man who took a vow of separation and dedication to God, and God commanded that they not drink wine, or grape juice nor eat raisins all the days of their vow. The chaste conduct of the Nazarites and prophets offended the wicked who then tried to corrupt the Nazarites and shut the mouths of God’s prophets.
AMOS 3:1-8
1 Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying:
2 “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”
3 Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?
4 Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing?
5 Will a bird fall into a snare on the earth, where there is no trap for it? Will a snare spring up from the earth, if it has caught nothing at all?
6 If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?
7 Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
8 A lion has roared! Who will not fear?The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?
God asks rhetorical questions (questions that don’t require an answer as the answer is obvious) showing that nothing happens by itself or without cause. Nothing happens without God’s foreknowledge or intent.
He reminds Israel that He chose them out of all the nations to reveal Himself to, and yet they turn from Him and hate Him. He also reminds them that He will do nothing to Israel, good or bad, without first telling His prophets of His intentions.
AMOS 3:9-11
9 “Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say: ‘Assemble on the mountains of Samaria; see great tumults in her midst, and the oppressed within her.
10 For they do not know to do right,’ says the Lord, ‘who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.’ ”
11 Therefore thus says the Lord God: “An adversary shall be all around the land; he shall sap your strength from you, and your palaces shall be plundered.”
God is calling on the Egyptians and Philistines to bear witness that Israel (the Northern kingdom) is as bad if not worse than they are, a major indictment against a nation who claims to follow God and His commandments. They are essentially biting the hand of God who is feeding them.
God promises to bring enemies against the Northern kingdom of Israel which will destroy the nation because of their wickedness.
AMOS 3:12-15
12 Thus says the Lord: “As a shepherd takes from the mouth of a lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out who dwell in Samaria— in the corner of a bed and on the edge of a couch!
13 Hear and testify against the house of Jacob,” says the Lord God, the God of hosts,
14 “That in the day I punish Israel for their transgressions, I will also visit destruction on the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground.
15 I will destroy the winter house along with the summer house; the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end,” says the Lord.
Bethel in the southern portion of the Northern kingdom of Israel was where one of the two golden calves created by idolatrous king Jeroboam I was located. The other was in the far north in the area claimed by the tribe of Dan.
Altars of that time had 4 points (horns), one in each corner, representing the four cardinal points of the compass. Cutting off the horns represents the destruction of the altar at Bethel.
Archaeologists have uncovered ivory figurines and large amounts of ivory fragments in the ancient ruins of Samaria, supporting God’s words in verse 15 above.
Winter and summer houses were not uncommon among the rich and nobility. Summers in Israel could become quite hot, so secondary homes and palaces were often built in cooler areas (summer houses) and the people would return to their primary residence in warmer areas in winter.
Jerusalem was located on a high mountain in Judea and could be quite cold in winter. King Herod the Great built a winter palace in Jericho where the winters were generally warm and pleasant.
Summers in Jerusalem being quite hot, caused king Herod to build a summer palace at Caesaria Maritima on the coast to the north where summers were cooler.
AMOS 4:1-3
1 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, “Bring wine, let us drink!”
2 The Lord God has sworn by His holiness: “Behold, the days shall come upon you when He will take you away with fishhooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.
3 You will go out through broken walls, each one straight ahead of her, and you will be cast into Harmon,” says the Lord.
If Israel’s king Ahab’s Sidonian wife, the despicable, murderous queen Jezebel is any example, the women of Samaria were haughty, arrogant, dominating, heartless oppressors and lovers of revelry. God promises that they will be led out of their ruined city through breaches in the city walls and will be gathered as prisoners in a valley below the city. History records that they were then deported to far-off Assyria and lands east of Assyria.
AMOS 4:4-5
4 “Come to Bethel and transgress, at Gilgal multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days.
5 Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, proclaim and announce the freewill offerings; for this you love, you children of Israel!” says the Lord God.
Bethel was a city in the southern portion of the Northern Kingdom of Israel where idolatrous king Jeroboam I erected a golden calf for Israel to worship after the 10 northern tribes of Israel split from Judah and Benjamin in 930 B.C.
Jeroboam, fearful that people in the Northern Kingdom would defect to Judah to worship at Solomon’s Temple put a golden calf in Dan to the far north and in Bethel to the south, commanding Israel to worship the idols.
The Gilgal (Hebrew “circle of stones”) site in Northern Israel, (the other Gilgal was in Judah) seems to have possibly been a pagan worship site. The fact that God lumps it in with Bethel seems to support this theory.
AMOS 4:6-13
6 “Also I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord.
7 “I also withheld rain from you, when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain the part withered.
8 So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord.
9 “I blasted you with blight and mildew. When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees, the locust devoured them; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord.
10 “I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt; your young men I killed with a sword, along with your captive horses; I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord.
11 “I overthrew some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning; yet you have not returned to Me, says the Lord.
12 “Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
13 For behold, He who forms mountains, and creates the wind, who declares to man what his thought is, and makes the morning darkness, who treads the high places of the earth— the Lord God of hosts is His name.
Frustrated by Israel’s continued sinning, God sends increasing punishments; famine, plague, drought, locusts and attacks from enemies, yet Israel refuses to return in repentance to Him. Therefore He tells them that He is about to enter into judgment with them for their wickedness, and reminds them who He is.
AMOS 5:1-3
1 Hear this word which I take up against you, a lamentation, O house of Israel:
2 The virgin of Israel has fallen; she will rise no more. She lies forsaken on her land; there is no one to raise her up.
3 For thus says the Lord God: “The city that goes out by a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which goes out by a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.”
God promises the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and promises in His wrath to winnow the people to a remnant but will not destroy them utterly.
AMOS 5:4-9
4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live;
5 But do not seek Bethel, nor enter Gilgal, nor pass over to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing.
6 Seek the Lord and live, lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, with no one to quench it in Bethel—
7 You who turn justice to wormwood, and lay righteousness to rest in the earth!”
8 He made the Pleiades and Orion; He turns the shadow of death into morning and makes the day dark as night; He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth; the Lord is His name.
9 He rains ruin upon the strong, so that fury comes upon the fortress.
Bethel was one of the cities where idolatrous Israelite king Jeroboam I set up a golden calf for the people of the Northern Kingdom to worship, and Gilgal was a Canaanite site for pagan worship practices.
Jacob’s son Joseph had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh to whom Jacob had promised portions of the land of Canaan, whose descendants settled north of the area allotted to Jacob’s son Judah. The 10 northern tribes later became collectively known as “Ephraim and Manasseh”. Therefore God refers to the 10 northern tribes as “the house of Joseph”.
He reminds them also of His sovereignty, with nature itself showing His handiwork and that both good and ruin come from Him.
AMOS 5:10-15
10 They hate the one who rebukes in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks uprightly.
11 Therefore, because you tread down the poor and take grain taxes from him, though you have built houses of hewn stone, yet you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine from them.
12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: afflicting the just and taking bribes; diverting the poor from justice at the gate.
13 Therefore the prudent keep silent at that time, for it is an evil time.
14 Seek good and not evil, that you may live; so the Lord God of hosts will be with you, as you have spoken.
15 Hate evil, love good; establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
In ancient times, princes, judges and elders sat in the gate of a city to publicly administer judgment, oversee who came and went, and could keep the rulers informed of events. That way, the general public could see justice carried out, etc. Yet these greedy officials solicited and accepted bribes to rule in favor of the wicked and condemning the innocent.
They also exacted heavy taxes from the poor who could least afford it, and enriched themselves at the expense of their own people, building elaborate houses of quarried stone instead of mud-brick and having large fields of crops. Yet such riches are only temporary, as king Solomon bitterly contemplated when he said;
ECCLESIASTES 2:18-20
18 Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me.
19 And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.
20 Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun.
God urges them to turn from their wickedness so that He may bless them and not destroy them in His wrath.
AMOS 5:16-20
16 Therefore the Lord God of hosts, the Lord, says this: “There shall be wailing in all streets, and they shall say in all the highways, ‘Alas! Alas!’ they shall call the farmer to mourning, and skillful lamenters to wailing.
17 In all vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through you,” says the Lord.
18 Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! For what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness, and not light.
19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him! Or as though he went into the house, leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him!
20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light? Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?
God warns to not rejoice when He avenges Himself on the people, saying it will be a terrifying experience for all. There will be drought or famine as He cuts off food and wine and people will be wailing and sorrow everywhere. He also warns that there will be no escaping disaster when it strikes.
AMOS 5:21-27
21 “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies.
22 Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.
23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.
24 But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
25 “Did you offer Me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
26 You also carried Sikkuth your king and Chiun, your idols, the star of your gods, which you made for yourselves.
27 Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.
Sikkuth was a star-deity first mentioned in the ancient city-State of Ugarit in Mesopotamia (an area stretching from southern Turkey south to the Persian Gulf) and being listed as “king” shows the high rank of this god in Middle Eastern culture. Chiun in turn was the term for Saturn, mentioned in the list of gods of Akkad (the first Mesopotamian empire). Saturn was worshiped as a god even to the time of the Roman empire.
God is telling Israel that even as they hold celebrations and feasts in His name, they still hold pagan gods and idols in their hearts, and He will have none of it. He accuses them of following pagan practices even as He had delivered them from slavery and led them through the desert in the wilderness to the land of Canaan. He has had enough of them, and will send them captive far from the land that He had given to them.
AMOS 6:1-2
1 Woe to you who are at ease in Zion, and trust in Mount Samaria, notable persons in the chief nation, to whom the house of Israel comes!
2 Go over to Calneh and see; and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is their territory greater than your territory?
Calneh was one of the first cities created by legendary Nimrod, who also founded Babylon, Akkad and Erech, three of the great Mesopotamian city-States of ancient times and the founder of the great Sumerian Empire which encompassed nearly all of the Middle East, centered around the great Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Hamath was another ancient major city which, along with Calneh is located in present-day Syria. However while Calneh exists only as ruins, Hamath is the provincial capital of Hama governorate in Syria and is mostly a tourist attraction.
Gath was one of the five kingdoms of the Philistines (the others were Ekron, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Gaza), ancient enemies of Israel.
The cities mentioned by God were mighty at one time but were now either in ruins or had been conquered and greatly reduced in size and power. He is saying that Samaria is no different.
AMOS 6:3-7
3 Woe to you who put far off the day of doom, who cause the seat of violence to come near;
4 Who lie on beds of ivory, stretch out on your couches, eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall;
5 Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments, and invent for yourselves musical instruments like David;
6 Who drink wine from bowls, and anoint yourselves with the best ointments, but are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
7 Therefore they shall now go captive as the first of the captives, and those who recline at banquets shall be removed.
The aristocracy of Samaria were “idle rich”, more interested in wealth and pleasures than in serving God and helping the poor and afflicted. Ivory fragments in abundance have been found in the ruins of Samaria lending weight to God’s words in verse 4 above.
AMOS 6:8-13
8 The Lord God has sworn by Himself, the Lord God of hosts says: “I abhor the pride of Jacob, and hate his palaces; therefore I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.”
9 Then it shall come to pass, that if ten men remain in one house, they shall die.
10 And when a relative of the dead, with one who will burn the bodies, picks up the bodies to take them out of the house, he will say to one inside the house, “Are there any more with you?” Then someone will say, “None.” And he will say, “Hold your tongue! For we dare not mention the name of the Lord.”
11 For behold, the Lord gives a command: He will break the great house into bits, and the little house into pieces.
12 Do horses run on rocks? Does one plow there with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,
13 You who rejoice over Lo Debar, who say, “Have we not taken Karnaim for ourselves by our own strength?”
Lo Debar was a former Amorite village on the eastern side of the Jordan River, in the territory alloted to the tribe of Gad. Karnaim was also east of the Jordan River close by Lo Debar. Both were conquered by Israel when they conquered Canaan between 1500-1200 B.C. (exact dates uncertain).
God, as there is no one higher to swear by, swore by Himself that these things would come to pass.
AMOS 6:14
14 “But, behold, I will raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel,” says the Lord God of hosts; “and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the Valley of the Arabah.”
The Arabah valley was an expression used to loosely describe the entire Jordan Valley from the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee to the Red Sea to the south. History shows that the Assyrians and Babylonians swept through the area laying waste to everything in their path.
AMOS 7:1-6
1 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, He formed locust swarms at the beginning of the late crop; indeed it was the late crop after the king’s mowings.
2 And so it was, when they had finished eating the grass of the land, that I said: “O Lord God, forgive, I pray! Oh, that Jacob may stand, for he is small!”
3 So the Lord relented concerning this. “It shall not be,” said the Lord.
4 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, the Lord God called for conflict by fire, and it consumed the great deep and devoured the territory.
5 Then I said: “O Lord God, cease, I pray! Oh, that Jacob may stand, for he is small!”
6 So the Lord relented concerning this. “This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.
God allows Amos to see disasters He has planned against Israel. Locusts were a deadly scourge as they would come suddenly in massive swarms, eating every type of plant and leaving nothing behind but stripped trees and bare ground. This could bring starvation to the populace, especially if they arrived before harvest seasons.
“The king’s mowings” refers to the portion of crops taken by the king each harvest season to feed himself and his nobles. God had warned Israel through the prophet Samuel about this, when they wanted a king over them;
1 SAMUEL 8:14-18
14 And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants.
15 He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants.
16 And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work.
17 He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants.
18 And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.”
AMOS 7:7-9
7 Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand.
8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said: “Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of My people Israel. I will not pass by them anymore.
9 The high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. I will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam.”
Jeroboam in this case is Jeroboam I, an idolatrous king of the Northen Kingdom of Israel. God had given Jeroboam the kingdom after 10 of the tribes of Israel had rebelled and split away from Judah and Benjamin after the death of king Solomon in 930 B.C.
God had promised that if Jeroboam would follow His statutes and laws;
1 KINGS 11:37-38
37 So I will take you, and you shall reign over all your heart desires, and you shall be king over Israel.
38 Then it shall be, if you heed all that I command you, walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as My servant David did, then I will be with you and build for you an enduring house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you.
However Jeroboam built golden calves to worship and led the Northern Kingdom into idolatry, therefore God was going to destroy Israel because of their sins.
A plumb line was used when building as a standard for building walls and was used to set a vertical reference for stonemasons and carpenters. Some survey instruments still use plumb lines for reference when setting up tripod stands to ensure the tripods are level when making measurements.
In this case, the plumb line was an allegory for measuring the uprightness (or crookedness) of the people.
AMOS 7:10-13
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words.
11 For thus Amos has said: ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive from their own land.’ ”
12 Then Amaziah said to Amos: Go, you seer! Flee to the land of Judah. There eat bread, and there prophesy.
13 But never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is the royal residence.”
Rather than heed the prophecies of Amos, the pagan priests tell the prophet to flee back to Judah with the implication that if he does not, he will be executed for treason against Jeroboam II.
Amaziah was more than likely a priest of Ba’al, one of the Canaanite gods worshiped in Canaan or a priest of the golden calf idol that king Jeroboam I had setup in Bethel.
AMOS 7:14-17
14 Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah: “I was no prophet, or was I a son of a prophet, but I was a sheepbreeder and a tender of sycamore fruit.
15 Then the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’
16 Now therefore, hear the word of the Lord: You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not spout against the house of Isaac.’
17 “Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Your wife shall be a harlot in the city; your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword; your land shall be divided by survey line; you shall die in a defiled land; and Israel shall surely be led away captive from his own land.’ ”
Amos says that before he came to Israel to prophesy, he had not been a designated prophet, but had been a simple shepherd and a cultivator of sycamore figs.
He then makes a horrible prophecy concerning Amaziah the pagan priest, saying that Amaziah would go into captivity, his sons and daughters would die in the coming attack, his land would be given to others and his wife would turn to prostitution to survive after he is gone.
AMOS 8:1-3
1 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, a basket of summer fruit.
2 And He said, “Amos, what do you see?” So I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me: “The end has come upon My people Israel; I will not pass by them anymore.
3 And the songs of the temple shall be wailing in that day,” says the Lord God—“many dead bodies everywhere, they shall be thrown out in silence.”
God describes the magnitude of the upcoming calamity coming on Israel. Many will die in the upcoming attack and siege. He has had enough of their sins and His judgement is coming.
AMOS 8:4-6
4 Hear this, you who swallow up the needy, and make the poor of the land fail,
5 Saying: “When will the New Moon be past, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may trade wheat? Making the ephah small and the shekel large, falsifying the scales by deceit,
6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals— even sell the bad wheat?”
The greediness of the rich is shown here in that they chafe at the restrictions set down in the Law of Moses, especially the command to not do any sort of work on the Sabbath. The days were measured from sunset to sunset so that a new day started at sunset. They didn’t want anything restricting their pursuit of profit, and even sold substandard wheat for profit.
They used deceitful practices, falsifying scale measurements of grain and flour, and making the volume of “dry goods” such as grains and flour smaller than they were supposed to be and, overcharging their customers for their products.
In ancient times people who were deep in debt could sell themselves or their children as domestic servants (not slaves) for an agreed period of time to pay off their debts. God had set down strict laws concerning the treatment of such servants. 30 pieces of silver was the average price for a servant back then.
By the sounds of it, the rich would buy those selling themselves or their children for far less than what their services would normally go for, relying on the desperation of the debtor as a form of coercion.
AMOS 8:7-8
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: “Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8 Shall the land not tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells in it? All of it shall swell like the River, heave and subside like the River of Egypt.
God is saying that their calamity will come upon them suddenly with little warning, like the sudden rise of a river during a flash flood.
AMOS 8:9-10
9 “And it shall come to pass in that day,” says the Lord God, “That I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in broad daylight;
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist, and baldness on every head; I will make it like mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day.
Here we see a often overlooked prophecy which was fulfilled when Jesus Christ was crucified. Scripture records;
MATTHEW 27:45-46
45 Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land.
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
The “sixth hour” was noon in ancient times. Scripture also records that after Jesus died,
LUKE 23:48-49
48 And the whole crowd who came together to that sight, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned.
49 But all His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
The darkness was not due to an eclipse, as the crucifixion happened during a full Moon season and a solar eclipse can only occur during a “new” Moon. Also, an eclipse only darkens a small portion o the Earth’s surface for a maximum of 7.5 minutes, whereas the darkness here covered “all of the land” for 3 hours. Early writers such as Tertullian (197 A.D.) refer to lost manuscripts which recorded the event as described in the Gospels as being in Roman historical archives.
AMOS 8:11-14
11 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God, “that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it.
13 “In that day the fair virgins and strong young men shall faint from thirst.
14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, who say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan!’ And, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives!’ they shall fall and never rise again.”
God says that the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel will realize they have sinned and will seek to find the word of the Lord but will search in vain. They will faint spiritually like a person seeking water.
The god he spoke of is the golden calf which king Jeroboam I erected in Dan for Israel to worship. He also is referring to pagan worship practices followed by the Edomites and Canaanites in Beersheba in southern Judah.
AMOS 9:1-4
1 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and He said: “Strike the doorposts, that the thresholds may shake, and break them on the heads of them all. I will slay the last of them with the sword. He who flees from them shall not get away, and he who escapes from them shall not be delivered.
2 “Though they dig into Hell, from there My hand shall take them; though they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down;
3 And though they hide themselves on top of Carmel, from there I will search and take them; though they hide from My sight at the bottom of the sea, from there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them;
4 Though they go into captivity before their enemies, from there I will command the sword, and it shall slay them. I will set My eyes on them for harm and not for good.”
God has had enough of the wickedness of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and has decided to put an end to it. There will be no place for the wicked to hide in the day of His wrath, He will destroy them, root and branch, and as history shows, they never recovered after being deported by the brutal Assyrians.
AMOS 9:5-6
5 The Lord God of hosts, He who touches the earth and it melts, and all who dwell there mourn; all of it shall swell like the River, and subside like the River of Egypt.
6 He who builds His layers in the sky, and has founded His strata in the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth—the Lord is His name.
The Lord proclaims His greatness and power, and reminds men who created all things and that all of Creation obeys His will, except Man to whom He has given a free will to choose to obey or not.
AMOS 9:7-10
7 “Are you not like the people of Ethiopia to Me, O children of Israel?” says the Lord. “Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?
8 “Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth; yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” says the Lord.
9 “For surely I will command, and will sift the house of Israel among all nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve; yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground.
10 All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘The calamity shall not overtake nor confront us.’
God may destroy the Northern Kingdom, and reduce Judah, but He will never destroy Israel as a whole even though He may scatter them across the face of the Earth. As He had later promised through Jeremiah;
JEREMIAH 31:35-37
35 Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, who disturbs the sea, and its waves roar (the Lord of hosts is His name):
36 “If those ordinances depart from before Me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever.”
37 Thus says the Lord: “If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the Lord.
AMOS 9:11-15
11 “On that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, and repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old;
12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name,” says the Lord who does this thing.
13 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.
14 I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; they shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.
15 I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.
This was fulfilled in 1948 when Israel became a nation again after 1,878 years of wandering the world without a homeland. After Judea had been destroyed by the Romans, the Jews had wandered the planet, desperately trying to assimilate into the countries where they wandered only to have savage persecutions break out driving them out.
God had promised a second re-gathering of Israel to their land even before their first captivity in Babylon in 586 B.C. when He prophesied through Isaiah around 130 years earlier in 720 B.C.;
ISAIAH 11:11
It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left, from Assyria and Egypt, from Pathros and Cush, from Elam and Shinar, from Hamath and the islands of the sea.
Note that the second gathering would be a world-wide event with Jews returning to Israel from all over the planet. The Holocaust of WW II did just that, forcing Jews from all over the world to return to the Land to re-establish the nation of Israel in 1948.
And in fulfillment of God’s promise, they turned a dry, dusty wasteland into a virtual paradise, the envy of the entire Middle East. And in accordance to God’s promise, in spite of five wars brought against Israel by numerically superior Arab armies and countless attacks by terrorist organizations like Hamas, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah, Israel is still firmly planted in the Land and will never again be driven out of it.
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