Amos Puts Israel On Trial Before YHWH In The Presence Of Witnesses (Amos 3:9-15).
Amos begins by calling his witnesses together in Amos 3:9-10, giving his grounds for doing so, and then declaring YHWH's own verdict on Israel in Amos 3:11-12 which describe the consequences that are to come on Israel as a result of their behaviour. This is then confirmed in Amos 3:13-15 which also make clear more grounds for Israel's punishment. Note how they connect back to Amos 2:6.
Amos Calls On Foreign Peoples To Witness What Is To Happen To Israel, And Why (Amos 3:9-10).
Amos calls on the influential and the wealthy (those who live in palaces) in places like Egypt and Ashdod to assemble on the mountains of Samaria to witness for themselves what is happening in Israel, and what violence and oppression is taking place in Samaria. And it is because the people who live in palaces in Samaria are not ‘doing right' (walking in accordance with His requirements), as is evidenced by their violence and the way in which they rob the poor.
“Publish you in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, ‘Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and behold what great tumults are in it, and what oppressions amongst it.”
The call goes out to the palaces in Ashdod, an important Philistine city state, and to the palaces in the land of Egypt, for the wealthy and influential to gather as witnesses on the mountains of Samaria. YHWH is both seeking vindication for what He is about to do, and giving them their own warning as well. And they are being called on to consider the social conditions prevailing in prosperous Samaria, so as to justify YHWH's action. It is a city of inexcusable violence, as the wealthy obtain what they want by force, and a city of oppressions, as the poor and helpless are swindled out of their possessions.
Ashdod has already been mentioned in Amos 1:8 and was presumably selected because it was the largest and most important of the city states in Philistia. (Note how Gaza had represented the whole of Philistia in Amos 1:6 and Damascus the whole of Aram in Amos 1:3. Thus the naming of a city as indicating also its wider area is typical of Amos). Its mention emphasises that the witnesses are not themselves unblemished, for Ashdod has already been condemned (Amos 1:8). And yet even they will be appalled at the behaviour in Samaria. Egypt was called on because it was seen as of especial political importance, and as an external witness. It was not directly involved in the sins of Israel, Judah and the surrounding nations as described in Chapter s 1-2. It was also possibly called on as the place from which Israel had emerged (Amos 3:1).
While LXX alters ‘Ashdod' here to ‘Assyria', presumably seeing it as a better parallel with Egypt, that is clearly wrong for two reasons. Firstly because it is Assyria who are to be the instruments of YHWH's judgments, and Amos always avoids mentioning them, leaving the threat that they pose to the imagination, and secondly because Amos was looking around for witnesses near at hand, who had a political interest in the area. We might not see Ashdod as important from our distant perspective, but to Amos it was mighty Ashdod, representing the whole of Philistia. And along with Egypt it was conveniently situated to be called in as a witness in Samaria. Egypt had always been involved in Canaanite affairs, and in this case it was an independent witness (it has not previously been mentioned), and was important as the source from which Israel had come (Amos 3:1).
(If we argue that Amos did not know who YHWH's instrument of punishment would be because Assyria was not yet looming on the horizon as an important factor, we must then further conclude that in his eye they were not important enough to mention here. We cannot have it both ways).
The plural ‘mountains of Samaria' emphasises that all Samaria is involved. What is described is going on everywhere.
“For they know not to do right, says YHWH, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.”
What the two witnesses were to witness to was the failure of Israel to do what was ‘right', in other words, what was in accordance with the Law of YHWH, something especially demonstrated by the influential and wealthy inhabitants in their use of violence and dishonest techniques in order to get what they wanted (as outlined in Amos 2:6-8). They could afford to employ bully boys, and had the influence to manipulate justice, thereby robbing the poor of their rights.
YHWH's Verdict On Israel (Amos 3:11-12).
YHWH's verdict on Israel is that an adversary will appear who will bring down Israel's strength and plunder her palaces, and he then vividly portrays the consequences for Israel in that all that will be left of the wealthy and influential in Israel are ‘two legs and a piece of ear'.
“Therefore thus says the Lord YHWH. An adversary, even round about the land, and he will bring down your strength from you, and your palaces will be plundered.'
The consequence of Israel's sin, and of YHWH's intervention in her affairs, will be that they will have an adversary round about. The thought is of an invader who will occupy the land and surround Samaria. But the stress is on what that adversary will do. He will bring down their strength from them and will plunder their palaces (thus Samaria will fall). For ‘bring down their strength compare Leviticus 26:19, ‘I will break down the strength of your pride'. It may signify the smashing of their military strength, or the taking away of those things that they saw as making them ‘strong'. The plundering of their palaces is a case of them reaping what they have sowed, for they have plundered the poor.
“Thus says YHWH. As the shepherd rescues out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so will the children of Israel be rescued who sit in Samaria in the corner of a couch, and on the silken cushions of a bed.”
Amos then vividly portrays the hugeness of the disaster that will come on them in terms of what will be left of them once the Lion had finished with them. It was important for a shepherd to rescue parts of a sheep stolen by a lion so that he could prove what had happened to it, and that he himself had not stolen it. By producing parts of the animal he proved his innocence for the loss, even if it was only two legs or a piece of ear (Exodus 22:10-13). In the same way all that would be left of those who lived in luxury in Israel once YHWH had finished with them would be similar fragments, which would be evidence of what had happened to Israel.
It is possible that we should translate ‘with a corner of a couch and the leg of a bed' (the meaning of the word for ‘leg' or ‘silken cushions' is uncertain). This would be a good parallel to the two legs and the piece of an ear of the dead sheep, demonstrating all that would be left of the Israelites.
The Witnesses Are Called On To Testify Against The House Of Jacob On The Basis Of What YHWH Will Do To The Instruments of Israel's Sins (Amos 3:13-15).
Reference is probably being made here to the witnesses assembled in Amos 3:9. As a result of what they have seen they are to testify against Israel. What they will have seen is then described. It will be punishment for Israel's transgressions (compare Amos 2:6), the cutting off of the horns of the false altars (thus rendering them useless), and the smiting of the luxury accommodation of the wealthy.
“Hear you, and testify against the house of Jacob, says the Lord YHWH, the God of hosts.”
The call here must surely be to the witnesses assembled in Amos 3:9. They are to listen to what YHWH has said and testify against ‘the house of Jacob', which is of course another name for Israel (Jacob was also called Israel), and they are to do it at the command of YHWH, the sovereign Lord and God of Hosts (in this context the God of ALL hosts, even the hosts of Assyria) on the basis of what they see as taking place.
The description of Israel as ‘the house of Jacob' linked them back to the promises given to the patriarchs which required that those benefiting by those promises must be righteous and just. Because of YHWH's special ‘knowing' of Abraham, and through him his seed (Amos 3:2; see Genesis 18:19), YHWH expected that Abraham (and his seed) would command his children and his household, and their descendants, to keep the way of YHWH, and to do justice and righteousness, so that by that means they might be a blessing to all the families of the earth. Thus that was what was expected of ‘the house of Jacob' (Genesis 28:14), and it was what they had deliberately failed to achieve by their disobedience to the covenant.
The use of the name Jacob is interesting in Amos as it is used to emphasise what is worst in Israel, and how puny they are, and is spread throughout the book in a chiastic pattern which surely cannot be accidental. This emphasises the unity of the book. Thus we have:
a ‘The house of Jacob' who are to be testified against (Amos 3:13).
b ‘The excellency (pride, manifested wealth) of Jacob' which is hated by YHWH (Amos 6:8).
c ‘How shall Jacob stand?' because he is so puny (Amos 7:2).
c ‘How shall Jacob stand?' because he is so puny (Amos 7:5).
b ‘The excellency (pride, manifested wealth) of Jacob' whose works will never be forgotten (Amos 8:7).
a ‘The house of Jacob' who will nevertheless not be fully destroyed (Amos 9:8).
It will be noted how carefully the phrases are balanced as the argument goes forward.
“For in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel on him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel, and the horns of the altar will be cut off, and fall to the ground.”
For what these witnesses see will be YHWH's due punishment on Israel for its transgressions (as outlined in Amos 2:6 onwards). Included under the heading of these transgressions are the false altars of Bethel, where false syncretistic worship (Yahwism intermingled with Baalism) was being carried out. The very fact that there were plural altars increases the condemnation. Other gods apart from YHWH were being worshipped. And these altars would be rendered ineffective by having their horns (their sources of power, as the horns of a wild-ox were its source of power) cut off, so that the horns fell to the ground. Their power would be humbled before YHWH, and only a stump of the altar would be left (compare what happened to Dagon in 1 Samuel 5:1-5). A number of altars having these ‘horns' or projections have been discovered in Palestine.
The horns of the altar were also the place where people could find a place of refuge so that they would be safe until they had had fair judgment (1 Kings 1:51). But this power would be removed from these altars because they represented false gods.
And I will smite the winter-house with the summer-house; and the houses of ivory will perish, and the great houses will have an end, says YHWH.”
And along with the destruction of the false altars, would go the destruction of all Samaria's luxury accommodation, including both winter houses and summer houses (the height of luxury), houses with panels inlaid with ivory and containing ivory inlaid furniture (compare 1 Kings 22:39), and all the other grand houses. All would ‘have an end, and that as a result of the word of YHWH.
Excavations in Samaria have laid bare many examples of such ‘ivory inlaid' houses.