Amos 5:1 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Bible Comments

The Impending Punishment. The prophet gives his next few words the form of a dirge (kî nah, Amos 5:1). This (Amos 5:2) is characterised by the peculiar kî nah-metre, consisting of three beats or stresses followed by two. In the prophetic vision Israel appears as already overthrown irretrievably. She lies forsaken on the ground, and nothing can raise her. How she has come to this pass is explained in the following verse (Amos 5:3). Her army is almost annihilated in war. This must inevitably happen if Israel will not take warning, but there is still time to seek Yahweh and live (Amos 5:4). Let the corrupt worship at Bethel and Beersheba be forsaken (Amos 5:5), for Gilgal shall taste the gall of exile (G. A. Smith), and Bethel (the house of God) shall become (Beth) aven (the house of idols, Harper). If Yahweh is still forsaken (Amos 5:6), He will burst forth like an unquenchable fire against Israel (represented here as the House of Joseph and as Bethel). The prophet then seems to add a description of the House of Joseph. But it is better to place Amos 5:7 after Amos 5:9, prefixing the words Alas for! Amos 5:8 f. then comes in more suitably as a description of Yahweh, who is mentioned in Amos 5:6. He it is (Amos 5:8) who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turneth deep darkness into morning and darkeneth day into night, etc. Warning is next given to those who pervert or dethrone justice and righteousness, and (Amos 5:10) hate and abominate anyone who reproves them. The prophet then reverts to Israel's oppression of the poor. Those who trample down and rob the poor (Amos 5:11) will never inhabit the luxurious houses they build for themselves; they will never enjoy the wine of the delightful vineyards they plant. Their crimes are manifest to Yahweh (Amos 5:12). They afflict the righteous, take bribes, and thrust aside the poor when these present themselves at the place of justice (Job 5:4 *, Psalms 127:5 *). One who has an insight into the days of calamity that are coming would prefer to keep silent (this is preferable to the usual interpretation that in times so evil the prudent will keep silent). The prophet pauses, hesitating to describe the catastrophe, and before he proceeds to do so, he utters another call to repentance (Amos 5:14 f.). The description follows in Amos 5:16 f. On all sides shall be heard the sounds of wailing and lamentation for the dead.

Amos 5:3. to the house of Israel: omit, as mistaken insertion from Amos 5:4.

Amos 5:5. Harper thinks that by -â ven (see mg.) we are to understand Beth-aven.

Amos 5:8. the Pleiades (Heb. kî mah) and Orion (Heb. kesî l). In Arabic kû mat means a heap. This suggests that Heb. kî mah denotes a cluster of stars. This cluster is usually understood to be the Pleiades. M. A. Stern and others, however, think that another term, - ayish (cf. Job 38:32), denotes the Pleiades (see EBi., s.v. Stars). In that case kî mah may, as Stern suggests, denote Canis major with its bright star Sirius. The root of the word translated Orion perhaps denotes primarily, to be thick, fat. Orion seems to be thought of as a dull-witted, obstinate giant. Since the word kesî l means also fool, it is thought that there is some allusion to a myth in which a giant strove with God and was chained to the sky for his impiety.

Amos 5:9. Render perhaps, Who causeth (LXX - distributeth-') destruction (reading shebher for shodh) to burst forth upon the strong, and brings (reading yâ bhî-' ; cf. LXX) ruin upon the fortress.

Amos 5:16. Or and the husbandmen shall summon to mourning (so Harper).

Amos 5:1-17

1 Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

3 For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.

4 For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:

5 But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.

6 Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.

7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,

8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:

9 That strengtheneth the spoileda against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasantb vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.

12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe,c and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.

14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

16 Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.

17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.