A Funeral Song for Israel
Study note
Amos begins a lamentation, which is a funeral song usually sung over a dead person. By singing this song for Israel while it is still alive, Amos is saying the nation's destruction is so certain it is already as good as dead. Israel is pictured as a fallen young woman who will never get up again. Of every thousand soldiers that march out to war, only a hundred will return.
1 Listen to this sad funeral song that I am singing over you, house of Israel. Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.
2 Young Israel has fallen flat on her face and will not get up again. She lies abandoned on her own soil, with no one willing to pick her up. 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 The Lord GOD says: "A city that sends a thousand soldiers to war will only get a hundred back. A city that sends a hundred will only get ten back." 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.
Seek God and Live
Study note
In the middle of judgment, God offers hope. He pleads with the people to seek Him and live, rather than trusting in the worship centers at Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba, which had become places of false worship. The people had turned justice into something bitter and thrown righteousness to the ground. Yet the God they are ignoring is the same one who made the stars, turns darkness into morning, and calls the ocean waters to pour down as rain.
4 The LORD says to the house of Israel: "Look for me, and you will truly live." For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
5 Do not go looking at Bethel. Do not bother going to Gilgal. Do not make the trip to Beersheba. Gilgal's people will be marched into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing. But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Beth-el shall come to nought.
6 Look for the LORD, and you will live! If you do not, he will tear through the family of Joseph like a wildfire with nobody around to put it out in Bethel. 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 Beth-el.
7 You are the people who twist justice into poison and throw what is right and good down in the dirt. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
8 Look for the one who created the star clusters Pleiades and Orion. He turns pitch-black night into morning and dims the day back into darkness. He scoops up ocean water and dumps it as rain across the land. The LORD is his name. 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 In a flash, he brings ruin on the powerful and crashes through their strongest defenses. That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
Injustice and Oppression of the Poor
Study note
Amos describes how corrupt Israel's courts have become. The people hate anyone who speaks the truth and despise those who tell the right thing. The wealthy tax the poor heavily and build fancy stone houses with stolen wealth. But God knows every one of their many sins: they take bribes, twist justice, and silence the poor.
10 They despise anyone who tells the truth in court and loathe anyone who speaks honestly. They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
11 "Because you stomp on the poor and squeeze them for grain taxes, you will build fancy stone houses but never get to live in them. You will plant gorgeous vineyards but never taste the wine." 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 pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
12 I know exactly how many sins you have committed and how serious they are. You bully innocent people, take bribes left and right, and slam the courthouse door in the faces of the poor. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
13 Therefore anyone with sense keeps quiet in times like these — the whole era is rotten. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
Seek Good and Hate Evil
Study note
Amos gives the people one more chance. If they seek good instead of evil, the LORD will truly be with them as they have claimed. If they hate evil, love good, and bring justice back to the courts, then perhaps the LORD will have mercy on what remains of the people of Joseph (the northern tribes).
14 Go after what is good instead of what is evil — then you will be alive. Only then will the LORD, the God of Armies, truly be on your side, the way you keep claiming he is. 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 Despise evil and hold on to what is good. Bring justice back into the courts. Maybe — just maybe — the LORD, the God of Armies, will show kindness to what is left of Joseph's people. 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.
Mourning Will Fill the Land
Study note
Because the people have not changed, God describes the mourning that is coming. Weeping will fill every street, and farmers will be called from their fields to join the crying. Even in the vineyards, which were usually places of celebration, there will be nothing but sorrow.
16 So the Lord GOD, the God of Armies, says this: "Weeping will echo down every street. Cries of grief will ring through every intersection. Farmers will be called away from their fields to mourn, and professional mourners will be hired to wail." 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 "Sorrow will fill every vineyard, because I am passing right through your midst," the LORD says. And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.
The Day of the Lord Is Darkness
Study note
Some Israelites were actually looking forward to the Day of the LORD, thinking it would bring them victory and glory. Amos warns them that they are terribly wrong. For sinful Israel, the Day of the LORD will be total darkness, not light. It will be like escaping from a lion only to run into a bear, or going inside a house and being bitten by a snake.
18 You are in serious trouble if you are looking forward to the Day of the LORD! Why would you want it to come? That day will bring darkness, not the light you are expecting. Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.
19 It will be like running away from a lion only to smack into a bear. Or like going inside your house, leaning your hand against the wall to rest, and having a snake bite you. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.
20 The Day of the LORD will be pitch-black darkness — not a speck of light or brightness anywhere. Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
God Rejects Empty Worship
Study note
God powerfully declares that He hates Israel's religious festivals and cannot stand their worship assemblies. Their burnt offerings, grain offerings, and peace offerings are all rejected. Their loud songs and harp music are just noise to God. Instead, God demands that justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a never-ending stream. The people have carried the idols of false gods and will therefore be sent into exile beyond Damascus.
21 "I truly hate your religious festivals. I can't stand your worship gatherings." I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
22 "Even when you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I refuse to accept them. I will not even glance at the peace offerings of your best-fed animals." Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
23 "Quit singing your noisy worship songs at me! I do not want to hear your harp music." Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
24 "But let justice roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
25 "Israel, did you bring me offerings during those forty years in the desert?" Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
26 "No — you carted around your idol king Moloch and the star-god Chiun — those fake gods you built with your own hands." But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
27 "So I will send you into exile, far past Damascus," says the LORD, whose name is the God of Armies. Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.