8CPb
In view of the above, the kind of religion under which Amos operates does not appear to be one based on authoritative scripture. His arguments are more humanistic than scriptural. His rhetoric, “selling/buying the righteous/poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals” (Amos 2:6; 8:6), is compelling in its own right by illustrating how the Israelites reduce their fellow Israelites to commodities. He appeals to the virtues of doing righteousness and justice and what is good (Amos 5: 14–15, 24). For Amos religion is demonstrated in the marketplace, not in temple rituals.
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Admonitions and Judgment Oracles on Israel Sins. What are the principal sins of Israel that Amos indicts? Fundamentally they are social oppression and religious hypocrisy, which go hand in hand, as his opening oracle against Israel illustrates.
Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Israel,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they sell the righteous for silver,
and the needy for a pair of sandals—
they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth,
and push the afflicted out of the way;
father and son go in to the same girl,
so that my holy name is profaned;
they lay themselves down beside every altar
on garments taken in pledge;
and in the house of their God they drink
wine bought with fines they imposed.
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Religion had become a tool for social manipulation. The phrase, “in order to profane my holy name,” while not explicitly referring to the Third Commandment, illustrates what it is to “take the name of Yahweh your God in vain” (Exod 20:7): it is to invoke the name of God for manipulative purposes.
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Indeed, one could not accuse Israel of not being religious.
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Come to Bethel—and transgress;
to Gilgal—and multiply transgression;
bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three days;
bring a thank offering of leavened bread,
and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them;
for so you love to do, O people of Israel!
says the Lord God (Amos 4:4–5, NRSV).
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Amos appears to parody the traditional call to worship in order to suggest that their religion ironically promotes transgression. The reason seems to lie in their love of “publishing” their offerings. We can gain some insight from Leviticus 1, which lists three possible options for “a burnt offering”: a bull from the herd, a sheep or goat from the flock, or a bird. In other words, the number and kind of sacrifices offered by worshipers could indicate their income tax bracket and their apparent devotion to Yahweh. According to Amos, religion can mask hypocrisy. The Israelites use it to promote their self-importance among their peers.
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In the next chapter Yahweh indicates the Israelites’ have missed the point of religious observances.
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For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:
Seek me and live;
but do not seek Bethel,
and do not enter into Gilgal
or cross over to Beer-sheba;
for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,
and Bethel shall come to nothing.
Seek the Lord and live,
or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire,
and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it (Amos 5:4–6, NRSV).
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He seeks to refocus their religious attention to Yahweh himself and away from the sanctuaries, where the religious symbols and rituals have overshadowed the deity they pretend to worship. The consequences are either “living” or “going into exile.”
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What happens when God does not attend his people's worship service? God seems irritated with their worship songs and music, which appear to have elicited the extremes of Yahweh’s emotions.
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I hate, I despise your festivals,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals
I will not look upon.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
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The Israelites appear to have assumed the religious perspectives common in their wider Semitic culture. Temple observances were primarily for “the care and feeding of the gods” and had little to do with daily life in human society. But Yahweh’s expectations are countercultural and unlike those of other so-called gods in the ancient Near East. He values the fair treatment of the neighbor over the ritual observances of sacrifice and song. The Israelites believed their sacrifices obliged God to favor them. Yahweh asserts their religion obliges them to act fairly to their fellow Israelites. Indeed, sacrifice does not appear to have been part of their previous relationship in the wilderness (Amos 5:25).
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But when all is said and done, while the Israelites may love their religion, they love commerce and consumerism still more, even at the expense of the poor.
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Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
saying, “When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain;
and the sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
and practice deceit with false balances,
buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”
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Visions (Amos 7:1–9) and the phases of Amos’s ministry. Amos’s first two visions follow the same pattern: Yahweh shows him an impending disaster (a swarm of locusts, Amos 7:1–3, and fire, Amos 7:4–6), he intercedes for mercy, and Yahweh relents. In this respect, we perceive that a prophet’s role was not merely to mediate Yahweh’s message to the people but also to mediate with Yahweh on their behalf. The third vision is different.
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This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built 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,
“See, I am setting a plumb line
in the midst of my people Israel;
I will never again pass them by;
the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
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It would seem to Yahweh’s patience has reached its full, and judgment is now inevitable. This development suggests that in the earlier phase of Amos’s ministry he sought to elicit repentance, thus averting impending judgment, such as we see in his admonition, “seek Yahweh and live, lest he break out like fire …” (Amos 5:6).
The Book of Amos for the Kingdom of Judah. Amos’s message was addressed to the northern kingdom of Israel, which the Assyrians wiped from the map in 722 BCE. But his words live on. They survived, eventually to become part of the Scriptures of Judah to the south. Although not addressed to Judah directly, they were evidently considered meaningful and relevant to a Judahite readership. The bookends formed by the opening and closing passages attest to a Judahite edition of the book in its final form (note also Amos 6:1).
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And he said:
The Lord roars from Zion,
and utters his voice from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds wither,
and the top of Carmel dries up (Amos 1:2, NRSV)
On that day I will raise up
the booth of David that is fallen,
and repair its breaches,
and raise up its ruins,
and rebuild it as in the days of old;
in order that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations who are called by my name,
says the Lord who does this.
I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,
and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,
and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.
(Amos 9:11–12, 14, NRSV)
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The closing oracle is the only note of hope in the entire book. For the Israelites of the north, however, this hope for restoration would have been a hard pill to swallow. It entails re-unification with their rival Judah under a Davidic monarch. But Judahite readers would view this with patriotic anticipation.
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The dating of this oracle has been debated. It is clearly future (“in that day”), but it also presupposes “the falling/fallen booth of David.” Either the Davidic kingdom is in decline, as in Sennacherib’s invasion during the reign of Hezekiah in 701 BCE (2 Kgs 18:13–16), or the Davidic kingdom has fallen entirely, as in the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. Either way, it is likely that this final oracle was added later to Amos’s original oracles.
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Info Box: The Citation of Amos 9:11–12 at the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:15–18)
(coming later)
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Canonical and Theological Contribution
The bottom line for Amos's ministry at Bethel is to unmask the elites who use religion as a tool to justify themselves and to exploit others. In a word, they act "to profane my holy name" (Amos 2:7).
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Many readers avoid the Prophets because they seem so negative, preaching gloom and doom—especially Amos. Yet, with respect, we must ask, why does God get so angry? Simply put, because his values have been violated. Thus, behind each negative judgment oracle, there is reflected a positive virtue of God. If God abhors religious hypocrisy, then it is because he values religious authenticity. If he abhors social injustice and oppression, then he must cherish fairness and liberty for his people.
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In the New Testament Paul illustrates this principle when he summarizes the negatively stated Ten Commandments ("you shall not ...") in the word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Rom 13:8-10). Although Amos's book does not refer to this great commandment, his ministry exemplifies the value of "loving your neighbor as yourself" (Lev 19:18).
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Hosea
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Isaiah 1-39
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Depiction of Isaiah in a Jewish Synagogue in Roman Mesopotamia (3rd CE)
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Canonical and Historical Context: Who’s on Stage?
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The Book of Isaiah. No prophetic book has a wider historical scope than the book of Isaiah, which spans the pre-exilic, exilic, and postexilic periods from roughly the mid-eighth century to the end of the sixth century BCE. Three distinct generations and audiences are discernible in its literary structure.
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Chapters Period Location Empire
1–39 Pre-exilic (late 8th BCE) Jerusalem Assyria
40–55 Exilic (mid-6th BCE) Babylon Babylon
56-66 Postexilic (late-6th BCE) Jerusalem Persia
Each of its pivotal chapters provides an indication of the section’s historical setting.
1–39 Pre-exilic setting. Exile predicted.
“in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.”
“Days are coming when all that is in your house … shall be carried to Babylon.”
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40–55 Exile presupposed. Return predicted.
“Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins” (Isa 40:1–2, NRSV).
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56–66 Postexilic setting. Return and Second temple presupposed.
“These I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isa 56:7, NRSV).
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Each of the kings listed in the book’s opening superscript (Isa 1:1) reigned in the late eighth century BCE of the pre-exilic period The chapter closing the first section predicts the impending exile to Babylon (Isa 39:6). When we flip the page to the next chapter, we are not simply waking up the next morning. We leapfrog some 150 years and awaken, not in Jerusalem, but in Babylon, where the exile is presupposed and its end with the return to the homeland is predicted (Isa 40:1–2). Instead of the threat of exile, we hear words of comfort to a people who have already received judgment from Yahweh’s hand. The motif of Yahweh’s effective prophetic “word” serves as a bookend marker to the opening and closing of the second section (Isa 40–55):
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“The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isa 40:8, NRSV).
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“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isa 55:10–11, NRSV).
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The chapter opening the third section (Isa 56–66) presupposes the construction of the second temple, which was completed around 515 BCE, and thus points to the return home as predicted in the second section.
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The book of Isaiah is unique among the Prophets considering its huge time span of roughly 230 years from Uzziah’s reign to the completion of the second temple (745–515 BCE), thus extending well beyond the lifetime of a single prophet and his generation. So why is the book of Isaiah exceptional with its inclusion of prophecies that span several generations? Debate about the book’s history of composition is complex. The essentials of that debate will be discussed in the module below concerning Isaiah 40–55. The book’s literary features, however, provide clearer clues regarding its thematic unity.
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Attention to Yahweh and his relationship to Jerusalem/Zion is sustained throughout the book. A divine title characteristic of the book of Isaiah is “the Holy One of Israel,” which occurs 25 times throughout the book among each of its three sections. Outside Isaiah it occurs only in the Psalms (Pss 71:22; 78:41; 89:18) and in Jeremiah (Jer 50:29; 51:5; note 2 Kgs 19:22 = Isa 37:23). The book therefore focuses on the tension implicit in this divine epithet. Yahweh’s essential character is “holy,” as dramatized particularly in Isaiah’s vision (Isa 6:3), yet he has bound himself to “Israel,” who are perpetually “a people of unclean lips” (Isa 6:5). As a result, the book’s first section (Isa 1–39) focuses on the threatened judgment of the exile and the second on the promise of restoration (Isa 40–55). The third section (Isa 56–66) upholds these promises but makes explicit the conditions of repentance, which Israel has yet to demonstrate (e.g., cf. the promise of Isa 52:8–9 in the second section with the conditional promise of Isa 59:20 in the third section).
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A thematic statement of the entire book might look something like this: a vision of the Holy One of Israel and Lord of the nations, who will exile the people of Zion because of their hard-heartedness (social injustice, insincere worship, and lack of faith, Isa 1-39) but will then create a new exodus returning them to Zion (Isa 40-55), while calling them to repent and summoning all peoples to worship him (Isa 56-66). The scope and literary shaping of the book of Isaiah discloses a theological message in its own right, namely that Yahweh’s narrative and plan for his people can take several generations to unfold—until its resolution begins to emerge. The Bible does not pretend that there are quick solutions, even from God, to issues of the human heart.
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Isaiah 1–39. Isaiah and Micah are the first of the classical Prophets to preach in the southern kingdom of Judah. As both books contain oracles concerning Samaria and northern Israel, their ministries may have some overlap with those of Amos and Hosea to the northern kingdom (cf. the Judahite kings listed in their superscripts, Amos 1:1; Hos 1:1; Isa 1:1; Mic 1:1). As in each of these prophetic books of the late eighth century BCE, the empire of Assyria looms over the people of God.