Bible Commentaries

With the new turn that all talking is useless, Amos repeats the admonition to seek good and hate evil, if they would live and obtain favour with God _(Amos 5:13-15); and then appends the threat that deep mourning will arise on every hand, since God is drawing near to judgment. Amos 5:13. “Therefore, whoever has prudence at this time is silent, for it is an evil time.” As lâkhēn (therefore) always introduces the threatening of divine punishment after the exposure of the sins (cf. Amos 5:11, Amos 5:16; Amos 6:7; Amos 4:12; Amos 3:11), we might be disposed to connect Amos 5:13 with the preceding verse; but the contents of the verse require that it should be taken in connection with what follows, so that lâkhēn simply denote the close connection of the two turns of speech, i.e., indicates that the new command in Amos 5:14, Amos 5:15 is a consequence of the previous warnings. Hammaskı̄l , the prudent man, he who acts wisely, is silent. בּעת ההיא , at a time such as this is, because it is an evil time, not however “a dangerous time to speak, on account of the malignity of those in power,” but a time of moral corruption, in which all speaking and warning are of no avail. It is opposed to the context to refer בעת ההיא to the future, i.e., to the time when God will come to punish, in which case the silence would be equivalent to not murmuring against God (Rashi and others). At the same time, love to his people, and zeal for their deliverance, impel the prophet to repeat his call to them to return.

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