Commentari biblici

Amos 8:1 to Amos 9:11. The visions resumed.

Amos 8:1-14. The fourth vision (Amos 8:1-3). The basket of summer fruit.

1. Thus did the Lord Jehovah cause me to see] The same formula as before, Amos 7:1; Amos 7:4.

a basket of summer fruit] Partly the thought of Israel’s ripeness for judgement, but chiefly the Heb. word ḳêtz, “end,” brings up before the prophet’s mental eye in his vision, agreeably with the principles explained on Amos 7:1, the basket of ḳaitz, “summer fruit[189].” Similarly, in Jeremiah’s inaugural vision (Jeremiah 1:11-12), the thought of Jehovah’s watching (shôḳçd) over His word to perform it, produces by association of sounds the image of the almond-tree (shâḳçd), the symbolism of which is afterwards explained, as that of the “summer fruit” is explained here.

[189] The two words, though similar in sound, are not however connected etymologically: in the corresponding Arabic words, the last letter is not the same.

2. The question is asked for the same purpose as in Amos 7:8.

The end] Amos answers, “A basket of ḳaitz”: Jehovah replies, “Ḳêtz—an ‘end’—is come upon my people Israel.” The last vision had declared that the approaching judgement was certain; this, that it was final, and also close at hand.

I will not again pardon it any more] The same words as Amos 7:8.

3. The nature of the ‘end’ more fully described: the songs of the temple will be turned into loud cries of woe; so many will be the slain that they will be flung out unburied and unlamented.

temple] The word might equally be rendered palace; and hence some have thought the allusion to be to the sounds of revelry (Amos 6:5), which were heard in the “palaces” (Hosea 8:14) of Israel. But more probably the reference is to the songs (Amos 5:23) of the worshippers assembled (Amos 9:1) in the sanctuary of Beth-el.

shall be howlings] lit. shall howl,—a mark of uncontrolled grief, as Isaiah 15:2-3; Isaiah 16:7; Micah 1:8 &c. Used of “songs,” however, the expression is a strange one; Hoffmann and Wellh. would read shârôth “singing-women” for shîrôth “songs.”

many the corpses! in all places have they cast them forth: hush!] By the use of the perfect tenses the prophet represents the future vividly as already accomplished (the “prophetic perfect,” frequent in the prophets, e.g. Isaiah 9:2-3). He sees the corpses flung forth heedlessly and indiscriminately upon the ground. There is no time, or place, for honourable burial. The survivors do their work in despairing silence, stopping any one who would say a word, as before (Amos 6:10), with Hush!

4. Hear this] Amos 3:1, Amos 4:1, Amos 5:1.

that pant after the needy] i.e. who are eager to destroy them: the word has the same figurative sense in Psalm 56:1-2; Psalm 57:3; cf. also above Amos 2:7 (Jerome renders, as there, perhaps rightly, that crush).

and are for making[190] the poor of the land to cease] viz. by their eagerness to take every advantage, and to secure everything for themselves,—as they might do, for instance, by exacting the labour of the poor without proper pay (Jeremiah 22:13; Micah 3:10), or by building large palaces, or amassing large estates (Isaiah 5:8; Micah 2:2), and so depriving their less fortunate neighbours of the means of livelihood, or compelling them to seek a home elsewhere, or even to sell themselves into slavery. In the present instance, however, their inconsiderate treatment of the poor took the form of commercial dishonesty, Amos 8:6-7.

[190] For the Heb. idiom employed, see the writer’s Heb. Tenses, § 206; Davidson, Heb. Syntax, § 96 R. 4; or Ges.-Kautzsch (ed. 25 or 26), § 114. 2 R. 5.

4–6. Amos indignantly turns to the rapacious merchants of Israel, rebuking them for their avarice, their dishonesty, and their meanness.

4–14. A fresh denunciation of Israel’s sin, followed by a fresh picture of the impending calamities.

5. When will the new moon be gone?] The new moon, the first of the month, was observed as a popular holiday (2 Kings 4:23; cf. 1 Samuel 20:5; 1 Samuel 20:24), and marked by religious services Isaiah 1:13-14; Hosea 2:11; and often in later writings: cf. Numbers 28:11-15). From the present passage, it is apparent that, like the sabbath, it was a day on which trade was suspended, and which accordingly was viewed by the grasping Israelitish merchants with impatience, on account of the interruption which it occasioned in their unjust practices.

making the ephah small &c.] The ephah by which they sold was of short measure, while the shekel, by which the money to be paid by the purchaser was weighed, was unduly heavy. Dr Chaplin found in 1890, on the site of the ancient Samaria, a weight (now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) inscribed (if של be rightly explained as an abbreviation for שלם) “a quarter of full weight.” This weight weighs 39.2 grains, which would give a shekel of 156.8 (or rather more, if something be allowed for wearing). The weight of the so-called ‘light’ shekel (the ‘heavy’ shekel was twice as much) was probably 130–135 grains: whence W. R. Smith very ingeniously conjectured (P.E.F.Qu.St[191], 1894, p. 229) that the weight in question was a heavy quarter-shekel, of the kind alluded to here by Amos.

[191] .E.F.Qu.St. … Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statements.

falsifying the balances of deceit] i.e. tampering with the balances by which the money received by them was weighed, and so gaining a third unjust advantage over the purchaser. See, in condemnation of such commercial dishonesty, Leviticus 19:35-36; Deuteronomy 25:13-15 (“Thou shalt not have in thy bag a weight and a weight, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thy house an ephah and an ephah, a great and a small,” &c.); Proverbs 20:10 (“A weight and a weight, an ephah and an ephah, both of them alike are Jehovah’s abomination”); Ezekiel 45:9-10. The ephah was probably equal to about eight gallons.

6. The final issue of the rapacious conduct described in Amos 8:5 is that the poor are more and more impoverished, and, falling into debt, have in the end to sell themselves—or their children—as slaves (Leviticus 25:39) to their rich oppressors, who were only too ready to buy the poor for the silver which they owed them, and the needy for the sake of a pair of sandals, i.e. for a trifle (cf. Amos 2:6), the price of which they were unable to pay.

and sell the refuse of wheat] The final proof of their avarice: they sold what would ordinarily be thrown away, viz. the refuse—lit. the fallings—of the wheat, i.e. “what fell through the sieve, either the bran or the thin, unfilled, grains, which had no meal in them. This they mixed up largely with the meal, making a gain of that which they had once sifted out as worthless; or else, in a time of dearth, they sold to men what was the food of animals, and made a profit on it” (Pusey).

7. Such heartless dishonesty arouses Jehovah’s indignation; and He swears by the pride of Jacob, that He will never forget any of their works, but bring them, namely, into account. The pride of Jacob may be Jehovah Himself (cf. 1 Samuel 15:29 “the splendour of Israel,” of Jehovah; and for the oath by Himself, Amos 6:8); or, as the expression is not elsewhere used of Jehovah, but denotes Israel’s vain-glorious self-confidence (Amos 6:8; cf. Hosea 5:5; Hosea 7:10), it may have that sense here: Jehovah swears—ironically—by that which, however deeply He disapproves of it, He knows to be unalterable. The oath, as Amos 4:2, Amos 6:8,—each time provoked by the spectacle of some crying moral wrong.

8–9. A hyperbolical description of the terrible nature of the coming judgement. On account of such enormities, the land will tremble, and rise up in mighty convulsions against the offenders; and darkness at noon-day will envelope the heavens.

Shall not on this account &c.] Cf. (esp. in the Heb.) Jeremiah 5:9; Jeremiah 5:29; Jeremiah 9:9 (Hebrews 8).

mourn] viz. in terror, as they feel the earth beginning to shake.

and it shall rise up, all of it, as the Nile, and it shall be tossed about (Isaiah 57:20), and sink (again), as the Nile of Egypt] As the Nile, at the time of its annual inundation, rises, overflows, and sinks again, so will the land of Israel, in all its length and breadth, heave, and be convulsed, as by an earthquake, as it labours to rid itself of its guilty inhabitants (Isaiah 24:19-20). The acquaintance shewn by Amos with a natural phenomenon peculiar to Egypt is interesting; comp. the knowledge of Egypt shewn by Isaiah (Isaiah 19:2; Isaiah 19:5-9), and Nahum (Amos 3:8). There was no doubt more intercourse between Canaan and Egypt, during the period of the kings, than is commonly supposed. The verse (except the first clause) is repeated with unsubstantial alterations in Amos 9:5.