Daily Reader for Day 253: Amos 5 - 9


by Dave Moore

Jeroboam II was the fourth king of the Jehu dynasty, which ruled Israel for over 80 years.  This was an era of unprecedented stability in the Northern Kingdom, and Jeroboam reaped the benefits of stable successions and instability in his neighbors – most notably Assyria.  2 Kings 14 tells us that under Jeroboam Israel’s territory was expanded to it greatest extent since the kingdom split. 

But the author of Kings whittles the longest and most prosperous reign in Israel’s three-century story down to just seven sentences.  The LORD saved Israel through him, he recovered Damascus and Hamath for Judah, and he …did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin.  The prophets who were sent to Jeroboam receive much more airplay than the king himself.

And this prophet’s charge reaches a climax in chapters 5 through 7.  The word “justice” appears four times in general terms: establish it at the gate, let it roll down like waters.  And what does this look like?  Amos is very specific: “…you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine… Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall… who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate..”

There is a transition in chapter 7, folding around a confrontation with one of Jeroboam’s priests.  Given Amos’s heritage in Judah, he would naturally have been viewed with suspicion in Samaria.  His response is faithful and powerful, evident of His respect for the LORD himself, who touches the earth and it melts, who builds His upper chambers in the heavens… who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth.  By His command He will “shake the house of Israel as one shakes a sieve…”

Our verse for this week is Philippians 4:13: I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Amos 5 through 9.  Now let’s read it!

Amos 5 - 9

5:1 Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

  “Fallen, no more to rise,
    is the virgin Israel;
  forsaken on her land,
    with none to raise her up.”

For thus says the Lord GOD:

  “The city that went out a thousand
    shall have a hundred left,
  and that which went out a hundred
    shall have ten left
    to the house of Israel.”

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 Beersheba;
  for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,
    and Bethel shall come to nothing.”
  Seek the LORD and live,
    lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
    and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,
  O you who turn justice to wormwood
    and cast down righteousness to the earth!
  He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
    and turns deep darkness into the morning
    and darkens the day into night,
  who calls for the waters of the sea
    and pours them out on the surface of the earth,
  the LORD is his name;
  who makes destruction flash forth against the strong,
    so that destruction comes upon the fortress.
  They hate him who reproves in the gate,
    and they abhor him who speaks the truth.
  Therefore because you trample on the poor
    and you exact taxes of grain from him,
  you have built houses of hewn stone,
    but you shall not dwell in them;
  you have planted pleasant vineyards,
    but you shall not drink their wine.
  For I know how many are your transgressions
    and how great are your sins—
  you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,
    and turn aside the needy in the gate.
  Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time,
    for it is an evil time.
  Seek good, and not evil,
    that you may live;
  and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you,
    as you have said.
  Hate evil, and love good,
    and establish justice in the gate;
  it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts,
    will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord:

  “In all the squares there shall be wailing,
    and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! Alas!’
  They shall call the farmers to mourning
    and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,
  and in all vineyards there shall be wailing,
    for I will pass through your midst,”
      says the LORD.

  Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD!
    Why would you have the day of the LORD?
  It is darkness, and not light,
    as if a man fled from a lion,
    and a bear met him,
  or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,
    and a serpent bit him.
  Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light,
    and gloom with no brightness in it?
  “I hate, I despise your feasts,
    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 peace offerings of your fattened animals,
    I will not look upon them.
  Take away from me the noise of your songs;
    to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
  But let justice roll down like waters,
    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves, and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts.

6:1   “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,
    and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria,
  the notable men of the first of the nations,
    to whom the house of Israel comes!
  Pass over to Calneh, and see,
    and from there go to Hamath the great;
    then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
  Are you better than these kingdoms?
    Or is their territory greater than your territory,
  O you who put far away the day of disaster
    and bring near the seat of violence?
  “Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory
    and stretch themselves out on their couches,
  and eat lambs from the flock
    and calves from the midst of the stall,
  who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp
    and like David invent for themselves instruments of music,
  who drink wine in bowls
    and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
    but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
  Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile,
    and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.”

The Lord GOD has sworn by himself, declares the LORD, the God of hosts:

  “I abhor the pride of Jacob
    and hate his strongholds,
    and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.”

And if ten men remain in one house, they shall die. And when one's relative, the one who anoints him for burial, shall take him up to bring the bones out of the house, and shall say to him who is in the innermost parts of the house, “Is there still anyone with you?” he shall say, “No”; and he shall say, “Silence! We must not mention the name of the LORD.”

  For behold, the LORD commands,
    and the great house shall be struck down into fragments,
    and the little house into bits.
  Do horses run on rocks?
    Does one plow there with oxen?
  But you have turned justice into poison
    and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—
  you who rejoice in Lo-debar,
    who say, “Have we not by our own strength
    captured Karnaim for ourselves?”
  “For behold, I will raise up against you a nation,
    O house of Israel,” declares the LORD, the God of hosts;
  “and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath
    to the Brook of the Arabah.”

7:1 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings. When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said,

  “O Lord GOD, please forgive!
    How can Jacob stand?
    He is so small!”
  The LORD relented concerning this:
    “It shall not be,” said the LORD.

This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. Then I said,

  “O Lord GOD, please cease!
    How can Jacob stand?
    He is so small!”
  The LORD relented concerning this:
    “This also shall not be,” said the Lord GOD.

This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,

  “Behold, I am setting a plumb line
    in the midst of my people Israel;
    I will never again pass by them;
  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.”

Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said,

  “‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
    and Israel must go into exile
    away from his land.’”

And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now therefore hear the word of the LORD.

  “You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
    and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’

Therefore thus says the LORD:

  “‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city,
    and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,
    and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line;
  you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
    and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’”

8:1 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the LORD said to me,

  “The end has come upon my people Israel;
    I will never again pass by them.
  The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,”
      declares the Lord GOD.
  “So many dead bodies!”
  “They are thrown everywhere!”
  “Silence!”
  Hear this, you who trample on the needy
    and bring the poor of the land to an end,
  saying, “When will the new moon be over,
    that we may sell grain?
  And the Sabbath,
    that we may offer wheat for sale,
  that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great
    and deal deceitfully with false balances,
  that we may buy the poor for silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals
    and sell the chaff of the wheat?”
  The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
  “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
  Shall not the land tremble on this account,
    and everyone mourn who dwells in it,
  and all of it rise like the Nile,
    and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”
  “And on that day,” declares the Lord GOD,
    “I will make the sun go down at noon
    and darken the earth in broad daylight.
  I will turn your feasts into mourning
    and all your songs into lamentation;
  I will bring sackcloth on every waist
    and baldness on every head;
  I will make it like the mourning for an only son
    and the end of it like a bitter day.
  “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD,
    “when I will send a famine on the land—
  not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
    but of hearing the words of the LORD.
  They shall wander from sea to sea,
    and from north to east;
  they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD,
    but they shall not find it.
  “In that day the lovely virgins and the young men
    shall faint for thirst.
  Those who swear by the Guilt of Samaria,
    and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’
  and, ‘As the Way of Beersheba lives,’
    they shall fall, and never rise again.”

9:1 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said:

  “Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake,
    and shatter them on the heads of all the people;
  and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword;
    not one of them shall flee away;
    not one of them shall escape.
  “If they dig into Sheol,
    from there shall my hand take them;
  if they climb up to heaven,
    from there I will bring them down.
  If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
    from there I will search them out and take them;
  and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
    there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.
  And if they go into captivity before their enemies,
    there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them;
  and I will fix my eyes upon them
    for evil and not for good.”
  The Lord GOD of hosts,
  he who touches the earth and it melts,
    and all who dwell in it mourn,
  and all of it rises like the Nile,
    and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
  who builds his upper chambers in the heavens
    and founds his vault upon the earth;
  who calls for the waters of the sea
    and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—
  the LORD is his name.
  “Are you not like the Cushites to me,
    O people of Israel?” declares the LORD.
  “Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
    and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?
  Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom,
    and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground,
    except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
      declares the LORD.
  “For behold, I will command,
    and shake the house of Israel among all the nations
  as one shakes with a sieve,
    but no pebble shall fall to the earth.
  All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
    who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’

  “In 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,
  that they may possess the remnant of Edom
    and all the nations who are called by my name,”
    declares the LORD who does this.
  “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD,
    “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper
    and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;
  the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
    and all the hills shall flow with it.
  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.
  I will plant them on their land,
    and they shall never again be uprooted
    out of the land that I have given them,”
      says the LORD your God.

(ESV)


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