Amos 8 Study Notes

8:1-3 The Hebrew word for summer fruit (qayits) sounds almost identical to the word translated as end (qets) in v. 2. Just as the fruit in the basket had ripened, so also Israel was ripe for judgment.

8:4-9:15 This, the last major segment of Amos, is in four sections. First, God accused the merchants and the wealthy class of cheating people in the sale of grain and of enslaving people for the sake of trifling debts (8:4-6). Next, there is a judgment in which God swears an oath, the land heaves like the Nile River, people mourn, and there is a famine for the word of God (8:7-14). For the third section, another judgment passage follows: God stands by the altar (in effect swearing another oath), the Israelites are hunted down, and the land again heaves like the Nile River (9:1-6). In the final section, Israel is compared to the nations to which it must go in exile, but abruptly the judgment is reversed, and Israel becomes predominant among all the nations and very prosperous (9:7-15). Other parallels also bind this passage together. There is, for example, a focus on food and crops. In 8:5 the merchants deceitfully sell grain, in 8:11-14 there is a famine, and finally in 9:13 there is a great harvest. Also, in 9:1-4 God hunts down and kills every last Israelite, but in 9:14-15 there is an abundant population. Finally, 8:9 and 9:6 both refer to God’s power over the heavens.

8:5-6 Three accusations are combined here: contempt for the Sabbath, cheating customers when selling them food, and enslaving people who could not pay even the smallest of debts.

8:7 It is odd that God swears in this verse by the Pride of Jacob. In 6:8, he said that he hated “Jacob’s pride,” and in that case the pride of Jacob was the citadels and wealth of Israel. It is not likely that God would swear by something he hated. In 4:2 God swore by his “holiness,” and in 6:8 he swore by “himself.” In this verse, therefore, the “Pride of Jacob” is probably again Yahweh himself. The implication, comparing 6:8 to 8:7, is that the Israelites ought to boast in their God, but instead they were boasting in their military and economic power.

8:8 The Nile River flooded every year. The upheaval, overflow, and subsidence of the river are metaphorical for an earthquake.

8:9 The darkening of the sun implies the coming of the day of the Lord.

8:10 The vivid like mourning for an only son is borrowed by Zch 12:10.

8:11-12 The famine for hearing the words of the Lord suggests the time of Israel’s exile and Diaspora, when Jewish people would wander through the nations, alienated from their God and Messiah.

8:13 The thirst here is probably figurative as in v. 11. If beautiful (vigorous) young women and men faint, how much more would the rest of the population.

8:14 The guilt of Samaria is the shrines the people made throughout the land, but especially at Dan and Bethel. The way of Beer-sheba probably refers to the pilgrimage devotees made to Beer-sheba and by extension to the pagan god they worshiped there.