Amos S Prophecy for Israel a Close Reading

¶ … Amos is one of the Twelve Minor Prophets of the Tanakh, and was active in the 8th century before Christ -- he is roughly contemporary in that century with the other Hebrew prophets Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah. Although in the opening chapters, Amos prophesies divine vengeance for a number of foreign nations -- including Damascus, Tyre, Edom, and Moab -- perhaps the biggest single shock for the reader comes at Chapter 2 verses 6 through 8, when Amos prophesies divine vengeance upon Israel itself.

The text of this passage reads: 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.

(Amos 2:6-8, NRSV) As occurs so frequently in the Old Testament, the behavior of the people of Israel has demonstrated a violation of their covenant with Yahweh. Reading this passage in light of recent Biblical commentaries on the Book of Amos will give us a sense of what Amos's true concern is in his prophesy, which is social justice. As we begin to approach this passage, it is paramount to situate Amos's prophecy for Israel itself within the context of the preceding chapters and verses.

Amos has pronounced seven consecutive oracles dealing with different nations, all of which are competitors or enemies of Israel. But as Douglas Stuart notes in his commentary on the book, these seven foregoing prophecies are all, to some extent, a preparation for the shock of Amos 2:6-8, where (in Stuart's words) Yahweh's judgment will not be limited to nations whose destruction would be welome news to the people of Israel. The eighth and final oracle includes yet another foreign nation.

Israel herself, guilty among the other Syro-Palestinian criminal nations, is placed at the climactic point in the compound of oracles and is excoriated in far more detail than any of them. (Stuart 316) This is not to diminish the gravity of divine judgment upon other nations in the previous six oracles delivered by Amos. But it does help us to understand that there is something dramatic (for want of a better word) occurring in the opening two chapters of the book.

The prophet begins by denouncing foreign nations, but then "the penultimate Judah oracle .. mentions covenant-breaking and idolatry," in Stuart's words, which seems to give a foreshadowing of the shock of verses 6-8, where "Israel has condemned itself to rejection by Yahweh as a foreign people" (Stuart 316). In other words, Israel has become so alienated from its core principles as defined by Yahweh, it no longer deserves its status as His chosen people.

This particular point, in which Israel has essentially violated its own covenant to deserve the judgment in Amos 2:6-8, is a point also emphasized by McComiskey in his commentary on Amos. McComiskey notes that: God's covenant people had a unique privilege: a divinely given Law, divine Torah -- instruction -- on how to live godly lives in a fallen world.

The Law included very particular guidance with regard to the administration of justice and the care of the poor ...Care of the poor was to be redemptive, as the Lord had redeemed Israel out of Egypt .. Israel had not held to this high standard, however. (McComiskey 365) It is this particular aspect of Amos 2:6-8 that is most interesting. As Stuart notes, if Israel is being punished by Yahweh for crimes, then "the crimes listed in vv 6-8 all relate to social justice within Israel" (Stuart 316).

Apart from the sexual crimes, however, it seems that the main crimes are ones related to social justice specifically in dealing with the poor: the poor are referred to here as being sold into slavery, oppressed, and exploited when they are in debt.

Shalom Paul in his commentary notes that the imagery of the treatment of the poor is meant to invoke a sense of deliberate degradation and defilement: "they step upon the heads of the poor as though they were stepping upon the ground beneath them, that is, they treat the underprivileged with contempt and abuse" (Paul 80).

The imagery in these verses is not always wholly clear -- for example, all commentators observe that the precise meaning of the "pair of sandals" is elusive, and each offers a different slant on it, but the overall meaning of the image (that the poor have been badly mistreated) is clear for everyone. And it is also worth noting that some of the other images may carry.