Day 265. Amos 4-6

Like all of the prophets—and more than most—Amos detests the indolent rich, and the book that bears his name is filled with outrage against their callous indifference to the suffering of the poor. Bashan (4:1) is a region in northern trans-Jordan east of Galilee; it was famous in Bible times for its rich pastures and its sleek herds. The rather uncomplimentary term "cows of Bashan" refers to those upper-class women of Israel who lie around all afternoon, calling out to their husbands for cocktails (4:1). They "oppress the poor" in order to support their luxurious life-style and for that reason, the prophet says, they will be dragged off into slavery using cruel hooks inserted through their lips (4:2). "Bethel" and "Gilgal" mentioned in the text (4:4) are the royal cult centers of the northern kingdom of Israel; these shrines were in competition with legitimate worship of the temple in Jerusalem and were therefore regularly condemned
by the prophets. Here Amos rails sarcastically against the hypocrisy of those who worship piously in these shrines, all the while living corrupt and unjust lives (4:4-5).
Through a series of disasters the LORD has given Israel clear warnings about the terrible judgment to come. But in spite of famine—Amos uses the vivid term "cleanness of teeth" (4:5)--the people do not return to the LORD. There has also been a drought (4:7-8), blighted crops (4:9), pestilence "after the manner of [the plagues] of Egypt (4:10), fire and earthquake such as happened "when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah" (4:11), but none of those plagues has caused Israel to repent and return to the Lord. And because there is no repentance and no attempt to reform her abuses, "maiden Israel" must fall and "no more rise" (5:1). Her armies will be decimated (5:3).
The LORD says to the house of Israel, "Seek me and live"--but they should not seek him in the northern sanctuaries at Bethel, Gilgal, and Beer-sheba, which their kings have established to compete with the Jerusalem temple. He will not hear the prayers or heed the sacrifices offered in those shrines, which are doomed to "come to nothing" (5:4-5). The anger of the LORD against Israel is like a consuming fire because the "house of Joseph"—another name of the northern kingdom—has turned "justice into wormwood"—a bushy herb synonymous in the Bible with bitterness and woe. Justice should be sweet, but when it is perverted by the selfishness and greed of the rich and powerful it turns sour and harsh. Those who pervert justice think that God has not see them, but the one who made the constellations of Pleiades and Orion, knows what is going on in the human world, and he "makes destruction flash out against the strong" (5:9).
Humankind cannot stand very much truth, and for that reason the powerful hate the prophet—"the one who reproves in the gate" (5:10)—and place no value upon his words. All they care about is wealth and power. But their "houses of hewn stone" and their "pleasant vineyards" will give them no security; without justice for the poor the nation is doomed. The prophet is constrained to speak out against oppression, but there is hardly any point any point in doing so—"the prudent will keep silent in such a time," Amos says, "for it is an evil time" (5:13).
His words may do no good, but Amos recognizes that a righteous person must always speak and act as if it were not too late. So he continues to call upon Israel to demonstrate the personal integrity and civic virtue which God demands of his people. "Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate" (5:15), the prophet exhorts the people—this alone will restore their relationship to the Lord and cause him to turn and "be gracious to the remnant of Joseph" (5:15). Otherwise, there will be nothing left but mourning and lamentation in the land, for the LORD "will pass through the midst" of them, on his way out of town (5:17).
Apparently some pious souls in Israel were longing for "the day of the LORD," probably in the vain hope that "the day" would bring victory to Israel over its enemies. But the prophet ridicules their expectations and tells them frankly that the day of the LORD will be "darkness, not light" (5:15). The breaking of God into history will be a moment of crisis and danger--an occasion for gloom and terror rather than rejoicing. The day of the LORD will be a day of judgment for the unjust and idolatrous. They may offer their sacrifices and offerings for their sins, but God "will not look upon" them (5:22). They may offer psalms of praise, but he does not want to hear "the noise of [their] songs" (5:23), not as long as the poor and helpless are being oppressed. Empty rituals do not please God, and liturgies do not establish a relationship to him. Instead, as the prophet proclaims in one of the most beautiful verses in all of
scripture—"Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (5:24).
For Israel "the day of the LORD" will be a day of defeat and exile, a day when the people will pick up the images their false gods, which they have made for themselves, and go off into exile "beyond Damascus"—which is indeed is exactly what they would do about forty years after Amos predicted it. Their sense of security is based upon a lie. "Alas," cried the prophet, for those who take it easy in Jerusalem and for those who "feel secure on Mount Samaria"—he condemns both kingdoms for their self-assurance and complacency (6:1). And he invites them to look at the kingdoms round-about that have already been reduced to oblivion and ask themselves—Are we better than they were? By postponing the "the evil day" into the distant future, they only succeed in bringing it closer (6:3).
Now Amos returns to one of his favorite themes—the callousness of the rich. He is outraged by the opulence of the Israelite nouveau riches—"who lie on beds of ivory" (6:4). But it is not their bad taste he deplores, but their heartless exploitation of the poor. "They will be the first to go into exile," he foretells. After the cocktails and the laughter, there will be only silence.
Amos dramatizes the terrors to come with overwhelming vividness. Plague will follow military defeat. He imagines a single survivor left in a house filled with the dead. A relative comes to burn the corpses in order to stop the plague and calls out—"Is anyone else with you?" And the lone survivor replies, "No." Then the relative outside begs the one left within not to mention the "name of the LORD" lest his anger break out again and something worse happen (6:9-10). Houses, great and small alike, shall be destroyed because the people who lived in them "have turned justice into wormwood" (6:12). The little kingdom of Israel glories in its modest conquests—the neighboring cities of Lo-debar and Karnaim—and puffs itself up with inflated self-importance. But even now, as the prophet speaks, God is preparing a mighty enemy—Assyria—who will tyrannize Israel from its northern—Lebohamath—to its southern border—Wadi Arabah—and
swallow up its self-confidence in an overwhelming defeat.