Amos 5 · Passage · Justice
Amos and the Courts at the Gate
Amos 5 is a funeral lament over Israel that names the sins of its court at the city gate.
Amos broke off his charge against Israel's court to praise the One who made the Pleiades and Orion.
But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
- The passage
- Amos 5:10 to 15, Amos 5:21 to 24
- Book
- Amos
- When
- the reigns of Uzziah king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel
- Hold in memory
- Amos 5:15
Summary
In Israel cases were heard at the city gate, and Amos 5 is the LORD's case against what was done there. The chapter sets the wrongs of the court beside Israel's worship and refuses the worship while the poor are wronged. What the LORD asks for is justice and righteousness that roll on like a river.
- Verse 12 names the sins of the court as oppressing the righteous by taking bribes and depriving the poor of justice.
- Verse 15 commands Israel to hate evil, love good and establish justice in the same gate.
- The chapter calls Israel to seek the LORD and live in verses 4 to 6, and to seek good and live in verse 14.
- The chapter ends with the LORD's word of exile beyond Damascus.
Amos of Tekoa and the Third Message
Amos 5 is the third message of the book to open with the words “Hear this word”.
The chapter belongs to justice, the value Scripture first names in God and then requires of His people. It shows what the LORD says to a people who keep their feasts and lose their courts.
The question this study answers is how the call for justice in Amos 5:24 belongs to the chapter around it. It sets out the chapter in nine parts, reads the charges at the gate and the feasts the LORD refused, and gives the readings of teachers from the third century to the eighteenth.
These are the words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders of Tekoa—what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, in the days when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.The verse dates the chapter by two kings, so its charges fall on courts that sat in a known reign.
Hear this word, O house of Israel, this lamentation I take up against you: “Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again. She lies abandoned on her land, with no one to raise her up.” This is what the Lord GOD says: “The city that marches out a thousand strong will only see a hundred return, and the one that marches out a hundred strong will have but ten left in the house of Israel.”The tenth left in verse 3 prepares the remnant of Joseph that verse 15 names.
The Nine Parts of Amos 5
The chapter runs from the lament through the calls and the charges to the warning of darkness, the feasts refused and the exile.
Amos 5 names the wrongs of the court before it names the Day of the LORD and the refused feasts.
A ladder of nine rungs, one for each part of Amos 5, each with its verses and its words in the Berean text, the gate marked on the rungs that name it.
From the Call to Seek the LORD to the Day of the LORD
Between the calls and the refused feasts the chapter charges the court, praises the Maker of the stars and warns of the Day of the LORD.
The first call came with a warning of fire on the house of JosephAmos 5:4 to 6
For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live! Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal; do not journey to Beersheba, for Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing. Seek the LORD and live, or He will sweep like fire through the house of Joseph; it will devour everything, with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.The call to seek comes before the first charge of the chapter, so Israel is offered life before it is accused.
The word pair of verse 7 returns in Amos 6:12Amos 5:7 and Amos 6:12
The charge of verse 7 is built on a pair of Hebrew nouns.
“Do horses gallop on the cliffs? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—Amos sets turning justice into poison beside things no farmer would do, such as plowing the sea with oxen.
Verses 8 to 9 are a hymn to the LORD as CreatorAmos 5:8 to 9
The praise names the LORD “who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night” and says “the LORD is His name” (Amos 5:8). The chapter names Him again at its close, as the LORD “whose name is the God of Hosts” (Amos 5:27).
Wailing and the Day of the LORD close the warningsAmos 5:16 to 20
Verses 16 to 17 foretell wailing in the public squares and in the vineyards, because the LORD will pass through the midst of Israel.
Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD! What will the Day of the LORD be for you? It will be darkness and not light. It will be like a man who flees from a lion, only to encounter a bear, or who enters his house and rests his hand against the wall, only to be bitten by a snake. Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it?The Day Israel longed for is turned against Israel here, which prepares the refusal of its feasts that follows.
The Feasts Refused and the River of Justice
Verses 21 to 24 are one speech of the LORD, so the river answers the worship He will not accept.
“I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard. Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.The refusal reaches every offering the law named, so no gift could stand in the place of justice.
The Hebrew words of verse 24 for justice and righteousness, mishpat and tsedaqah, are the pair Amos used in verse 7 for his charge against the court.
The Hebrew words for the ever-flowing stream are nachal etan, which the lexicon glosses as a wadi ever-flowing.
The study Justice and Righteousness sets Amos 5:24 among six texts of the pair from Deuteronomy to Matthew and follows the later use of the verse.
The Court in the Gate
The Hebrew word sha'ar, gate, stands in verses 10, 12 and 15 of the chapter.
There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate and despise him who speaks with integrity. Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted. For I know that your transgressions are many and your sins are numerous. You oppress the righteous by taking bribes; you deprive the poor of justice in the gate.Each wrong in these verses is done to the weak by those with the power to judge them.
Verse 13 says that “the prudent keep silent in such times, for the days are evil.” A court that hates the one who reproves teaches the wise to hold their peace.
Seek good, not evil, so that you may live. And the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be with you, as you have claimed. Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”The perhaps of verse 15 leaves the outcome with the LORD, even when the gate is set right.
Amos brought the same charge outside chapter 5. In Amos 2:6 the LORD says that Israel sells “the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals.” In chapter 8 Amos turns from the court to the market and its scales.
The Question of Verse 25
Verse 25 asks about Israel's offerings in the wilderness, and the chapter gives no answer.
Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You have taken along Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, the idols you made for yourselves. Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts.The question of verse 25 stands between the refused feasts and the charge of idols that leads to exile.
In the New Testament the passage is quoted in the speech of Stephen in Acts 7.
But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You have taken along the tabernacle of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’The quotation names Molech and Rephan where Amos names Sakkuth and Kaiwan, and Babylon where Amos names Damascus.
Why the LORD Refused Israel's Worship
The calls of the chapter, its charges and its refusal of the feasts make one argument.
The bribes of verse 12 and the feasts of verse 21 belong to the same people, and the LORD answers both in one chapter. He asks the people who come to the feasts to do justice in the court as well.
Micah 6 sets worship and justice side by side in the same way.
Teachers on the Call, the Feasts and the Gate
Three writers of the third, fourth and eighteenth centuries read the call to seek God, the refused sacrifices and the hatred of the reprover.
died 258 · Cyprian
Treatise V. An Address to Demetrianus 23
The quotation1 quotation
“Therefore, while there is time, look to the true and eternal salvation, and, since the end of the world is now at hand, out of fear of God turn your minds to God. Let not your powerless and vain dominion in the world over the just and the meek delight you. Remember that in the fields the tares and the darnel have dominion over the cultivated and fruitful corn, and you should not say that evils happen because your gods are not worshiped by us. But you should realize that this is God's anger, this is God's censure, so that he who is not recognized for his blessings may at least be recognized for his judgments. ‘Seek God, and your soul shall live.’ Acknowledge God even though it is late. For Christ advises and teaches this, saying, ‘Now this is everlasting life, that they may know you the only true God and him whom you have sent, Jesus Christ.’ Believe him who by no means deceives. Believe him who has foretold that all these things would come to pass. Believe him who will give the reward of eternal life to those who believe. Believe him who by the fires of Gehenna will inflict eternal punishments on the disbelieving.”
Cyprian · Treatise V. An Address to Demetrianus 23 · on Amos 5:6Patristic
died 380 · Apostolic Constitutions
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles Book 6
The quotation1 quotation
“And besides, before His coming He refused the sacrifices of the people, while they frequently offered them, when they sinned against Him, and thought He was to be appeased by sacrifices, but not by repentance. For thus He speaks: ‘Why dost thou bring to me frankincense from Saba, and cinnamon from a remote land? Your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not sweet to me.’ And afterwards: ‘Gather your burnt-offerings, together with your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I did not command you, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’ And He says by Isaiah: ‘To what purpose do ye bring me a multitude of sacrifices? saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and I will not accept the fat of lambs, and the blood of bulls and of goats. Nor do you come and appear before me; for who hath required these things at your hands? Do not go on to tread my courts any more. If you bring me fine flour, it is vain: incense is an abomination unto me: your new moons, and your Sabbaths, and your great day, I cannot bear them: your fasts, and your rests, and your feasts, my soul hateth them; I am over-full of them.’ And He says by another: ‘Depart from me; the sound of thine hymns, and the psalms of thy musical instruments, I will not hear.’ And Samuel says to Saul, when he thought to sacrifice: ‘Obedience is better than sacrifice, and hearkening than the fat of rams. For, behold, the Lord does not so much delight in sacrifice, as in obeying Him.’”
Apostolic Constitutions · Constitutions of the Holy Apostles Book 6 · on Amos 5:23Patristic
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible
The quotation1 quotation
“They hate him that rebukes in the gate, in the gate of the Lord's house, or in their courts of justice, or in the places of concourse, where Wisdom is lifting up her voice, Prov. i. Reprovers in the gate are reprovers by office; these they hated, counting them their enemies because they told them the truth, as Ahab hated Micaiah.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Amos 5:10Puritan
Where Readers of Amos 5 Differ
Readers differ on whether the demands of Amos bind rulers outside Israel and on whether verse 24 asks for justice or announces judgment.
The prophets have been read as judges of every rulerAugustine of Hippo, The City of God, book 4, chapter 4; Amos 1:3 to 2:16 and Amos 3:2
One reading holds that the prophets judge every ruler. Amos opens his book with charges against the nations around Israel. Damascus is charged with threshing Gilead “with sledges of iron” (Amos 1:3), and Gaza with exiling “a whole population” (Amos 1:6).
Augustine stated the principle in The City of God, asking what kingdoms are, once justice is taken away, but “great robberies.”
The text also gives Israel a ground of its own. The LORD says, “Only you have I known from all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” (Amos 3:2).
The book holds both grounds, for Amos 5 brings its charges under Israel's covenant, and the first chapters of the book judge the nations by the same justice.
Verse 24 has been read as a call for justice and as judgment sweeping over IsraelMatthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Amos; Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Amos
The Berean text reads verse 24 as a call for justice, in the line of the commands of verses 14 to 15. Matthew Henry read the commands of the chapter as duties laid on Israel, “godliness and honesty, seriousness in their applications to God and justice in their dealings with men.”
Jerome, who gave the Greek translation beside his own rendering, and Cyril of Alexandria read the verse as a verdict on Israel. Jerome likened it to water flowing downhill and wrote that “the judgment and justice of God, which once judged His own people,” would “be revealed to all.”
Cyril wrote, “The righteous verdict against them will be like an impassable torrent, that is, dragging away what falls into it and sparing nothing.”
Against the reading of a verdict stands the first word of verse 24, “But”, which turns from the refused worship of verses 21 to 23. Against the reading of a call alone stand the wailing of verses 16 to 17 and the exile of verse 27, which announce a verdict.
Justice at the Gate and at the Altar
The gate and the altar stand together in the LORD's case against Israel.
Whoever quotes Amos 5:24 quotes a verse that answers the refused feasts of verses 21 to 23 and the bought court of verse 12. The chapter's warnings show what the LORD will do if the court is left as it is.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible, Translators Brief lexicon of Extended Strongs for Hebrew (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0.
- Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, book 4, chapter 4, translated by Marcus Dods, 1887.
- Cyprian, An Address to Demetrianus, section 23, on Amos 5:6.
- Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, book 6, on Amos 5:23.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Amos 5.
- Jerome, Commentary on Amos, on Amos 5:24.
- Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Amos, on Amos 5:24.
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