Amoschapter 2
16 verses · Amos · about 760 BC · The Twelve
This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Moab, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because he burned to lime the bones of Edom’s king.
Introduction
Amos, The Twelve, Amos Overview.
This chapter completes the series of oracles begun in the chapter before and turns it on Amos's own hearers. He was a Judean preaching in the northern kingdom, so every name on his list carried weight with the crowd in front of him. His hearers were prosperous, observant and sure of God's favour. The charges in this chapter move from the battlefield to the courtroom and the marketplace. Listen for the moment the familiar pattern reaches a name the crowd did not expect. Notice how much longer that last oracle runs, and what God recalls of His own kindness.
Context
- Who
- Israelites hearing their own name in a list they had been enjoying
- What
- Oracles of judgment on Moab, Judah and Israel, with the longest charge kept for Israel.
- Where
- The northern kingdom of Israel, with Moab east of the Dead Sea and Judah to the south.
- When
- About 760 BC, in the reign of Jeroboam II, on the same occasion as chapter 1.
- Why
- To show Israel that it stands under the same judgment as the nations, and under more, because God had done more for it.
Historical context
Moab's crime is one nobody today would think of as a war crime: burning the bones of the king of Edom to lime. In that world, denying a body its resting place was an attack on the dead man's afterlife and on his family's honour, and burning bones to powder was the ultimate act of erasure. Notice that the victim is Edom, Amos condemns an atrocity committed against a nation Israel despised.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
Selling the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals describes debt slavery at absurdly small sums. A man who could not repay could be taken as a bondservant, and Amos says judges were doing it for the price of footwear. The sandal also carried legal weight, handing over a sandal sealed a property transfer, which is what happens in the book of Ruth.
The garments taken in pledge are covered by an explicit law. A poor man's outer cloak doubled as his blanket, so a creditor holding it as security had to return it before nightfall. Amos says these men were lying down on those cloaks beside the altar, using the collateral as bedding at a religious festival.
The Nazirites and prophets named at the end were the two institutions God had given as a witness. A Nazirite took a vow that included touching no wine; forcing wine on him destroyed the vow. Telling a prophet not to prophesy silenced the other channel. Israel had closed both.
Significance
The chapter's force comes from the reversal. The crimes charged against the foreign nations were battlefield atrocities; the crimes charged against Israel are courtroom and marketplace decisions made by respectable men in good standing.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The comparison God draws is unbearable and meant to be. He destroyed the Amorite before them, brought them up from Egypt, led them forty years, and the return on all of it was a corrupted court and a silenced prophet. The strongest will not stand, and the swift of foot will not save himself.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The second half of this chapter is read aloud in the synagogue once a year. The site's table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts records Amos 2:6 to 3:8 as the Haftarah of Vayeshev, the portion of Genesis 37:1 to 40:23. The probe printed that reading for both the Ashkenazi and the Sephardi rite. The first five verses, the oracles against Moab and Judah, stand outside it. A congregation hears the portion that opens the account of Joseph and his brothers from the Torah scroll, and then hears Amos from the prophets.
The corpus shows where the reading and the Joseph story meet. Under the sixth verse, the first of the Haftarah, it carries Midrash Lekach Tov on Genesis 45:15:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov on Bereshit 45:15:2, two notes on a verse of that story. The same verse carries Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 38:11 and the Midrash on the Ten Martyrs in Otzar Midrashim. The corpus holds none of their text, so what they teach is cited below and left unsaid here.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The translation is modern, so every quotation from it is fifty words or fewer. One note of Radak on this chapter is kept as well, in the Sefaria Community Translation, which Sefaria reports as CC0.
The chapter opens on a crime between two foreign nations, and the two commentators read it differently. Rashi says the king of Edom fell into the hands of Moab, and "they burned his bones and plastered them on the walls of the house". God requited the wrong done to that king, "for they treated him with disgrace" (Rashi on Amos 2:1:1). Radak reads the verse through the book of Kings, where the king of Moab offered his firstborn on the wall. In his reading the great wrath of that verse was Edom's wrath against Israel, "since the king of Moab burned the son of the king of Edom" (Radak on Amos 2:1:1). Both readings hold the same point. The charge against Moab is a wrong done to Edom, and God answers it.
The Haftarah proper begins at the sixth verse, and Rashi reads it as a charge against the courts. "The judges would sell the one who was innocent according to the law, with money" (Rashi on Amos 2:6:1). Where the Berean Standard Bible reads "a pair of sandals", Rashi takes the Hebrew word with Targum Jonathan as a term of inheriting. He then gives his own account of it. A judge perverts the poor man's case so that he must sell the field lying among the judge's fields, "in order to fence in and lock all his fields together" (Rashi on Amos 2:6:2). The next verse he reads as a whole life bent the same way. As they walk the earth, "all their aspiration and all their thoughts are concerning the head of the poor, how they will rob them and take their property" (Rashi on Amos 2:7:1).
The feast of the eighth verse Rashi sets in a real room. Garments taken as pledges from the poor were spread as couches, "In the house of the idol that they had beside the altar" (Rashi on Amos 2:8:1). He explains the posture as the custom of the meal, "for all their meals were eaten while leaning, for he would lean on his left side" (Rashi on Amos 2:8:2).
The Nazirites of the eleventh verse Targum Jonathan renders as teachers, and Rashi agrees. "For they were separated from the ways of the people of the land and were engaged in the Torah" (Rashi on Amos 2:11:1). The wine pressed on them in the next verse then carries a rule of Jewish law. It was given "lest they instruct you, for a drunken man is forbidden to instruct" (Rashi on Amos 2:12:1). The last verse of the chapter he glosses in three words, "Naked without weapons" (Rashi on Amos 2:16:1).
The corpus carries eight further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Amos 2:3:1, 2:4:1, 2:5:1, 2:10:1 and 2:14:1 and at Radak on Amos 2:3:1, 2:4:1 and 2:5:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, six it files under Talmud and thirty-four under Midrash, and the text of none, so each is cited by ref here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Bava Batra 22a:8, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Batra 2:3 and Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 2:3. On the fourth verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 5:2, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Bereshit 46, Jerusalem Talmud Chagigah 1:7:4, Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 11:13:3 and Sifrei Devarim 41:10. It also holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 861:1. On the fifth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 1:7.
On the sixth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 73:3, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yoma 8:20, Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 1:8, Ein Yaakov, Yoma 8:28 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 45:15:1. It also holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 6:9:7, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 45:15:2, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Noach 4:3, Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 5:1 and Midrash Yelamdenu, Selections from Yalkut Talmud Torah 29:2. It also holds Otzar Midrashim, The Ten Martyrs, Midrash on the Ten Martyrs (Version 2) 4, Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 15:3, Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 38:11 and Sanhedrin 7a:9. On the seventh verse it holds Devarim Rabbah 2:21. On the ninth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 18:22, Bamidbar Rabbah 9:47, Bekhorot 45b:7, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 7:17, Ein Yaakov, Bekhorot 7:5 and Ein Yaakov, Sotah 7:18. It also holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 15:7, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 6:14, Midrash Aggadah, Deuteronomy 9:20:1, Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 16:1:1, Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 13:32:2 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 1:43:1. It also holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 31:4:1. On the eleventh verse it holds Sifrei Zuta 6:8:1.
On the twelfth verse it holds Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introductions to Tractates of the Mishnah, Nazir 5. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and it is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Radak, Radak on Amos 2:1:1, Sefaria Community Translation, reported CC0; Rashi, Rashi on Amos 2:1:1 to 2:16:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Amos 2:3:1, 2:4:1, 2:5:1, 2:10:1 and 2:14:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak (the notes without English), Radak on Amos 2:3:1, 2:4:1 and 2:5:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/amos/2.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the entry for Vayeshev (Genesis 37:1 to 40:23) with its Haftarah Amos 2:6 to 3:8, printed by the probe for both rites.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Moab burned the bones of Edom's king to lime
Amos 2:1-3
he burned to lime the bones: Moab "burned to lime the bones of Edom’s king." The victim is neither Israel nor a treaty partner, yet the Lord judges the wrong done to an enemy's corpse. The sentence ends with fire "to consume the citadels of Kerioth" and the ruler cut off.
Amos 2:1
“The Hebrew tradition is that Moab in revenge tore from their grave and burned the bones of the king of Edom, the ally of Jehoram and Jehoshaphat, who was already buried. Probably the "burning of the bones" means, "he burned the king of Edom alive, reducing his very bones to lime" [MAURER].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
send fire against Moab: Kerioth was a chief city of Moab, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown identify it with Kir of Moab at Isaiah 15:1. Moab dies in the noise of battle. Adam Clarke reads the words as a city taken by storm, followed by the slaughter of its people.
Amos 2:2
“Kirioth--the chief city of Moab, called also Kir-Moab (Isa 15:1). The form is plural here, as including both the acropolis and town itself (see Jer 48:24, 41, Margin). die with tumult--that is, amid the tumult of battle (Ho 10:14).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Amos 2:2
“The palaces of Kirioth - This was one of the principal cities of the Moabites. Moab shall die with tumult - All these expressions seem to refer to this city’s being taken by storm, which was followed by a total slaughter of its inhabitants.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
I will cut off the ruler of Moab: The Hebrew word behind ruler is shophet, judge, and Albert Barnes notes that Scripture never uses it by itself of a king. He takes it of one holding the highest authority short of the throne. Matthew Henry reads the verse as the whole governing class falling together.
Amos 2:3
“The king, the chief judge, and all the inferior judges and princes, shall be cut off together. If the people sometimes suffer for the sin of their princes, yet the princes themselves shall not escape, Jer. xlviii. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Amos 2:3
“And I will cut off the judge - The title “judge” (shophet) is nowhere used absolutely of a king. Holy Scripture speaks in several places of “all the judges of the earth” Job 9:24; Psa 2:10; Psa 148:11; Pro 8:16; Isa 40:23. Hosea Hos 13:10, under “judges,” includes “kings and princes,” as judging the people. The word “judge” is always used as one invested with the highest, but not regal authority, as of all the judges from the death of Joshua to Samuel.”
Judah despised the law and followed lies
Amos 2:4-5
reject the Law of the LORD: Judah is charged under the covenant: "they reject the Law of the LORD and fail to keep His statutes," the law given to Judah alone. Their "lies in which their fathers walked" are idols. The fire "to consume the citadels of Jerusalem" came under Babylon, as 2 Kings 25:9 records.
Amos 2:4
“For three transgressions of Judah - We may take the three and four here to any latitude; for this people lived in continual hostility to their God, from the days of David to the time of Uzziah, under whom Amos prophesied. Their iniquities are summed up under three general heads: 1. They despised, or rejected the law of the Lord. 2. They kept not his statutes. 3. They followed lies, were idolaters, and followed false prophets rather than those sent by Jehovah.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Amos 2:4
“From foreign kingdoms he passes to Judah and Israel, lest it should be said, he was strenuous in denouncing sins abroad, but connived at those of his own nation. Judah's guilt differs from that of all the others, in that it was directly against God, not merely against man.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
send fire upon Judah: John Gill names the citadels as the palaces of the king and his nobles beside the temple, burned by the Chaldean army at Jeremiah 52:13. Albert Barnes adds a second burning under the Romans, and observes that the delay let the ungodly flatter themselves that it would never come.
Amos 2:5
“But I will send a fire upon Judah,.... An enemy, Nebuchadnezzar, who should burn, waste, and destroy, all that were in his way: and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem; the chief city of Judah, the royal city, where stood the temple, the palace of the most High, and the palaces of the king and his nobles; these were burnt with fire when it was taken by the Chaldean army, about two hundred years after this prophecy, Jer 52:13.”
1 more voice on this verse
Amos 2:5
“I will send a fire upon Judah - All know now, how Jerusalem, its temple, and its palaces perished by fire, first by Nebuchadnezzar, then by the Romans. Yet some two centuries passed, before that first destruction came. The ungodly Jews flattered themselves that it would never come.”
Israel sold the righteous for silver, the poor for a pair of shoes
Amos 2:6-8
they sell the righteous for silver: Israel's last oracle brings social charges: "they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals," debt slavery for a trifle. Garments "taken in pledge" are spread "beside every altar," and "wine obtained through fines" is drunk in the house of their God.
Amos 2:6
“For three transgressions of Israel, etc. - To be satisfied of the exceeding delinquency of this people, we have only to open the historical and prophetic books in any part; for the whole history of the Israelites is one tissue of transgression against God. Their crimes are enumerated under the following heads: - 1. Their judges were mercenary and corrupt. They took bribes to condemn the righteous; and even for articles of clothing, such as a pair of shoes, they condemned the poor man, and delivered him into the hands of his adversary.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Amos 2:6
“Israel--the ten tribes, the main subject of Amos' prophecies. sold the righteous--Israel's judges for a bribe are induced to condemn in judgment him who has a righteous cause; in violation of De 16:19. the poor for a pair of shoes--literally, "sandals" of wood, secured on the foot by leather straps; less valuable than shoes.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
They trample on the heads of the poor: Albert Barnes reads the verb as panting after, so that the creditors grudge the poor even the dust a mourner puts on his head. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the girl as a prostitute of Astarte's temple. Basil of Caesarea observes that the law names no such case.
Amos 2:7
“That pant after the dust of the earth - Literally, “the panters!” with indignation. Not content with having rent from him the little hereditary property which belonged to each Israelite, these creditors grudged him even the “dust,” which, as a mourner, he strewed on his head Job 2:12, since it too was “earth.” Covetousness, when it has nothing to feed it, craves for what is absurd or impossible. What was Naboth’s vineyard to a king of Israel with his “ivory palace?” What was Mordecai’s refusal to bow to one in honor like Haman? What a trivial gain to a millionaire?”
2 more voices on this verse
Amos 2:7
Because the example of the patriarch seemed injurious to many who indulged their flesh so far as to live with sisters in their life time. What ought to be my course? To quote the Scriptures, or to work out what they leave unsaid? In these laws it is not written that a father and son ought not to have the same concubine, but, in the prophet, it is thought deserving of the most extreme condemnation, "A man and his father" it is said "will go in unto the same maid."
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · Letter CLXpatristic
Amos 2:7
“When God's people sin in the face of light, they often fall lower than even those who know not God. go in unto the same maid--from Am 2:8 it seems likely "the damsel" meant is one of the prostitutes attached to the idol Astarte's temple: prostitution being part of her filthy worship. to profane my . . . name--Israel in such abominations, as it were, designedly seeks to insult God.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
garments taken in pledge: The garment taken in pledge was the cloak, which Albert Barnes notes was a poor man's bedding, the reason Exodus 22:26-27 ordered it returned. The creditors lay on it beside the altars. Barnes says they condensed sin, blending idolatry, sensuality, cruelty and the breach of God's commandments into one act.
I destroyed the Amorite: and you made the Nazirites drink
Amos 2:9-11
I who destroyed the Amorite: The Lord's recital interrupts the charges, setting Israel's sins against gifts it never earned. He "destroyed the Amorite before them," the giant peoples of Numbers 13:33. He brought Israel "up from the land of Egypt" and "raised up prophets from your sons and Nazirites from your young men."
Amos 2:9
“They were of great stature ( whose height was like the height of the cedars ) and the people of Israel were as shrubs to them; and they were also of great strength, not only tall, but well-set: He was strong as the oaks. Their kingdom was eminent among the nations, and over-topped all its neighbours.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Amos 2:9
“Yet - (and I) I (Emphatic) destroyed Such were “their” doings; such their worship of “their God.” And what had “God” done? what was it, which they thus requited? The Amorite - These, as one of the mightiest of the Canaanite tribes, stand in Moses for all.”
brought you up from the land of Egypt: Albert Barnes hears the Lord setting His deeds against Israel's: this is what you did to Me, and this is what I did for you. The exodus is named in the words the law used as a motive for obedience at Exodus 20:2 and Deuteronomy 5:6.
Amos 2:10
“Also I - (Literally, “And I,” I, emphatic; thus and thus did ye to Me; and thus and thus, with all the mercy from the first, did I to you,) I brought you up from the land of Egypt It is this language in which God, in the law, reminded them of that great benefit, as a motive to obedience; “I brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” Exo 20:2; Deu 5:6; Deu 6:12; only there, since God has not as yet “brought them up” into the land which He promised them,…”
I raised up prophets from your sons: Albert Barnes notes the turn here from outward mercies to inward ones. Nazirite comes from nazar, to set apart, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown name Samson, Samuel and John the Baptist as men of that vow. The closing question dares any hearer to deny it.
Amos 2:11
“And I raised up of your sons for prophets - Amos turns from outward mercies to inward, front past to present, from miracles of power to miracles of grace. God’s past mercies live on in those of today; the mercies of today are the assurance to us that we have a share in the past; His miracles of grace are a token that the miracles of His power are not our condemnation. God had, from the time of Moses, “raised up” prophets.”
1 more voice on this verse
Amos 2:11
“God left nothing undone to secure the purity of their worship and their faithfulness to it (La 4:7). The same comes from a Hebrew root, nazar, "to set apart." Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist were Nazarites. Is it not even thus--Will any of you dare to deny it is so?”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Amos 2:12-16
you made the Nazirites drink wine: Israel answered the gift: "you made the Nazirites drink wine," against the vow of Numbers 6:3, "and commanded the prophets not to prophesy." The judgment is the curse of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, in which "Escape will fail the swift" and archer and horseman fail.
Amos 2:12
“But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink,.... Contrary to their vow and calling, and in contempt of it, and to make them like themselves; they either persuaded them, or forced them to it: and commanded the prophets, saying, prophesy not; hard and heavy things, judgments and denunciations of vengeance, only smooth things; by this authoritative language it appears that this is said of the rulers and governors of the people, as king, princes, and priests; see Amo 7:12.”
1 more voice on this verse
Amos 2:12
“But ye gave the Nazarites wine - This was expressly forbidden in the laws of their institution. See Num 6:1-3. Prophesy not - They would not worship God, and they would not hear the voice of his prophets.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Pressed down: the swift and the strong will not escape
as with a cart full of grain: The Berean Standard Bible pictures the Lord crushing Israel. John Gill and Albert Barnes follow the older rendering, the Lord pressed under Israel, and Gill reads it as God weighed down by their sins. Barnes recalls that God had carried His people, citing Exodus 19:4.
Amos 2:13
“Behold, I are pressed under you,.... With the weight of their sins, with which they had made him to serve, and had wearied him; his patience was quite wore out, he could bear them no longer: as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves; as a cart in harvest time, in which the sheaves of corn are carried home; when one sheaf is laid upon another, till they can lay no more, and the cart is loaded and overloaded with them, and ready to break, or be pressed into the earth with them: thus.”
Escape will fail the swift: The verse begins a list of the men a battle depends on. Adam Clarke reads it as a sentence no one can outrun: none will escape by might, by counsel or by speed. He grounds the judgment in the covenant Israel broke, whose quarrel God has resolved to avenge.
Amos 2:14
“The flight shall perish from the swift - The swiftest shall not be able to save himself from a swifter destruction. None, by might, by counsel, or by fleetness, shall be able to escape from the impending ruin. In a word, God has so fully determined to avenge the quarrel of his broken covenant, that all attempts to escape from his judgments shall be useless.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The archer will not stand his ground: The archer, the runner and the horseman each have the best means of escape, and each fails. Adam Clarke takes the sayings of verses 13 to 16 as proverbs, showing that every attempt to escape is useless. The reason he gives is that the cup of their iniquity was full.
Amos 2:15
“Neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself - I believe all these sayings, Amo 2:13-16, are proverbs, to show the inutility of all attempts, even in the best circumstances, to escape the doom now decreed, because the cup of their iniquity was full.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the bravest of mighty men will flee naked: Even the bravest soldier runs from the field naked on that day. Adam Clarke pictures an alarm at night, so that the most heroic man leaps from his bed without waiting to put on his clothes. The closing words, declares the LORD, mark the sentence as the Lord's own.
Amos 2:16
“Shall flee away naked - In some cases the alarm shall be in the night; and even the most heroic shall start from his bed, and through terror not wait to put on his clothes.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: The last three oracles of the series of eight, on Moab, Judah and Israel, with Israel's running from 2:6 to 16, as guide classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| For three transgressions, even four | The same opening formula stands over all eight oracles, from Damascus at 1:3 to Israel at 2:6. It names the nation, says three transgressions and then four, and names one crime. The formula builds a pattern the hearers can predict, so the eighth name lands on them.the Berean text of Amos 1:3 to 2:6, counted, and the site's Amos guide, src/components/book/guides/amos/AmosGuide.tsx, the oracles table. | Amos 1:3, Amos 1:6, Amos 1:9, Amos 1:11, Amos 1:13, Amos 2:1, Amos 2:4, Amos 2:6 |
| I will send fire | Seven of the eight oracles close with fire sent on the nation's walls, citadels or cities, the Ammonite one as a fire kindled. The oracle against Israel breaks the pattern. It carries no fire line and runs to eleven verses, the longest in the series.the Berean text of Amos 1:4 to 2:16, counted, and the site's Amos guide, src/components/book/guides/amos/AmosGuide.tsx, the oracles table, which counts eleven verses for Israel. | Amos 1:4, Amos 1:7, Amos 1:10, Amos 1:12, Amos 1:14, Amos 2:2, Amos 2:5 |
The structure
3 more paragraphs on the patterns
Moab at verses 1 to 3 and Judah at verses 4 and 5 keep the fixed form of chapter 1. Israel at verses 6 to 16 opens the same way and then breaks it. Four charges come at verses 6 to 8. God recalls His acts for Israel at verses 9 to 11, names Israel's answer at verse 12, and gives the sentence at verses 13 to 16.
Where the chapter reaches
The charge of selling the needy for a pair of sandals returns at 8:6. The next chapter explains why Israel is judged more strictly than the nations.
Keep studying
People and groups1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
the site's Amos guide, src/components/book/guides/amos/AmosGuide.tsx, the oracles table.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Basil of Caesarea, Letter CLX; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets; John Gill and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.