Amos 5:26
in Amos 5You have taken along Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, the idols you made for yourselves.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Yea, ye have borne the tabernacle of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
KJV
But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
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This verse in Amos 5
Commentary
9 notes on this verse(Verse 25 and following) Did you offer to Me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel? You also took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images which you made for yourselves. Therefore I will exile you beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.
This site's exposition
in the wilderness forty years
on Amos 5:25-27
The question of verse 25, have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, is answered in the negative the bench reads throughout, since the wilderness generation carried alongside its tabernacle worship the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, idolatry mixed with true worship from the very start. Stephen quotes this passage nearly word for word at Acts 7:42-43, citing it from the book of the prophets against the same charge of idol worship, with the Greek text naming Babylon where the Hebrew names Damascus, a difference the bench assigns to the Septuagint's own rendering rather than any contradiction. The chapter that opened as a funeral dirge closes on the sentence of exile itself, beyond Damascus, saith the Lord.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening5 voices
Ye have born - Ye carried along with you in the wilderness; the shrine, or canopy in which the image was placed. Moloch - The great idol of the Ammonites.
43 , after the LXX.), which it is supposed, represented Saturn, the highest of the seven planets. The worship of the sun, moon, and stars, was the most ancient, most general, and most plausible idolatry.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Mo,.... The god of the Ammonites; See Gill on Amo 1:13; and See Gill on Jer 7:31; called theirs, because they also worshipped it, and caused their seed to pass through the fire to it; and which was carried by them in a shrine, or portable tent or chapel.
It is the word which I take up --not the prophet only, but the God that sent him. It is the word that the Lord has spoken, ch. iii. The word to be heard is a lamentation, a lamentable account of the present calamitous state of the kingdom of Israel, and a lamentable prediction of its utter destruction.
9 , to which passages Amos seems here to refer, putting them in mind of those ancient discoveries of the glory of God before he was called the God of Israel. Secondly, The constant succession of day and night is under his direction, and is kept up by his power and providence.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
But ye have borne - The preceding verse spoke of their fathers; the present verse speaks of the Israelites then existing, who were so grievously addicted to idolatry, that they not only worshipped at stated public places the idols set up by public authority, but they carried their gods about with them everywhere. The tabernacle of your Moloch - Probably a small portable shrine, with an image of their god in it, such as Moloch; and the star or representative of their god Chiun.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
But ye have borne - Literally, “And ye bare the tabernacle of your Moloch” (literally, “your king,” from where the idol Moloch had its name.) He assigns the reason, why he had denied that they sacririced to God in the wilderness. “Did ye offer sacrifices unto Me, and ye bare?” that is, seeing that ye bare. The two were incompatible. Since they did “carry about the tabernacle of their king,” they did not really worship God. He whom they chose as “their king,” was their god. The “tabernacle” or “tent” was probably a little portable shrine, such as Demetrius the silversmith and those of his craft made for the little statues of their goddess Diana Act 19:24. Such are mentioned in Egyptian idolatry. “They carry forth” we are told , “the image in a small shrine of gilt wood.” Of your Moloch and Chiun - The two clauses must be read separately, the “tabernacles of Moloch” (strictly, “of your king,”) “and Chiun your images.” The two clauses, “the tabernacle of your king, and Chiun your images,” are altogether distinct. They correspond to one another, but they must not be read as one whole, in the sense, “the tabernacle of your king and of Chiun your images.” The rendering of the last clause is uncertain. God has so “utterly abolished the idols” Isa 2:18, through whom Satan contested with Him the allegiance of His people, that we have no certain knowledge, what they were. There may be some connection between the god whom the Israelites in the wilderness worshiped as “their king,” and him whose worship Solomon, in his decay, brought into Jerusalem, the god whom the Ammonites worshiped as “the king, Hammolech,” or, as he is once called, “Molech , and three times “Milchom” 1Ki 11:5, 1Ki 11:33; 2Ki 23:13 (perhaps an abstract, as some used to speak of “the Deity”). […]
The words behind it
12 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וּנְשָׂאתֶ֗ם | unesatem | and you will lift up | H5375 → | 656 times |
| אֵ֚ת | ʾet | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| סִכּ֣וּת | sikut | Sikkuth | H5522 → | |
| מַלְכְּכֶ֔ם | malkekhem | king your | H4428 → | 2525 times |
| וְאֵ֖ת | veet | and <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| כִּיּ֣וּן | kiyun | Kiyyun | H3594 → | |
| צַלְמֵיכֶ֑ם | tzalmeikhem | images your | H6754 → | |
| כּוֹכַב֙ | kokhav | [the] star of | H3556 → | |
| אֱלֹ֣הֵיכֶ֔ם | ʾeloheikhem | gods your | H430 → | 2601 times |
| אֲשֶׁ֥ר | ʾasher | which | H834 → | 5497 times |
| עֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם | ʾasitem | you made | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| לָכֶֽם׃ | lakhem | for yourselves |
וּנְשָׂאתֶ֗םand you will lift up
unesatemH5375 →656 times
אֵ֚ת<obj.>
ʾetH853 →10935 times
סִכּ֣וּתSikkuth
sikutH5522 →
מַלְכְּכֶ֔םking your
malkekhemH4428 →2525 times
וְאֵ֖תand <obj.>
veetH853 →10935 times
כִּיּ֣וּןKiyyun
kiyunH3594 →
צַלְמֵיכֶ֑םimages your
tzalmeikhemH6754 →
כּוֹכַב֙[the] star of
kokhavH3556 →
אֱלֹ֣הֵיכֶ֔םgods your
ʾeloheikhemH430 →2601 times
אֲשֶׁ֥רwhich
ʾasherH834 →5497 times
עֲשִׂיתֶ֖םyou made
ʾasitemH6213 →2628 times
לָכֶֽם׃for yourselves
lakhem
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Leviticus 18:21You must not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 12:31
You must not worship the LORD your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as…
- Deuteronomy 18:10
Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery,
- Leviticus 20:2–5
“Tell the Israelites, ‘Any Israelite or foreigner living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death. The people of the land are to stone him.
- Leviticus 19:12
You must not swear falsely by My name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
- Leviticus 22:32
You must not profane My holy name. I must be acknowledged as holy among the Israelites. I am the LORD who sanctifies you,
- Deuteronomy 12:31
Through
1 Kings 11:33For they have forsaken Me to worship Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in My ways, nor…
it leads to
- 1 Kings 11:9
Now the LORD grew angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.
- 1 Kings 11:5–7
Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
- 1 Chronicles 28:9
As for you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve Him wholeheartedly and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands the intent of every thought.…
- 1 Kings 11:9
Where this verse is studied
About Amos
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Jerome, Commentary on Amos; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.