Amos 5

Amos 3–6 consists of oracles of judgment against the northern kingdom of Israel. The preceding chapter, Amos 4, ends with the warning "prepare to meet thy God," and chapter 5 opens with a song mourning the destruction of Israel.

Structure

• Verses 1–3 A lament: "The virgin of Israel is fallen." The city that went out by a thousand will have only a hundred left, and the city that went out by a hundred will have only ten.
• Verses 4–6 The call "Seek ye me, and ye shall live" is joined to a command not to seek the sanctuaries of Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba.
• Verses 7–13 An indictment of those who have turned judgment (just legal decisions) into wormwood (a bitter plant). The charge includes trampling the poor and taking bribes at the place of judgment in the city gate. Verses 8–9 interject a hymnic passage praising the LORD who made the seven stars and Orion (constellations).
• Verses 14–17 An exhortation to seek good and to establish judgment in the gate, followed by a warning that wailing will fill every public square and vineyard.
• Verses 18–20 A declaration that the day of the LORD will be darkness, not light.
• Verses 21–27 The LORD declares that He will not accept Israel's feasts, offerings, and songs, and He demands justice and righteousness. Finally, He announces that Israel, carrying the star images of Sakkuth and Kaiwan, will go into captivity beyond Damascus.

Key Verses

• Amos 5:4 "Seek ye me, and ye shall live": a call to repentance that recurs throughout the chapter.
• Amos 5:24 "But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream": a representative verse showing that worship and justice cannot be separated.

People and Places

• Bethel: The site of the national sanctuary of the northern kingdom of Israel.
• Gilgal: An ancient sanctuary to which the people of northern Israel went to offer sacrifices.
• Beersheba: A sanctuary at the southern edge of Judah, to which people from the north apparently also made pilgrimages.
• The house of Joseph: A designation for northern Israel, centered on the tribes descended from Joseph.

Points for Reflection

• Interpreters differ on whether verses 21–23 call for the abolition of worship itself or rebuke worship that lacks justice. Most take the latter view and read the passage alongside Micah 6:6–8.
• Many scholars regard Sakkuth and Kaiwan in verse 26 as Mesopotamian astral deities. The Septuagint rendered these names as "Moloch" and "Rephan." Stephen follows this rendering when he quotes verses 25–27 in Acts 7:42–43.
• Verse 24 became widely known after Martin Luther King Jr. quoted it in his 1963 speech in Washington.