Amos 8

Amos 8 is the eighth of the nine chapters of the Book of Amos. It contains the fourth of the five visions that begin in Amos 7. The preceding chapter presents the visions of the locusts, the fire, and the plumb line, along with Amos's confrontation with the priest Amaziah; this chapter continues with the declaration that judgment will no longer be delayed.

Outline

• Verses 1–3: The Lord GOD shows Amos a basket of summer fruit. He then declares that the end has come upon Israel and that He will not pass by them again. The songs of the palace turn to wailing, and dead bodies are cast out in every place.
• Verses 4–6: Those who swallow up the needy are indicted. They wait for the new moon and the Sabbath to pass so that they can sell grain. They make the ephah small and the shekel great, deal falsely with deceitful balances, buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes, and even sell the refuse of the wheat.
• Verses 7–8: The LORD swears by the excellency of Jacob that He will never forget any of their works. The land rises and sinks like the flood of Egypt.
• Verses 9–10: In that day the sun goes down at noon and the earth is darkened. Feasts and songs are turned into lamentation, and people mourn as for an only son.
• Verses 11–14: A famine comes, not from a lack of bread or water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. People wander from sea to sea seeking the word but do not find it. Those who swear by the sin of Samaria and by Dan and Beersheba fall and never rise again.

Key Verses

• Amos 8:2, "The end is come upon my people of Israel" — Judgment is announced through a wordplay based on the similar sounds of the Hebrew words for "summer fruit" (qayits) and "end" (qets).
• Amos 8:5, "making the ephah small, and the shekel great" — This verse indicts those who keep the religious festivals while cheating the poor in their business dealings.
• Amos 8:11, "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD" — This verse portrays the cessation of God's word itself as a judgment.

People and Places

• Amos: A herdsman from Tekoa in Judah and the prophet who proclaimed judgment to the northern kingdom of Israel.
• Samaria: The capital of the northern kingdom of Israel.
• Dan: A city at the northern extremity of the northern kingdom, where Jeroboam I set up a golden calf (1 Kings 12:29).
• Beersheba: A city at the southern extremity of Judah and a place of worship that people from the northern kingdom also visited (Amos 5:5).
• The flood of Egypt: A reference to the Nile, which rose and receded each year.

Interpretive Considerations

• "The excellency of Jacob" in verse 7 is read in two ways. Some interpreters take it as a title for God Himself; others take it ironically as a reference to Israel's pride, as in Amos 6:8.
• The darkening of the sun in verse 9 is imagery describing the Day of the LORD. Christian tradition has sometimes read it alongside the darkness that covered the whole land at midday when Jesus was on the cross (Mark 15:33–37), though the Gospels do not directly quote this verse.
• The famine of verse 11 is primarily a judgment to fall upon the northern kingdom of Israel. Some interpreters also connect it with the intertestamental period, when prophetic activity ceased.
• The phrase in verse 14 that some Korean versions render "the sinful idol of Samaria" literally reads "the sin of Samaria," as in the KJV. Some scholars view it as an allusion to the deity Ashima mentioned in 2 Kings 17:30.
• These warnings are generally understood to have been fulfilled in the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to Assyria around 722 BC.

In the Korean Church

The "famine of the word" in verse 11 is frequently cited in sermons encouraging Bible reading and attendance at Bible study revival meetings (sagyeonghoe). Verses 4–6 serve as a text for sermons on economic ethics addressing fair dealing and care for poor neighbors.