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Text -- Amos 5:1-27 (NET)
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Strongs On/Off
Context
Death is Imminent
5:1 Listen to this funeral song I am ready to sing about you, family of Israel :
5:2 “The virgin Israel has fallen down and will not get up again . She is abandoned on her own land with no one to help her get up .”
5:3 The sovereign Lord says this : “The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers will have only a hundred left ; the town that marches out with a hundred soldiers will have only ten left for the family of Israel .”
5:4 The Lord says this to the family of Israel : “Seek me so you can live !
5:5 Do not seek Bethel ! Do not visit Gilgal ! Do not journey down to Beer Sheba ! For the people of Gilgal will certainly be carried into exile ; and Bethel will become a place where disaster abounds .”
5:6 Seek the Lord so you can live ! Otherwise he will break out like fire against Joseph’s family ; the fire will consume and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel .
5:7 The Israelites turn justice into bitterness ; they throw what is fair and right to the ground .
5:8 (But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion ; he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight into night . He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth’s surface . The Lord is his name !
5:9 He flashes destruction down upon the strong so that destruction overwhelms the fortified places .)
5:10 The Israelites hate anyone who arbitrates at the city gate ; they despise anyone who speaks honestly .
5:11 Therefore , because you make the poor pay taxes on their crops and exact a grain tax from them, you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone , nor will you drink the wine from the fine vineyards you planted .
5:12 Certainly I am aware of your many rebellious acts and your numerous sins . You torment the innocent , you take bribes , and you deny justice to the needy at the city gate .
5:13 For this reason whoever is smart keeps quiet in such a time , for it is an evil time .
5:14 Seek good and not evil so you can live ! Then the Lord , the God who commands armies , just might be with you, as you claim he is.
5:15 Hate what is wrong , love what is right ! Promote justice at the city gate ! Maybe the Lord , the God who commands armies , will have mercy on those who are left from Joseph .
5:16 Because of Israel’s sins this is what the Lord , the God who commands armies , the sovereign One , says: “In all the squares there will be wailing , in all the streets they will mourn the dead . They will tell the field workers to lament and the professional mourners to wail .
5:17 In all the vineyards there will be wailing , for I will pass through your midst ,” says the Lord .
The Lord Demands Justice
5:18 Woe to those who wish for the day of the Lord ! Why do you want the Lord’s day of judgment to come? It will bring darkness , not light .
5:19 Disaster will be inescapable , as if a man ran from a lion only to meet a bear , then escaped into a house , leaned his hand against the wall , and was bitten by a poisonous snake .
5:20 Don’t you realize the Lord’s day of judgment will bring darkness , not light – gloomy blackness, not bright light ?
5:21 “I absolutely despise your festivals ! I get no pleasure from your religious assemblies !
5:22 Even if you offer me burnt and grain offerings , I will not be satisfied ; I will not look with favor on your peace offerings of fattened calves .
5:23 Take away from me your noisy songs ; I don’t want to hear the music of your stringed instruments .
5:24 Justice must flow like torrents of water , righteous actions like a stream that never dries up .
5:25 You did not bring me sacrifices and grain offerings during the forty years you spent in the wilderness , family of Israel .
5:26 You will pick up your images of Sikkuth , your king , and Kiyyun , your star god , which you made for yourselves,
5:27 and I will drive you into exile beyond Damascus ,” says the Lord . He is called the God who commands armies !
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Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics
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Names, People and Places:
Dictionary Themes and Topics:
Israel |
Sin |
CALF, GOLDEN |
AMOS (1) |
Idolatry |
Hypocrisy |
PEKAHIAH |
Salvation |
SANCTIFICATION |
JOEL (2) |
Seekers |
Judgments |
Wicked |
HIGH PLACE |
JEROBOAM |
Offerings |
Worship |
Repentance |
Quotations and Allusions |
LAW IN THE OLD TESTAMENT |
more
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expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes -> Amo 5:1; Amo 5:1; Amo 5:2; Amo 5:2; Amo 5:3; Amo 5:3; Amo 5:3; Amo 5:3; Amo 5:4; Amo 5:4; Amo 5:5; Amo 5:5; Amo 5:5; Amo 5:5; Amo 5:5; Amo 5:5; Amo 5:5; Amo 5:5; Amo 5:5; Amo 5:6; Amo 5:6; Amo 5:6; Amo 5:6; Amo 5:6; Amo 5:7; Amo 5:7; Amo 5:7; Amo 5:7; Amo 5:8; Amo 5:9; Amo 5:9; Amo 5:10; Amo 5:10; Amo 5:11; Amo 5:11; Amo 5:11; Amo 5:12; Amo 5:12; Amo 5:12; Amo 5:12; Amo 5:12; Amo 5:12; Amo 5:13; Amo 5:13; Amo 5:13; Amo 5:15; Amo 5:15; Amo 5:15; Amo 5:15; Amo 5:15; Amo 5:16; Amo 5:16; Amo 5:16; Amo 5:16; Amo 5:16; Amo 5:16; Amo 5:17; Amo 5:18; Amo 5:19; Amo 5:19; Amo 5:20; Amo 5:21; Amo 5:21; Amo 5:22; Amo 5:22; Amo 5:23; Amo 5:23; Amo 5:24; Amo 5:25; Amo 5:25; Amo 5:25; Amo 5:26; Amo 5:26; Amo 5:26; Amo 5:26
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NET Notes: Amo 5:3 Heb “for/to the house of Israel.” The translation assumes that this is a graphic picture of what is left over for the defense of the natio...
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NET Notes: Amo 5:4 The following verses explain what it meant to seek the Lord. Israel was to abandon the mere formalism and distorted view of God and reality that chara...
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NET Notes: Amo 5:5 Again there is irony. The name Bethel means “house of God” in Hebrew. How surprising and tragic that Bethel, the “house of God”...
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NET Notes: Amo 5:6 Heb “to/for Bethel.” The translation assumes that the preposition indicates advantage, “on behalf of.” Another option is to ta...
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NET Notes: Amo 5:7 In v. 7 the prophet begins to describe the guilty Israelites, but then interrupts his word picture with a parenthetical, but powerful, description of ...
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NET Notes: Amo 5:9 Heb “comes upon.” Many prefer to repoint the verb as Hiphil and translate, “he brings destruction upon the fortified places.”
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NET Notes: Amo 5:10 In ancient Israelite culture, legal disputes were resolved in the city gate, where the town elders met.
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NET Notes: Amo 5:11 Heb “Houses of chiseled stone you built, but you will not live in them. Fine vineyards you planted, but you will not drink their wine.”
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NET Notes: Amo 5:13 If this is a judgment announcement against the rich, then the Hebrew phrase עֵת רָעָה (’et ra...
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NET Notes: Amo 5:15 Joseph (= Ephraim and Manasseh), as the most prominent of the Israelite tribes, represents the entire northern kingdom.
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NET Notes: Amo 5:16 Professional mourners are referred to elsewhere in the OT (2 Chr 35:25; Jer 9:17) and ancient Near Eastern literature. See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia...
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NET Notes: Amo 5:17 The expression pass through your midst alludes to Exod 12:12, where the Lord announced he would “pass through” Egypt and bring death to th...
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NET Notes: Amo 5:18 The term הוֹי (hoy, “woe”) was used when mourning the dead (see the note on the word “dead” in 5:16). ...
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NET Notes: Amo 5:21 Heb “I will not smell.” These verses are full of vivid descriptions of the Lord’s total rejection of Israelite worship. In the first...
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