Amos 7:1-10

Context

Symbolic Visions of Judgment

7:1 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw¹ him making locusts just as the crops planted late² were beginning to sprout. (The crops planted late sprout after the royal harvest.³) 7:2 When they had completely consumed the earth’s vegetation, I said,

“Sovereign Lord, forgive Israel!⁴

How can Jacob survive?⁵

He is too weak!”⁶

7:3 The Lord decided not to do this.⁷ “It will not happen,” the Lord said.

7:4 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw⁸ the sovereign Lord summoning a shower of fire.⁹ It consumed the great deep and devoured the fields.

7:5 I said, “Sovereign Lord, stop!

How can Jacob survive?¹⁰

He is too weak!”¹¹

7:6 The Lord decided not to do this.¹² The sovereign Lord said, “This will not happen either.”

7:7 He showed me this: I saw¹³ the sovereign One¹⁴ standing by a tin¹⁵ wall holding tin in his hand. 7:8 The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “Tin.” The sovereign One then said,

“Look, I am about to place tin among my people Israel.

I will no longer overlook their sin.¹⁶

7:9 Isaac’s centers of worship¹⁷ will become desolate;

Israel’s holy places will be in ruins.

I will attack Jeroboam’s dynasty with the sword.”¹⁸

Amos Confronts a Priest

7:10 Amaziah the priest of Bethel¹⁹ sent this message²⁰ to King Jeroboam of Israel: “Amos is conspiring against you in the very heart of the kingdom of Israel!²¹ The land cannot endure all his prophecies.²²

[7:1] ¹tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:1] ²sn The crops planted late (consisting of vegetables) were planted in late January-early March and sprouted in conjunction with the spring rains of March-April. For a discussion of the ancient Israelite agricultural calendar, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 31-44.

[7:1] ³tn Or “the mowings of the king.”

[7:2] ⁴tn “Israel” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:2] ⁵tn Heb “stand” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[7:2] ⁶tn Heb “small.”

[7:3] ⁷tn Or “changed his mind about this.”

[7:4] ⁸tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:4] ⁹tc The Hebrew appears to read, “summoning to contend with fire,” or “summoning fire to contend,” but both are problematic syntactically (H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos [Hermeneia], 292; S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 230-31). Many emend the text to לרבב אשׁ, “(calling) for a shower of fire,” though this interpretation is also problematic (see F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos [AB], 746-47).

[7:5] ¹⁰tn Heb “stand.”

[7:5] ¹¹tn Heb “small.”

[7:6] ¹²tn Or “changed his mind about this.”

[7:7] ¹³tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:7] ¹⁴tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here and in the following verse is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[7:7] ¹⁵tn The Hebrew word אֲנָךְ (’anakh, “tin”) occurs only in this passage (twice in this verse and twice in the following verse). (Its proposed meaning is based on an Akkadian cognate annaku.) The tin wall of the vision, if it symbolizes Israel, may suggest weakness and vulnerability to judgment. See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 233-35. The symbolic significance of God holding tin in his hand and then placing tin among the people is unclear. Possibly the term אֲנָךְ in v. 8b is a homonym meaning “grief” (this term is attested in postbiblical Hebrew). In this case there is a wordplay, the אֲנָךְ (“tin”) of the vision suggesting the אֲנָךְ (“grief”) that judgment will bring upon the land. See F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos (AB), 759. Another option is to maintain the meaning “tin” and understand that the Lord has ripped off a piece of the tin wall and placed it in front of all to see. Their citadels, of which the nation was so proud and confident, are nothing more than tin fortresses. The traditional interpretation of these verses (reflected in many English versions) understands the term אֲנָךְ to mean “lead,” and by extension, “plumb line.” In this case, one may translate: “I saw the sovereign one standing by a wall built true to plumb holding a plumb line in his hand. The Lord said to me, ‘What do you see, Amos?’ I said, ‘A plumb line.’ The sovereign one then said, ‘Look, I am about to place a plumb line among my people…’” According to this view, the plumb line symbolizes God’s moral standards by which he will measure Israel to see if they are a straight or crooked wall.

[7:8] ¹⁶tn Heb “And I will no longer pass over him.”

[7:9] ¹⁷tn Traditionally, “the high places” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “pagan shrines.”

[7:9] ¹⁸tn Heb “And I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with a sword.”

[7:10] ¹⁹map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[7:10] ²⁰tn The direct object of the verb translated “sent” is elided in the Hebrew text. The words “this message” are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[7:10] ²¹tn Heb “in the middle of the house of Israel.”

[7:10] ²²tn Heb “words.”