The prophet points a finger at Samaria’s 1% and his words wound just as they would and should today. How can we justify such awful wealth when right around the corner there is such poverty? Wealth is not a sin, he yells, but the lack of concern for the pain of the poor, the refusal to share resources will be the kingdom’s collapse. He describe both the excess and the excruciating punishment in painful, vivid detail:
הַשֹּֽׁכְבִים֙ עַל־מִטּ֣וֹת שֵׁ֔ן וּסְרֻחִ֖ים עַל־עַרְשׂוֹתָ֑ם וְאֹכְלִ֤ים כָּרִים֙ מִצֹּ֔אן וַעֲגָלִ֖ים מִתּ֥וֹךְ מַרְבֵּֽק׃
הַפֹּרְטִ֖ים עַל־פִּ֣י הַנָּ֑בֶל כְּדָוִ֕יד חָשְׁב֥וּ לָהֶ֖ם כְּלֵי־שִֽׁיר׃
הַשֹּׁתִ֤ים בְּמִזְרְקֵי֙ יַ֔יִן וְרֵאשִׁ֥ית שְׁמָנִ֖ים יִמְשָׁ֑חוּ וְלֹ֥א נֶחְל֖וּ עַל־שֵׁ֥בֶר יוֹסֵֽף׃
You who lie on ivory beds,
sprawled on your couches,
Feasting on lambs from the flock
And on the fattest calves -
You hum snatches of song
To the tune of the harp—
You think of yourself as a musician like King David!
You drink straight from the wine bowls
And anoint yourselves with the virgin oils—
But you are not concerned about the ruin of Joseph.
Amos 6:4-6
It’s that BUT that slaps the listeners. The opulent party Amos describes, complete with a harpist in the middle of the room, emulating the psalms of David while the drunk guests think of themselves royalty could be a scene in any contemporary Park Avenue salon. ‘The ruin of Jospeh’ is of course the collective name for the future fall of the Kingdom of Israel, and its ancestor Jospeh, who represents the possibilities of fall and rise and fall again from wealth and grace.
When it comes to the prophet’s projections of how bad things will get, the description is so vivid that it almost sounds like he’s describing a scene. It isn’t clear what will be the cause of devastation - war, famine or plague - but the houses went opulent with feasts will not be that way anymore. The following verses are harsh, mysterious, and require some unpacking:
וְהָיָ֗ה אִם־יִוָּ֨תְר֜וּ עֲשָׂרָ֧ה אֲנָשִׁ֛ים בְּבַ֥יִת אֶחָ֖ד וָמֵֽתוּ׃
וּנְשָׂא֞וֹ דּוֹד֣וֹ וּמְסָֽרְפ֗וֹ לְהוֹצִ֣יא עֲצָמִים֮ מִן־הַבַּיִת֒ וְאָמַ֞ר לַאֲשֶׁ֨ר בְּיַרְכְּתֵ֥י הַבַּ֛יִת הַע֥וֹד עִמָּ֖ךְ וְאָמַ֣ר אָ֑פֶס וְאָמַ֣ר הָ֔ס כִּ֛י לֹ֥א לְהַזְכִּ֖יר בְּשֵׁ֥ם יְהֹוָֽה׃
If just ten people are left in one house, they shall all die.
And if someone’s kinsman—who is to burn the deceased —comes to carry the remains of the dead out of the house, he will call out to the one left alive at the back of the house, “Are there any alive besides you?” the answer will be, “No, none.” And he will say, “Hush!”—so that none may utter YHWH’s name.”
Amos 6:9-10
The situation that Amos describes resembles times of plague - the body burning, the houses full of the dead and dying. But what of the last part - the fear of uttering the divine name?
The Expositor's Bible Commentary explains:
“The uncertainty of the text does not weaken the impression of its ghastly realism: the haunted house: the kinsman and the body-burner afraid to search through the infected rooms, and calling in muffled voice to the single survivor crouching in some far corner of them, "Are there any more with you?"
The reply, "None"- himself the next! Yet these details are not the most weird.
Over all hangs a terror darker than the pestilence: "Shall there be evil in a city and YHWH not have done it?" Such, as we have heard from Amos, was the settled faith of the age.
But in times of woe it was held with an awful and craven superstition. The whole of life was believed to be overhung with loose accumulations of Divine anger. And as in some fatal hollow in the high Alps, where any noise may bring down the impending masses of snow, and the fearful traveler hurries along in silence, so the men of that superstitious age feared, When an evil like the plague was imminent, even to utter the Deity’s name, lest it should loosen some avalanche of His wrath.
"And he said, Hush! for," adds the comment, one "must not make mention of the name of YHWH."
This reveals another side of the popular religion which Amos has been attacking. We have seen it as the sheer superstition of routine; but we now know that it was a routine broken by panic. The God who in times of peace was propitiated by regular supplies of savory sacrifice and flattery, is conceived, when His wrath is roused and imminent, as kept quiet only by the silence of its miserable objects. The false peace of ritual is tempered by panic.”
This tragic turn of events marks the momentum that Amos predicts for Israel. Not only will they all fall prey to plague and war - they won’t even find the words for prayer or for the presence of the divine among them - for fear, or disbelief, or shame.
But Amos won’t stop here. He has more strong words for the kind and the priests who lead their people into the abyss, and in the next chapter he will meet the fate of those who speak too loudly against those in power. But even with the attempts to censor him - this man of words who is not afraid to use them will not back down.
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