Reading The News
1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and to them that are secure in the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come! 2 Pass ye unto Calneh, and see, and from thence go ye to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines; are they better than these kingdoms? or is their border greater than your border?
The speech opens with a delineation of its primary target, the religious aristocracy — in all likelihood the wealthy class of priests running the Northern temples. The masses in v1b depend on these priests, who hold a corrupt monopoly on what is societally perceived as indispensable religious ritual. In v2 the Navi sardonically asks these overconfident leaders whether their nation is any greater than their neighbors. Considering the threats of foreign invasion and exile we have been noting throughout our study (reiterated here in v7 and v14), the implication here would be that these regional nations have already been conquered by this foreign invader, who stands poised to overrun the North as well. The leadership remains overconfident in their ability to repel the invader, despite the regional decimation already surrounding them. This foreign threat, unnamed here as the Navi’s audience would need no specification, is certainly the Assyrian Empire, the region’s then undisputed hegemony.
This defiance is not just strategically untenable from a military perspective, but, more significant to the Navi, theologically insolent. The direction the Navi brings is not sideline commentary on international happenstance, but reliably informed instruction based on what he knows to be divine action, as we saw in the rhetorical questions of Chapter 3. As Yeshaya tried to make clear regarding the same historical sequence:
5 Woe to Asshur [Assyria], the rod of Mine anger, in whose hand as a staff is Mine fury!
Since the Assyrians are tools of God’s retribution, arrogantly ignoring the direction of the Navi and opting instead to futilely resist, is tantamount to defying God, bringing only further destruction.
The plural “ַגּוֹיִם” in v1, instead of the expected singular, in conjunction with the various nations listed in v2, implies the superior position of both the religious aristocracy relative to the Northern masses and the Northern Kingdom relative to the other nations. This idea is similar to the chosen status idea noted in 3:1-2 as explanation for disproportionately allocated divine consequences relative to the other nations, a relevant theme for our speech’s international scope. Both the Northern leadership and the Northern Kingdom have squandered their respective chosen leadership statuses.
v2, wherein the aristocracy “goes” out to the other nations, serves as a total reversal of v1, wherein the nation “comes” to the aristocracy. In addition, the aristocracy needs to “descend” from the “mountains of the Shomron” to Gat Pelishtim, on the coastal plain.
History, Take 2
3 Ye that put far away the evil day, and convene a session of violence; 4 That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; 5 That thrum on the psaltery, that devise for themselves instruments of music, like David; 6 That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments; but they are not grieved for the hurt of Joseph. 7 Therefore now shall they go captive at the head of them that go captive, and the revelry of them that stretched themselves shall pass away.
These verses continue to target the religious aristocracy, here for their cognitive obliviousness to imminent danger and warnings, opting instead to continue as though things were normal. This piece criticizes its target for not mourning over “שֵׁבֶר יוֹסֵף”. In the retrospective portion of the kinah of 5:1-17, 5:15 hopes for God’s grace to spare “שְׁאֵרִית יוֹסֵף”, and the present mournful perspective of 5:16-17 imply that did not occur. If we assume these terms are referring to the same thing, be it a certain province or population of the Northern Kingdom, then it is compelling to say that Chapter 6 comes chronologically after Chapters 1-4, and our section and 5:16-17 are talking about the same past event.
This event in question was the culmination of the failed exhortations of the earlier chapters, its execution lamented in Chapter 5, and its lessons ignored in Chapter 6. Interestingly, the rhetoric of chapter 6 is essentially parallel to that of the earlier chapters:
They convene a "שֶׁבֶת חָמָס” in v3b, denoting the revelry of the subsequent verses. Significant connotations of the phrase can be revealed through comparing this section to 3:9-15, to which it bears some similarities. There, like here, the “אַרְמְנֹת” (see 3:10,11, and 6:8) are said to contain “חָמָס” (see 3:10, 6:3). In response, specific foreign nations are gathered to invade and destroy the offending אַרְמְנֹת (see 3:9 and 6:14)1.
Combining these parallels with the chronological conclusions we have drawn indicate that the events presented in chapters 1-4 are repeating. When fully mapped out the schemas are identical; except our current section has yet to be fully executed as the first one has.
| First Events (Chapters 1-5:17) | Second Events so far (5:18-6:14), A-C have already occurred | |
|---|---|---|
| A. Socioeconomic oppression | 2:6-8, 4:1, 5:7, 10-15 | 6:1, 12 |
| B. Religious aristocracy/hypocrisy/idolatry | 2:8, 4:4-5, 5:4-6 | 5:21-26, 6:3-6 |
| C. Religious self-delusion | 5:13-14 | 5:18-20 |
| D. Societal faith is mistakenly placed in “וְאַרְמְנֹת” | 3:10-11 | 6:8 |
| E. Retributive invasion | 2:13-16, 2:9-15 | 6:13-14 |
| F. Destruction of אַרְמְנֹת | 3:11, 15, 5:11 | 6:11 |
| G. Emptying of the land | 3:12, 4:11, 5:2-3 | 6:8-10 |
| H. Exile | 5:5 | 5:27, 6:7 |
The critique in v3-6 is that the lessons of recent history have not made the intended societal impacts.
The litany of luxuries enjoyed by the aristocracy in v3-6 bear significant ritualistic connotations, in line with the recently rejected temple practices of 5:21-23.
| 6:3-6 | 5:21-23 |
|---|---|
| וַתַּגִּשׁוּן, שֶׁבֶת חָמָס convene a session of violence |
שָׂנֵאתִי מָאַסְתִּי, חַגֵּיכֶם; וְלֹא אָרִיחַ, בְּעַצְּרֹתֵיכֶם I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies. |
| וְאֹכְלִים כָּרִים מִצֹּאן, וַעֲגָלִים מִתּוֹךְ מַרְבֵּק and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; |
כִּי אִם-תַּעֲלוּ-לִי עֹלוֹת וּמִנְחֹתֵיכֶם, לֹא אֶרְצֶה; וְשֶׁלֶם מְרִיאֵיכֶם, לֹא אַבִּיט. Yea, though ye offer me burnt-offerings and your meal-offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. |
| הַפֹּרְטִים, עַל-פִּי הַנָּבֶל, כְּדָוִיד, חָשְׁבוּ לָהֶם כְּלֵי-שִׁיר That thrum on the psaltery, that devise for themselves instruments of music, like David |
הָסֵר מֵעָלַי, הֲמוֹן שִׁרֶיךָ; וְזִמְרַת נְבָלֶיךָ, לֹא אֶשְׁמָע Take thou away from Me the noise of thy songs; and let Me not hear the melody of thy psalteries |
In addition, 6a reports that they drink excessive amounts of wine, a reference to ניסוך היין, and in 6b anoint themselves with fine oils, reminiscent of the שמן המשחה set aside for kohanim. The point would be that the religious aristocracy, the priest class who retain a monopoly on ritual practice, have twisted the system to best financially serve themselves, a theme we have seen before. Technically, the underlying ritualistic connotations would imply the embezzlement and misuse of ritual donations. More fundamentally, the imagery implies that, under this system, the religion itself has become the worship of one’s own enjoyment, with self-service and luxury rising to the level of observed ritual.
The frequently employed imagery in 2a, harkening back to 3:12 and 2:8, corroborates all this.
v3a accuses its audience of spurning the “Yom Ra”, similar to the idea in 5:18, that of misguidedly desiring the “Yom H’.”
Finally, the decreed fate, being exiled “בְּרֹאשׁ גֹּלִים”, reverses the status of the offenders in v1, “נְקֻבֵי רֵאשִׁית הַגּוֹיִם”.
Amos Reads Some Edgar Allen Poe
8 The Lord GOD hath sworn by Himself, saith the LORD, the God of hosts: I abhor the pride of Jacob, and hate his palaces; and I will deliver up the city with all that is therein. 9 And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. 10 And when a man's uncle shall take him up, even he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is in the innermost parts of the house: 'Is there yet any with thee?' and he shall say: 'No'; then shall he say: 'Hold thy peace; for we must not make mention of the name of the LORD.' {S} 11 For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and the great house shall be smitten into splinters, and the little house into chips. 12 Do horses run upon the rocks? Doth one plow there with oxen? that ye have turned justice into poison weed, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood;
We have already dealt with the matters in v8 — the arrogance of national faith in the might of fortresses and the eventual emptying of these fortresses and cities. The latter point is extensively illustrated over the next few verses, painting a scene where the dead are solemnly collected from their houses. v9 opens with the ten remaining people in a house dying. The number ten here harkens back to 5:3, during the first cycle of events, in which a city of 1000 is reduced to 100, and one of 100 is reduced to 10. Our verse, within the second cycle of events, extends this sequence by saying that even these scarcely remaining ten will not be spared2. The last remaining person in the house will assure the body-collectors that no dead remain untaken, and he will be silenced lest he mention the name of God. The Navi paints a picture in v10 where destruction and punishment will finally bear rehabilitative fruit, in that the decimated nation will recognize God’s hand in these events, and learn to appropriately fear him. This reverses the failure of v6b, itself an extension of similar failures in chapter 4 and chapter 2.
This short section efficiently conveys a surprisingly vivid scene. The body-collectors stand near the entrance of the house with their cargo of corpses, and call back to the one living person who remains בְּיַרְכְּתֵי הַבַּיִת, deep in the empty death-house. They ask across the distance if that’s all the dead, probably because they have many other houses to collect from, yelling to be effectively heard in the now empty and echoing depths of ְיַרְכְּתֵי הַבַּיִת. The last living of the house confirms his status among his dead, and hushes the body-collectors, lest they inadvertently incur even more of God’s wrath on an already decimated house. The verses form a terse atmosphere of casual death, loneliness, desolation, and quiet terror eerily reminiscent of Black Plague accounts.
In v11 the emptied house itself is destroyed. The ground in v12a, now covered in rocky rubble, cannot be effectively utilized for galloping or plowing. This transformation from fertile-to-unusable ground is compared in v12b to the corrupting of society, turning justice and the “fruit of righteousness” to wormwood and poison weeds. The botanical imagery employed to illustrate injustice and corruption continues the agricultural imagery of the beginning of the verse. One can imagine the bitter and poisonous plants growing amongst the rubble of religiously bitter and poisonous houses.
God Who?
13 Ye that rejoice in a thing of nought, that say: 'Have we not taken to us Karnaim by our own strength?' 14 For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD, the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entrance of Hamath unto the Brook of the Arabah.
v13 mocks a strain of arrogance already predicted by the Torah, in a section we have already visited:
14 then thy heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;
17 and thou say in thy heart: 'My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth.'
As we explained more extensively in a previous post, this chapter in Devarim contends with the issue of national spirituality after the future settling of the land. In the desert, the sustenance of God is obvious and miraculous, but once the nation has entered the land, it will mistakenly believe it has become self-sustaining; that the conquering and agricultural success was accomplished purely through its own strength and skill. v13b voices the realization of this concern, and the military arrogance theme it denotes corresponds to the broader “ְאַרְמְנֹת” idea of v8, as explained above.
The decree in v14 befits the crime. The militarily arrogant “נְקֻבֵי רֵאשִׁית הַגּוֹיִם” will be overrun by another “גּוֹי”.
Author’s Note:
I think for the most part we have finished with the worst of the chronological complications. Our next section presents a series of some fun prophetic visions, which if I recall necessitated a bold and groundbreaking chart, and was not nearly as depressing as this past section. Along the same lines of despondency, supplementary material on our topic was, not entirely unexpectedly, fairly underrepresented at the YU Seforim Sale. My hopes to attain a slick new Chorev Edition of the Abarbanel wane thin, but, like the prophet himself, I will relentlessly vocalize my righteous dissatisfaction with the status quo until its unlikely rectification.
1. This latter point, in addition to the recent mentioning of specific foreign nations in v1, perhaps indicates an additional connotation of “שֶׁבֶת חָמָס“, that being the imminent foreign invasion, the threat underlying this entire section.↩
2. The divine mercilessness for denominations of 1000, 100, and 10 people of a sinning city reminds us of the destruction of Sodom and Avraham’s negotiations to save it. The nation is directly compared to Sodom in 4:11. As 5:3 comes as part of a lament, and the atmosphere of 6:9-10 is also mournful, Amos might be playing the Avraham role in this sequence.↩