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Amos 8

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The Vision of the Summer Fruit 1–3

1
Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me: and, behold, a basket of summer fruit. ​
2
And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said Jehovah unto me, The end is come upon my people Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. ​
3
And the songs of the temple shall be wailings in that day, saith the Lord Jehovah: the dead bodies shall be many; in every place shall they cast them forth with silence. ​

Woe to Those Who Oppress the Poor 4–10

4
Hear this, O ye that would swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail, ​
5
saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit; ​
6
that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the refuse of the wheat? ​
7
Jehovah hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works. ​
8
Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? yea, it shall rise up wholly like the River; and it shall be troubled and sink again, like the River of Egypt. ​
9
And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord Jehovah, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day. ​
10
And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning for an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day. ​

A Famine of Hearing God's Word 11–14

11
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah. ​
12
And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, and shall not find it. ​
13
In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst.
14
They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, As thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, As the way of Beer-sheba liveth; they shall fall, and never rise up again. ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Amos 8

Verse 1

a basket of summer fruit — Qayits is the fruit of the dry season, and the sound of the word explains the vision in v.2. 'Basket' (kelub) occurs elsewhere only in Jer 5:27, 'As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit'. 'Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me' is the formula of 7:1 and 7:4.

Verse 2

The end is come — 'End' is qets, which sounds like qayits, 'summer fruit', so the basket gives the verdict its name. The same announcement stands in Ezek 7:2, 'An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land', and in Gen 6:13. The LORD closes with the sentence of 7:8, 'I will not again pass by them any more'.

Verse 3

the songs of the temple shall be howlings — 'Temple' is heykal, the word for a great house, used of the LORD's house and of a king's palace; the singing there turns to yalal, the cry of 'Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand' (Isa 13:6). The bodies are cast out 'with silence' (has), as in 6:10, 'Hold thy tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD'.

Verse 4

swallow up the needy — Sha'aph is to pant after something, and is the verb of 2:7, 'pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor'. The oppressors of 2:6–7 are addressed again. 'To fail' (shabat, to cease) shares its root with 'the sabbath' of v.5: the poor are made to cease, while the traders wait for the sabbath to cease.

Verse 5

making the ephah small, and the shekel great — The ephah (eyphah) was the dry measure of grain and the shekel the weight of the silver paid; the seller shortens the one and raises the other. 'Sell' (shabar) is the grain-dealer's verb, as Joseph 'sold unto the Egyptians' (Gen 41:56). The law required 'a just ephah' (Lev 19:36); 'A false balance is abomination to the LORD' (Prov 11:1).

Verse 6

buy the poor for silver — The same trade is charged in 2:6, 'they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes'. 'Refuse' (mappal) is what falls away, found elsewhere only in Job 41:23, 'The flakes of his flesh'; here it is the chaff and sweepings of the wheat, which are sold along with the grain, using the verb shabar of v.5.

Verse 7

the excellency of Jacob — Ga'on is 'pride' in Prov 16:18 and 'excellency' in Ps 47:4, 'the excellency of Jacob whom he loved'. The phrase is set against Israel in 6:8, where the LORD 'hath sworn by himself' and says 'I abhor the excellency of Jacob'. The oath here ends in the promise 'I will never forget any of their works' (netsach, for ever).

Verse 8

as by the flood of Egypt — 'Flood' is ye'or, the Nile, the 'river' by which Pharaoh stood in his dream (Gen 41:1). Amos 9:5 repeats the line almost word for word: 'it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt'. Both verses have every dweller in the land mourning.

Verse 9

the sun to go down at noon — Tsohorayim, 'noon', is literally the double light, midday at its brightest, and 'the clear day' is the day of light. Amos had said that 'the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light' (5:18–20), and Mic 3:6 says 'the sun shall go down over the prophets'. At the cross 'from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land' (Matt 27:45).

Verse 10

the mourning of an only son — The same measure of grief stands in Jer 6:26, 'make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation', and in Zech 12:10, 'they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son'. Sackcloth on the loins is the dress of Jacob mourning Joseph (Gen 37:34), and baldness a sign of grief in Isa 15:2.

Verse 11

a famine… of hearing the words of the LORD — The famine is set beside the two things a land needs, bread and water. Such a time had been known in Eli's day, when 'the word of the LORD was precious… there was no open vision' (1 Sam 3:1). Christ quotes Deut 8:3 to the tempter: 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God' (Matt 4:4).

Verse 12

to seek the word of the LORD — The searching runs 'from sea to sea' and 'from the north even to the east'. 'Run to and fro' is shut, the verb of Dan 12:4, 'many shall run to and fro'. Of those who 'seek' (baqash) and 'shall not find', Hos 5:6 says 'they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them', and Mic 3:7 'there is no answer of God'.

Verse 14

the sin of Samaria — 'Sin' (ashmah) is guilt, and Hos 8:5 names 'Thy calf, O Samaria'; Jeroboam had set a calf also in Dan (1 Kings 12:29). 'The LORD liveth' was Israel's oath, forbidden at Gilgal and Bethaven in Hos 4:15; here it is given to Dan's god and to the 'manner' (literally the way, derek) of Beersheba (cf. 5:5). 'Rise up' is the verb of 7:2, 5, 'by whom shall Jacob arise?'