Amos 8:1-12 (NRSV)Amos 8:1-12 is the fourth in a series of visions. The five visions contained in chapters 7-9 reveal an introspective side to the character of Amos. They connect with the remarkable call of Amos. They play out a drama between the Lord and Amos that arose out of deepest solitude. They foretell doom upon Israel. The series of visions he relates have no parallels, for he has no older tradition on which he depends for the contents. He simply ponders the situation he saw in Israel.[1] He had concern for the changes and tensions in the political world of Israel. Locusts, fire, God standing at a wall, and a sheaf of ripe grain are the content of the visions. A psychological turning point may appear between the second and third, in that the possibility of repentance no longer exists. He may have had a premonition of disaster at the beginning of his call, and later interpreted the present considering that.
Amos 8:1-3 contains the fourth vision, focusing upon the basket of ripe fruit. In the series of visions, the climax will be the fifth vision. However, the independent oracles that precede it help to give a dramatic pause in the arrival of the climax. The first vision repeated the social sin of Israel. The next three tell of what will happen on the Day of Judgment. The vision occurred in Autumn, August to September. The message arises out of a play on words. 1This is what the Lord God showed me—a basket of summer fruit (qayits, related in sound to the word for end, qehts). 2 He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” We see a double meaning mediates between cause and vision, the sight of a basket of fruit pointing to coming judgment. This vision is an example of the multiplicity of the biblical ideas of revelation.[2] Then the Lord said to me, giving the oracle, although it is difficult to translate, The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by. This time, the moment of a revelation is in the wordplay that suggests “end,” as the nation expires. While the patience of God is an expression of the love of God, Amos had to tell his people that in these historical circumstances, such patience could have an end.[3] 3 The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” says the Lord God; “the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!” The prophet sees an ordinary object from everyday life whose significance is anything but ordinary. Instead of the bounty, security and prosperity symbolized by a basket of fruit -- a modern American might imagine a cornucopia at Thanksgiving time -- the object portends privation, violence and want -- the end, in other words, of all its common associations. The reason for these disasters is the presence of social injustice. In the “prophetic imagination” (Brueggemann), Israel’s physical health depended entirely on its spiritual health, and the barometer of spiritual health was not primarily adherence to cultic regulations (see Amos 5:21-22) but rather the consistent and programmatic protection of the weak from the unscrupulous strong.
Amos 8:4-14 offer a report of a prophetic word in the period of the monarchy, signifying another “Hear” unit, as in 3:1-6:14.
Amos 8:4-8 show the business leaders of the city having a booming economy, trying to capitalize on every opportunity. Consistent with the prophetic word in 3:1-6:14 that focused upon the sins regarding the poor, this word also focuses upon such sins. The actions of the business community of Israel lead to the extermination of the poor. Amos focuses on the lack of justice in the land of the Northern Kingdom. As the end approaches, they go about business as usual, blind to the society collapsing around them. 4 Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, 5 saying concerning their greed, “When will the new moon (the beginning of a month observed as a holiday) be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? The law forbade buying and selling the new moon and Sabbath. The text clearly implies that Sabbath and new moon are supposed to be kept, though observance of the new moon by ceasing from work is nowhere recorded in Torah legislation. The problem here is that people are eager for the holy day to be over so they can get on with making money through dishonest means. The text associates lack of reverence for these religious observances and dishonest trade. We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, thus making the measure with which the corrupt merchants sell grain smaller than it should be and allowing them to sell less than an ephah, a unit of dry measure of 23 liters, for the full price, while the weight with which they buy grain is larger than it should be allowing them to get more for the shekel than they should, and practice deceit with false balances, thus offering three ways they cheat customers, 6 buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, referring to slavery, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.” 7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob. Note the use of irony here. One swears by the unalterable and fixed. The pride of Jacob is such. Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. 8 Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?[4] The complaint of Amos is that merchants take advantage of the poor. The accusation deals with money. At issue is the dichotomy between religion and business, faith and life.
Amos 8:9-12, a segment that extends to verse 14, have a similar subject matter. 9 On that day, signifying judgment will come, says the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight. A solar eclipse is a portent of doom and a reversal of the natural order, something like the Day of the Lord in 5:18-20. 10 I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day. His image comes from the cultic sphere. This is the most serious sign of the rejection of this people by God. The idea of reversal continues, as festivals, which the people do not respect, will be turned into times of mourning. 11 The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. The prophet uses famine, one of the ways the Lord punishes, as a metaphor. 12 They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it. The imagery is a figurative image of the famine. This is the most serious sign of the rejection of this people by the Lord. The Lord has nothing more to say to them. The people will be hungry and thirsty for the word of the Lord.
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[4] Verse 8 is an obscure verse, having little relation to context. One might connect it to 9:5-6 and a portion of a hymn.
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