Yahweh shows Amos a basket of figs (“qayitz”) and promises to bring the kingdom of Northern Israel to an end (“qetz”).
Amos relates his vision: “This is what my Lord God showed me: there was a basket of figs.” (v. 1)
III. Important Verses
1-3: This is what my Lord GOD showed me: There was a basket of figs. He said, “What do you see, Amos?” “A basket of figs,” I replied. And the LORD said to me: “The hour of doom has come for My people Israel; I will not pardon them again And the singing women of the palace shall howl on that day — declares my Lord GOD: So many corpses Left lying everywhere! Hush!”
4-7: Listen to this, you who devour the needy, annihilating the poor of the land, saying, “If only the new moon were over, so that we could sell grain; the sabbath, so that we could offer wheat for sale, using an ephah that is too small, and a shekel that is too big, tilting a dishonest scale, and selling grain refuse as grain! We will buy the poor for silver, the needy for a pair of sandals.” The LORD swears by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget any of their doings.”
10: I will turn your festivals into mourning And all your songs into dirges; I will put sackcloth on all loins And tonsures on every head. I will make it mourn as for an only child, All of it as on a bitter day.
11-12: A time is coming — declares my Lord GOD — when I will send a famine upon the land: not a hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of the LORD. Men shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.
1-3. Vision of figs (qayitz) indicating the end (qetz) of Northern Israel
4-6. Addressing the greedy
7. God knows their actions
8-10. God will punish the world in a supernatural way
11-14. People will yearn for the words of God but not find it
No comment today. Stay tuned.
VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
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