TEXT [Commentary]

black diamond   V.   Visions of Judgment (7:1–9:10)

A.   Three Visions: The Plague of Locusts, Devouring Fire, and the Lord’s Plumb Line (7:1-9)

1 The Sovereign LORD showed me a vision. I saw him preparing to send a vast swarm of locusts over the land. This was after the king’s share had been harvested from the fields and as the main crop was coming up. 2 In my vision the locusts ate every green plant in sight. Then I said, “O Sovereign LORD, please forgive us or we will not survive, for Israel[*] is so small.”

3 So the LORD relented from this plan. “I will not do it,” he said.

4 Then the Sovereign LORD showed me another vision. I saw him preparing to punish his people with a great fire. The fire had burned up the depths of the sea and was devouring the entire land. 5 Then I said, “O Sovereign LORD, please stop or we will not survive, for Israel is so small.”

6 Then the LORD relented from this plan, too. “I will not do that either,” said the Sovereign LORD.

7 Then he showed me another vision. I saw the Lord standing beside a wall that had been built using a plumb line. He was using a plumb line to see if it was still straight. 8 And the LORD said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”

I answered, “A plumb line.”

And the Lord replied, “I will test my people with this plumb line. I will no longer ignore all their sins. 9 The pagan shrines of your ancestors[*] will be ruined, and the temples of Israel will be destroyed; I will bring the dynasty of King Jeroboam to a sudden end.”

NOTES

7:1 showed me a vision. This form (a hiphil perfect) of the verb (ra’ah [TH7200, ZH8011]) means, lit., “cause to see” or “reveal.” In prophetic literature it is a technical word signifying a vision or revelation from God. Hubbard (1989:201) reminds us that the prophetic vision was both a visual and auditory experience; thus the report of the prophet’s dialogue with Yahweh is also part of the visionary encounter; (see note on 1:1). The emphasis is not on Amos or his message (since no direction is given to the prophet). Rather, the emphasis is on the Lord and his prerogative to initiate divine punishment because it is he who forms the locust swarm and reveals the future to his servants the prophets (Ps 105:34; Isa 42:8-9). Though not translated in the NLT, the exclamatory adverb “Look!” or “Behold” (hinneh [TH2009, ZH2180]) introduces four of the five visions in this section of the book (7:1, 4, 7; 8:1). This, the presentative exclamation, “is intended to attract attention, to interrupt the line of dialogue, and to alert the reader that something important is about to be communicated” (Andersen and Freedman 1989:613).

locusts. This specific word for “locust” (gobay [TH1462A, ZH1479]) occurs only in Amos 7:1 and Nah 3:17.

king’s share. Probably a reference to the first “mowing” of the pasture grasses. Apparently the monarchy had the right to tax the lands of farmers for fodder to feed the royal livestock (so Hubbard 1989:206; cf. 1 Kgs 18:5).

main crop. Lit., “latter growth” or “second crop” (leqesh [TH3954, ZH4381]). The word occurs only here in the OT and serves to pinpoint the time of the locust plague at the end of the spring rainy season (cf. Smith and Page 1995:128). The long drought of summer would prevent any further growth of pasture grasses or crops, thereby creating an agricultural disaster for farmers and their livestock.

7:2 please forgive. The word (salakh [TH5545, ZH6142]) “is used exclusively of God’s pardon” (Hubbard 1989:206; cf. Num 14:20; 1 Kgs 8:30; Isa 55:7). Like the psalmist, Amos knew that God is good and is “ready to forgive” (Ps 86:5). The prophet’s terse interjection (employing the polite imperative) is not an uncommon address to God in situations of extreme distress (e.g., Pss 3:7; 4:1).

7:3 relented. The word (nakham [TH5162, ZH5714]) means to have a change of heart or a change of mind (cf. TDOT 9.343-347; see the thorough discussion in Andersen and Freedman 1989:638-679; see also the commentary below).

7:4 fire. At times in prophetic literature, fire is a metaphor for God’s anger and symbolic of his divine judgment (e.g., Isa 66:15; Jer 4:4; Ezek 36:5). Contrary to typical use, the prophet Zechariah had a vision of God protecting a restored Jerusalem like a wall of fire (Zech 2:5).

7:7 plumb line. Lit., “tin lump” (’anak [TH594, ZH643]). The plumb line (a cord with a tin or lead weight attached to one end) was used to establish right-angle verticality in construction (cf. Zech 4:10). Stuart (1987:372-373) considers the repetition of the word ’anak (“plumb line”) in 7:8a as an example of paronomasia or wordplay with ’anak in 7:8b since he associates the term with the Hebrew root ’nkh [TH584, ZH634] or ’nq [TH5008, ZH5543], meaning “to moan, groan.” Thus he translates 7:8 as “Yahweh said to me, ‘What do you see, Amos?’ I said, ‘Tin.’ [Yahweh] said, ‘I am going to put tin [moaning] with my people Israel. I will no longer pass by him.’”

7:9 pagan shrines. This expression (bamoth [TH1116, ZH1195], “high places”) denotes sites used for religious purposes, often located on a hill or some sort of raised, earthen or stone platform. Typically these sites were devoted to local Canaanite deities or to syncretistic worship and “they were subject to the severest censure by the prophets” (NIDOTTE 1.670; cf. Jer 17:3; 19:5; Hos 10:8). The destruction of these religious shrines is listed among the curses invoked against Israel for covenant disobedience (Lev 26:30).

ruined. The word (shamem [TH8074, ZH9037]) means “to suffer destruction, with the implication of being deserted and abandoned” (NIDOTTE 4.168). The term is used by the prophets to depict God’s judgment of Israel (cf. Jer 12:11; Ezek 6:4; Mic 6:13). Such destruction of Israel’s places of worship is invoked in the curses of the Mosaic covenant (Lev 26:31).

temples. The term (miqdash [TH4720, ZH5219]) describes a sanctuary or holy place (see further NIDOTTE 2.1078-1087). Amos most likely referred to the rival sanctuaries built at Dan and Bethel by Jeroboam I (1 Kgs 12:25-33).

destroyed. The word (khareb [TH2717, ZH2990]) is frequently used by the prophets to describe the devastation of the people, towns, and shrines of Israel and Judah (see Jer 25:9; Ezek 6:6; cf. TDOT 5.152-154).

COMMENTARY [Text]

The time at which Amos received the five visions contained in the last section of the book is imprecise. As Craigie (1985:174) has noted, it is uncertain whether the visions provided a portion of the content for the prophet’s brief public ministry (it lasted only one day; see “Author” in the Introduction) or if “they were simply a part of his own spiritual development.” The accounts of the visions contain references to Amos in the first person, suggesting he recorded them in a diary or perhaps dictated them to a disciple or amanuensis.

The first vision (7:1-3) was a vast swarm of locusts. A locust swarm is a metaphor for divine judgment in prophetic literature (Isa 33:4; Rev 9:7; cf. Exod 10:4). The locust swarm may be understood in the literal sense of a blight of flying or hopping insects that ravage vegetation or in the figurative sense as a symbol for a rapidly growing group or class of people (e.g., Assyrian merchants, Nah 3:17) or as an invading army (e.g., Jer 51:14; Joel 1:4, 6). Since locust plagues were one of the curses God threatened to bring against Israel for covenant disobedience, this may be what Yahweh showed Amos (Deut 28:38).

The second vision (7:4-6) was a great devouring fire. The fire described by Amos may be understood literally, perhaps as ravaging brush fires as a result of extreme drought, or as a symbol for the severe drought (so Smith and Page 1995:131). The locust swarms and wild fire were the two worst enemies of the agricultural societies in the ancient world. The prophet Amos, himself a farmer, “recoiled at the sight” of such devastation (Hubbard 1989:202).

The third vision (7:7-9) was a wall that had been built using a plumb line. Amos saw God symbolically testing or measuring his people against the standard or “plumb” in his second vision. The “wall” (Israel) had been built to plumb (i.e., implicit in the standard of God’s righteous law framing his covenant relationship with them, cf. Isa 28:17), but the nation was out of plumb when tested due to their violation of God’s covenant stipulations, justifying God’s verdict of judgment. Amos no longer interceded for Israel; he could only bear witness to the outcome of the measurement of the plumb line—“Israel’s life is too crooked to warrant either pardon or relief” (Hubbard 1989:209).

Hubbard (1989:204) identifies a single dominant theme in the three visions: the sovereignty of Yahweh. God’s rule of creation and the nations is symbolized in the divine name that is prominent in the larger literary unit (7:1-2, 4-6; 8:1, 3, 11; 9:8). The epithet “Sovereign LORD” (NLT) could be more literally rendered “My Master Yahweh,” thus expressing the intimate connection between Yahweh and the acts of judgment threatened in the visions.

The themes of God’s sovereignty and divine judgment have already been introduced in the earlier messages of the prophet (in chs 3–6). The significant theological feature of the visions section of the prophet’s message is the revelation that God’s sovereignty is “seasoned with compassion” (Hubbard 1989:204). We especially see this in 7:3 and 7:6, where it says “the Lord relented from this plan.” As noted before (see note on 7:3), the Hebrew word for “relented” (nakham [TH5162, ZH5714]) means to have a change of heart or a change of mind. It also means “to groan inwardly,” usually in contexts addressing remorse about something (Niehaus 1992:452). The expression is used several times to describe the idea of the Lord changing his mind about intended punishment (Exod 32:12-14; Jer 18:8; Joel 2:13-14; Jonah 3:10). Achtemeier emphatically affirms that even the threat of divine judgment is an act of love because “it is only when God leaves us alone that he no longer loves us” (1986:180). Rabbi Heschel (1962:194) concurs, noting God’s judgment is conditional, not absolute: “a change in man’s conduct brings about a change in God’s judgment.”

Based upon this understanding of God’s character, Amos believed God would relent of planned judgment in response to repentance or intercessory prayer. The prophets had a special duty to intercede on behalf of the people they served, and they stood in a long biblical tradition of intercessory prayer (e.g., Abraham, Gen 18:16ff; Moses, Num 11:2; 21:7; Deut 9:20, 26). Israel’s history had demonstrated that God is not so static or rigid or uncaring that he cannot respond to “human factors” in any given situation with gracious compassion (Exod 34:6-7; cf. NIDOTTE 3.82). As a result of Amos’s pleading, God relented of the judgment he had planned to unleash on Israel in the first two visions (7:3, 6).

The precedent for such an appeal to God’s compassion is found in Abraham’s intercession for Sodom (Gen 18:22-32) and Moses’s pleading for the people of Israel after the golden calf episode (Exod 32:11-14). Andersen and Freedman conclude that Yahweh’s capacity to relent is rooted in the personal nature of his being and is never capricious or arbitrary. Rather, “repentance” on God’s part may occur in reaction to certain events or developments in the human scene, in response to intercession on the part of a prophetic figure, or in response to genuine repentance on the part of people (cf. Andersen and Freedman 1989:638-679). The lesson in all this is constant across the testaments: The prayer of the righteous is indeed effective (cf. Joel 2:13-14; Jas 5:16).