TEXT [Commentary]

  D.   Fifth Vision: A Vision of God at the Altar (9:1-10)

1 Then I saw a vision of the Lord standing beside the altar. He said,

“Strike the tops of the Temple columns,

so that the foundation will shake.

Bring down the roof

on the heads of the people below.

I will kill with the sword those who survive.

No one will escape!

2 “Even if they dig down to the place of the dead,[*]

I will reach down and pull them up.

Even if they climb up into the heavens,

I will bring them down.

3 Even if they hide at the very top of Mount Carmel,

I will search them out and capture them.

Even if they hide at the bottom of the ocean,

I will send the sea serpent after them to bite them.

4 Even if their enemies drive them into exile,

I will command the sword to kill them there.

I am determined to bring disaster upon them

and not to help them.”

5 The Lord, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies,

touches the land and it melts,

and all its people mourn.

The ground rises like the Nile River at floodtime,

and then it sinks again.

6 The LORD’s home reaches up to the heavens,

while its foundation is on the earth.

He draws up water from the oceans

and pours it down as rain on the land.

The LORD is his name!

7 “Are you Israelites more important to me

than the Ethiopians?[*]” asks the LORD.

“I brought Israel out of Egypt,

but I also brought the Philistines from Crete[*]

and led the Arameans out of Kir.

8 “I, the Sovereign LORD,

am watching this sinful nation of Israel.

I will destroy it

from the face of the earth.

But I will never completely destroy the family of Israel,[*]”

says the LORD.

9 “For I will give the command

and will shake Israel along with the other nations

as grain is shaken in a sieve,

yet not one true kernel will be lost.

10 But all the sinners will die by the sword—

all those who say, ‘Nothing bad will happen to us.’

NOTES

9:1 altar. Presumably a reference to a sacrificial altar adjoined to the shrine at Bethel. The appearance of the Lord (lit., “master”; ’adonay [TH136, ZH151]) standing beside the altar signifies that the time for God’s visitation in judgment has arrived. “The place where God had desired to meet his people in grace was now the site of his fierce and final judgment” (Hubbard 1989:229).

tops of the Temple columns. The pillar cap or top (kaptor [TH3730, ZH4117]) was the capital of a supporting column. The smashing of the support-column tops would cause the entire structure to collapse. The NLT rendering “Temple columns” is interpretive of the Hebrew “strike the pillar top.” The context suggests Amos refers to the Bethel sanctuary, but archaeology has uncovered no columned or pillared shrine at the site.

9:2 place of the dead. The subterranean realm of the dead or netherworld (she’ol [TH7585, ZH8619]), and popularly thought to be outside the sway of God’s sovereignty according to Hubbard (1989:230; cf. Job 10:20-22; 14:13). Like the psalmist, Amos knew that God’s presence in and control of his creation extended to the domains of both the living and the dead (Ps 139:8).

heavens. The merism of “heaven and hell” speaks to the totality of God’s influence and control, “there being no place his sovereignty does not extend” (Stuart 1987:392).

9:3 Mount Carmel. A prominent mountain that splits the coastal plain of northern Israel south of Acco. The height, dense forests, and numerous caves made the summit of Mount Carmel a natural hiding place. Yet even the most remote and inaccessible locations will not prevent God from apprehending fugitives from his justice.

sea serpent. The mythical dragon of chaos in ancient Near Eastern cosmology, known by the names of Rahab (Isa 30:7; 51:9) and Leviathan (Ps 74:14; Isa 27:1) in the OT. Escape from Yahweh’s judgment is impossible, since even in the remote domain of the ocean bed, the sea monster does his bidding to execute divine judgment (cf. Paul 1971:279).

9:5-6 These two verses are considered a “hymnic doxology of judgment” that glorifies God’s majesty and celebrates his absolute power to carry out his threats of judgment against Israel (cf. Paul 1971:279-280; see the notes on the hymn fragments for 4:13 and 5:8-9 above).

9:7 Ethiopians. The Nubians or Cushites (kushiyim [TH3569, ZH3934]) were black African tribes living south of the second cataract of the Nile, “a distant, relatively obscure people” (Stuart 1987:393).

Philistines from Crete. The reference recalls the migrations of the “sea-peoples” from the Aegean–Mediterranean regions to the coast of Palestine. The name Palestine is a legacy of this Philistine “exodus” from the island of Crete (kaptor [TH3731, ZH4116]; cf. Hubbard 1989:233-234).

Arameans out of Kir. The location of Kir is uncertain (on the Arameans or Syrians and the site of Kir see notes on 1:3-5). As Stuart (1987:393) notes, Israel “is merely on par with its hated neighbors” as people groups who had an “exodus” experience caused by God.

9:8 I will never completely destroy. God’s promise to preserve a segment of his people introduces the remnant theme, prominent in OT prophetic literature. The remnant motif implies both judgment and deliverance, and the very existence of a remnant of Hebrews is based on the mercy of God. Amos applied the remnant motif to three types of groups: the historical remnant composed of survivors of the catastrophe of God’s judgment (1:8); the faithful remnant of Hebrews who maintain a true faith relationship with Yahweh (5:15); and an eschatological remnant of Hebrews and Gentiles who will participate in the blessing of the restored Davidic kingdom (9:11-12; cf. NIDOTTE 4.14-15).

9:9 sieve. This word (kebarah [TH3531, ZH3895]) is unique in the OT and may refer to a screening device of some sort made of a mesh that facilitated the separation of the kernels of grain from the pebbles and soil of threshed wheat and barley. The LXX interprets the term as a “winnowing fan” (cf. Andersen and Freedman 1989:870).

COMMENTARY [Text]

Amos’s fifth and final vision is dominated by Yahweh’s lengthy first-person monologue (9:1b-4). The vision report (9:1) contains no formula introducing the visionary experience, no dialogue between God and the prophet, and no symbolic component as a key to interpreting the vision. The themes of God’s sovereignty and divine judgment persist in this climactic vision. But “gone is the time for object lessons, pleas, repentance, and dialogue. Come is the time for the fullness of the judgment” (Hubbard 1989:227). Amos can only listen in silence. The means of divine punishment include earthquake and exile, threats that have loomed large throughout Amos’s message (e.g., 1:1; 2:15; 3:14-15; 6:11; 8:8). Tragically, the unrelieved theme of the prophet’s last vision is that there is no escape from divine retribution.

The series of five conditional clauses in Yahweh’s monologue declare unalterably “that all possible escape routes are blocked off” (Paul 1971:277). The connections between Amos 9:1-4 and Psalm 139 (esp. Ps 139:7-12) in the description of Yahweh’s inescapable presence are widely recognized (e.g., Stuart 1987:392; Hubbard 1989:230; Smith and Page 1995:155). Amos reminds us of one of the essential attributes of God—his omnipresence. Although the divine presence may not always be benign (as Amos’s audience learned), it is important for us to remember that the Lord is a God nearby and not a God far away (Jer 23:24; Acts 17:28). “The Christian teaching of God’s ever-present companionship is . . . an intimate comfort to know of and experience the divine availability” (Oden 1998:68). The psalmist knew that God is always ready to help in times of trouble (Ps 46:1), and Paul tells us that nothing can ever separate the Christian from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:39). The prophet Amos helps us bridge the Old and New Testament understandings of God’s omnipresence.

Amos’s final vision touches on two additional theological truths. First, God cannot be contained; his “home” stretches from the earth to the heavens (9:6). The hymn fragment calls to mind Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the Temple and his acknowledgment that neither earth nor the highest heavens can contain God—much less any conceivable building (1 Kgs 8:27; cf. Acts 7:49). This means God is immense or boundless with respect to spatial measures.

Finally, God is a promise keeper. Despite his necessary judgment for their covenant trespass of idolatry, Yahweh will not “completely destroy the family of Israel” (9:8). God remembers his everlasting covenant with Abraham forever (Pss 105:8-11; 111:5). Implicit in this declaration is the “remnant” theme, prominent in the Old Testament prophetic literature (e.g., Isa 11:11; Jer 23:3). God will always preserve a remnant of his people (Joel 2:32), and they will ultimately prevail and live in righteousness (Mic 5:7-8; Zeph 3:13). This, too, serves as a reminder that as God’s people we are not to despise “small beginnings” (Zech 4:10) because they are his way to grow “mustard seeds” into “trees” (Matt 13:31-32).