Context at a Glance
Author:Traditional Attribution
Topic:amos Chapter 9 Study
This chapter provides a foundational look at the theological themes of amos, analyzed across multiple historic translations for maximum scholarly depth.
Amos 9
New Revised Standard Version
1I saw the LORD standing beside the altar, and he said: Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the heads of all the people; and those who are left I will kill with the sword; not one of them shall flee away, not one of them shall escape.
2Though they dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down.
3Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I will search out and take them; and though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the sea-serpent, and it shall bite them.
4And though they go into captivity in front of their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them; and I will fix my eyes on them for harm and not for good.
5The Lord, GOD of hosts, he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who live in it mourn, and all of it rises like the Nile, and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
6who builds his upper chambers in the heavens, and founds his vault upon the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the surface of the earth — the LORD is his name. Israel has no claim to special privilege
7Are you not like the Ethiopians to me, O people of Israel? says the LORD. Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?
8The eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth — except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the LORD.
9For lo, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the ground.
10All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, "Evil shall not overtake or meet us." An oracle of restoration
11On that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen, and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old;
12in order that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, says the LORD who does this.
13The time is surely coming, says the LORD, when the one who plows shall overtake the one who reaps, and the treader of grapes the one who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.
14I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.
15I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land that I have given them, says the LORD your God. OBADIAH
1847OBADIAH Introduction Obadiah, the briefest book in the Hebrew Bible, is located between two eight-century prophets, Amos and Micah. Though Obadiah contains no date formula, on the basis of its allusion to the fall of Jerusalem (586 BCE), it probably stems from the first half of the sixth century. Thus, its place in the sequence of Minor Prophets is not based on chronology. It seems that thematic considerations govern its placement following Amos: The subject of Obadiah, divine judgment against the Edomites, can be associated with Am 9.12; the "Day of the Lord" is a central idea for both books. Nothing is known about the prophet Obadiah. Since the name itself means "servant of the Lord," it could simply be an appellation (see Introduction to Malachi). HT TH The book consists of poetic declamations against the Edomites, Israel's southeastern neighbor. Many biblical passages testify to the fraternity (Gen 25; 27; 36; Num 20.14; Deut 2.4, 8; 23.7; Am 1.11; Mal 1.2) between these neighboring peoples, as well as their enmity (Num 20.18-21;
1Sam 14.47;
2Sam 8.12-14;
1Kings 11.14.22; Am 1.11; Mal 1.3). There are oracles against Edom throughout the prophetic corpus (Isa 21.11-12; 34; Jer 49.722; Ezek 35; Joel 3.19; Am 1.11-12; Mal 1.2-5). The strongest anti-Edomite invective stems from the time of the exile, when the Edomites, according to Ps 137.7; Lam 4.21; Ezek 35.5-6, abetted the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem (see
1Esd 4.45 for a later exaggeration of this theme). Against the larger background of Edomite-Israelite hostility, Obadiah, similar to the above exilic writings, also focuses on Edom's complicity in the Babylonian conquest. Indeed, as indicated in the notes to the book in the Oxford Annotated editions, Obadiah's words of judgment bear striking similarities to this larger corpus of prophetic oracles against Edom. OBADIAH
1848In a book of only twenty-one verses, it is difficult and, perhaps, unnecessary to isolate subsections. There is a slight shift in subject matter from vv. 1-18, judgment directed against Edom, to 19-21, the vindication of Israel, which includes repatriation of its exiles and expansion into territories it had gradually lost to neighbors since the eighth century.