Amos 5:14-15, 21-24
Chapter 5
14
Seek good and avoid evil, so that you may live. Then the Lord, the God of hosts, as you have claimed, will be with you.
15
Hate wickedness and love virtue, and let justice prevail in the courts; perhaps the Lord, the God of hosts,will take pity on the remnant of Joseph.
21
“I hate, I reject your feasts, I take no pleasure when you assemble
22
to offer me your burnt offerings. Your cereal offerings, I will not accept! Your offerings of fattened beasts, I will not look upon!
23
Remove the noise of your chanting and your harp strumming.
24
But let justice flow like water, and righteousness be like an endless river.
Commentaries
Title.
This section explains why the northern kingdom will be judged. The first three oracles start with the phrase “Hear this word” (3:1; 4:1; 5:1). These are followed by three “woes” as warnings (5:7; 5:18; 6:1) to those who refuse to listen.
First Woe: Justice in the Courts.
The “woes” are a warning about the judgment that will fall on those who keep on sinning. In this first case, justice has become “poison” (7) because judges ignore the truthful witness (10) and “trample on the poor” (11). God states that they will not enjoy what they have gained through usury and bribery (11-12). Verses 8-9 are a doxology that shows the Almighty as both creator and destroyer.
Second Woe: Worship and Justice.
The prophet warns against the false hope that the day of the Lord will bring a miraculous intervention by God to exalt His people and defeat their enemies. Instead, it will be a dark day for Israel from which there will be no escape. The outward act of offering sacrifices and burnt offerings must stem from the relationship established by the covenant, where love for God and love for neighbor are inherently connected (cf. Ps 51:17). Ironically, the prophet states that idolatry will continue even during the deportation that the northern tribes will endure after the Assyrian conquest in 721 BC (26-27).