Amos 8

Amos sees a basket of summer fruit. The paraphrase adds “picked at the end of harvest” to help show the wordplay Amos used. In ancient Hebrew, the word for “summer fruit” is קַיִץ, pronounced qayis. It sounds a bit like one of the Hebrew words for “end,” קֵץ, pronounced kates. The point of the visual focuses on the word “end.” It’s the end of harvest. It’s the end of Israel. After Assyria is finished with the northern Jewish nation, in 722 BC, the scattered and exiled Jews will become known as the Lost Tribes of Israel. They never return to rebuild their nation, unlike Judah after Babylon erases them from the world map in 586 BC. Jews of Judah start returning 50 years later, after Persians defeat Babylon and frees the captives.

God vows, more literally, “by the pride of Jacob.” It’s unclear what that means. “Jacob,”—father of the 12 tribes of Israel—might refer to his descendants. Or it could refer to the arrogance of the nation. They were in their glory days, and they couldn’t seem to imagine Amos’s prophecy coming true. They couldn’t see their nation of Israel disappearing. Another possible way of saying it, “As sure as the arrogance of Israel, I’ll never forget what they’ve done.”

It’s unclear what the rising and sinking of the Nile River illustrates. One guess among Bible scholars is that it illustrates the power of God. He controls the mighty Nile River. He can send floods that irrigate the land each autumn and winter. But he can raise it high enough to devastate Egypt’s farmland. And he can withhold the water, which can dry up the crops. This powerful God is going to use his power against Israel. Or perhaps the imagery is of God letting Israel rise in power and influence one day but sink and then fall to invaders later.

The “words of the LORD” may refer to the Laws of Moses and to messages that prophets delivered for God. Jews in exile had no temples where they could worship or priests to advise them. And there were few prophets with messages from God. After the exile, there was a long stretch of several centuries with no notable prophets. John the Baptist would break the prophecy drought in the first century, some 400 years after the last Jewish nation died, in 586 BC. That was when Babylon conquered Judah. Israel had fallen earlier, to Assyria in 722 BC.

More literally, “swear by Samaria’s shame.” But scholars have to guess what that means. It could refer to worshiping the Baal and Asherah idols, mentioned in 1 Kings 16:32-33. In Dan, Israelites worshiped an idol (Judges 18:30). And some scholars speculate that the northern Israelites of Israel made the pilgrimage to Beersheba to visit a shrine honoring some distorted view of Israel’s God and teachings.