Thursday, March 31, 2011
Please see Devotionals
Hi Everyone - there will be a break from entries in the Bible Study Online portion. But we will be posting some devotionals for the Lenten season. God bless you!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Amos 6-7
An added note on Amos 5:4-5. ‘Seek me and live, but do not seek Bethel, and do not enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beersheba.’ This involves a word play on two meanings of the verb darash, “seek.” Originally it was the word used of having going to a prophet or seer or priest trying to getting divine answer or decision. (Ex 18:15; I Sam 9:9 I Kings 3:11) The word came to be used also in a deeper sense of a longing for God, rather than just for something God could give. “Live” is also used here in more than physical existence, instead speaking of life lived richly in the right relationship to God.
6:9 – And if ten men remain in one house... This is a realistic account of the horrors of an epidemic related to a siege. Or, as the class brought up, the kinds of epidemic that occurs with any number of natural disasters.
Imagine the emotional impact of being the lone survivor in the household and understanding this to be the judgment of God. “Hush! We must not mention the name of the LORD.”
6:11 – may be referring to the earthquake (mentioned at the beginning of he book)
6:12 – earlier in the book came a series of “of course” type questions. Now are two similar questions, but these of “of course not,” questions. The corruption of injustice in Israel is completely unnatural
You who rejoice in Lo-debar – a word play - The place name of Lo-debar is similar to the Hebrew lo dhabhar, which means a “thing of naught.”
Karnaim – (KJV translates as horns) is also the name of a town, probably Ashteroth-karnaim of Genesis 14:5 in the same region. Karnaim means horns, symbols of power – Deut 33:17 – Scholars speculate that these two relatively insignificant locations was for the sake of the word play upon their names.
Verse 14 – The main body of the oracles of Amos conclude here. Some scholars think verse 14 might even have been by the editor who collected them together soon after the fall of the Northern Kingdom, the words here being a summary of what happened, a vindication of everything Amos had proclaimed.
Amos 7 begins a series of visions. They are autobiographical and are spoken in the first person. The visions constitute Amos’ call to be a prophet and his preparation for it. He may have written/recorded this part of the story after he returned to Tekoa.
The first is of locusts descending. Anyone who may have read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s account of the locusts, may have some feel for the horror of watching your food and work being gobbled by tens of thousands of hungry insects. Amos asks God to relent, not because Israel deserves it, but simply based on God’s pity, saying the Israel is, after all, too small to bear it. God relents (does not here forgive).
Another vision comes of fire, and again Amos asks God to relent. This is followed by a brief account of the high priest of Bethel in Israel writing to King Jeroboam and accusing Amos of being too hard on the people and predicting death to the king. Amos’ response to the priest is harsh, which is not difficult to understand. After all, the priest as a religious leader should be the one leading the reform in Israel, bringing justice.
Amos then tells of another vision, of God standing by a house built with a plumb line and holding a plumb line. The plumb-line is an ancient architectural tool used to determine a straight and therefore sturdy wall.
The plumb-line reference is commonly quoted from Amos. Ironically, it is a mistranslation. The original text had to do with a wall of tin and God holding tin in hand. The exact meaning and purpose of this is a challenge to understand 2800 years later. An earnest medieval translator came up with the plumb-line translation. Although scholars know it is incorrect, the plumb-line is used in almost all translations. And, after all, it is an wonderfully apt mistranslation. The fact that the people were not and still are not living by God’s “plumb-line,” i.e. God’s standards, is irrefutable.
A fun challenge would be to come up with our own personal paraphrase, trying to use double-word meanings or puns in the same way that Amos did. (One translator suggested a silver wall, holding silver while everything shivered.)
6:9 – And if ten men remain in one house... This is a realistic account of the horrors of an epidemic related to a siege. Or, as the class brought up, the kinds of epidemic that occurs with any number of natural disasters.
Imagine the emotional impact of being the lone survivor in the household and understanding this to be the judgment of God. “Hush! We must not mention the name of the LORD.”
6:11 – may be referring to the earthquake (mentioned at the beginning of he book)
6:12 – earlier in the book came a series of “of course” type questions. Now are two similar questions, but these of “of course not,” questions. The corruption of injustice in Israel is completely unnatural
You who rejoice in Lo-debar – a word play - The place name of Lo-debar is similar to the Hebrew lo dhabhar, which means a “thing of naught.”
Karnaim – (KJV translates as horns) is also the name of a town, probably Ashteroth-karnaim of Genesis 14:5 in the same region. Karnaim means horns, symbols of power – Deut 33:17 – Scholars speculate that these two relatively insignificant locations was for the sake of the word play upon their names.
Verse 14 – The main body of the oracles of Amos conclude here. Some scholars think verse 14 might even have been by the editor who collected them together soon after the fall of the Northern Kingdom, the words here being a summary of what happened, a vindication of everything Amos had proclaimed.
Amos 7 begins a series of visions. They are autobiographical and are spoken in the first person. The visions constitute Amos’ call to be a prophet and his preparation for it. He may have written/recorded this part of the story after he returned to Tekoa.
The first is of locusts descending. Anyone who may have read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s account of the locusts, may have some feel for the horror of watching your food and work being gobbled by tens of thousands of hungry insects. Amos asks God to relent, not because Israel deserves it, but simply based on God’s pity, saying the Israel is, after all, too small to bear it. God relents (does not here forgive).
Another vision comes of fire, and again Amos asks God to relent. This is followed by a brief account of the high priest of Bethel in Israel writing to King Jeroboam and accusing Amos of being too hard on the people and predicting death to the king. Amos’ response to the priest is harsh, which is not difficult to understand. After all, the priest as a religious leader should be the one leading the reform in Israel, bringing justice.
Amos then tells of another vision, of God standing by a house built with a plumb line and holding a plumb line. The plumb-line is an ancient architectural tool used to determine a straight and therefore sturdy wall.
The plumb-line reference is commonly quoted from Amos. Ironically, it is a mistranslation. The original text had to do with a wall of tin and God holding tin in hand. The exact meaning and purpose of this is a challenge to understand 2800 years later. An earnest medieval translator came up with the plumb-line translation. Although scholars know it is incorrect, the plumb-line is used in almost all translations. And, after all, it is an wonderfully apt mistranslation. The fact that the people were not and still are not living by God’s “plumb-line,” i.e. God’s standards, is irrefutable.
A fun challenge would be to come up with our own personal paraphrase, trying to use double-word meanings or puns in the same way that Amos did. (One translator suggested a silver wall, holding silver while everything shivered.)
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