Amos 2:1

The prophecies against eight nations reach their climax in this chapter where the judgments are pronounced against Moab (Amos 2:1-3), against Judah (Amos 2:4,5), and against Israel (Amos 1:6-16), in which the principal thrust of Amos' great prophecy reaches its primary object.

It will appear in this chapter that Amos' words were directed against the gross social sins of that era, but also against the sins of apostasy from the true religion of God; and, throughout, the particular sin of fighting God by fighting God's people is repeatedly condemned. By no stretch of the imagination is it true that this prophecy is the "harbinger of the social gospel!" The pronouncements against sins against the poor, the perversion of justice, etc., as found here, are all based upon prior teachings of the Bible, universally known and understood by God's people long before the times of Amos. Frequent references to the Pentateuch are found in this chapter.

Morgan classified the judgments here as being against (1) injustice; (2) avarice; (3) oppression; (4) immorality; (5) profanity; (6) blasphemy; and (7) sacrilege.[1] These violations are specifically related to the portion of the Mosaic law which is applicable in each case. Amos' prophecy should be accepted as sufficient proof of the prior existence of written records of God's law; and the fact that the manifest reference to the Pentateuch, as repeatedly made, along with the evident assumption that the things referred to were well known and universally understood by God's people, encourages the conclusion that, "The written sources in question go back to a much earlier period."[2]

One may only grieve at the gross immorality and irreligion of the northern kingdom:

"The depth to which the people had fallen is characterized in their seeming indifference to their position as a delivered and cared-for nation. Repentance and obedience were imperative, the only escape from imminent judgment."[3]

CONCERNING THE REDACTOR

In this chapter, Amos reached the principal object of his prophecy, the rebuke of Israel and the prophecy of her destruction. This series of judgments (Amos 1:3-2:16) is not a "collection" of separate "oracles," assembled and pieced together by some "editor" or "redactor" from some undetermined period subsequent to the times of Amos; but they constitute a very coherent, logically arranged, and skillfully presented prophecy, the principal import of which was directed against the northern kingdom. In the previous chapter, Amos cried out against the wickedness of Damascus, Philistia, and Tyre (Israel's pagan neighbors), then against Edom and Ammon (two of Israel's pagan relatives). In this chapter, Amos continued the prophecy against Israel's pagan kinsmen, Moab, and then very properly, and of necessity, included the prophetic denunciation of his own nation, Judah, including a specific revelation that Jerusalem too would be destroyed for their sins. If Amos had left out this denunciative prophecy of Jerusalem, it would have compromised his whole message. The people would have said, "Ah, we see that this so-called prophet is blind to the spectacular sins of his nation at the very moment he is crying out against everyone else!" In the light of this truth which is clearly visible to anyone, how utterly unfounded, unprovable, illogical and arbitrary are the postulations of the malignant critics who would credit Amos 2:4,5 to some nameless "redactor." Further attention to this will be given in the notes on those verses; but let it be said here that the "redactor" of critical fancy is an imaginary person created subjectively by Biblical enemies, having no genuine reality whatever. This ephemeral, shadowy "character" is impossible of any objective identification. He belongs to all races, all centuries, all religions, and all conditions of society. Every conceivable motive is freely ascribed to him, but no one has ever named him! We unhesitatingly declare him to be a fraud and a deceit perpetrated in the interest of destructive criticism. He is the "Piltdown Man" of Old Testament exegesis! If the student is unfamiliar with this universally-known hoax, called the "Piltdown Man", let him consult an encyclopedia.

Amos 2:1

"Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Moab, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime.

The New English Bible translation of this place, while being no translation whatever, nevertheless gives the true sense of this passage thus: (See the note at the end of Amos 2.)

For crime after crime of Moab

I will grant them no reprieve, because they burnt the

bones of the king of Edom to ash.

"To pursue the dead, even to the point of violating the corpse, is a mark of peculiar hatred and particularly offensive to the common conscience of mankind.[4] Unrestrained hatred will not stop with death. Wycliffe's bones were dug up and burned 44 years after he died."[5]

History reveals nothing whatever regarding this particular crime of Moab, although a Jewish tradition quoted by Jerome says:

"That after this war, the Moabites, in revenge for the assistance which the king of Edom had given to Israel, dug up and dishonored his bones."[6]