Amos 5:13

"Therefore, he that is prudent shall keep silence in such a time; for it is an evil time."

This verse has posed a problem for some commentators. It is admitted by all that the viewpoint expressed in this verse could not possibly be that of Amos; for he was then in the act of daring to speak out vehemently against the evil of that society, without regard to any "prudent" concern either for his own safety, or his own life. The best explanation of this verse is that it is merely a sarcastic statement of Amos of the sinful view that had led to the perversion of justice in the Northern Kingdom. The prophet is here putting in the mouths of his audience their lazy, indifferent, and selfish philosophy which was the underlying cause of the judiciary's corruption. The words stand here at this dramatic point in Amos' address like Banquo's ghost at the feast; and we may well hope that some of Amos' hearers were shamed and corrected by it. Whatever this verse is, the above explanation of it satisfies all the requirements of the text. Certainly, it is not "a bit of advice added to the book"[31] by some later editor, a view which would denominate such an editor as a very foolish and unspiritual person! We therefore reject out of hand the groundless speculation to the effect that Amos 5:13, "is a manifestly later insertion."[32] What "editor" could have been so perverse and unspiritual as to inject a "sour note" like this into Amos' beautiful prophecy? Such a conception of how these words happened to be in it is not supported by any reasonable thesis or any evidence whatever. As we have interpreted it, it makes good and wholesome sense.