Amos 5:26-27

But ye shall take up Sakkuth your king, and Kaiwân your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves; and I will cause you to go into exile beyond Damascus, saith Jehovah] You and your idols (cf. Jeremiah 43:7 b, Jeremiah 49:3 b; Isaiah 46:1-2) will go into exile together: this will be the end of your self-chosen course [159]. But though the general sense of the verse is clear, some of the details are obscure. Sakkuth(probably read as sukkath) was taken by the ancients as an appellative, LXX. σκηνή, Vulg. tabernaculum, hence A.V. tabernacle, i.e., here, the shrineof an image: but more probably R.V. Siccuthor better, disregarding the Massoretic punctuation [160], Sakkuthis correct, Sakkuthbeing a name of Adar, the Assyrian god of war and the chase (also of the sun, light, fire, &c.), and said to mean "chief of decision," i.e. "chief arbiter" (viz. in warfare): see Schrader, K.A.T[161][162] p. 443, Tiele, Bab.-Ass. Gesch. p. 528 f.; Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 7, 151 154. Chiun(R.V.) should in all probability be pointed Kêwânor Kaiwân; it will then be identical with the Assyrian name of the planet Saturn, Ka-ai-va-nu(whence also Kêwânand Kaiwân, the Syriac, Persian, and Arabic names of the same planet [163]): so the Pesh., Ibn Ezra, Schrader, and many other moderns. The middle part of the verse does not, however, seem to be altogether in order; images(in the plural), for instance, being strange as applied to Kaiwân alone; and perhaps we should either (with Schrader) transpose two groups of words, and read "Sakkuth your king, and Kaiwân your star-god, the images which ye made" &c., or (with Wellhausen) omit צלמיכם, "your images," and כוכב, "the star of" (or "star"), as glosses on אלהיכם, "your god" and כיון, "Kaiwân," respectively. The reference must be to star-worship introduced into Israel from Assyria: cf., somewhat later, in Judah, Deuteronomy 4:19; Deu 17:3, 2 Kings 23:12 &c. [164] The context appears to shew, as W. R. Smith remarks (Proph. p. 140), that the cult alluded to was not a rival service to that of Jehovah, but was attached in some subordinate way to the offices of His sanctuary.

[159] The rendering of A.V., R.V., have borne, is possible grammatically, but not probable: the reason which decisively excludes it is that a reference to idolatries practised in the wilderness is entirely alien to the line of the prophet's thought. (In the Heb., there is no thereforein Amos 5:27.)

[160] Which may be intended to suggest the word shiḳḳutz, "detestable thing," often applied to idols (Deuteronomy 29:17, etc.).

[161] .A.T.… Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.

[162] … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.

[163] See Payne Smith, Thes. Syr., who cites (p. 1660) Ephr. Syrus ii. 458 B; Ges. Thes. p. 669 f.; Fleischer in Levy, Chald. Wörterb.i. 428; Ges. Jesaia, ii. 343 f.

[164] The explanation of this verse adopted above is that of Ewald and most modern authorities; but it is right to add that there are some scholars whom it fails to satisfy. These scholars agree indeed that the verse cannot refer to idolatry in the past, but object, for instance (Wellh.), that the idols of a vanquished nation would be carried off as trophies by the victors (Isaiah 46:1), rather than taken into exile by the vanquished themselves, and point out that the fault with which elsewhere Amos reproaches the people is an exaggerated ceremonialism in the worship of Jehovah, not devotion to other gods. There is no doubt force in these objections; but it may be doubted whether our knowledge of the times is such as to render them conclusive; nor has any preferable explanation been yet proposed. Cf. Wellh., p. 83; G. A. Smith, p. 172 f.; N. Schmidt, Journ. of Bibl. Lit., 1894, p. 1 15; Cheyne, Expositor, Jan. 1897, p. 42 44 (who, like Wellh., rejects the verse as a gloss).

LXX. has τὴν σκηνὴν τοῦ Μολὸχ καὶ τὸ ἄστρον τοῦ θεοῦ Ῥαιφάν, τοὺς τύπους αὐτῶν οὓς ἐποιήσατε ἑαυτοῖς, whence the quotation in Acts 7:43 τὴν σκηνὴν τοῦ Μολὸχ, καὶ τὸ ἄστρον τοῦ θεοῦ Ῥεμφάν, τοὺς τύπους οὓς ἐποιήσατε προσκυνεῖν αὐτοῖς. Ῥαιφάν is evidently a corruption of Kaiwân, which in Acts 7:43 has become further corrupted into Ῥεμφάν.

beyond Damascus Syria, in Amos's time, was to Israel a more familiar power than Assyria or Babylon; Damascus was its capital; and exile into the unknown regions beyond Damascusis accordingly announced as the climax of Israel's punishment. After the Babylonian exile Babylon became both the type of Israel's oppressor and Israel's typical place of exile; and this, no doubt, is the reason why St Stephen, in Acts 7:43, unintentionally substitutes Babylon for Damascus.

The passage Amos 5:21-25 is one of the first statements in the O.T. of the great prophetic truth, that sacrifice or indeed any other outward religious observance, is not, as such, either valued or demanded by God; it is valued, and demanded, by Him only as the expression of a right state of heart: if offered to Him by men who are indifferent to this, and who think to make amends for their moral shortcomings by the zeal with which they maintain the formal offices of religion, He indignantly repudiates it. The Israelites, like men in many other ages, were sufficiently ready to conform to the external forms and offices of religion, while heedless of its spiritual precepts, and especially of the claim which it makes to regulate their conduct and their lives; and the prophets again and again take occasion to point out to them their mistake, and to recall to them the true nature of spiritual religion. See Hosea 6:6 [165]; Isaiah 1:10-17; Micah 6:6-8; Jeremiah 6:19-20; Jeremiah 7:1-15; Jeremiah 7:21-23; Isaiah 66:2-4 (in Amos 5:3 "as" = "no better than"): also 1 Samuel 15:22; Psalms 40:6-8; Psalms 50:13-15; Psalms 51:16-17; Proverbs 15:8; Proverbs 21:27; Sir 34:18 to Sir 35:11.

[165] Comp. on this text the writer's Sermons on the Old Test. (1892), pp. 217 232.

(3) 6. A second rebuke, addressed to the self-satisfied political leaders of the nation, who "put far the evil day," and, immersed in a life of luxurious self-indulgence, are heedless of the ruin which is only too surely hastening upon their people (Amos 5:1). But, as before, exile is the end which the prophet sees to be not far distant: Israel's sins have caused Jehovah to turn His face from them. Invasion and destruction are coming upon them; their boasted strength will be powerless to save them from the consequences of their violation of the laws of truth and right (Amos 5:7).