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Amos 5 condemns Israel for worshiping foreign gods named “Sikkuth” and “Kiyyun.” These names were difficult to translate, and the Greek Septuagint struggled to make sense of them, translating “Sikkuth” as “tent,” a guess based on a similar Hebrew word.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Amos 5:26
Hebrew Bible
25 You did not bring me sacrifices and grain offerings during the 40 years you spent in the wilderness, family of Israel. 26 You will pick up your images of Sikkuth, your king, and Kiyyun, your star god, which you made for yourselves, 27 and I will drive you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord. He is called the God of Heaven’s Armies.
Date: 600–501 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Amos 5:26
Septuagint
25 Have you offered to me victims and sacrifices, house of Israel, forty years in the wilderness? 26 Yes, you took up the tabernacle of Molech, and the star of your god Rephan, the images of them which you made for yourselves. 27 And I will carry you away beyond Damascus, says the Lord, the Almighty God is his name.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The only commonly recognized planet name in the Hebrew Bible is set within a polemic against the cult of the Northern Kingdom (Amos 5:25–27) ... Here, Yahweh condemns the cult; its offerings are worthless, even offensive. Yahweh calls for justice and righteousness, citing the precedent of the wilderness experience during which no sacrifices were offered, and promises to drive the people off into exile. The exiles will take with them סִכּוּת and כִּיּוּן. The meaning of these two terms has long eluded translators and commentators. The Masoretes were not able to identify the terms and therefore vocalized both terms with the vowels of שִׂקּוּץ (“abomination, idol”). This uncertainty made its way into the early translations as well. The versions do not treat סִכּוּת as a proper noun at all but as the common noun סוּכַּת, “tent, tabernacle.” Thus, the LXX reads τὴν σκηνὴν, while the Vulgate reads tabernaculum, both indicating סוּכַּת as the Hebrew Vorlage. The Peshitta also follows this interpretation, translating משׁכנה, “tent.” The author of the Damascus Document also chooses to read סִכּוּת as סוּכַּת in his interpretation of Amos 5:26. The meaning of כִּיּוּן is also uncertain in the versions. Though treating כִּיּוּן as a proper name, the LXX’s nonsensical Ραιφαν is clearly a misreading of the Hebrew ..."
Jeffrey L. Cooley, Poetic Astronomy in the Ancient Near East: The Reflexes of Celestial Science in Ancient Mesopotamian, Ugaritic, and Israelite Narrative, HACL 5 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2013), 237–238.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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