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About this book

Amos

About this book
Chapter 1

1 The following is a record of what Amos prophesied. He was one of the herdsmen from Tekoa. These prophecies about Israel were revealed to him during the time of King Uzziah of Judah and King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years before the earthquake. 2 Amos said: “The Lord comes roaring out of Zion; from Jerusalem he comes bellowing!⁠ The shepherds’ pastures wilt; the summit of Carmel withers.”⁠ 3 This is what the Lord says: “Because Damascus has committed three crimes—make that four!—I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They ripped through Gilead like threshing sledges with iron teeth.⁠ 4 So I will set Hazael’s house on fire; fire will consume Ben Hadad’s fortresses. 5 I will break the bar on the gate of Damascus. I will remove the ruler from Wicked Valley, the one who holds the royal scepter from Beth Eden. The people of Aram will be deported to Kir.” The Lord has spoken! 6 This is what the Lord says: “Because Gaza has committed three crimes—make that four!—I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They deported a whole community and sold them to Edom. 7 So I will set Gaza’s city wall on fire; fire will consume her fortresses. 8 I will remove the ruler from Ashdod, the one who holds the royal scepter from Ashkelon. I will strike Ekron with my hand; the rest of the Philistines will also die.” The Sovereign Lord has spoken! 9 This is what the Lord says: “Because Tyre has committed three crimes—make that four—I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They sold a whole community to Edom; they failed to observe a treaty of brotherhood.⁠ 10 So I will set fire to Tyre’s city wall; fire will consume her fortresses.” 11 This is what the Lord says: “Because Edom has committed three crimes—make that four—I will not revoke my decree of judgment. He chased his brother with a sword; he wiped out his allies. In his anger he tore them apart without stopping to rest; in his fury he relentlessly attacked them.⁠ 12 So I will set Teman on fire; fire will consume Bozrah’s fortresses.” 13 This is what the Lord says: “Because the Ammonites have committed three crimes—make that four—I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They ripped open Gilead’s pregnant women so they could expand their territory.⁠ 14 So I will set fire to Rabbah’s city wall; fire will consume her fortresses. War cries will be heard on the day of battle; a strong gale will blow on the day of the windstorm. 15 Ammon’s king will be deported; he and his officials will be carried off together.” The Lord has spoken!

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 27:41 and Amos 1:11 and Jubilees 37:4

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions

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Summary

Jubilees and Amos build on Genesis 27, where Esau vows to kill Jacob. Genesis leaves the threat unfulfilled, but Jubilees turns it into a war, and Amos recalls Esau’s violence. Both use the story as an etiology that explains future conflict.

Passages

Genesis 27:41

Hebrew Bible
40 You will live by your sword but you will serve your brother. When you grow restless, you will tear off his yoke from your neck.” 41 So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing his father had given to his brother. Esau said privately, “The time of mourning for my father is near; then I will kill my brother Jacob!” 42 When Rebekah heard what her older son Esau had said, she quickly summoned her younger son Jacob and told him, “Look, your brother Esau is planning to get revenge by killing you.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Amos 1:11

Hebrew Bible
10 So I will set fire to Tyre’s city wall; fire will consume her fortresses.” 11 This is what the Lord says: “Because Edom has committed three crimes—make that four—I will not revoke my decree of judgment. He chased his brother with a sword; he wiped out his allies. In his anger he tore them apart without stopping to rest; in his fury he relentlessly attacked them. 12 So I will set Teman on fire; fire will consume Bozrah’s fortresses.”
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Amos

Jubilees 37:4

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
4 And now our father has caused us to swear, me and him, that we shall not devise evil against one another, and that we shall continue in love and in peace each with his brother and not make our ways corrupt.' 5 And they said to him, 'We shall not listen to you to make peace with him; for our strength is greater than his strength, and we are more powerful than he; we shall go against him and kill him, and destroy him and his sons. And if you will not go with us, we shall do harm to you also. 6 And now listen to us: Let us send to Aram and Philistia and Moab and Ammon, and let us choose for ourselves chosen men who are eager for battle, and let us go against him and do battle with him, and let us exterminate him from the earth before he grows strong.'
170–125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jubilees

References

"... In blessing his son Esau (Genesis 27:39-40), Isaac had said to him, “By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restive, you shall break his yoke from your neck.” Isaac may have been foretelling events in the distant future, but for Jubilees and other interpreters, this prophecy concerned not some later generation, but that of Esau and his sons. The account of Esau’s war with his brother Jacob (Jubilees 37:1-38:12) appears as well as in Midrash Vayyissau chapter 3, and was incorporated as well into Yalqut Shimoni 1:138 and elsewhere. A considerably shorter account of this war appears in the Greek “Testament of Judah” section of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. The many common elements suggest that they stem from a common source and/or that the later versions borrowed from earlier ones. The events leading up to the war start on the day that Isaac ... died. This is no coincidence: in Genesis 27:41, Esau said specifically, “When the days of mourning my father arrive, I will kill my brother Jacob.” Indeed, these words, along with Amos 1:11 (“Because he [Esau] chased after his brother with a sword and had no pity”), provided a firm biblical basis for the idea that there had been a war between Jacob and Esau, even though the book of Genesis itself had not bothered to narrate those events ..."
James L. Kugel, A Walk through Jubilees: Studies in the Book of Jubilees and the World of Its Creation (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 173.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Genesis 27:41 and Amos 1:11 and Jubilees 37:4

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