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Amos

About this book
Chapter 2

1 This is what the Lord says: “Because Moab has committed three crimes—make that four—I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They burned the bones of Edom’s king into lime. 2 So I will set Moab on fire, and it will consume Kerioth’s fortresses. Moab will perish in the heat of battle amid war cries and the blaring of the ram’s horn. 3 I will remove Moab’s leader; I will kill all Moab’s officials with him.” The Lord has spoken! 4 This is what the Lord says: “Because Judah has committed three covenant transgressions—make that four—I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They rejected the Lord’s law; they did not obey his commands. Their false gods, to which their fathers were loyal, led them astray. 5 So I will set Judah on fire, and it will consume Jerusalem’s fortresses.” 6 This is what the Lord says: “Because Israel has committed three covenant transgressions—make that four—I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They sold the innocent for silver, the needy for a pair of sandals.⁠ 7 They trample on the dirt-covered heads of the poor; they push the destitute away. A man and his father go to the same girl; in this way they show disrespect for my moral purity.⁠ 8 They stretch out on clothing seized as collateral;⁠ they do so right beside every altar!⁠ They drink wine bought with the fines they have levied; they do so right in the temple of their God!⁠ 9 For Israel’s sake I destroyed the Amorites. They were as tall as cedars and as strong as oaks,⁠ but I destroyed the fruit on their branches and their roots in the ground. 10 I brought you up from the land of Egypt; I led you through the wilderness for 40 years so you could take the Amorites’ land as your own. 11 I made some of your sons prophets and some of your young men Nazirites. Is this not true, you Israelites?” The Lord is speaking. 12 “But you made the Nazirites drink wine;⁠ you commanded the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy!’ 13 Look! I will press you down, like a cart loaded down with grain presses down. 14 Fast runners will find no place to hide; strong men will have no strength left; warriors will not be able to save their lives. 15 Archers will not hold their ground; fast runners will not save their lives, nor will those who ride horses. 16 Bravehearted warriors will run away naked⁠ in that day.” The Lord is speaking.

Texts in conversation

Compare Amos 2:9 and Jubilees 29:11

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions

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Summary

Amos pictures the Amorites as tall as cedars and oaks whom God destroyed for Israel. Jubilees echoes that image to explain why Gilead’s giant Rephaim vanished, describing the Amorites who replaced them as a people no nation has matched in sin.

Passages

Amos 2:9

Hebrew Bible
8 They stretch out on clothing seized as collateral; they do so right beside every altar! They drink wine bought with the fines they have levied; they do so right in the temple of their God! 9 For Israel’s sake I destroyed the Amorites. They were as tall as cedars and as strong as oaks, but I destroyed the fruit on their branches and their roots in the ground. 10 I brought you up from the land of Egypt; I led you through the wilderness for 40 years so you could take the Amorites’ land as your own.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Amos

Jubilees 29:11

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
10 And their territory was from the land of the children of Ammon to Mount Hermon, and their royal capitals were Karnaim and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, and Misur, and Beon. 11 And the Lord destroyed them because of the evil of their deeds; for they were very wicked, and the Amorites lived in their place, wicked and sinful, and there is no people today which has committed to the full all their sins, and they have no longer a long life on the earth. 12 And Jacob sent away Laban, and he departed into Mesopotamia, the land of the East, and Jacob returned to the land of Gilead.
170–125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jubilees

References

... In their conquests of Sihon and Og, the Amorite kings, Moses and the Israelites, by the Lord’s power, annihilated them and took over their territories (Numbers 21:21-35; Deuteronomy 2:26–3:7; Joshua 12:1-6; Judges 11:14-23). Though Israel won the battle, the accounts stress it was God who gave her the victory; see also Amos 2:9: ‘Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, / whose height was like the height of cedars, / and who was as strong as oaks; I destroyed his fruit above, / and his roots beneath.’ The Amorites came to represent a terrible level of evil. ...
James C. VanderKam, Jubilees: A Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2018), 805–806.

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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Amos 2:9 and Jubilees 29:11

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