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Amos

About this book
Chapter 4

1 Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan who live on Mount Samaria! You oppress the poor; you crush the needy. You say to your husbands, “Bring us more to drink!” 2 The Sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his own holy character: “Certainly the time is approaching when you will be carried away in baskets, every last one of you in fishermen’s pots. 3 Each of you will go straight through the gaps in the walls; you will be thrown out toward Harmon.” The Lord is speaking. 4 “Go to Bethel and rebel! At Gilgal rebel some more!⁠ Bring your sacrifices in the morning, your tithes on the third day! 5 Burn a thank offering of bread made with yeast!⁠ Make a public display of your voluntary offerings! For you love to do this, you Israelites.”⁠ The Sovereign Lord is speaking. 6 “But surely I gave you no food to eat in all your cities; you lacked food everywhere you lived. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking. 7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. I gave rain to one city, but not to another. One field would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.⁠ 8 People from two or three cities staggered into one city to get water, but remained thirsty. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking. 9 “I destroyed your crops with blight and disease. Locusts kept devouring your orchards, vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees. Still you did not come back to me.”⁠ The Lord is speaking. 10 “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. I killed your young men with the sword, along with the horses you had captured. I made the stench from the corpses rise up into your nostrils. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking. 11 “I overthrew some of you the way God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the flames.⁠ Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking. 12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel. Because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel!” 13 For here he is! He formed the mountains and created the wind.⁠ He reveals his plans to men.⁠ He turns the dawn into darkness and marches on the heights of the earth.⁠ The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies is his name!

Texts in conversation

Compare Amos 4:11 and Zechariah 3:2

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Amos compares Israel to a burning stick pulled from the fire after destruction like Sodom and Gomorrah yet says the people did not turn back. Zechariah uses the image for Joshua the priest as a brand saved from the fire, symbolizing survival and renewal.

Passages

Amos 4:11

Hebrew Bible
9 “I destroyed your crops with blight and disease. Locusts kept devouring your orchards, vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking. 10 “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. I killed your young men with the sword, along with the horses you had captured. I made the stench from the corpses rise up into your nostrils. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking. 11 “I overthrew some of you the way God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the flames. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking. 12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel. Because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel!” 13 For here he is! He formed the mountains and created the wind. He reveals his plans to men. He turns the dawn into darkness and marches on the heights of the earth. The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies is his name!
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Amos

Zechariah 3:2

Hebrew Bible
1 Next I saw Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, with Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 The Lord said to Satan, “May the Lord rebuke you, Satan! May the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Isn’t this man like a burning stick snatched from the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood there before the angel. 4 The angel spoke up to those standing all around, “Remove his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “I have freely forgiven your iniquity and will dress you in fine clothing.”
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Zechariah

References

"... One could claim, as Wright does, that because Yahweh acted and had Joshua’s filthy clothes removed and replaced with pure ones that ha-satan’s accusation was legitimate. Therefore, it was not that ha-satan’s opposition was illegitimate, but that God intended to demonstrate mercy and grace toward Joshua, which would relieve the transgression. James Vander Kam has furthered this understanding when he puts Joshua’s donning of the filthy clothes in the context of his role as high priest ... Another theory is that Joshua is the representative of all Israel. Carroll Stuhlmueller says that the “‘rich, clean turban’ indicates a symbolic reinstatement of the high priest and symbolically all Israel.” The turban here is likely a reference to the turban of the high priest in Exodus 28:36–38, which also has a connection to the guilt of the people. This is echoed by Peggy Day: “The overwhelming majority of scholars who have worked with Zechariah 3:1–7 maintain that Joshua is a cipher for the restored community, and that his change of clothes represents the change in the community’s status from impure to pure (or sinful to forgiven) in the eyes of Yahweh.” Part of the reason for this interpretation is the parallel between this passage and Amos 4:11. Here Joshua is said to be a “brand plucked from the fire” (Zechariah 3:7). In Amos 4:11 all of Israel is said to be like “a brand plucked from the fire.” It is likely that Zechariah uses this phrase to evoke Joshua as a symbol for the nation. It is not unusual for one of the characters in a Council of Yahweh text to represent the entire nation ..."
Ellen White, Yahweh's Council: Its Structure and Membership (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014), 91–92.

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 4:11 and Zechariah 3:2

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