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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 4:5 and Matthew 6:2

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

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Summary

Amos criticizes Israel for showing off their offerings, echoed in Matthew to reject giving charity to win public honor. Both reflect criticism in honor and shame culture where public acts used to elevate personal status were said to lack integrity.

Passages

Amos 4:5

Hebrew Bible
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.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Amos

Matthew 6:2

New Testament
1 “Be careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by people. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven. 2 Thus whenever you do charitable giving, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues and on streets so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, they have their reward! 3 But when you do your giving, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your gift may be in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

References

"... No particular biblical law is cited at the outset of the section on free-will offerings. In fact, references to these offerings are infrequent in scripture. The term is used for the contribution incumbent on all Israelites, both for the construction of the wilderness sanctuary (Exodus 35:29; 36:3) and for the rebuilding of the Temple after the exile (Ezra 1:4; 8:28). Legal discussion of the nature of the offering is limited to the stipulations that the offering may be eaten on the day of sacrifice and the day after (Leviticus 7:15-19), that it must be unblemished (Leviticus 22:17-25), that it be offered in the one sanctuary (in Jerusalem, Deuteronomy 12:6-7), that its amount be proportionate to one's prosperity (Deuteronomy 16:9-12; compare Sirach 35:7-9), and that one must make good on free-will vows. (compare Deuteronomy 23:22-24; Proverbs 20:25; Ecclesiastes 5:3-6. One text from Amos 4:5 indicates that people often proclaimed their free-will offerings publicly; compare Matt 6:1-6. Free-will offerings are also mentioned in lists of festival sacrifices: Leviticus 23:38; Numbers 29:39; Ezra 3:5, and procedures are given for the free-will offering of a prince: Ezekiel 46:12) There is, however, no biblical statute prohibiting the dedication of either the food of one's mouth or something taken by force, although there are several prophetic and sapiential texts that criticize sacrifices acquired by robbery ..."
Catherine M. Murphy, Wealth in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Qumran Community, STDJ 40 (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 62.

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 4:5 and Matthew 6:2

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