Chapter 5

1 Listen to this funeral song I am ready to sing about you, family of Israel:⁠ 2 “The virgin Israel has fallen down and will not get up again.⁠ She is abandoned on her own land with no one to help her get up.” 3 The Sovereign Lord says this: “The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers will have only a hundred left; the town that marches out with a hundred soldiers will have only ten left for the family of Israel.” 4 The Lord says this to the family of Israel: “Seek me so you can live! 5 Do not seek Bethel. Do not visit Gilgal. Do not journey down to Beer Sheba. For the people of Gilgal will certainly be carried into exile, and Bethel will become a place where disaster abounds.” 6 Seek the Lord so you can live! Otherwise he will break out like fire against Joseph’s family; the fire will consume, and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel. 7 The Israelites turn justice into bitterness; they throw what is fair and right to the ground. 8 But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion;⁠ he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight into night. He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth’s surface. The Lord is his name!⁠ 9 He flashes destruction down upon the strong so that destruction overwhelms the fortified places.⁠ 10 The Israelites hate anyone who arbitrates at the city gate; they despise anyone who speaks honestly. 11 Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their crops and exact a grain tax from them, you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone, nor will you drink the wine from the fine vineyards you planted. 12 Certainly I am aware of your many rebellious acts and your numerous sins. You torment the innocent, you take bribes, and you deny justice to the needy at the city gate. 13 For this reason whoever is smart keeps quiet in such a time, for it is an evil time. 14 Seek good and not evil so you can live! Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies just might be with you, as you claim he is. 15 Hate what is wrong, love what is right.⁠ Promote justice at the city gate. Maybe the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on those who are left from Joseph.⁠ 16 Because of Israel’s sins this is what the Lord, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, says: “In all the squares there will be wailing; in all the streets they will mourn the dead. They will tell the field workers to lament and the professional mourners to wail. 17 In all the vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through your midst,” says the Lord. 18 Woe to those who wish for the day of the Lord! Why do you want the Lord’s day of judgment to come? It will bring darkness, not light. 19 Disaster will be inescapable, as if a man ran from a lion only to meet a bear, then escaped into a house, leaned his hand against the wall, and was bitten by a poisonous snake. 20 Don’t you realize the Lord’s day of judgment will bring darkness, not light—gloomy blackness, not bright light? 21 “I absolutely despise your festivals! I will not smell⁵⁸ your religious assemblies.⁠ 22 Even if you offer me burnt and grain offerings, I will not be satisfied; I will not look with favor on your peace offerings of fattened calves.⁠ 23 Take away from me your noisy songs; I don’t want to hear the music of your stringed instruments. 24 Justice must flow like torrents of water, righteous actions like a stream that never dries up.⁠ 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.

Texts in conversation

Compare Amos 5:26 and CD 7:14

Hebrew Bible · Dead Sea Scrolls, Sectarian and Community Texts

Summary

Amos mentions 'Sikkuth' and 'Kiyyun,' who were Mesopotamian gods. Later interpreters, including the Damascus Document, misread them as 'tents' or 'tabernacles,' creating a connection to Israel's wilderness wandering connected to Amos's 'tent of David.'

Passages

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.

600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Amos

CD 7:14

Dead Sea Scrolls, Sectarian and Community Texts · Damascus Document

13 Ephraim turned away from Judah, and all who turned back were handed over to the sword, but those who held fast 14 escaped to the land of the north. As it says, “And I will exile the Sikkut of your king 15 and the Kiyyun of your images from my tent to Damascus.” The books of the Torah are the booth of 16 the king, as it says, “And I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen.” The king 17 is the assembly. And the pedestals of the images, and the Kiyyun of the images, are the books of the prophets, 18 whose words Israel despised. And the star is the interpreter of the Torah 19 who comes to Damascus, as it is written, “A star marches out of Jacob, and a scepter rises 20 out of Israel.” The scepter is the prince of all the congregation, and when he arises he will tear down 21 all the sons of Seth. These escaped in the age of the first visitation,

100–80 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in CD

References

"... Amos 5:26 ... 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 שִׁקּוּץ (“abomination, idol”). This uncertainty made its way into the early translations as well. The versions do not treat סכּות as a proper noun at all but as the common noun סֻכּוֹת (“sukkot,” “tent, tabernacle”). Thus, the Septuagint reads τὴν σκηνήν, while the Vulgate reads tabernaculum, both indicating סֻכּוֹת (“sukkot,” “tent, tabernacle”) as the Hebrew Vorlage. The Peshitta also follows this interpretation, translating מִשְׁכָּנָה (“mishkanah,” “tent”). The author of the Damascus Document also chooses to read סכּות as סֻכּוֹת (“sukkot,” “tent, tabernacle”) in his interpretation of Amos 5:26 ..."

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), 238.

"... In Amos 5:26 סכות (סִכּוּת) and כִּיּוּן (כִּיּוּן) are proper names for foreign Gods. This is clear from the context of the passage: Sikkuth and Kaiwan are synonymous with ‘your images’; the final clause of verse 26 reads (‘that you made for yourselves’). Although both the Old Greek and Damascus Document interpret the proper name Sikkuth in terms of the construct form סֻכַּת (that is, סֻכָּה), neither identifies the proper name as the noun ‘tabernacle’. First of all, the respective plene forms of the proper name and construct noun (סִכּוּת and סֻכַּת) are morphologically distinct and cannot be confused ..."

Jonathan D. H. Norton, Contours in the Text: Textual Variation in the Writings of Paul, Josephus, and the Yaḥad (London: T&T Clark International, 2011), 90.

"... Amos 5:26–27, a somewhat obscure allegation (in the form of a rhetorical question), followed by a prediction of deportation “beyond Damascus,” has here been transformed into a prophecy concerning rescue for the faithful in “the land of the north.” This midrash-like interpretation takes as its point of departure two enigmatic words in Amos 5:26: סכות and כיון, which have been vocalized sikkut and kiyyun, respectively, in the Masoretic text. According to modern scholarship, these expressions most likely represent pejorative forms of the names of two Mesopotamian astral deities, Sakkut and Kaiwan. It is unlikely, though, that the author of the Damascus Document was aware of that. His interpretation seems to have been guided by ambition to find a contextually relevant meaning, and the observation that these strange names appear together with the Hebrew words for “king” (מלך) and “star” (כוכב). Further, reading sukkôt (tents, tabernacles) rather than sikkut/ sakkut, this early interpreter managed to establish a connection to the promise in Amos 9:11, concerning the future restoration of “David’s fallen hut / tent ..."

Göran Eidevall, “Shifting Emphasis: Examples of Early and Modern Reception of the Book of Amos,” in Bridging between Sister Religions: Studies of Jewish and Christian Scriptures Offered in Honor of Prof. John T. Townsend, ed. Isaac Kalimi, BRLJ 51 (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 31–41.

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

Amos9 chapters

Compare Amos 5:26 and CD 7:14

Summary

Passages

Amos 5:26

CD 7:14

References

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