HOLY BIBLE: Amos 6 (original) (raw)

[1] The language of the Hebrew text is curiously forced all through verses 1-3, and it is difficult to feel certain that manuscript errors have not interfered with it. The invitation inverse 2 must be taken as the utterance, not of the prophet, but of the boastful Samaritan leaders; otherwise the logic of the passage is wholly obscure. For the mention of Sion (if the text is rightly preserved) cf. 2.4, the only other threat against Juda in the whole book; cf. 7.12 below.

[2] There seems to be a gap, both in grammar and in logic, at the end of this sentence, which suggests a manuscript omission; e.g. the mention of the number ten would be more readily intelligible if the text ran, ‘Be there ten men left alive in a house, nine of these shall die’. We should expect also to hear what kind of danger (perhaps battle) they had escaped, to fall into some other danger, perhaps that of pestilence. If a reference to plague has dropped out, it would explain the allusion to burning in verse 10; the Israelites did not ordinarily burn their dead.

[3] The exact bearing of this vivid passage escapes us, perhaps because the true context of it has not been preserved. ‘Say no more, unless it be to call the Lord’s name to memory’; the Latin means, and the Hebrew text may mean, ‘Hush! No mention must be made of the Lord’s name’. But no plausible reason has been produced for such a taboo; nor does it appear that there was any immediate danger of the divine name being introduced into the conversation.

[4] By a very slight change in the Hebrew text it is possible to get the reading, ‘or plough the sea with oxen’.

[5] ‘Of little worth’; or possibly, ‘Of Lodabar’, a place-name (II Kg. 9.4). The prophet may intend a play upon words, as we might upon the name ‘Littleworth’.

[6] Literally, ‘Have we not by our own strength taken to ourselves horns?’ The Hebrew word for horns, Carnaim, was also a place-name (I Mac. 5.26).

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd