Bite 9: Transgressions of Israel in Amos 2:4-3:2

Back From Vacation

Sadly, we never found Good Coffee for the whole week. I wonder why coffee is consistently flavorless wherever we go… I like my coffee bold. Like my adventures. Jeremy told me once that is the reason I like IPAs as well: I love adventure.

Back into Routine

Now we’re back home and it’s time to get back to normal. Having variation from schedule is good and getting into the rhythm again is good. The particular variation of no cell service was refreshing. No thought to mindlessly scroll through Instagram and a break from giving much thought to questions posed in my Etsy store.

After having the questions I asked in my observations of the text rattling around in my head for a week, now I will settle into deciding which ones to investigate and then share the how and some of the what with you.

Judah

I realize that Judah came first, but there was something in the transgressions of Israel that piqued my interest and I spent this time studying ahead instead. We will return and see what is up with Judah in the future. Just so that you know that I’m aware that I’m out of order.

The Transgressions of Israel

Initially, I looked at Amos 2:6-8 and thought it looked like four separate infractions of the law. I’m not sure now. Here is the text so we both know to what I’m referring:

Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, 
I will not revoke the punishment, 
because they sell the righteous for silver, 
and the needy for a pair of sandals— 
those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth 
and turn aside the way of the afflicted; 
a man and his father go in to the same girl, 
so that my holy name is profaned; 
they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, 
and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined. 1

I think I see four distinct infractions, but some have overlap.

Sidenote

Something I’ve learned in my foray into philosophy is the difference between distinction and separation. Dr. Sproul explains it something like this.

A person has a body and a soul. If I distinguish between your body and soul, I’ve done you no harm. However, if I separate your body and soul… See the difference?

Now that we have that clarified, let’s continue.

My Method of Study to Interpret

Because I have to start somewhere, I jotted down what I thought I understood the text to say. As you recall, one hermeneutic technique I use is to compare translations. Right away I saw a discrepancy between ESV and NET in the second half of Amos 2:7. That distracted me from the order of the verses for a day, but then I went back and explored what was happening in Amos 2:6 and the first half of Amos 2:7. These stickies up here are now put in a semblance of order according to the passage.

I’m not sure you’ll be able to read all of that, or if you even want to, but my purpose is to show you how my process works in the trenches of study. I should probably invest in sticky stocks…

The progression of stickies is upper left corner and down, up to the second column and down, up to the third, etc. Even if the first few are questions or what I think, I’m showing you process. We have freedom to not know. That’s what we’re doing here. Learning what the text says because in it is the character and nature of our God.

Let’s rummage around a little and see what came to light.

Amos 2:6

In this verse in the ESV, there is a cross reference to Leviticus that I found helpful. I have some familiarity with the Mosaic Law, but not every jot and tittle. Like learning that the Israelites weren’t allowed to abhor an Edomite in this Bite here. In like manner, I learned in Leviticus 25:35-46 that the Israelites weren’t allowed to rule ruthlessly over their brothers. Why? Because God brought them out from the land of Egypt. They were delivered from slavery and they were not to be made slaves in that way again.

Side Note

We are not going into the whole situation with regard to slavery verses bond servants here because it isn’t the point. Suffice to say slavery and bond servantness have almost nothing to do with each other. I’m betting the topic will come up as the point at some juncture in our time together and we will explore the two topics then.

Ruthless Dealings in Amos 2:6

Israel has been selling the righteous and the needy, both not obeying the law and making a profit off their brothers. Words Amos uses to describe the victims are ṣaddîq (righteous) andʾebyôn (needy). The righteous are those “in the right” and the needy are those with physical needs. I have a fuller picture of the issues at stake since I’ve been listening to Amos being read aloud in my Bible app just about every day.

In Amos 5:10-13 explains the situation. The group that is oppressed is described as those who speak truth, those who are poor, the righteous, those who are needy. What has happened to these people? They are hated for speaking truth, had their wages taxed away from them, and are unable to find justice.

Justice

We’ve discussed justice in a couple of other Bites while listening to what Amos has to say, but now we are going to pass by the hypothetical and dig into the actual.

Hermeneutically, I am in the process of interpreting scripture. That means I’m learning what God’s Word says, not how does it apply to me. When I look at the word justice, I have ideas of what that word means, but I have to remember my objective is to determine what the word meant to the author and how the audience would have heard it.

Which is why I brought the 4 places in Amos that the word is used here. That was the start of understanding what Amos is trying to convey. Next I skimmed through the book to see what synonyms or antonyms are used; what would be related to justice. I wrote what I found on a sticky. You can see it below.

This list consolidates what Amos has to say about justice. I’m still in the process of gathering information about what the text says. Therefore I’m not yet ready to apply it. My objective is to understand what these transgressions are and what God’s indictment of Israel says about God. I want to remember my study primarily is to understand my God. Analysis of how it applies will come later. On to the next topic of study.

Amos 2:7

This is the verse that made me tilt my head with an eyebrow raised when I compared ESV and NET. Divergent. Let me bring them here.

...a man and his father go in to the same girl, 
so that my holy name is profaned...2

What does that verse sound like is happening? Sex of some kind, right? Incest maybe? I’m not entirely sure what it call it except perversion of what God has created to be between one man and one woman.

    A man and his father go to the same girl; 
    in this way they show disrespect for my moral purity.3

Now what does that sound like? Maybe sex. But maybe they went to the same girl to get new sandals. I don’t know. Which is why I read the notes in the NET Bible to see if there was something culturally that I was missing.

I’m not going to reiterate what the NET scholars have to say about this verse; you may go read their thoughts here. Quite interesting. That was one of my steps, but I don’t need to tell you about it when you can read for yourself. I will share what I did once I had that information. So I’ll wait a second for you to go read and have the same alerts about the translations that I do.

Side Note

DON’T PANIC! The discrepancies and unknown portions of scripture are few. Very few. Further, they are not doctrinal distinctions. This verse is scripture and it’s important, but it isn’t something that affects how we understand the way of salvation or the doctrine of sin. In fact, the transgressions of Israel here in Amos are kind of not the point. The point is that there IS sin which Amos showcases and what God DOES about it is what I’m interested in. If I can grasp the basics of the sin, then I might gain better understanding. However the point remains that who God is (which is my primary study purpose) is revealed through scripture through his dealings with people. I can sum it up like this:

1. God tells people The Way.
2. The people say, “I will do it” but then don’t.
3. God responds.

That is what I’m ultimately studying here in Amos. And the whole OT, actually. When I get around to it.

Less of a Side Note and More of a Caveat

Before we enter into the discussion of this word, I need to tell you that I’m trying to be discreet in my conversation with you about this touchy sort of topic. I’d love for all ages of folks to be able to hang out with me; that our conversation be rated PG, if you will. However, sometimes in the Bible, God is not PG. Please be aware that I’m trying to balance between not shrinking from the honest discussion of the Word and the delicacies of my audience.

First the Word “Go”

As you read, the NET editors inform me that the word translated “go” in this verse is not used in a sexual sense anywhere else in scripture. Being the skeptical person that I am, I had to go investigate that for myself. Here is how I went about it.

I looked up what the word is in Amos 2:7 for “go.” Below is the sticky where I recorded my notes.

Limiting Factors

But before we look at the sticky, let me tell you some more of my process. Since the word for “go” is used some 1500 times in the OT, I wasn’t about to bring all of them here. Or even most. Honestly not many at all. I asked myself where in scripture would there be the most likely discussion about this type of “go”-ing? First thought was Song of Solomon. After that? Some place like Genesis where there were matters of child bearing that were taken into the people’s own hands, shall we say. So those places are where I started. Onto the sticky.

Bw or Bh or Bôʾ

So then I looked up what word in scripture is usually used for the actual act. The first couple of lines in the entry on this word (Which I’ve seen transliterated as bw and bh-I’m not pretending I understand it all. It’s just what I’ve seen.) in the Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the OT (HAL) includes this “bhʾ to enter (sexually).” ⁵ Since I have digital resources, I can hover and click without knowing what the word itself is. I think it’s transliterated as “bôʾ“

In Mounce’s dictionary, he does qualify that hālak (the word we looked at from Amos 2:7) is a synonym of this word bôʾ. While it may be a synonym, hālak isn’t used for the idiomatic use to describe the act like this “bôʾ” word. Here is a snippet of Mounce’s definition.

It is also used idiomatically of sexual relations, in the expression, “he went into her” (Gen 16:4, “He slept with Hagar, and she conceived …,” NIV; “And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived …,” KJV).6

Consider the Context of Amos

So far, I’m not seeing the action of Amos 2:7 to be clearly a sex act. I’m not saying it’s not, but I don’t see it definitively as ESV portrays it. In conjunction with my word study here, I also have been listening to the entire book with regularity. You know how Amos mentions justice over and over? There are a couple of mentions of keeping folks from speaking truth? Amos talks about God’s name and what God has done repeatedly?

I’ll go further. It just occurred to me to examine how often the other transgressions listed here in our passage are brought up elsewhere in Amos. Just bear with me and we will explore this together.

Zipping through the book, I jotted down other places that I saw these transgressions repeated or alluded to.

Where Else?

• Sell the righteous for silver: Amos 2:6; Amos 8:6
• Needy sold for sandals: Amos 2:6; Amos 8:6
• Trample head of poor: Amos 2:7; Amos 8:4
• Turn aside those needing help (gate or otherwise): Amos 2:7; Amos 5:12
• Clothing taken as pledge: Amos 2:8; Amos 5:10-13
• Drinking wine of those fined/taxed: Amos 2:8; Amos 4:1; Amos 5:11

Going through all of Amos, I don’t see anything else mentioned about sexual relations anywhere.

I’m not saying it isn’t about sex, but I do question whether it is. Now you know why I question it. The word study doesn’t support the explicit translation and the context of the whole book doesn’t seem to support it. I actually have one more reason why I question it that I will just touch briefly because our time is going long here.

What Profanes God’s Name?

The rest of the couplet in Amos 2:7 is the result of the transgression. That God’s name is profaned. In my ongoing effort here to get to the bottom of this translation situation, I asked the question “what else profanes God’s name?” Since I don’t understand what this cause is in Amos, I looked at the effect.

Along with the question of “what profanes God’s name?” was the question “what in the OT is profaned?” Because I wonder if there is any mention about sex and it’s relation to God being defiled.

What is Profaned in the OT?

I didn’t see a mention in the list of usage of the word profane that had anything specifically to do with incest, sex, infidelity issues.

So I have three lay-person reasons why I don’t think this verse in Amos should necessarily be translated in a way to sound like there are sexual relations going on.

The point, however, is that because of a transgression, God’s holy name is profaned. That’s a reason for not revoking the punishment. This is information about God’s character.

Reflection

I will be quick in my reflection here because we have been chatting for a while now.

God cares about justice. He cares about those who are upright, taking the risks of agriculture, and that they are being taxed or fined into oblivion.

Interesting isn’t it, that Amos was a shepherd and he cultivated fig trees? God chose Amos to speak up for the injustice of those who labor and hope for good outcomes of their vineyards or fields or whatever. That the government officials in the cities are profiting off the backs of those who are putting themselves out there in the economy. As a worker of agriculture from rural Tekoa, he certainly had something to say that was speaking God’s words with God about these matters.

This reflection isn’t so much an “I will ____” but more mulling over the way God has conveyed his heart to us using the instrument of Amos.

Wrap Up

Goodness. This hasn’t been a small Bite, I know. But there is still a Bible Study Bite that I see in all the study we’ve gone through today.

As I’ve told you before, we can rely on the scholarly translations. There aren’t any points of theology or doctrine that are in question because we can’t tell what scripture is saying. That said, we saw today that there are still some questions of translation.

Our Bible Study Bite? Even though we might not have our Hebrew linguistic skills yet acquired, we have tools in order to either embrace an editor’s opinion or hold his opinion loosely. Like I said, I’m not dismissing the possibility that the verse is talking about a particular way a man and his father might be relating to a girl. But I’m not convinced ESV has got it quite right either.

Hermeneutic Tools

Tools we saw in action today are:

• Word studies
• Context
• Letting scripture interpret scripture

And we want to remember ultimately that the point is that we are in the process of learning about God’s character and nature. Finding out that whatever this man and his father were doing is one thing or the other isn’t quite as vital as recognizing that God will not revoke his punishments because that would violate his character.

Exercising our study skills on these “lesser important” details will help us hone those skills. Then when we come across a more pressing theological question, we know we have tools. We’ve practiced first, and now they will be ready for action.

Thanks for studying with me today! If you’ve found anything helpful here, please like and subscribe. And if you know of other students of the Word, would you please share so we can all study and encourage each other with what we’re learning?

1. Amos 2:6–8 (ESV)
2. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Am 2:7). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
3. Biblical Studies Press. (2005). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Am 2:7). Biblical Studies Press.
4. Mounce, W. D. (2006). Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words (p. 924). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
5. Koehler, L., Baumgartner, W., Richardson, M. E. J., & Stamm, J. J. (1994–2000). The Hebrew and Aramaic lexicon of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 112). Leiden: E.J. Brill.
6. Mounce, W. D. (2006). Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words (p. 118). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.