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shall live', 'seek Him', 'seek good' (Amos 5:4,6,8 and 14), and again returns
to the root cause of all the evil -- ceremonial instead of moral rectitude
(5:21 -27). In chapters 7 to 9 we meet a series of symbols:
(1)
Grasshoppers, fire, plumbline (7:1 -9).
(2)
Basket of summer fruit (8:1 -3).
(3)
Striking the lintel (9:1 -4).
The first group of symbols falls into a simple pattern:
(a)
Symbol.
Grasshoppers.
O Lord God forgive.
By whom shall Jacob arise?
for he is small.
The Lord repented.
It shall not be.
(b)
Symbol.
Fire.
O Lord God cease.
By whom shall Jacob arise?
for he is small.
The Lord repented.
This also shall not be.
(c)
Symbol.
Plumbline.
No further call upon the Lord.
I will not again pass by them any more.
The plumbline is the symbol of inflexible righteousness, and Israel's
judgment is here set forth. Isaiah, after speaking of the tried foundation
stone which God would lay in Zion, says 'judgment also will I lay to the
line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the
refuge of lies' (Isa. 28:17).
'Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land' (Amos 7:17).
The second set of symbols, the basket of summer fruit (8:1 -3).* This
symbol is aligned with that of the plumbline, for in these two symbols occurs
the question, 'Amos, what seest thou?' The word 'summer' is the translation
of the Hebrew word qayits, which appears to be derived from the same root as
qatsir 'harvest' (Amos 4:7), both words meaning literally 'to cut off' (2
Kings 16:17) and so 'reap' (Amos 9:13). Summer is put by the figure of
metonymy (or change of name) for the fruits that are ripe and ready to be
plucked. This symbol like the symbol of the plumbline speaks of judgment
that will not be turned aside, the same words being found in Amos 8:2 as in
7:8, 'I will not again pass by them any more'. The summer had come, the
harvest must be reaped, as Jeremiah puts it, 'the harvest is past, the summer
is ended, and we are not saved' (Jer. 8:20).
* The reader should note that the third member of the structure given
in The Companion Bible needs modification. The judgment was not
averted this time.
The final symbol is that of the smiting of the lintel, with the strange
expression 'The Lord standing upon the altar' (Amos 9:1). The word
translated 'upon' is the same word that is translated 'by' in 1 Kings 13:1,
where we see 'Jeroboam standing by the altar'. This was the same altar at
Beth -el, and a 'man of God out of Judah' was sent, even as Amos who also was
a man of God out of Judah was sent, to denounce the idolatry of Beth -el.
Judgment that seems unmitigated and unescapable is now poured forth. There
is no escaping it in hell, heaven or the bottom of the sea (Amos 9:2,3).
Even in captivity the sword should not rest (9:4).