translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: AMO

label: NET study note

text: Zion is a reference to Jerusalem.


text: The stringed instruments mentioned here are probably harps (cf. NIV, NRSV) or lutes (cf. NEB).


text: Perhaps some religious rite is in view, or the size of the bowls is emphasized (i.e., bowls as large as sacrificial bowls).


text: The ruin of Joseph may refer to the societal disintegration in Israel, or to the effects of the impending judgment.


text: Religious banquets . This refers to the מַרְזֵחַ ( marzeakh ), a type of pagan religious banquet popular among the upper class of Israel at this time and apparently associated with mourning. See P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah , 137-61; J. L. McLaughlin, The “Marzeah” in the Prophetic Literature (VTSup). Scholars debate whether at this banquet the dead were simply remembered or actually venerated in a formal, cultic sense.


text: The botanical imagery, when juxtaposed with the preceding rhetorical questions, vividly depicts and emphasizes how the Israelites have perverted justice and violated the created order by their morally irrational behavior.


text: Karnaim was also located across the Jordan River. The name in Hebrew means “double horned.” Since an animal’s horn was a symbol of strength (see Deut 33:17 ), the Israelites boasted in this victory over a town whose very name symbolized military power.


text: Once again there is irony in the divine judgment. The oppressive nation itself will suffer oppression. The verb “oppress” ( לָחַץ , lakhats ) in this verse is not the same as that used in 4:1 ( עָשַׁק , ’ ashaq ).


text: Lebo-Hamath refers to the northern border of Israel, the Stream of the Arabah to its southern border. See 2 Kgs 14:25 . Through this invader the Lord would reverse the victories and territorial expansion Israel experienced during the reign of Jeroboam II.