Seven questions and a chain

Where we are

Yesterday the eighth oracle landed on Israel. Today Amos explains his own credentials and his method — the passage is, among other things, the Hebrew Bible's most compact account of what a prophet thinks he is doing — and the lectionary splices to it the summons that closes chapter 4.

What happens

Hear this word, Israelites, that Yahweh speaks against you, against the whole family I brought up from the land of Egypt: You alone have I favoured, more than all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your crimes. Then the questions: Do two walk together unless they have agreed? Does a lion roar in the forest when it has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from its den unless it has seized something? Is a bird brought to earth by a snare when there is no lure for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground without catching anything? If the trumpet sounds in a city, will the people not be frightened? If evil befalls a city, has not Yahweh caused it? And then the conclusion: Indeed, Adonai Yahweh does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants, the prophets. The lion roars — who will not be afraid? Adonai Yahweh speaks — who will not prophesy? From chapter 4: I brought upon you such upheaval as when Theos overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah: you were like a brand plucked from the fire; yet you returned not to me, says Yahweh. So now I will deal with you in my own way, Israel! and since I will deal thus with you, prepare to meet your Theos, Israel.

What to notice

The first sentence contains the most unwelcome therefore in the prophets. Raq etkhem yada'ti mi-kol mishpechot ha-adamah, al ken efqod aleikhem et kol avonoteikhem — only you have I known out of all the families of the earth; therefore I will call you to account. Yada is not chosen; it is the verb of intimate acquaintance, used of a marriage. Election is being cited as the ground of judgment rather than as a defence against it, and the logic is the same as yesterday's exodus recital: the relationship is what makes the conduct actionable.

The seven questions are a single argument about causation. Each expects the answer no, and each names an effect that could not have occurred without its cause. Two men walking the same road: they arranged it. A lion roaring in the thicket: it has something. A cub growling in the den: it has caught something. A bird dropping: there was a trap. A trap springing: something was in it. A trumpet in the city: there is an alarm. The chain moves inward from the countryside to the city walls, and it gets faster as it goes.

And the seventh question is the one people quarrel about. Im tihyeh ra'ah be-ir va-YHWH lo asah — if disaster comes on a city, has Yahweh not done it? Read as the culmination of the sequence it is not a general theory of evil; it is the last link in an argument about evidence. The prophet is establishing that effects have causes and that he can read them. What he is defending is his own right to speak, and the point is that if you can hear the trumpet you should not be asking why he is shouting.

The word for what the prophets are told is sod. Ki im galah sodo el avadav ha-nevi'im — unless he has uncovered his sod to his servants the prophets. It is the word Psalm 25 used a month ago in these readings: the confidential session, the divine council where the decision is taken and, in ordinary usage, the huddle where a secret is told. Jeremiah 23:18 uses it to test false prophets — who has stood in the sod of Yahweh? Amos is claiming to have been in the room, and the verb is galah, uncover, the same one Lamentations 2:14 said the comfortable prophets refused to perform.

The final couplet turns the whole chain into a compulsion. Aryeh sha'ag, mi lo yira? Adonai YHWH dibber, mi lo yinnave? — the lion has roared, who will not fear? The master Yahweh has spoken, who will not prophesy? The parallel puts prophesying in the position of the involuntary response. Amos is not saying he chose this; the second half of the couplet describes speaking as a reflex, the way fear is a reflex when something large makes a noise close by.

And the summons at the end is more ominous than it sounds. Hikkon liqrat Elohekha Yisrael — prepare to meet your Theos, Israel. Kun is the verb Exodus 19 uses when the people are told to get ready for the third day at Sinai, and liqrat is the ordinary preposition for going out to meet somebody arriving. The vocabulary is that of a formal reception, and Amos supplies no content for the meeting — no terms, no offer, no timetable. The one thing not said is what will happen when it takes place.

The image just before it is the bleakest in the book. Ke-ud mutsal mi-serefah — like a brand snatched out of the burning: a half-charred stick pulled from a fire, useless for building and barely usable for anything else. It is offered as a description of a rescue that did not work — and you did not return to me — and the phrase reappears in Zechariah 3:2, where it is the reason for a defence rather than an accusation.