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In Amos 3:7, the prophet says "Yahweh God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets." This is a fairly obvious allusion back to Genesis 18:17-18, where Yahweh says, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?" And Yahweh goes on to inform Abraham, the prophet (Gen 20:7) about the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Amos 3 begins with a reminder of the exodus, and a threat that Yahweh is going to "punish [Israel] for all your iniquities" (v 2). The animal symbols in vv 4-5 describe the threat to the Northern kingdom, and in verse 6 Amos explicitly refers to a trumpet announcing a calamity in a city. Verses 11 make it clear that Israel and Samaria are the targets of wrath: "An enemy, even one surrounding your land, will pull down your strength from you and your citadels will be looted" (v 11) and "just as the shepherd snatches from the lion's mouth a couple of legs or a piece of an ear, so will the sons of Israel dwelling in Samaria be snatched away" (v 12). The predators will attack and kill, and only a few bits and pieces of the body that was Israel will be saved.
The allusion in Amos 3:7 brings the Sodom situation to bear on Amos's day. Amos the prophet is like Abraham the prophet. And both have been informed by Yahweh that a city is going to be destroyed. Thus, Amos 3:7 is a subtle hint that Samaria has become a Sodom, and will be destroyed in a similar fashion, with only a handful of survivors. This hint of Amos, of course, is made explicit elsewhere in the propetic literature, where Jerusalem and Samaria are explicitly compared to Sodom and Gomorrah.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, May 03, 2004 at 09:05 AM
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