Explanations for Exile in Amos (Hebrew Bible Monographs)

by Martha Campos

Publisher:

Sheffield Phoenix Press

, 2021

Overview

In four places, Amos announces Israel’s coming exile to Assyria: 4.1-3, 5.25-27, 6.1-14 and 7.7-17. It will be Yahweh’s punishment for social injustice. But who is to blame?

Most scholars think it is the women (and men) of the mid-eighth-century bce Israelite upper class. Not so, says Campos. It is the kings who are the culprits. Kings should champion social justice, as we know from ancient Near Eastern texts and biblical books like Jeremiah, and the endurance of the kingship depends on their upholding justice. Kings must also remain loyal Yahwists, and keep clear of alliances with foreign powers. Israel’s kings have failed on all counts.

In this forensic overturning of time-honoured readings of Amos’s oracles, and with a fresh eye for his metaphors, Martha Campos outs the successors of Jeroboam (7.9) as the cows of Bashan (4.1), manufacturers of images for non-Yahwistic worship, especially of Ninurta/Sakkuth (5.26), lounging on couches at their banquets (6.4). And Amos himself is a tin wall (7.8), strong enough to fend off the arrows of his opponents.

Explanations for Exile will be a breath of fresh air for scholars and students of the prophet Amos.

Key Features

• Argues that the four main passages in Amos that refer to Israel’s exile blame the kingship and its sin
• Identifies similarities between Amos and other books that refer to Judah’s and Israel’s exiles
• Pays attention to how variou texts explain and attribute blame for the events surrounding the exile

Contents

• Introduction
• Exile and Its Causes in Amos 4:1-3
• Exile and Its Causes in Amons 5:25-27
• סכות in Amos 5.26
• Exile and its Causes in Amos 6.1-14
• Exile and its Causes in Amos 7.7-17
• Conclusion
• Appendix: Marduk, a SA2 -KUT/DI.KUD?

Product Details

• Title: Explanations for Exile in Amos
• Author: Martha Campos
• Series: Hebrew Bible Monographs
• Publisher: Sheffield Phoenix Press
• Print Publication Date: 2021
• Pages: 233
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• ISBNs: 9781910928998, 1910928992
• Resource ID: LLS:XPLNTNSXLMS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-12-11T18:40:06Z

About Martha Campos

Martha Campos holds a MAR from Azusa Pacific University, California, and a PhD in Biblical Studies from Bar Ilan University.