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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Amos 6:4 - 6:4
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This forgetfulness of God shows itself more especially in the reckless licentiousness and debauchery of these men. Amo 6:4. “They who lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves out of the fattening stall. Amo 6:5. Who prattle to the tune of the harp; like David, they invent string instruments. Amo 6:6. Who drink wine out of sacrificial bowls, and anoint themselves with the best oils, and do not afflict themselves for the hurt of Joseph.” They lie stretched, as it were poured out (סְרֻחִים), upon beds inlaid with ivory, to feast and fill their belly with the flesh of the best lambs and fattened calves, to the playing of harps and singing, in which they take such pleasure, that they invent new kinds of playing and singing. The ἁπ. λεγ. pârat, to strew around (cf. peret in Lev 19:10), in Arabic to throw many useless words about, to gossip, describes the singing at the banquets as frivolous nonsense. כְּלֵי שִׁיר, articles or instruments of singing, are not musical instruments generally, but, as we may see from 2Ch 34:12, compared with 2Ch 29:26-27, and 1Ch 23:5, the stringed instruments that were either invented by David (e.g., the nebel), or arranged by him for the sacred song of the temple, together with the peculiar mode of playing them; in other words, “the playing upon stringed instruments introduced by David.” Consequently the meaning of Amo 6:5 is the following: As David invented stringed instruments in honour of his God in heaven, so do these princes invent playing and singing for their god, the belly. The meaning to invent or devise, which Baur will not allow to חָשַׁב, is established beyond all doubt by Exo 31:4. They drink thereby out of sacrificial bowls of wine, i.e., drink wine out of sacrificial bowls. שָׁתָה with בְ, as in Gen 44:5. Mizrâq, in the plural mizrâqı̄m and mizrâqōth, from zâraq, to sprinkle, was the name given both to the vessels used for the sprinkling of the blood, and also to the bowls made use of for pouring the libation of wine upon the table of shew-bread (2Ch 4:8). This word is applied by Amos to the bowls out of which the gluttons drank their wine; with special reference to the offering of silver sacrificial bowls made by the tribe-princes at the consecration of the altar (Numbers 7), to show that whereas the tribe-princes of Israel in the time of Moses manifested their zeal for the service of Jehovah by presenting sacrificial bowls of silver, the princes of his own time showed just as much zeal in their care for their god, the belly. Mizrâqı̄m does not mean “rummers, or pitchers used for mixing wine.” Lastly, Amos refers to their anointing themselves with the firstling of the oils, i.e., the best oils, as a sign of unbridled rejoicing, inasmuch as the custom of anointing was suspended in time of mourning (2Sa 14:2), for the purpose of appending the antithesis וְלֹא גֶחְלוּ, they do not afflict or grieve themselves for the ruin of Israel. Shēbher, breach, injury, destruction. Joseph signifies the people and kingdom of the ten tribes.