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Act 7:43. Καὶ) and therefore.-καὶ ἀνελάβετε, and ye took up) Hebr. ונשאתם, and ye bore, as litters or biers (for carrying images on), not without pageant. That this was perpetrated in the wilderness not long after the calf was made, is evident from the preceding verse. This idolatry was clandestine (for otherwise Moses would not have concealed or omitted to notice it), but yet it was gross and frequent. τὴν σκηνὴν, the tabernacle) A portable shrine.-καὶ τὸ) The four clauses in Amos are read in this order: And ye bore the tabernacle (Malcechem) of your king [Engl. Vers. of your Moloch], and-(Cijun) the support or prop [Engl. Vers. Chiun, the god] of your images; the star of your god, which ye have made for yourselves: wherein the third clause is subjoined to the second by apposition, there being now (in this case) no ואת prefixed; which is the reason why the LXX. translators (whom Stephen follows) have been able, without injury to the sense, to transpose these two clauses [the star-images, in LXX.: but images-the star, in the Hebr.], and why the fourth clause [which ye made to yourselves] has reference to the one of these in the Hebrew [the star], but to the other in the Greek [the figures or images], Moloch and Cijun, from being appellative became proper names; and these in Amos are construed with reference to their signification as appellatives, so that that weighty suffix, כם, your, should not be excluded [your Moloch or else King], in such a way, however, as to allude to the proper names: whence the LXX. expressly have translated them as proper names. That what Cijun (Chiun) denotes in Amos, is denoted by the Remphan of the LXX. translators, is evident from the same transposition of the clauses: namely, Saturn, as Moloch denotes Mars. See the Specimen Glossarii Sacri of A. Müller, p. 13; Selden, de diisSyr[50], and on him Andr. Beyerus; Buddei, H. E. V. T. Per. ii. p. 768, etc. Humphr. Hodius, lib. ii. de Bibl. c. 4, fol. 115, 116, plausibly infers that the translator of Amos was an Egyptian, from this Egyptian appellation of Saturn. Joh. Christoph. Harenbergius, in a remarkable disquisition, thinks that Chijun or Remphan was the Nile, which the Egyptians represented by the star Saturn. P. E. Jablonski interprets both of the Sun: Sam. Petitus, both of Saturn.-ΤῸ ἌΣΤΡΟΝ, the star) So Saturn is called, the star of whom was represented by the image: as contrasted with Mars, whom they worshipped under the form of a human figure.-τοῦ θεοῦ ὑμῶν, your god) R. Isaac Caro terms the planet Saturn the Star of Israel, appealing to the unanimous opinion of all astrologers. See Lud. de Dieu on this passage. For the purpose of upbraiding them, he thrice introduces the word your.-Ῥεμφὰν, Remphan) The stop, judging from the Hebrew accents and the order of the words, ought to have been placed before this word, which is variously written; which, however, the LXX. translators have superseded or rendered unnecessary [by the different order of the words which they give]. But whereas the notion of the word Cijun had in it a notion suited for bringing conviction home to the Jews, a notion which is not fully given in the proper name, Ρεμφὰν, of the same LXX., Stephen supplied it by introducing the verb ΠΡΟΣΚΥΝΕῖΝ, to worship; whether you derive כיון from כהן (as איוב from אהב, and היה for ההה) or from כון, with which comp. the conjugate, להכין, Isa 40:20. The word, ῬΕΦᾺΝ, and by inserting as the Greeks do an Μ before the second labial, ῬΕΜΦᾺΝ, seems to have the same origin as תרפים (as to which others have treated); and hence has arisen the name Remphis, a king of Egypt. Moloch is a name plain enough.-τοὺς τύπους, figures) [types]. Subtilty [in describing images as mere symbols, or types, representing different attributes of the true God] does not excuse idolatry.-ἘΠΈΚΕΙΝΑ ΒΑΒΥΛῶΝΟς, beyond Babylon) i.e. beyond Damascus and Babylon: for Amos in the Hebrew, and the LXX., read ἘΠΈΚΕΙΝΑ ΔΑΜΑΣΚΟῦ. At the time of Amos they were in dread of Damascus on account of the Syrian wars: Babel (Babylon), the place of their captivity, was not as yet named; Stephen therefore supplied it: and in fact they were carried away beyond the city of Babylon: 2Ki 17:6, “The king of Assyria took Samaria (in the ninth year of Hoshea), and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and Habor, by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.” They were carried away, as a punishment, to that quarter from which they had brought their idols. Their thoughts were dwelling on Egypt: they therefore had to depart to another region far removed from it. A similar case of Ampliatio[51] of a quotation in ch Act 15:17 (where see the note) should be compared. The Wecheliana editio observes, that there is read somewhere Δαμασκοῦ instead of ΒΑΒΥΛῶΝΟς: and Prideaux, in his Connection of Sacred History with Profane, Part i. p. 14, 15, ed. Germ., thinks this to be derived from old copies, and almost approves of it. The Wechelian readings, when they are supported by no other MSS., owe their origin to the annotations of Beza. ΔΑΜΑΣΚΟῦ has been plainly derived from the LXX. in (into) Justin, whom Beza quotes.
[50] yr. the Peschito Syriac Version: second cent.: publ. and corrected by Cureton, from MS. of fifth cent.
[51] The designation of a thing from the future event: as here the applying the future carrying away to Babylon to the immediate subject of Amos’ prophecy, the carrying away to Damascus.-E. and T.