Amos 7 Footnotes

7:17 After Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, acted to curtail Amos’s mission in Israel, Amos prophesied not only that Amaziah would die in exile but also that his sons and daughters would be killed and that his wife would become a “prostitute in the city.” Why would God punish the priest’s innocent wife and children when Amaziah was the guilty one? The prophets viewed the Assyrian advance into the region as the instrument of the Lord’s judgment upon Israel’s disobedience. That disobedience was evident not only in the social inequalities that had developed between rich and poor but also in the false religion that the nation tolerated. The temple at Bethel, like that of Dan, had been established as a rival to the Solomonic temple in Jerusalem in the kingdom of Judah (1Kg 12:26-30). Amos, a Judean, viewed these sanctuaries as sites of false worship, together with other local sanctuaries where sacrifices were conducted. To conduct worship at these locations was an act of rebellion against the Lord (Am 4:4-5). As priest of Bethel, Amaziah epitomized this condemned religious system, and because Bethel was “the king’s sanctuary” (7:13), he represented the entire nation of Israel. The invasion of the Assyrians would be marked by great cruelty; all Israel’s inhabitants would suffer, including Amaziah’s children and his wife. When the Assyrians carried Amaziah into exile, along with other Israelite leaders, his wife would have no source of support and might well be forced into prostitution for a livelihood. Regardless of their personal guilt or innocence, the members of Amaziah’s family would face the dire consequences of the judgment to come.