Sarcasm of Amos
AMO.4.4
In 4:4–5, the prophet slips into the role of a priest who with the terminus technicus bō’û (“come to . . . ,” “enter into . . .”) issues a summons in the name of God to a pilgrimage (cf. Pss. 95:6; 96:8; 100:2, 4; Isa. 1:12, et passim).
The usual form of such summons continues with the priest declaring the goal and purpose of this pilgrimage to be praise of God and homage before him; he then explicates the summons to the pilgrimage with other imperatives portraying the actual course of the worship services in a general sense, and finally justifies the entire summons with a reference to Yahweh’s will. ¹
Amos alters with bitter sarcasm all three formal elements following upon this summons to pilgrimage, the first most severely of all.
• “Transgression,” the harshest word in the Old Testament (and a comparatively rare one) for offenses against human beings is the actual goal of worship. The choice of this particular term from the legal sphere makes it clear that Amos is not calling the worship service itself or any of its individual acts “transgressions,” but rather the assuaging of one’s conscience brought about by the pilgrimage, which enables a person to act even more deliberately out of self-interest in daily life.
This is the case regardless of which of the two famous and venerable sanctuaries in the southern part of the Northern Kingdom constitutes the goal of this pilgrimage: Bethel with the central sanctuary (Tell Beitîn, eighteen kilometers north of Jerusalem) and locus of the Jacob-tradition (Gen. 28:10ff.; 35), or Gilgal in the Jordan depression (near Khirbet el-Mefjer, two kilometers north of Jericho, a site associated with the conquest of the land) (Josh. 3f.).
• Amos alters the second formal element by adding to the cultic acts the second-person plural suffix: “your sacrifices,” “your tithes.” Worship has become an end in itself and is celebrated for the sake of self-assuagement; it does not reach Yahweh, and no longer creates any fellowship with him. These individual cultic terms stand representatively for the pilgrimage as a whole, and are not drawing attention to individual acts that may, for example, be particularly repugnant to the prophet.
As the most familiar type of sacrifice during this period, “offerings of meat” were extremely popular because one could consume portions of the meat at the celebratory meal (cf. Hos. 8:13; 4:13); worship commences with these sacrifices on the morning of the day after arrival.
Obligatory tithes characterized the following, “third” day, which presumably constituted the culmination if one may take Ex. 19:11, 15 as a standard.
In connection with Bethel, Gen. 28:22 already traces the tithe back to Jacob; according to the earlier legal statute in Deut. 14:22, it consisted of produce from the field, though in the following period it also included wine and oil (Deut. 12:17; 14:23), which were then consumed at the festive meal.
——— Footnotes ———
¹ J. Begrich,, “Die priesterliche Tora (1936),” in Gesammelte Studien zum Alten Testament, ed. Walther Zimmerli, ch. TB 21 — C.F. (Munich: Kaiser, 1964), 232ff., esp. 247.