Amos 5 is the fifth chapter of the Book of Amos in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Amos, including a lamentation for Israel, Amos 5:1–3; an exhortation to repentance, Amos 5:4–20; God's rejection to their hypocritical service, Amos 5:21–27. It is a part of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets.
"But ye have borne": Literally, "And ye bare the tabernacle of your Moloch" He assigns the reason, why he had denied that they sacrificed to God in the wilderness. "Did ye offer sacrifices unto Me, and ye bare?" that is, seeing that ye bare. The two were incompatible. Since they did "carry about the tabernacle of their king," they did not really worship God. He whom they chose as "their king," was their god.
"The tabernacle of your Moloch": τὴν σκηνὴν τοῦ Μολόχ ; tabernaculum Moloch vestro. The Hebrew word rendered "tabernacle". which is found nowhere else, has been variously explained. Aquila gives συσκιασμούς: Theodotion, "vision," reading the whole sentence thus: Καὶ ἤρατε τὴν ὅρασιν τοῦ Θεοῦ ὑμῶν ὑμῶν ἄστρον τοῦ Θεοῦ ὑμῶν. Many moderns render, "stake," "column," or "shrine." Others suppose it to be equivalent to Sakkuth, an Assyrian name for Molech ; but this is very uncertain, sad the parallelism requires the word to be an appellative and not a proper name. It most probably means "shrine," a portable shrine, like those spoken of in in connection with the worship of Diana. The Syriac and Arabic versions call it "tent," and thus the reproach stands forth emphatically that, instead of, or in conjunction with, the true tabernacle, they bore aloft, as if proud of their apostasy, the tabernacle of a false god. Such shrines were used by the Egyptians, according to Herodotus and Diod. Sic.. Many such may be seen in the Egyptian room of the British Museum. Keil quotes Drumann, 'On the Rosetta Inscription,' p. 211, "These were small chapels, generally gilded and ornamented with flowers and in other ways, intended to hold a small idol when processions were made, and to be carried or driven about with it." Hence we must look to Egypt as the source of this idolatry.
"The star of your god": R. Isaac Caro says all the astrologers represented Saturn as the star of Israel. Probably there was a figure of a star on the head of the image of the idol, to represent the planet Saturn; hence "images" correspond to "star" in the parallel clause. A star in hieroglyphics represents God. "Images" are either a Hebraism for "image," or refer to the many images made to represent Chiun.
"Chiun": This is the same with "Chevan", which in the Arabic and Persic languages is the name of "Saturn", as Aben Ezra and Kimchi say; and is so rendered by Montanus here; and who in the Egyptian tongue was called Revan, or Rephan, or Remphan; as by the Septuagint here, and in ; some read it Cavan, and take it to signify a "cake"; in which sense the word is used in ; and render it, "the cake of your images"; and supposing that it had the image of their gods impressed upon it. Calmet interprets it "the pedestal of your images"; and indeed the word has the signification of a basis, and is so rendered by some; and is applicable to Mo/Moloch their king, a king being the basis and foundation of the kingdom and people; and to the sun, intended by that deity, which is the basis of the celestial bodies, and of all things on earth. Some take Mo and Chiun to be distinct deities, the one to be the sun, the other the moon; but they seem rather to be the same, and both to be the Egyptian ox, and the calf of the Israelites in the wilderness, the image of which was carried in portable tents or tabernacles, in chests or shrines; such as the Succothbenoth, or tabernacles of Venus, ; and those of Diana's,.
Verse 27
This verse plays an important role in the Damascus Document, an important Essene text from among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
