Amos 5 Chiasm

I'm working through Amos a few verses a day and came across this nice structure at the end of chapter 5. At the centre of 21-27 is the famous line of v24, "Let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness flow like a never-failing stream." This verse is a very tight chiasm on its own, ABCCBA, but it also acts as a centre-piece for some really perspicuous structures either side of it, which I want to look at briefly.

5:21-23 A four-fold rejection of false piety

These three verses contain four rejections by Yhwh, where something which would normally be praised is rejected. 

21. Hold a festival, a solemn assembly? I won't smell them וְלֹא אָרִיחַ

22a. Offer a burnt offering or a gift? I won't accept it לֹא אֶרְצֶה

22b. Offer a peace offering? I won't look on it לֹא אַבִּיט

23. Sing me a song or play me a tune? I won't listen לֹא אֶשְׁמָע

The structure here is very formulaic, except for the first one, where an additional object follows the negated verb. But otherwise, these verses present four examples of piety, but they are all rejected. Why is this the case? That will become clear after 5:24; acts of piety absent of justice and righteousness are no piety at all.

5:24 Instead, justice and righteousness

As mentioned, this verse has two clauses, which are mirror-images in form.

וְיִגַּל כַּמַּיִם מִשְׁפָּט

וּצְדָקָה כְּנַחַל אֵיתָן׃

24a is verb-comparative-subject (let roll-like waters-justice), and 24b reverses that (and righteousness-like a river-let it flow). The terseness and the precise attention to form highlight this verse as the centre and focal point and their abject absence from all their cultic activities in the previous verses.

25-27 A three-fold carrying

The response and second half of this section uses three near-synonyms for "carrying" to highlight the past, the present and the future. 

25. Did you offer up (נגש) sacrifices those forty years in the wilderness? 

26. Yet you carry around (נשא) the statues of your home-made gods.

27. Therefore I will carry you off (גלה) to Damascus, says Yhwh, God of Armies.

Of course these are not exact synonyms, but they're certainly a variation on a theme. Sacrifices go up, statues go around, and exiles go off. The NIV also points out three variations on idol in v26:

the shrine of your king,

the pedestal of your idols,

the star of your god

I think makes 25-27 another concentric structure, with the added layer in the middle of v26 and also the verbs either side: you carry them, you made them. 

In all, I think these verses are very tightly crafted, with three clear principles behind each group of verses: 21-23 have a negated verb, 24 has the terse justice/righteousness chiasm, and 25-27 plays both with the idea of carrying and the past, present and future. 

Amos 8-9 Chiasm

Here's my structure of Amos 8.1-9.10. I think it works pretty well.


A  8.1-2 vision of summer fruit - ready to be eaten

     B1  8.3-8 in that day - songs will be wailing
     B2  8.9-10 in that day - songs into weeping

               C  8.11-12 the days are coming - famine of the word

     B'  8.13-14 in that day - they will fall

A' 9.1-10 vision of the Lord by the altar - everything will be shaken

bookends are the visions,

inside are 'in that day'

and centremost is 'the days are coming'

I think this fits quite well with the whole picture of Amos - having so thoroughly rejected the word of God, God is now handing them over to their sinful desires. Having desired to be free of God's word, he is now deliberately withholding it, with all that goes along with that. This is indeed a dire judgement.

does social action save?

at bible study on wednesday we looked at Matthew 5:13-16; the metaphor of unsalty salt being trampled underfoot was quite frightening, and had a completely opposite effect to the reassuring metaphor of light on a hill - we were encouraged to be lights, but warned against being flavourless salt.

we then went on to read Matthew 25:31-46, which Tim Keller picks up in the Prodigal God (which i finished last night). he says

There is no contradiction to what we have heard from Jesus in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. He is not saying that only the social workers get into heaven. Rather, he is saying that the inevitable sign that you know you are a sinner saved by sheer, costly grace is a sensitive social conscience and a life poured our in deeds of service to the poor. p112

i should mention, we started out by reading Amos 5, and i just kept thinking, 'we're gonna get so hammered for this'. to define 'we', 'hammered' and 'this' in reverse order,

• this = turning aside the needy (Amos 5:12), taking pride in our buildings of stone and the ceremonies that go within them (Amos 5:21)
  
• hammered = the day of the Lord for such as these will be darkness and not light (Amos 5:18)
  
• we = pretty much all western Christians

i might add, the sunday morning before this i visited a well known church and saw a hapless welcomer faced with a homeless man joining church that morning. they didn't say 'welcome, please take a seat, would you like a glass of water, meet gerald, one of our regulars', but 'can i help you?'

James would have welcomed him with open arms, walked him up the front, kicked one of the regulars out of their personalised pews and sat this man down there so he had every opportunity to hear of the healing words of a loving God (James 2:1-7).