Amos, Chapter 5
Amos 5 û Exegesis (54635)
Merriam-Webster's Co
This is an excerpt from the paper...
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (1999:406) defines "exegesis" as "EXPOSITION, EXPLANATION; esp: an explanation or critical interpretation of a text". Before getting into the formal, traditional, and critical redaction of the Old Testament prophet Amos' chapter 5, I will put the text in historical context. Based on the inscription at the beginning of his book, Amos was a herdsman from the town of Thecua, a Southern Kingdom village twelve miles to the south of Jerusalem in what is now the modern state of Israel. According to his writings, he was called to his mission by God as he was tending his flocks of sheep. How an unlettered sheherd could write some of the most deathless prose poetry in the history of world literature, such as the text attributed to Amos, is something that Biblical scholars have debated for generations. The Catholic Encyclopedia's passage on Amos (www.virtualology.com) explains that "to associate inferior culture with the simplicity and relative poverty of pastoral life would be to mistake totally the conditions of Eastern society, ancient and modern. For among the Hebrews of old, as among the Arabs of the present day, the sum of book-learning was necessarily small, and proficiency in knowledge and oratory was chiefly dependent not on a professional education, but on a shrewd observation of men and things, a memory retentive of traditional lore, and the faculty of original thought".á
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s village, which was included in Israel after the kingdom was divided. All traces of this idolatry were later removed by Josiah, king of Judah. It has been identified with the ruins of Beitin, a small village 9 miles south of Shiloh. The Gilgal that Amos mentions was another village that practiced a form of worship that Amos found idolatrous located not far from Bethel. The kingdom of the ten tribes of Israel stretched from Beersheba to Mount Ephraim (2 Chr. 19:4), and the former city was presumably also the scene of immoderate revelries and their ilk.
Amos' reference to the poor ("Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor" v 11) brings up one of the more progressive aspects of the Old Testament, which is a concern about the plight the poor, weak, and oppressed, something also echoed in the Koran and the New Testament.
Poor people were the beneficiaries of specific laws and customs, and had certain privileges, such as the right to glean the fields (Lev. 19:9, 10; Deut. 24:19,21); a share of the produce of the fields and the vineyards in the sabbatical year (Ex. 23:11; Lev. 25:6); and to portions from the tithes (Deut. 14:28, 29; 26:12, 13).
Lines 12 and 13 sound like a description of modern America:
"12 For I kn
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Testament Poor, Lost Ark, Catholic Encyclopedia, Moab Ammon, Mount Ephraim, EXPOSITION EXPLANATION, Hebrews Arabs, Golden Calf, Catholic Encyclopedia's, Israel According, day lord, lord darkness light, lord darkness, merriam-webster's collegiate, darkness light, dark brightness, collegiate dictionary, miles south, southern kingdom, day lord darkness, merriam-webster's collegiate dictionary, manifold transgressions,
Approximate Word count = 1263
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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Amos 5 û Exegesis (54635)
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