By the Powers of Darkness

By the powers of darkness, the rich got richer, and the poor got poorer. Amos 6 shows us how the rich got richer. The noble leaders of Israel had sold out to the powers of darkness on mount Samaria. What is the powers of darkness meaning in Amos 6? The leaders of Israel placed their security, comfort, and committed acts of violence in the birthplace of demons and devils.

Mount Samaria was the birthplace of the rebellion in Genesis 6:1-4. There, certain intelligent spiritual beings launched their own plan to make imagers of themselves with human women. The Nephilim, the giant clan, became their offspring.

Amos ordered the self-evaluated preeminent leaders in Zion and Samaria to compare themselves with three nearby city-states. The four verbs in verses 1-3 are imperatives, perhaps suggesting the urgency of the situation from the prophet’s perspective. Amos probably did not expect his audience to travel anywhere. In their mind’s eye they were to go to the cities named. Calneh and Hamath were Syrian city-states under Israel’s influence. Gath was a Philistine city-state under Judah’s control. No was the expected answer to the rhetorical questions. The point of the rhetorical questions was the equality between those city-states and Israel/Judah. Leaders of Israel and Judah were wrong if they thought they were better or bigger than the three city-states.

By the powers of darkness, the elite class created wealth off the backs and misery of the poor and weak. They had beds of ivory while the poor had none. They had lavish amounts of food while the poor starved. They had drink that led to drunkenness while the poor drank polluted water.

Israel’s leading citizens overindulged themselves in drinking. For containers to drink wine they used “bowls” from the temple rather than cups. The term for bowls is the one usually used in ritual procedures (Exod. 27:3; Num. 4:14; 7:13; 1 Kgs. 7:50).

“Use the finest lotion” is literally “the first [best grade] of oils they anoint.” Its purpose could have been medicinal, cosmetic, or cultic. The verb describing its application is the one generally employed in a cultic setting. However, stress in the sentence falls on the grade of oil used, “the finest,” which favors the cosmetic or medicinal interpretation. The indictment in all the accusations of indulgence is that Israel’s leading citizens went on in their revelry as if all was well (cf. 4:1).

Joseph (Israel) was about to break up as a nation, yet the leading citizens were not sick over it as they should have been. They were “totally self-centered, totally preoccupied with the pleasures of life but blinded to the threatening reality all around them.” Life, so they thought, could not be better. According to Amos, it could not have been worse.

Three times in Amos 6:8 the Lord’s oath introduces a decree of punishment (4:2; 6:8; 8:7). In 4:2 the Lord swears by his holiness. Here he swears by himself. In 8:7 he swears by the pride of Jacob. “By himself” (bĕnapšô, “by his soul”) means “by the Lord’s own person,” the most binding form of commitment. The Lord’s character, integrity, and power stood behind the oath.

Amos identified the message to follow as an oracle (nĕʾum) of “the LORD God of hosts” (literally). God’s authority and resources supporting this oracle made it awesome. The target of the three verbs (“abhor … detest … deliver”), though stated variously, is primarily Samaria. The first verb is “abhor” (mĕtāʾēb), a participle expressing God’s continuing attitude toward “the pride of Jacob.”

Most interpreters take “the pride of Jacob” to be an attribute of the people, their arrogant nationalistic and military self-confidence,