Amos: a root text for social justice

Part 2: For three transgressions, for four

Justice between nations, between people

The first few lines of the text explain that these are the words of 
Amos, a sheepbreeder from Tekoa.  He starts:


The Lord roars from Zion,
Shouts aloud from Jerusalem;
And the pastures of the shepherds shall languish,
And the summit of Carmel shall wither.


This sets the tone for the whole text.  God here is not a merciful
God, or even what most people would think of as a just God.  
God is presented as a destructive power, appearing in anger and retribution.

Most UUs don't beleive in a personal God who does things in the way that
Amos describes.  But it's possible to read the passages as Amos saying
"This will happen" or "This should happen" rather than "God will make this 
happen."  I encourage non-theist and/or humanist UUs, of which I am one, 
to read the passages in that way.  That's not really true to their 
original meaning, but UUs have always felt free to reinterpret texts for
their own use.

Let's take a look at the next few lines, just to see the pitfalls ahead:


Thus said the Lord:
For three transgressions of Damascus,
For four, I will not revoke it:            [it = the decree of punishment]
Because they threshed Gilead
With threshing boards of iron.
I will send down fire upon the palace of Hazael,
And it shall devour the fortresses of Ben-hadad.


Right off we run into one of the primary problems with reading the
Bible.  All of the cultural referents are foreign.  This might as well
be, well, Greek, to most people, and I'd expect that at this stage
most would yawn and turn to something else.  So let's put this and
the next few lines in a more familiar context.

I like to imagine that Amos is standing before a crowd of U.S. 
citizens.  He starts to yell to the crowd and work them up.  He seems
to be talking about the crimes of other countries, and what's going
to happen to them.  As the crowd gathers, he starts making sympathetically
jingoistic statements against their enemies, say Iraq and Iran for a 
modern U.S. audience.  By the end of the first part, people are 
rather pleased that he's predicting such bad things for their foes.

Each of his next statements begins with "For three transgressions of
[county], for four, I will not revoke it."  God, he's saying, is
going to smite down all of these foreign countries for their evil
deeds, and the similar rhetorical style makes them all part of 
one big list.

But as he continues the country list, people start looking worried.
As he goes on, he's getting closer and closer to Isreal (in my 
analogy, the U.S. itself).  

The punishments he predicts are similar: destruction of fortresses
(military might) and civil authority, and sometimes the displacement
or wiping out of whole populations.  What are the transgressions?

Gaza:      Because they exiled an entire population, 
           Which they delivered to Edom
Tyre:      Because they handed over an entire population to Edom, 
           Ignoring the covenant of brotherhood
Edom:      Because he pursued his brother with the sword,
           And repressed all pity,
           Because his anger raged unceasing
           And his fury stormed unchecked.
Ammonites: Because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead
           In order to enlarge their own territory
Moab:      Because he burned the bones
           Of the king of Edom to lime

Note: Moab's transgression is against Edom, one of the enemies listed
earlier.  

Judah:     Because they have spurned the Teaching of the Lord
           And have not observed his laws;
           They are beguiled by the delusions
           After which their fathers walked.

Now he's reached Isreal's neighbor and (sort of) ally.

And yes, he finally gets to the home country:

Israel:    Because they have sold for silver
           Those whose cause was just
           And the needy for a pair of sandals
           Ah, you who trample the heads of the poor
           Into the dust of the ground
           And make the humble walk a twisted course! 

                [i.e. in the sense of pushing them off paths] 

So, after Amos brings his audience in with a seeming proclamation 
of doom for their enemies, he turns and condemns them.  Not for any 
foreign war are they condemned, but for oppressing their neighbors.
And as they are wondering, surprised and perhaps confused, he slams 
them with descriptions of their own wrongdoings and coming punishment.
But before we go on to that, let's take another look at Amos' introduction
above.

Amos is not restricting his condemnation to what we think of as 
"social justice".  The comdemnations of other countries fall into
familiar areas from current headlines; many have to do with genocide, 
especially what we'd call "ethnic cleansing".  Nor is his a strictly
nationalistic or domestic vision.  His introductory list doesn't only serve
to bring his audience in, it brings his focus of concern out.  
Throughout the rest of the text, he'll mostly be concerned with injustices
that take place within Israel itself, but he's stated at the outset
that he is is concerned with truly universal justice for all people.

The next section will examine Amos' ideas of "social justice",
and which actions he specifically condemns.