The Oracle Concerning Damascus Gaza Tyre

Amos

6

The Oracle Concerning Damascus/Aram (Amos 1:3-5) The Text: 3 Thus says the LORD: For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron. 4 So I will send a fire on the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad. 5 I will break the gate bars of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven, and the one who holds the scepter from Beth-eden; and the people of Aram shall go into exile to Kir, says the LORD. --Damascus, the capital of ancient Aram (Syria), a strategic place, the first country to the west of Assyria, the first that would suffer an attack in the event of a war. --Damascus’ crime (v. 3b): a common metaphor of oppression of one nation over another (in Assyrian inscriptions and treaties, see ANET, 278-279). Note other metaphors of oppression: yoke, pole and a rod (see Isa 9:3, see DWS blog). --Gilead, the victim, is an Israelite territory east of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), frequently invaded by Aram, note that King Ahab of Israel was killed at Ramot Gilead (1 Kings 22). --Read Genesis 31, the Story of Jacob and Laban, the eponymous ancestors of Israel and Aram. Note the when Jacob fled from Laban, he went toward the hill country of Gilead (v. 21)); note the boundary covenant between the two. Laban called it “Jegar-sahadutha (Aramaic, his language) and Jacob called it Galeed (in Hebrew, his language) = “The heap of witness”. Note the kind of punishment in vv. 4-5, the verbs “send fire on the house”, “devour the strongholds”, “break the gate bars, “cut off the inhabitants” - they describe a military operation, a full frontal assault against a walled city (e.g. Assyrian reliefs on the siege of Lachish by Sennacherib in 701 B.C.). Other Crimes of Other Nations -v. 6 Gaza (Philistia): “they carried into exile entire communities to hand them over to Edom” --NRSV notes: Slave trade with Edom (cf. Joel 3:4-8; Zeph 2:4-7), slaves were to work in the copper mines of the region in Edom east of the Arabah. For mining associated with Edom in the Hebrew Bible, see Job 28:1. (note that Job’s hometown “Uz” is an Edomite name (Gen 36:38). --but other scholars point out that the problem here is the reference to Edom, no enough evidence to support such claim. --perhaps (but not certain), this could better refer to a successful revolt of Edom with the support of the Philistines against Israel/Judah. Edom used to be an ally of Judea from the time of David (2 Sam 8:13-14), see Sweeney, p. 207. - v. 9 Tyre/ Phoenician city : “they delivered entire communities over to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of kinship.” -covenant of kinship (Bürît ´aHîm, “covenant of brothers”). It could refer to the trade agreement between Hiram of Tyre and both David and Solomon in the tenth century (see 2 Sam 5:11; 1 Kgs 5:1-18). Note the language of the covenant: Hiram “loved” David (see KJV translation: for Hiram was ever a lover of David; but NRSV has Hiram had always been a friend to David; Hebrew is ´öhëb, literally “lover”. --note: The Hebrew term ´öhëb and its Akkadian cognate ra´ämu, “to love” is the technical term for “fidelity” or “loyalty” in covenants. Note also that Hiram calls Solomon “my brother” (1 Kgs 9:13), another standard term in ancient parity treaties. -the phrase may indicate that Tyre violated its treaty with Israel, perhaps Tyre dealt harshly with their Israelite slaves (see D. Gowan, p. 361-362); or as Sweeney, p. 209 argues, the failure of Phoenicia to support Israel and Judah in its war against Aram (see 1 Kgs 11:1; also 2 Kgs 8:28).