Reading for September 9th

Read Amos 8.1-3 Amos's visions continued.
Like the visions described in 7.1-9, this vision reveals a coming judgment on Israel.
In verse 2 the meaning of this vision is based on the similarity in Hebrew between
the words for summer fruit ("qayits") and end ("qets").
Comments or Questions...

Reading for September 8th

Read Amos 7.10-17 Amos preaches at Bethel.
This is the only narrative in Amos describing an event in Amos's career and a specific settling in which he preached.
Upon hearing Amos's unfavorable prediction about Jeroboam, king of Israel, Amaziah, priest of Bethel, responds in two ways: He sends word to Jeroboam in Samaria (vv. 10-11), and he banishes Amos from Bethel, one of Israel's major religious centers (vv. 12-13).
Amaziah appears to claim that Amos, from the Judean town of Tekoa )1.1), should earn his living as a prophet in his own country of Judah (" earn your bread there," v. 12), and stay out of Israel's affairs.
When Amos responds that he is not a prophet but a shepherd and a farmer (v. 14), he may mean that he is not earning his living as a (professional) prophet at all, but rather communicating an unexpected but genuine divine revelation.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for September 7th

Read Amos 7.1-9 Amos's visions.
In three separate visions-a locust plague (vv. 1-3); a fire storm (vv. 4-6); and a wall and plumb line (vv. 7-9)--God show Amos judgments that will befall Israel.
After the first two visions, Amos asks God to reconsider, and the punishment is withheld.
Jacob is used as a synonym for Israel in these two visions.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for September 6th

Read Amos 6.1-14 Judgment on Samaria's elite men.
In this judgment speech, Amos indicts Israel's leaders for excessive wealth and complacency
(vv. 1-6) and announces a sentence that includes the conquest of Samaria and deportation of its leaders (vv. 7-14).
In verse 2 Calneh and Hamath are capital cities of important Syrian city-states.
In verse 6 Joseph is a synonym for Israel (5.6).
In verse 13 Lo-debar and Karnaim are cities east of the Jordan that may have been brought
under Israelite control during Amos's career by the conquests of Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14.25).
In verse 14 Lebo-hamath and the Wadi Arabah are the northern and southern boundaries
established for the kindgom of Israel by Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14.25); they are used here
by Amos to depict Israel in its entirety.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for September 5th

Read Amos 5.25-27
In what may be an editorial addition, Israel is blamed for idolatry.
Sakkuth and Kaiwan are titles for Saturn, an astral deity in Mesopotamia.
Damascus is the capital of the kingdom of Aram, northeast of Israel (1.3).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for September 4th

Read Amos 5.14-24
In verses 14-15 Amos's appeal to seek God by living justly (vv. 4-7) is resumed.
In verses 16-20 Amos continues his lament begun in vv. 1-3.
The day of the LORD (vv. 18, 20) is a decisive act of God in human affairs.
Although Amos's audience believed it would be a day of salvation,
Amos saw it as a day of judgment.
In verses 21-24 this is Amos's classic statement about the meaninglessness of worship
(vv. 21-23) if it is practiced by those who do not do justice in their daily affairs (v. 24).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for September 3rd

Read Amos 5.8-13
In verses 8-9 hymns such as this one praising God's power occur at several points in Amos
(4.13; 9.5-6).
In verses 10-13 Amos indicts Israel for judicial and economic abuses.
Israel's judges heard and settled disputes at the gate of the city (vv. 10, 12).
Levies of grain are taxes imposed by creditors or landlords on poor farmers.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for September 2nd

Read Amos 5.1-27 A lament over Israel.
When a lament anticipating Israel's fall (vv. 1-3, 16-20), Amos indicts Israel for its injustices
(vv. 10-13, 21-27) and pleads with Israel to seek God in order to avoid disaster (vv. 4-7, 14-15).
In verses 1-3 Amos begins his lament by describing the conquest of Israel as if it had already happened.
In verses 4-7 in his opening appeal to seek God, Amos criticizes the worship (v. 5) of those who are not just (v. 7).
In verse 5 Beer-sheba, a southern religious center with old associations with the northern kingdom of Israel (1 Sam 8.2; 1 Kings 19.3), is mentioned here alongside two northern centers, Bethel and Gilgal, which Amos criticizes elsewhere (4.4).
In verse 6 Joseph, father of the ancestors of the two most powerful northern tribes (Ephraim and
Manasseh), is employed by Amos, as a synonym for Israel.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for September 1st

Read Amos 4.1-13 Judgment on Samaria's elite women.
In his indictment of their oppression of the poor (v. 1), Amos compares Israel's leading women to cattle grazing in Israel's prime pasture land, Bashan.
The sentence for these women (vv. 2-3) is deportation, though the location of Harmon is uncertain.
In verses 4-13 Israel's stubbornness.
After criticizing the rituals practiced at two of Israel's religious centers, Bethel and Gilgal (vv. 4-5), perhaps because he judged them hypocritical, Amos lists a series of divine judgments that have failed to convince Israel of its injustices: famine (v. 6), drought (vv. 7-8), plant diseases and predators (v. 9),
disease and death for Israel's army (v. 10), and defeat (v. 11).
With the term therefore, which characteristically links indictments to sentences,
Amos introduces God's judgment (vv. 12-13) for Israel's repeated refusal to reform.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 31st

Read Amos 3.13-15 Judgment on Bethel.
Located in the southern part of Israel, Bethel, together with Dan in the north,
was one of Israel's major religious center.
The judgment against Israel's houses (v. 15) that follows the judgment on Bethel
contains an implicit criticism of the rich.
Israel's wealthiest citizens built winter houses in the Jordan valley to escape the cold winter climate in the mountains of Samaria, and they made furniture inlaid with ivory for their homes (6.4).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 30th

Read Amos 3.9-12 Judgment on Samaria.
Amos invites representatives from Ashdod, a Philistine city (1.8), and from Egypt to observe the oppressions of the poor on Mount Samaria, the capital of Israel.
This indictment (vv. 9-10) is followed by God's sentence: Samaria's strongholds
shall be plundered by an invading army (v. 11).
The metaphor of the plundering lion in v. 12 emphasizes how little will remain
in Samaria after the enemy strikes.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 29th

Read Amos 3.1-8 The power of prophets.
After a brief description of Israel's past salvation and future punishment (vv. 1-2), Amos begins a speech composed entirely of rhetorical questions (vv. 3-8).
With the first questions, Amos gains the audience's agreement on obvious issues in order to convince them of his real claim: When prophets speak, their words are the words of God (vv. 7-8).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 28th

Read Amos 2.9-16
In verses 9-12 a brief historical summary stresses Israel's stubbornness by contrasting it with God's act of salvation on Israel's behalf.
In verses 13-16 the judgment imposed for Israel's crimes will bring an end to Israel's strongest defenses: its fastest runners, its strongest warriors, its most skilled archers, and its best horsemen.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 27th

Read Amos 2.6-16 Judgment on Israel.
This judgment speech concludes the series of speeches directed against Israel's neighbors.
By starting with judgments against Israel's neighbors, Amos may have intended to lure his Israelite audience into agreement with him, only to shock them with a concluding speech listing their own sins, even more numerous than those of their neighbors.
In verses 6-8 Amos's indictment begins with Israel's mistreatment of its poor (vv. 6b-7a), in particular, the sale of humans into slavery when they were unable to pay their debts (8.6).
Garments taken in pledge (Ex 22.26-27; Deut 24.12-13) and fines refer to objects and money taken unfairly from the poor by the rich.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 26th

Read Amos 1.9-2.5
In verses 1.9-10 Tyre is a Phoenician city on the Mediterranean coast northwest of Israel.
In verses 11-12 Edom is Israel's neighbor to the southeast,
and Teman and Bozrah are two of its major cities.
Edom's brother may refer to either Israel of Judah (Ob 8-12).
In verses 13-15 the Ammonites, Israel's neighbors to the east, are accused as is Damascus (1.3),
of crimes against the Israelites in Gilead.
In verses 2.1-3 Moab, located southeast of Israel, is accused of crimes against its
southern neighbor Edom.
In verses 4-5 Judah, like Israel to follow (2.6-16), is criticized not the crimes against its neighbors, but for crimes within its own society against God's law.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 25th

Read Amos 1.3-2.5 Judgments on Israel's neighbors.
In typical two-part judgment speeches, containing indictments and sentences,
Amos announces divine judgment on seven of Israel's closest neighbors (see map on page 1182).
The indictments in each case involve acts of brutality against neighboring peoples.
The repetition of for three transgressions...and for four in each indictment is a
poetic convention meaning simply "several."
The image of fire in each sentence predicts the violent destruction of the cities indicted.
The phrase says the LORD, which begins and ends these speeches,
identifies them as divine oracles and the prophet as a divine spokesperson.
In verses 3-5 Damascus is the capital of the kingdom of Aram northeast of Israel,
and Hazael and Ben-hadad are two of its kings.
Gilead refers to Israelite territories east of the Jordan.
The location of Kir, which Amos regarded as the original home of the Arameans (9.7),
is uncertain.
In verses 6-8  Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Ekron are major Philistine cities
southwest of Israel on the Mediterranean coast.
Edom, to which both Gaza and Tyre (1.9-10) deported people,
is Israel's neighbor southeast of the Dead Sea.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 24th

Read Amos 1.1-2 Introduction.
Prophetic books customarily begin with data about their authors.
In verse 1 Amos preached during the reigns of King Uzziah of Judah (783-742 BCE)
and King Jeroboam of Israel (786-746), and he owned sheep and orchards (7.14).
Though from Tekoa, a town in Judah Amos preached primarily to Judah's northern neighbor,
Israel (2.6).
In verse 2 Jerusalem and Zion are both names of the capital city of Judah.
Carmel is a mountain range near the Mediterranean coast in Israel.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 23rd

Read 2 Thess 3.16-18 Epistolary closing.
Peace and grace for all of you suggests a desire to draw in the erring members.
In verse 17 with my own  hand, in light of 2.2, suggests that the writer feels a
need to authenticate his letter.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 22nd

Read 2 Thess 3.1-15 Commands and exhortations.
Two sets of commands and encouragements to virtue (vv. 1-4 and 6-15) surround a prayer (v. 5).
In verse 1 finally, the last section of the letter.
In verses 6-15 commands and exhortations to the entire community (vv. 6-10)
and to the offending figures in the congregation (vv. 11-12) precede a command
on how to deal with the disobedient (vv. 13-15).
In verse 6 in idleness could also mean "in disorderliness."
Apparently expecting the Lord to return very soon, some in the congregation stopped working.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 21st

Read 2 Thess 2.16-17 Another prayer.
As in 1.11-12, this prayer anticipates subsequent concerns,
in this case God's role in strengthening the community (3.3) and "work" (3.8-12).
In verse 17 comfort your hearts, see Isa 51.12; 61.2.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 20th

Read 2 Thess 2.1-15 A refutation.
False teaching about the day of the Lord is stated (vv. 1-2) and refuted (vv. 3-12).
In contrast is thanksgiving for the different fate of believers (vv. 13-15), who hold on the the truth
(v. 13), the proclamation, and the traditions (vv. 14-15).
In verse 3 lawless one, perhaps a false prophet or one of the emperors.
In verses 6-7 the identity of the unknown one restraining the lawless one is impossible to determine, but the conflict between the two belongs to what must occur before the day of the Lord.
In verse 13 we must always give thanks; see 1.3.
In verse 15 stand firm, see 1 Thess 3.8.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 19th

Read 2 Thess 1.3-10
In verses 3-10 Perseverance and future vindication.
This long sentence includes a thanksgiving (vv. 3-4) and a commentary on affliction (vv. 5-10).
In verses 3-4 the thanksgiving report relates the community's progress and steadfastness.
In verse 4 persecutions...afflictions, both mean suffering, but the first, external suffering,
is more specific.
They may mean the woes of the end time; see Dan 12.1.
In verses 5-10 these verses teach that suffering is a sign of being chosen and that those who suffer will be vindicated at the judgment.
That day anticipates 2.1-12, which refutes those who think their recent afflictions mean that the
"day of the Lord" has already appeared.
In verses 7-10 descriptions of God in the Hebrew Scriptures and other Jewish writings now apply to Jesus (see the angels in Zech 14.5; 1 Enoch 1.9; flaming fire in Isa 66.15-16; glorified in Ps 89.7).
In verses 11-12 A prayer.
These verses are the letter's main teaching.
Resolve, work of faith anticipate the refutations in 2.1-12 and 3.1-15.
In verse 12 see Isaiah 66.5, but it is Jesus who will be glorified.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 18th

Read 2 Thess 1.1-2 Epistolary opening.
The greeting is similar to 1 Thess but longer.
On Silvanus and Timothy, see 1 Thess 1.1.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 17th

Read Joel 3.1-21 Judgment on the nations and the restoration of Jerusalem.
In the Hebrew Bible, these verses are 4.1-21.
This poem does not mention the locusts, but takes as its backdrop the fall of Jerusalem in
586 BCE and the exile of its people (vv. 2, 5).
It follows the traditional structure of hymns, such as Ex 15.1-18 and Zech 14.1-21,
which celebrate the victory of God the warrior over Israel's enemies.
The threat to divine rule (vv. 1-8) brings God into a battle (vv. 9-14) that shakes the cosmos
(vv. 15-16).
Victorious, God is enthroned on his holy mountain (v. 17), making the world fertile (v. 18)
and saving his people (vv. 19-21).
In verse 2 Jehoshaphat is a symbolic-rather than an actual, geographical-place, meaning
"the LORD has judged."
In verse 4 Tyre and Sidon, cities on the Mediterranean coast north of Judah, and Philistia to the south
are accused of participating in Judah's destruction and deporting its people.
In verse 8 the Sabeans may be inhabitants of southern Arabia.
In verse 10 this verse reverses the image of peace in Isa 2.4 and Mic 4.3.
In verse 19 Egypt, sometimes ally and sometimes enemy, and Edom, elsewhere accused of participating in Jerusalem's destruction (Ob 8-14), are both counted here among the nations judged when Jerusalem is restored.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 16th

Read Joel 2.28-32 The outpouring of God's spirit.
In the Hebrew Bible, these verses constitute a new chapter: 3.1-5.
In verses 28-29 in the future, the prophetic gift will be spread among all people.
In verses 30-32 the day of the LORD is pictured with traditional images of darkness as a day of judgment on Jerusalem, which only a few will survive.
Whether these few are those who survived the locusts (which are not mentioned here) or the survivors of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE is not stated.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 15th

Read Joel 2.18-27 God's renewal of the land.
Joel anticipates new harvests to replace those the locusts have destroyed.
Each crop ruined in 1.1-2.17 is to be restored.
In verse 20 the northern army in Hebrew is simply "the northerner," used for the locust here because it is a traditional designation of the enemy, since enemies invaded from the north, or because the locusts themselves came in from the north, as did the first swarms in the 1915 plague in Jerusalem.
The eastern sea is the Dead Sea and the western sea is the Mediterranean Sea.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 14th

Read Joel 2.1-17 The call to repentance.
In verses 1-3 turning again to the priests whom he had just addressed (1.13-18), Joel directs
them to blow the trumpet in Zion (a synonym for Jerusalem), assembling all the people to ask
for God's forgiveness (vv. 15-17).
In verse 2 darkness and clouds are traditional images associated with the day of the LORD,
but they may also refer here to the dense swarms of locusts that can obscure the sun.
In verses 4-11 Joel develops in detail his comparison of the locust swarms with an invading army.
In verse 13 rend your hearts and not your clothing: While not abandoning ritual-he directs the priests to lead the people in a liturgy of repentance-Joel see genuine religion as a matter of inner renewal,
as is common among the prophets.
Like other prophets, Joel regards disasters like this as acts of divine judgment that require repentance, but unlike them, he does not describe the particular sins that be believes have brought on this punishment.
Gracious and merciful...This is an adaptation of a traditional description of God (Ex 34.6-7; Jon 4.2).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 13th

Read Joel 1.5-20 The call to mourning.
Joel summons three groups into mourning: consumers of wine (vv. 5-10), farmers (vv. 11-12),
and priests (vv, 13-18).
Then he cries out to God himself (vv. 19-20).
In verse 6 a nation has invaded my land begins an extended metaphor, by which Joel compares
the incoming locust swarms to an invading army (compare 2.2, 4-11, 25).
In verse 7 their branches have turned white: In this and other vivid details of decimated vegetation, Joel's description matches that of eyewitnesses of Jerusalem's last great locust plague in 1915.
In verse 15 the day of the LORD is a prophetic theme that reappears throughout Joel
(2.1, 11, 31; 3.14).
In verse 19 Joel uses the metaphor of fire together with the metaphor of an army for the
devouring locust (compare 2.3).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 12th

Read Joel 1.1-4 The locust plague.
Joel introduces the locust  plague as one unparalleled in the living memory of his people
(compare 2.2).
In verse 4 the four terms for locust here and in 2.25 may refer to stages in the growth of the locust.
The meanings of the Hebrew terms are unclear, and the translations, cutting locust, etc., are only suggestions.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 11th

Read 1 Thessalonians 5.23-28 Epistolary closing.
The passage is framed with a prayer or blessing form (5.23, 28) that reminds the congregation of the letter's themes: the survival of the community because of God's initiative (1.4; 2.12); sanctification (3.13; 4.3-4, 7-8); and the end time (1.10; 2.19; 3.13) which orients the community's life toward distinctive, blameless living.
In verse 24 one who calls an ongoing process, not a one-time event.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 10th

Read 1 Thessalonians 5.12-22 How the congregation should live.
In verse 12 those who...have charge of you, "leaders" or patrons in the congregation
who provided the means for the congregation to survive.
In verse 14 Idlers: NRSV, perhaps influenced by 2 Thess 3.11, uses this specific noun
rather than the more general "disorderly ones."
It is not a comment about laziness, but about those who have not fully embraced the
end-time orientation and need for holy living.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 9th

Read 1 Thessalonians 4.13-5.11 The expectation of the end times.
Paul shows the distinctiveness of a community expecting the Lord's coming.
In verse 4.16 God's trumpet, see Ex 19.16, 19; Isa 27.13; Joel 2.1.
In verse 17 meet, a term used of a delegation going out to meet a ruler.
In verse 5.3 labor pains, see Jer 6.24; 13.21; 22.23; Hos 13.13; Mic 4.9.
In verse 5 children light, an expression that occurs in the Dead Sea Scrolls (1 QS 1.9-10; 3.13).
In verse 8 on military imagery, see Isa 59.17.
In verse 10 who died for us, an early formulation of belief about Christ.
Comments or Questions...