Amos 5:26

But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch,.... The god of the Ammonites; [See comments on Amos 1:13]; and [See comments on Jeremiah 7:31]; called theirs, because they also worshipped it, and

Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

But ye, the idolatrous children of idolatrous fathers, have borne, carried along with you in the wilderness, the tabernacle, or little chapel, or shrine, or canopy, in which the image of their idol was placed. Though others conjecture this to be the proper name of an idol, I conjecture it is the name of the portable temple or chapel in which the supposed deity was placed. Moloch; the great idol of the Ammonites, as Jupiter was of the Greeks and Romans; some ancient king among them, who was a famous founder, or raiser, and benefactor to their nation, though we know not who this was. Chiun: perhaps if we understand the whole apparatus or storehouse of their images, We shall not err. Their grand idol was Moloch, whose image they kept, and carried about in a sacellum, or consecrated portable chapel, and with him the rest of their petit deities, in their images placed orderly, as they fancied, about their great deity. Others will have Chiun to be Saturn. Your images: whatever these were, it is plain God accounts them their inventions and their gods. The star of your god: what star this was we need not inquire; the idolaters appropriated the stars to their gods, and probably did in the roof of their gods’ tabernacles frame the star over the image of their god: or, the star your god, or which you worship. Which ye made to yourselves; all which deities you have found out and established to yourselves.

Amos 5:26 But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.Ver. 26. But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch] That idols were wont to be carried upon men’ s shoulders we may see, Isaiah 56:7; Bar 6:3; Bar 2:5. That Moloch or Milcom was the abomination of the Ammonites (who called their king as the Israelites called the true God, Isaiah 44:6; Isaiah 33:22), see 1 Kings 11:5; that the Israelites should do thus in the wilderness (where they had God’ s tabernacle erected), carrying about them privily some portable chapels or pictures of these idols (as some hold they did, and Josephus seems to say as much), was monstrous wickedness, and the guise of men given up to a reprobate sense, Romans 1:23 2 Thessalonians 2:10-11. And Chiun your images] That is, your notable image, the plural for the singular, as often; especially in names of dignity. Jerome here for Chiun hath Remphan; confer Acts 7:43, and the commentators thereon. Aben Ezra thinks that by Chiun is meant the planet Saturn, called Chivan in the Arabic. And other Hebrews by the star of your god (that is, the star which is your god), understand Mercury.

(25, 26) Much uncertainty belongs to the interpretation of these verses and their connection in thought. Some commentators would treat Amos 5:25 as a statement, and not a question, the first word being read as a definite article, and not an interrogative prefix in the Hebrew. But the construction of the following words forbids this supposition, and nearly all exegetes follow the LXX., Vulg., Targ., in taking the sentence as interrogative. Is the expected answer negative or affirmative? Heb. usage points to the former. So Ewald and Keil According to the latter, the words apply to the nation as a whole, or to the great mass of the people, individual exceptions being passed by. The following verse is then taken in an adversative sense, “To me ye have offered no sacrifices, but ye have borne,” &c. The opposition is between the Jehovah-worship, which they suspended, and the idol-worship which they carried on. This is a possible interpretation, as Driver (Heb. Tenses, § 119a, foot-note) admits. But as that writer shows (l.c.), it is more in consonance with grammatical usage to translate in Amos 5:26 by a future, as Ewald does: “So ye shall carry away the tabernacle,” &c., i.e., when driven into exile. To this thought Amos 5:27 forms a natural development: And I will carry you away captive, &c. Moreover, in the light of this interpretation the logical connection of Amo 5:21-27 becomes much simpler: “I, Jehovah, abhor the mechanical round of corrupt and hollow ceremonial cloaking wickedness of conduct. Live righteously. Did I exact punctilious discharge of ceremonial in the desert wanderings? [No.] Therefore I shall submit you once more to the discipline of exile wanderings.” On the meaning of the difficult clause, Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made for yourselves, as well as on the rendering of the LXX. and St. Stephen’s quotation of the passage, see Excursus B. Kuenen is scarcely justified in founding an argument on this passage as to the origin of the Sabbath. B (Amos 5:26). Three obscure points render this verse one of the most difficult in the Old Testament. 1. As to tense. The interpretation to which preference has been given in the commentary on the text—the time being regarded as future—has been decided on grounds of grammatical usage only. But certainly the larger number of commentators have rendered the verb as a past tense, “But ye bore the tabernacle,” &c., the time referred to being that of the desert wanderings. This view is upheld by Hitzig, Kuenen, Keil, Henderson, and also by R. S. Poole. It is also supported by the LXX. 2. The word Sikkûth, rendered tabernacle, or tent, in the E.V. and by the LXX., is derived from a root signifying both to interweave and to cover—an etymology which confirms the above rendering. Ewald’s conjecture that it signifies “stake,” inferred from the Aramaic Sekkitho, is to be rejected. The conception of Moloch being carried in a tent may be illustrated from the Egyptian monuments of Rameses XII. Birch (Egypt, S. P. C.

Verse 26. But ye have borne] The preceding verse spoke of their fathers; the present verse speaks of the Israelites then existing, who were so grievously addicted to idolatry, that they not only worshipped at stated public places the idols set up by public authority, but they carried their gods about with them everywhere. The tabernacle of your Moloch] Probably a small portable shrine, with an image of their god in it, such as Moloch; and the star or representative of their god Chiun. For an ample exposition of this verse, See Clarke on Acts 7:42; to which let me add, that from Picart's Religious Ceremonies, vol. iii. p. 199, we find that there was an idol named Choun worshipped among the Peruvians from the remotest antiquity.

21–26. Do you think to win Jehovah’s favour by your religious services? On the contrary, He will have none of them: what He demands is not sacrifice, or even praise, but justice; in the wilderness your ancestors offered no sacrifices, without forfeiting Jehovah’s regard; your mistake is a fatal one, and its end will be exile.

But ye have borne - Literally, “And ye bare the tabernacle of your Moloch” (literally, “your king,” from where the idol Moloch had its name.) He assigns the reason, why he had denied that they sacririced to God in the wilderness.

26, 27. The sentence. The translation of Amo 5:26 and its relation to the context are matters of much dispute. Does it refer to the past, the present, or the future?