Amos 2:4

despised R.V. rejected, as 1 Samuel 15:23; 1 Samuel 15:26; Isaiah 7:15-16 shew, the better rendering of the Hebrew word used (mâ"as): comp. Isaiah 5:24; Jeremiah 6:19.

the law of the Lord the direction of Jehovah. See further, on this expression, the Additional Note, p. 230. The reference, as is there shewn, is probably not to ceremonial ordinances, but to spiritual and moral teaching, uttered, as the case might be, by priests or prophets in Jehovah's name.

not kept his commandments better, with R.V., his statutes (as ḥoḳproperly something engraven, viz. on a public tablet, hence fig. decree, statuteis rendered in Deut., and elsewhere): cf. (also with keep) Exodus 15:26; Deuteronomy 4:40; Deuteronomy 7:11 &c.

their lies i.e. their unreal gods, whose existence, power, ability to help, &c., are all falsely imagined.

caused them to err or led them astray:the false gods, set up by the fathers as objects to be revered, beguiled and misled their children. To walk after(sometimes rendered follow) is an expression used often of devotion to idolatry: see Deuteronomy 4:3; Deuteronomy 8:19; Deuteronomy 11:28; Deuteronomy 13:2; Jeremiah 2:5; Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 2:23 &c. (also of devotion to Jehovah, Deuteronomy 13:4 al.).

Additional Note on Chap. Amos 2:4 (-tôrâh," law)

The general sense of -law" (Heb. tôrâh) in the O.T. is authoritative direction(from hôrâh, to point out, Genesis 46:28, or direct, Judges 13:8) [219], but the kind of -direction" denoted by it varies with the context. Its principal and probably primary application is to oral directiongiven by the priests in Jehovah's name, on matters of ceremonial observance, e.g. on distinctions between clean and unclean, on the different species of sacrifice, and the cases in which they were respectively to be offered, on the criteria of leprosy &c.: Leviticus 6:8; Leviticus 6:14; Leviticus 11:46; Leviticus 14:57; Leviticus 15:32; Numbers 5:29 &c.; Jeremiah 18:18 (" directionwill never perish from the priest," i.e. the priest and his functions will never come to an end, said by those who disbelieved Jeremiah's predictions of national ruin), Ezekiel 7:26; Haggai 2:11 (-Ask now directionof the priests," after which an example follows); Malachi 2:7 (-They seek directionat his mouth"): the cognate verb [A.V., R.V. teach is used similarly, Deuteronomy 24:8 (with reference to leprosy), Deuteronomy 33:10 ("They directJacob with thy judgements (Exodus 21:1), and Israel with thy direction"); Micah 3:11 ("Her priests give directionfor a price"); Ezekiel 44:23; and elsewhere, passages which shew that it is the word employed technically to denote this aspect of the priests" duties. Both the verb and the subst. would be most exactly represented in English by directand direction, respectively: teach, teaching, and law, when they stand for either, must be understood to possess the same force. The term is however also employed, more generally, both of decisions on points of secular, or civil law (Exodus 18:16; Exodus 18:20), and of the authoritative teaching given in Jehovah's name, either by priests or prophets, on questions of moral or religious duty. Thus Hosea (Hosea 4:6-8) speaks of Jehovah's Tôrâhas a moralagency, and attributes the crimes prevalent in Israel (Hosea 4:1 b, Hosea 4:2) to the priests" forgetfulness of its true character (Amos 4:6 b), and to their worldly unconcern for the "knowledge" of God, which its possession implies (Amos 4:6 a; comp. Jeremiah 2:8): see also Amos 8:1; Amos 8:12. In Isaiah 1:10 the -Tôrâhof our God" is the exposition which follows (Amos 2:11) respecting the true character of religious service; Isaiah 5:24 the Tôrâh, which Judah has "rejected" (same word as in Amos 2:4) consists of the precepts of civil righteousness and morality, the disregard of which the prophet has been just denouncing, Amos 2:8; Isaiah 8:16; Isaiah 8:20 it denotes the half-political, half-religious advice just given by the prophet (Amos 2:12); Isaiah 30:9 it is used similarly of the partly political, partly religious, warnings of the prophets (see Amos 2:10); Isaiah 30:20 the prophets are called by the corresponding subst., the -directers" (teachers) of the people of Jerusalem. In Deuteronomy the exposition of moral and religious duty, which occupies the greater part of the book, is repeatedly described as "this Tôrâh" (Deuteronomy 1:5; Deuteronomy 4:8; Deuteronomy 4:44; Deuteronomy 17:18 &c.). Jeremiah uses the word in a similar sense: e.g. Jeremiah 6:19 (as in Isaiah 1:10, of the spirit in which religious duties should be performed, see Isaiah 1:20); Amos 9:13 f. (of exhortations against idolatry probably those contained in Deuteronomy), Jeremiah 16:11 (similarly), Jeremiah 26:4 (of the preaching of the prophets, see Amos 2:5). It is also used of the authoritative religious and moral teaching, which the prophets picture as being given in the future to the world, either by God Himself, or by His representative: Isaiah 2:3 (Micah 4:2); Jeremiah 31:33; Isaiah 42:4 (of the preaching of Jehovah's ideal "Servant"), Isaiah 51:4. Here the context (comp. the note on lies, in the same verse), and the importance which Amos uniformly attaches to moralduties, make it probable that, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, he means by the term spiritual and moral teaching, uttered, whether by priests or prophets, in Jehovah's name.

[219] The root yârâhsignifies, however, properly to throwor cast(Exodus 15:4); and hence it is quite possible that the primitive meaning of hôrâh, in this connexion, was to castthe sacred lot at a sanctuary, for the purpose of ascertaining the will of the deity on behalf of those who came to consult it. Comp. the use made by the priest of the "Ephod," and "Urim and Thummim" (1Sa 14:3; 1 Samuel 14:18 (LXX.), 41 [note esp. LXX.], 42, 1 Samuel 23:9-12; 1 Samuel 28:6; 1 Samuel 30:7-8). Tôrâh, if this view be correct, will have denoted originally the -direction" obtained by means of the sacred lot. It remained a principal duty of the Israelitish priest to teach Jehovah's Tôrâh, though this particular method of ascertaining it fell no doubt early into abeyance, and the term acquired a more general sense. Comp. Nowack, Hebr. Arch. ii. 97f. In Arabic, it may be observed, kâhin(which corresponds to the Heb. kôhçn, priest) means a diviner, who speaks as the organ of a god or jinn; and a comparison of the Hebrew and Arabic terms makes it probable that the common and primitive meaning of both was one who gave answers, in the name of his god, at a sanctuary: in Arabia, the kâhinwas gradually dissociated from the sanctuary and became a mere diviner; in Canaan, his connexion with the sanctuary was preserved, and he acquired important sacrificial functions in addition.