Amos 8:3

The nature of the -end" more fully described: the songs of the temple will be turned into loud cries of woe; so many will be the slain that they will be flung out unburied and unlamented.

temple The word might equally be rendered palace; and hence some have thought the allusion to be to the sounds of revelry (Amos 6:5), which were heard in the "palaces" (Hosea 8:14) of Israel. But more probably the reference is to the songs (Amos 5:23) of the worshippers assembled (Amos 9:1) in the sanctuary of Beth-el.

shall be howlings lit. shall howl, a mark of uncontrolled grief, as Isaiah 15:2-3; Isaiah 16:7; Micah 1:8 &c. Used of "songs," however, the expression is a strange one; Hoffmann and Wellh. would read shârôth"singing-women" for shîrôth"songs."

many the corpses! in all places have they cast them forth: hush!] By the use of the perfect tenses the prophet represents the future vividly as already accomplished (the "prophetic perfect," frequent in the prophets, e.g. Isaiah 9:2-3). He sees the corpses flung forth heedlessly and indiscriminately upon the ground. There is no time, or place, for honourable burial. The survivors do their work in despairing silence, stopping any one who would say a word, as before (Amos 6:10), with Hush!