Amos 5:5 - Exposition

Bethel … Gilgal. The scenes of idolatrous worship, where was no true seeking of God (see note on Amos 4:4 ). Beersheba . A spot about fifty miles southsouthwest of Jerusalem, the site of which has never been lost, and is marked to this day by seven much-frequented wells. As being one of the holy places celebrated in the history of the patriarchs ( Genesis 21:31 , Genesis 21:33 ; Genesis 26:23 , etc.; Genesis 46:1 ), it had become a shrine of idolatrous worship, to which the Israelites resorted, though it lay far out of their territory (comp. Amos 8:14 ). Gilgal shall surely go into captivity. There is in the Hebrew a play on the words here and in the following clause ( Hag-gilgal galoh yigleh ) , which commentators have paralleled with such expressions as, Capua capietur, Cremona cremabitur, Paris perira, "London is undone." Or, taking Joshua's explanation of the name, we may say, "Roll-town shall be rolled away." Bethel shall some to nought. As Bethel, "House of God," had become Bethaven, "House of vanity" (see Hosea 4:15 ), as being the temple of an idol, so the prophet, with allusion to this, says that "Bethel shall become aven " — vanity, nothingness, itself. No mention is made of the fate of Beersheba, because Amos has in view only the ten tribes, and the destiny of places beyond their territory is not here the object of his prediction; and indeed, when Israel was ruined, Beersheba escaped unharmed.