TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication .............................................................i Brief Explanation About the Technical Resources Used in this Commentary Series ....ii Brief Definitions of Hebrew Grammatical Forms Which Impact Exegesis........... iv Abbreviations Used in This Commentary.................................... x How This Commentary Can Help You ..................................... xii A Guide to Good Bible Reading .......................................... xiv Introduction to Amos .................................................1 Amos 1............................................................8 Amos 2...........................................................25 Amos 3...........................................................38 Amos 4...........................................................56 Amos 5...........................................................66 Amos 6...........................................................79 Amos 7...........................................................88 Amos 8...........................................................97 Amos 9..........................................................105 Introduction to Hosea ...............................................119 Hosea 1..........................................................123 Hosea 2..........................................................130 Hosea 3..........................................................144 Hosea 4..........................................................149 Hosea 5..........................................................158 Hosea 6..........................................................165 Hosea 7..........................................................172 Hosea 8..........................................................180 Hosea 9..........................................................187 Hosea 10.........................................................195 Hosea 11.........................................................204 Hosea 12.........................................................211 Hosea 13.........................................................217 Hosea 14.........................................................223 Introduction to Jonah ...............................................229 Jonah 1..........................................................232 Jonah 2..........................................................243 Jonah 3..........................................................249 Jonah 4..........................................................255 Introduction to Micah ...............................................259 Micah 1..........................................................264 Micah 2..........................................................273 Micah 3..........................................................282 Micah 4..........................................................290 Micah 5..........................................................321 Micah 6..........................................................316 Micah 7..........................................................328 Appendix One: Charts of Kings and Events .................................338 Appendix Two: Brief Historical Survey of the Powers of Mesopotamia ...........343 Appendix Three: Outline of the Entire Old Testament .........................350 SPECIAL TOPICS TABLE OF CONTENTS Hebrew Poetry, Amos 1:2 ................................................11 Names for Deity, Amos 1:2...............................................13 Repentance in the Old Testament, Amos 1:3..................................18 Fertility Worship of the Ancient Near East, Amos 1:9 ..........................21 Cremation, Amos 2:1 ....................................................26 Righteousness, Amos 2:6.................................................29 Holy, Amos 2:7 ........................................................33 Amorite, Amos 2:9......................................................35 Sacrificial Systems of the Ancient Near East, Amos 3:14........................45 Biblical Attitudes Toward Alcohol (Fermentation) and Alcoholism (Addiction), 6:6 . 82 Fire, Amos 7:4.........................................................91 Prophet (the Different Hebrew Terms), Amos 7:12 ............................94 Ancient Near Eastern Weights and Volumes (Metrology), Amos 8:5...............99 Where Are the Dead?, Amos 9:2..........................................107 “Tensions” Taken from Crucial Introduction to Vol. 12, Revelation, Amos 9:7 .....111 Covenant, Hosea 2:18 ..................................................138 Forever (’Olam), Hosea 2:19.............................................139 Lovingkindness (Hesed), Hosea 2:19 ......................................141 Teraphim, Hosea 3:4 ...................................................147 This Age and the Age to Come ...........................................148 Lions in the OT, Hosea 5:14 .............................................164 Ransom/Redeem, Hosea 7:13 ............................................177 The Heart, Hosea 10:1..................................................197 Predestination (Calvinism) vs. Human Free Will (Arminiaism) ..................238 Faith (Pistis [noun], PisteuÇ [verb], Pistos, [adjective]), Jonah 3:5 ...............252 The Remnant, Three Senses, Micah 2:12 ...................................280 296 OT Predictions of the Future vs. NT Predictions, Micah 4:7 ....................296 The Trinity, Micah 5:2..................................................307 Bob’s Evangelical Biases, Micah 5:7 ......................................311 Women in the Bible, Micah 6:4...........................................319 This volume is dedicated to The OMS Bible Seminary and the Emmaus Churches of Haiti, who have done and are doing a wonderful job of spreading the gospel and meeting the physical needs of the Haitian people! BRIEF EXPLANATIONS OF THE TECHNICAL RESOURCES USED IN THIS OLD TESTAMENT COMMENTARY SERIES I. Lexical There are several excellent lexicons available for ancient Hebrew. A. Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament by Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs. It is based on the German lexicon by William Gesenius. It is known by the abbreviation BDB. B. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament by Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, translated by M. E. J. Richardson. It is known by the abbreviation KB. C. A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament by William L. Holladay and is based on the above German lexicon. D. A new five volume theological word study entitled The New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, edited by Willem A. Van Gemeren. It is known by the abbreviation NIDOTTE. Where there is significant lexical variety, I have shown several English translations (NASB, NKJV, NRSV, TEV, NJB) from both “word-for-word” and “dynamic equivalent” translations (cf. Gordon Fee & Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible For All Its Worth, pp. 28-44). II. Grammatical The grammatical identification is usually based on John Joseph Owens’ Analytical Key to the Old Testament in four volumes. This is cross checked with Benjamin Davidson’s Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon of the Old Testament. Another helpful resource for grammatical and syntactical features which is used in most of the OT volumes of “You Can Understand the Bible” Series is “The Helps for Translators Series” from the United Bible Societies. They are entitled “A Handbook on ___________.” III. Textual I am committed to the inspiration of the consonantal Hebrew text (not the Masoretic vowel points and comments). As in all hand-copied, ancient texts, there are some questionable passages. This is usually because of the following: A. hapax legomenon (words used only once in the Hebrew OT) B. idiomatic terms (words and phrases whose literal meanings have been lost) C. historical uncertainties (our lack of information about the ancient world) D. the poly-semitic semantic field of Hebrew’s limited vocabulary E. problems associated with later scribes hand-copying ancient Hebrew texts F. Hebrew scribes trained in Egypt who felt free to update the texts they copied to make them complete and understandable to their day (NIDOTTE pp. 52-54). There are several sources of Hebrew words and texts outside the Masoretic textual tradition. 1. The Samaritan Pentateuch 2. The Dead Sea Scrolls 3. Some later coins, letters, and ostraca (broken pieces of unfired pottery used for writing) But for the most part, there are no manuscript families in the OT like those in the Greek NT manuscripts. For a good brief article on the textual reliability of the Masoretic Text (A.D. 900's) see “The Reliability of the Old Testament Text” by Bruce K. Waltke in the NIDOTTE, vol. 1, pp. 51-67. ii The Hebrew text used is Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia from the German Bible Society, 1997, which is based on the Leningrad Codex (A.D. 1009). Occasionally, the ancient versions (Greek Septuagint, Aramaic Targums, Syriac Peshitta, and Latin Vulgate) are consulted if the Hebrew is ambiguous or obviously confused. iii BRIEF DEFINITIONS OF HEBREW VERBAL FORMS WHICH IMPACT EXEGESIS I. Brief Historical Development of Hebrew Hebrew is part of the Shemitic (Semitic) family of southwest Asian language. The name (given by modern scholars) comes from Noah’s son, Shem (cf. Gen. 5:32; 6:10). Shem’s descendants are listed in Gen. 10:21-31 as Arabs, Hebrews, Syrians, Arameans, and Assyrians. In reality some Semitic languages are used by nations