Especially since 2018, apparently the most popular post on this blog is a short piece I wrote in the spring of 2016 on interpreting Amos 5:24. In that post, I argued, on the basis of the context in Amos as a book and Amos 5 as a chapter, that the popular understanding of Amos 5:24 as a hortatory call for the practice of justice is incorrect, and that the verse was intended as a call for judgment on Israel. Because of the popularity of the post and because of the confusion that commenters seem to have about why I wrote the post, I want to send this as an update.
Continue reading “Revisiting Amos 5:24”Category: Amos
I Have a Dream for Amos 5:24
Please see update I wrote to this post in 2020 here.
On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech, “I Have a Dream.” During the middle of the civil rights movement, this speech emphasized the optimism and hope that many activists held for the future. There is, however, one exception. King quoted Amos 5:24 in this context:
No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.’
Now most of us probably think King means something like this: “We cannot be satisfied until there is fairness for the negro, and all in the nation behave rightly towards their neighbors, independent of prejudice against color.” This is what we think based on the context of the speech. Now I mean no disrespect to Dr. King and the great good done by his actions and this speech, but unfortunately, that’s not what the verse means, because the verse has to be interpreted in the context of its chapter. Continue reading “I Have a Dream for Amos 5:24”
Citizens & Sons 