The book of Amos: interpreting Amos 5:25-27 - a study in exegesis

This article is an exegetical analysis of one of the most difficult passages in the Book of the Prophet Amos to understand and evaluate - Amos 5:25-27. To date, this passage continues to be a stumbling block for both researchers and readers. Above all, the variant readings and translations of this passage are significantly different, which causes differences in understanding. The author carefully analyzes the key variants and offers his vision of this passage as being in harmony with the rest of the material in Amos. The rejection of the truth of God plunges Israel into slavery to that pagan world from which it was once redeemed by the Lord. The proclamation of the Day of the Lord is being built by the Prophet Amos on the contrasting discrepancy between the expected and the true. The severity of the verdict of the 26th and 27th verses fully corresponds to the genre theme of a burial cry, “grief”, with all of its despair. In addition to being of scholarly interest, the article has academic value within the framework of a course on the prophetic books of the Old Testament.