Week 33 Amos 1-2
Right away Amos lists six nations coming up for a judicial review: Damascus Gaza Tyre Edom Ammon & Moab. I’m only interested in Edom Ammon & Moab (EAM) since I was wondering about them earlier this year.
I remembered that heading toward the Promised Land Israel was specifically told to Leave EAM Alone! (Moab & Ammon had been given preferential land grants because they were the sons of Lot. And Edom had too since Esau was Isaac’s son).
Back in March I did some low-level searching to see how long EAM had held onto their land (it was long…but how long?) Anyway the point now – hundreds of pages & months later – is that I’m seeing EAM reappear in Amos. And whatever all else they’d been up to in the meantime Amos points out that some of it was no good:
Edom: they chased down their relatives, the Israelites, with swords. They showed them no mercy and were unrelenting in their anger
Ammon: they attacked Gilead to extend their borders, they committed cruel crimes
Moab: they desecrated the tomb of Edom’s king and burned his bones to ashes.
What I do know now is that EAM are all still in-the-mix during the time of Amos.
What I still don’t know: how much more time do EAM have left?
Note: quotes from Amos 1:11 13 2:2 (NLT). See Genesis 19:30-38 for Moab & Ammon and Genesis 32:3 for Edom. And see EAM posts from March 2/24 ‘whose land?’ and March 4/24 ‘long lasting’