the people to put awo.y the strange gods shrine, like those spoken of in Acts xix. 24 from among them (xxiv. 23). Moses, too, in connection with the worship of Dian,.. doubtless with a view to existing pro.ctices, The Syriac and Arabic versions call it wamsthem o.gainst worshipping the heavenly "tent," an<l thus the reproach stands forth bodies (Dent. iv. 19), o.nd offering eo.criflce emphatically that, instead of, or in conjuno- unto devils (Beirim), "arter 1Vhom they had tion with, the true tabernacle, they bore gone a-whoring" (Lev. xvii. 7). The pro- aloft, as if proud of their apostasy, the phets, too, allude to the idolatry practised tabernacle of o. false god. Buch shrinee in the desert (see Ezck. XL 7-26; Hos. i:it. were used by the Egyptians, according to 10). But to o.rgue (as some neologio.ns do) Herodotus (ii. 63, where see RawliUBon'a from this passage of Amos that the IsraelHes note) and Diod. Sic. (i. 97). Many such during those forty years knew nothing of may be seen in the Egyptian room of the Jehovah, or that Amos himself denies that British Museum. Keil quotes Drumann, they offered him any worship, is absurd, 'On the Rosetta Inscription,' p. 211., seeing that the prophet presupposes the "These were small chapels, generally fact, and blames them for corrupting the gilded and ornamented with flowers and Divine service and mingling the prescribed in other ways, intended to hold a small and enacted ritual with idolatrous accre- idol when processions were made, and to be tions. SaoriJlces; slain, bloody sacrifices. carried or driven about with it." Hence we Ol'erings ; bloodies~ sacrifices, mes.I offerings. must look to Egypt as the source of tbia Ver. 26.-This verse has occasioned great idolatry. Mo loch, though sanctioned oy perplexity to commentators. The connection the LXX. and St. Stephen (Acts vii 43), i■ with the context, the meaning of some of a mistranslation. De Rossi, indeed, men- the terms, o.nd whether the reference is to tions that one Hebrew manuscript givea past, present, or future, are questions which Moloch, but the received reading is Malke,. have roused much controversy. We need kem, which is confirmed by Symmaohus and not here recapitnlate the various opinions Theodotion, who have -roii fla.cr,>,.fu,y ~fJ.wv, whioh have been held. It will be sufficient e.nd by the Syriac. The translation, there- to state what seems to be the simplest and fore, sbonld run," Ye took up the shrine of most probable explanation of the pessage. your king," i.e. of him whom ye made your But we must not'"omit to mention first the king in tbe place of Jehovah, meaning some explanation adopted by Ewald, Schrader, stellar divinity. And Ohiun your imagea; Farrar, Konig, and others, viz. that this 1<al .,-1, lcrTpov -roil 8<oii ~fJ.'d" 'Paupdv, " and verse refers to the punitive deportation the star of your god Raipha.n •· (Septuagint); which was to be the people's lot, when they et imaginem idolo-rum vutrorum; literally, shonld take their shrines and images with the kiwun of your images. The parallelism them into captivity. "So shall ye take egain requires us to take this unknown (into exile) Sakkuth your king," etc. But word as au appellative; and according to the punishment is foretold in ver. 27; and its probable derivation, its meaning is "pe- this verse contrasts their idol-worship with destal," or "framework," that on which the the negleoted worship of Jehovah (ver. 25). image stood. The Greek rendering is, B.11 But ye have borne; and ye bare; ttal clve.\.d- Keil thinks, owing to a false reading of the fl•-r• (Septuagint); et portastia (Vnlgate). nnpointed text, in old Hebrew kaph &nd Ye offered me no pure worship in the wilder- resh being easily confounded, and vau and ness, seeing that ye took false gods with pe. Theodotion considered the word a you, and joined their worship with, or sub- oommon noun, transla.ting it by Gjlsaup.,cru,. stuted it for, mine. The tabernaole of your n is probably a mere coincidence that in Molooh; .,.~,, crtt71v~v -roil Mo.\.ox (Septua- some Assyrian inscriptions the name Kaira• gint); tabernaculum Molooh vestro (Vulgate). occurs as that of a deity, who is identified The Hebrew word rendered " te.bemacle" with Se.turn; that the Egyptians (from (sil,kuth), whioh is found nowhere else, has whom the Israelites must have derived the been variously explained. Aquila gives notion) ever acknowledged such a deity ia cr~cr1<1acrp.oos: Theodotion, "vision," reading quite unproved. St. Stephen merely quota the whole sentence thus: Kai 1/pa.,.. .,.~., the Teztus Receptus of his day, whioh waa ilpacr,v -rov flacr,.\.l.,s ~,.,;;,,, &µ,a6p.,cr1v d5w.\."'" close enough to the original forais argument. ~p.liiv, lCTTpov -rov ®•o~ ~,..,.,, Many modems The star of your god. These words are in render, "stake," "column," or "shrine." loose apposition with the preceding, and. Others suppose it to be equivalent to Sak- a.re equivalent to "your star-god," or the 1,uth, e.n Assyrian nBme for Moleoh ( or star whom ye worship a.i god. Whether Ad11r) ; but this is very uncertain (see some po.rticular star is meant, or whether • Studien und Kritiken,' 1874, p. S87), and the sun is the deity signified, cannot be the parallelism requires the word to be on determined, although the universal preva- appellative and not a proper name. It lence of the worship of sun-gods in Egyp\ most probably means "shrine," a portable makes the latter supposition very probable. 88 THE BOOK OF AMOS. [oH, V, 1-27,
St. Stephen puts the Bin in e. gene111l form : the oountry ouoe their own possession "God gELVe them up to serve the host of (2 Sam. viii. 6), thus dimly denoting As- hMven" (Acts vii. 42; comp. Deut. iv. 19: syria, at the.t time not hostile, but know11 xvii. 8). Whioh ye made to yourselves. in the time of Tiglu.th-Pileser I, (see th, Thie was the crime, self-will, desertion of e.ccomplishment, 2 Kings xv. 29; xvii. 6). the appointed way for devices of their own St. Stephen says (Aots vii. 48), "beyond invention. Babylon:" " Magis enim," observes Jerome, Ver. 27.-Therefore. The consequence "intelligentiam qunm verbum posuit; " of their continued alienation from God ehoulil aud he is probably blending other prophecies be deportation to a foreign land, beyond with that of Amos, e.g. Jer. :u. 4:, Dam&SOIIJI, fe.r away from the confines of