Amos 8:10, commentary and pictures

It foretells a time when celebration is turned into intense public grief, marked by sackcloth and shaved heads, with sorrow as deep as for the death of an only child and ending in bitterness. It is spoken as warning to those who exploit the needy and crush the poor to advance themselves, declaring that such oppression will not continue but will end in overturning and woe upon the oppressors. That mourning belongs to the day of the Lord when the offer of salvation has passed, followed by a famine not of food or water but of hearing the words of the Lord. While the word is now freely available and widely neglected, then those who rejected it will search for it from place to place and not find it, because those sent to proclaim it have finished their work. After probation closes mercy no longer pleads, ministers have no message left to give, and sinners wander from city to city and country to country seeking one sent from Heaven and find none, left in darkness and despair.

Grief Described and Situated

Amos 8:10 foretells a time when feasts are turned into mourning and all songs into lamentation, with sackcloth brought upon all loins and baldness upon every head, grief made as deep as the mourning for an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day. The grief is severe public mourning and lamentation, when occasions of feasting become occasions of sorrow and the day ends in bitterness. Sackcloth, baldness, and shaved heads are its outward public marks of intense sorrow and mourning. The shaving of the head in mourning was permitted to the Lord's people; what was forbidden was not shaving itself but adopting hair and beard styles to identify with idolatrous worship. Baldness here is a sign of mourning and not a special sign of the last days, since it was also common in centuries before Christ and is no more distinctive than other physical deterioration.

The judgment first applied to apostate Israel shortly before the captivity, and it also applies to later generations marked by oppression and corruption, including the Jews in captivity and at the rejection of Christ. Amos, whose name means burdened, was a shepherd of Tekoa in Judea who prophesied at Bethel in the reigns of Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam II of Israel, was accused of treason by the priests and expelled from the northern kingdom to which many of his prophecies referred, and spoke in striking illustrations from shepherd life; the verse foretells the downfall of apostasy. The verse belongs to condemnation of Sabbath breaking that treats the sins condemned as ethical rather than ceremonial.

The darkening of the sun at midday connected with the verse marks the departure of the spiritual light and glory that had rested on Protestants during the 45 years ending in 1844, when a time of blessing was turned into deep mourning like mourning for an only son on a bitter day. The surrounding prophecy foretells signs in sun, moon, and stars marking the nearness of Christ's coming and the end of the world, to appear immediately after the long persecution from 538 to 1798. It was fulfilled when the sun was darkened at midday on May 19, 1780 with felt darkness and the full moon that night gave no light and then appeared as blood, the sun becoming black as sackcloth of hair and the moon withholding its light, and when the stars fell on November 30, 1833, showing Christ is near at the door and that the generation seeing all these signs shall not pass till all things including His coming are fulfilled. The verse also foreshows the effects of the dreadful scourge associated with the first vial, when feasting and singing turn to mourning and lamentation.

Famine of Hearing Word

The mourning belongs to the day of the Lord when the time for salvation has passed, turning feasts into mourning and songs into lamentation with grief as deep as for an only son and a bitter end. It is followed by a famine not of food or water but of hearing the words of the Lord. While the word is now freely available and freely offered, many neglect, disregard, treat it carelessly, or reject it, but then they will search for it desperately and urgently from place to place and not find it. They will not find it because those commissioned to proclaim it will have finished their work and their commission, the watchmen who sounded the warning will have finished, and no message for sinners remains.

The verse belongs to prophecies portraying calamity and mourning among the wicked and pointing to last-day conditions. Its judgment follows the people's works and is connected with the coming great famine of hearing God's word just before probation ends and the end comes. The judgments are followed by a great famine for the word of God, when people who neglected the truth seek it but do not find it. That famine comes after the watchmen have left Zion's walls, and those who postponed investigation realize too late that they are not saved. The judgment first applied to apostate Israel shortly before the captivity, and also applies to later generations marked by oppression and corruption, including the Jews in captivity and at the rejection of Christ.

The verse foretells the downfall of apostasy and points forward from that to the last days, when there shall be a famine of the Word. After probation closes mercy finishes pleading, Christ lays off priestly attire and leaves the mercy-seat, and wrath is poured out without mercy. Then ministers of truth will have no message, no spirit of prayer for sinners, and no more offer to come, and the warning church will be hushed in solemn silence while sinners are shut up in darkness and black despair. The word once heard freely and despised can no longer be heard because the watchmen have finished their commission and are called down, so people wander from sea to sea and from north to east and run from city to city, state to state, and country to country seeking one commissioned of Heaven and find none, with the heavens as brass. Then they turn to rend the false shepherds who deceived them with peace and safety, with children reproaching parents and parents children for having kept family members from the truth.

Retribution upon Oppressors

The word is addressed to those who swallow up the needy and cause the poor of the land to fail, even when the harm is not directly intended but comes incidentally from advancing their own interests and is regarded with indifference. Such injustice done to the least and humblest is reckoned as done to God Himself, who remembers His children. The announcement of turned feasts and songs, of sackcloth, baldness, grief like that for an only son, and a bitter end is a merciful forewarning of coming dangers and perils, given so that both rich and poor may be saved. It warns that God will bring mourning and bitter grief upon a society marked by oppression of the poor, for the oppressed will not remain trampled and woe will come upon their oppressors.

The turning of feasts into mourning and songs into lamentation, with sackcloth upon loins and shaved heads and sorrow as deep as mourning for an only son, describes the end of oppression when wealth and power gained by exploiting others are overturned. It is the bitter end of a time of prosperity and rejoicing, when feasting and singing give place to mourning and lamentation. This judgment belongs to the last days, when bitter retribution falls upon those who revel in wealth, luxury, and pleasure while oppressing the poor and God brings the oppressors' power to an end. As Egypt was filled with mourning at the death of the firstborn, so this final reckoning brings a like bitterness upon the oppressors.

The prophecy foretells coming social calamity and upheaval in which the poor, driven to anger by the rich, may rise against them. In that day the songs of the palace where the rich dwell become howlings, amid many dead bodies cast forth in silence in every place. Feasts and songs then become mourning, with grief as deep as the mourning for an only son.