AN I MADVE R S I O N E S An Underappreciated Medical Allusion in Amos 6,6? Amos 6,4-6 describes a scene where reclining banqueters feast on choice meats, enjoy musical entertainment, consume wine, and anoint themselves with oil. Earlier commentators saw here a denunciation of the decadent ruling classes of the northern kingdom — “a woe upon reckless and indifferent Samaria, who devotes herself to enervating luxury of every kind” (1). Recently, scholars have recognized that Amos may be describing no ordinary banquet, but a jzrm, as the appearance of this term in 6,7 suggests (2). Indeed, some of the terminology used by the prophet in 6,4-6 seems to have a distinctively cultic flavor (3). The banqueters drink their wine not from cups (swk; see, e.g., Jer 25,15; 35,5) but from bowls (qrzm); elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, μyqrzm are usually associated with the tabernacle (e.g., Exod 27,3; Num 4,14) or the temple (e.g., 1 Kgs 7,40; 2 Kgs 12,14). Also, the banqueters are said to anoint (jvm) themselves with oil. This verb usually refers to the ceremonial or ritual application of oil (e.g., Gen 31,13; Exod 28,41; 1 Sam 9,16); the cosmetic application of oil is usually denoted by the verbs ˚ws (e.g., Exod 30,32; Deut 28,40; 2 Sam 12,20) and ˆvd (Ps 23,5). Thus, it is not clear whether Amos condemns the banqueters for their sybaritic behavior alone or for the additional offense of cultic impropriety. In either case, the prophet concludes the description in 6,4–6 by calling attention to the self-absorption of those at the feast: πswy rbvAl[ wljn alw wjvmy μynmv tyvarw ˆyy yqrzmb μytvh A standard English translation (NRSV) of Amos 6,6 reads, “[Alas for those] who drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!” This translation conveys the banqueters’ indifference to the fate of “Joseph” — that is, Samaria or the northern kingdom — but it fails to capture the connotations of the other key words in the final clause, namely the nip‘al form of the verb hlj and the noun rbv. The latter term, etymologically a “break” or “fracture”, may also mean “wound”, as opposed to the more abstract “ruin”; indeed, rbv is not infrequently paired with hKm, “wound”, in parallelistic passages (Isa 30,26; Jer 10,19; 14,17; 30,12; Nah 3,19). And the root meaning of hlj, of course, is (1) W.R. HARPER, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Amos and Hosea (ICC; New York 1905) 141. (2) For a summary of recent scholarship treating the banquet as a jzrm, see J.S. GREER, “A Marzeah≥ and a Mizraq: A Prophet’s Mêlée with Religious Diversity in Amos 6.4-7”, JSOT 32 (2007) 243-261. (3) For the ceremonial or ritual connotations of qrzm and jvm, see GREER, “A Marzeah≥ and a Mizraq”, 248-250.