Eugene P. McGarry, «An Underappreciated Medical Allusion in Amos 6,6?», Vol. 90 (2009) 559-563
In the ancient Mediterranean world, olive oil and wine had medicinal as well as culinary and (in the case of olive oil) cosmetic applications. Amos may be playing on the multiple uses of these items when he condemns banqueters for drinking wine and anointing themselves while ignoring the “wound of Joseph”.
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 “fractureâ€, may also mean
“woundâ€, as opposed to the more abstract “ruinâ€; indeed, rbv is not
infrequently paired with hKm, “woundâ€, 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 6.4-7â€,
JSOT 32 (2007) 243-261.
(3) For the ceremonial or ritual connotations of qrzm and jvm, see GREER, “A Marzeah≥
and a Mizraqâ€, 248-250.