Poetics of Prophecy
One could see Goya’s painting as Prophetic Art. For most people, the word is loosely used to refer to foretelling—predicting the future. But the essence of prophecy is forthtelling—speaking truth to power. This is certainly true of Hebrew prophets such as Amos.
from the Prophecy of Amos
The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa—the vision he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel. He said:
“The Lord roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds dry up, and the top of Carmel withers.”
In the 8th Century BCE, a humble shepherd named Amos rose up with a message for his people that he felt had come from the Lord. His message burns with divine anger.
Judgment on Israel’s Neighbors
This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Damascus, even for four, I will not relent.
Because she threshed Gilead with sledges having iron teeth,
I will send fire on the house of Hazael
that will consume the fortresses of Ben-Hadad.
I will break down the gate of Damascus;
I will destroy the king in the Valley of Aven
and the one who holds the scepter in Beth Eden.
The people of Aram will go into exile to Kir,” says the Lord.
This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Gaza, even for four, I will not relent.
Because she took captive whole communities and sold them to Edom,
I will send fire on the walls of Gaza that will consume her fortresses. …
till the last of the Philistines are dead,” says the Sovereign Lord.
This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Tyre, even for four, I will not relent. …
This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Edom, even for four, I will not relent. …
This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Ammon, even for four, I will not relent. …
This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Moab, even for four, I will not relent. …
At this point, Amos’ audience is surely breaking out in cheers. Aram, Edom, Tyre, Ammon, Moab—these are the homelands immediately surrounding the Kingdom of Israel. Audiences always love to hear tirades against them, their neighbors and rivals.
At this point, Amos’ audience is surely breaking out in cheers. Aram, Edom, Tyre, Ammon, Moab—these are the homelands immediately surrounding the Kingdom of Israel. Audiences always love to hear tirades against them, their neighbors and rivals.
The audience is also moved by the rhythms of Rhetoric. In recent weeks, we have explored common rhetorical figures of Scheme, especially Anaphora, Parallelism. Can you find examples above?
Now let’s introduce another figure that is very common in Hebrew poetry and in certain kinds of Free Verse that we will explore below.
Catalogue
Amos composes the judgments of the Lord in a catalogue of offending nations and, furthermore, in a repeated formula: “For three sins of Tyre, even for four …” This pattern of repetition within a list creates a rhythm for listeners to poetic oratory. You’ll find it in many of the Hebrew prophets. But wait. Amos has one more offending nation, one that shocks his audience.
This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Judah,
even for four, I will not relent.
Because they have rejected the law of the Lord
and have not kept his decrees,
because they have been led astray by false gods,
the gods their ancestors followed,
I will send fire on Judah
that will consume the fortresses of Jerusalem.”
Wait … what? Is he condemning US? The Chosen People? Why? To make his harsh points, Amos uses a Metaphor. Notice below the figure of a plum line, a weight that builders hang from a cord to establish a true vertical line. How does this metaphor help Amos establish God’s clear ethical standards?
“The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and
the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined;
with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”
This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”
“A plumb line,” I replied.
Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
“The high places of Isaac will be destroyed
and the sanctuaries of Israel ruined;
with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”
At the time Amos began to prophecy, Jeroboam II was the king of Israel. Of course, the shepherd’s harsh message provokes political reprisals. Jeroboam sends a tame court prophet, Amaziah, to see off the not so humble upstart. Things do not go well.
Then Amaziah, priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. 11 For this is what Amos is saying:
“‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,
and Israel will surely go into exile,
away from their native land.’”
Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”
Obviously, “prophets” who represent the state—in essence, propagandists—will object to predictions of the state’s fall. But his dark message also challenges the well-bred authority of a Classical school of prophets who gratified a royal audience by repeating formulaic visions of spiritual complacency. The elitist prophets despise Amos because this insignificant seer, an illiterate shepherd, doesn’t fit in.
Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now then, hear the word of the Lord.
You say, “‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’
“Therefore this is what the Lord says:
“‘Your wife will become a city prostitute, and
your sons and daughters will fall by the sword.
Your land will be measured, divided up, and
you yourself will die in a pagan country.
And Israel will surely go into exile,
away from their native land.’”
This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. “What do you see, Amos?” he asked.
“A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered.
Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel;
I will spare them no longer.
“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”
So the Lord is not happy with Jeroboam or his people. Why? Well, they must have lapsed religiously, right? But no, the problem is not a lack of religiosity. Quite the opposite:
your assemblies are a stench to me.
Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them.
Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
I hate, I despise your religious festivals. In the Lord’s eyes, the problem with the Israelites is not religious laxness. Amos excoriates precisely those who are meticulously observing the rituals of the faith. Piety cannot compensate for the sins that really bother God.
You levy a straw tax on the poor
and impose a tax on their grain.
Therefore, though you have built stone mansions,
you will not live in them;
though you have planted lush vineyards,
you will not drink their wine.
For I know how many are your offenses
and how great your sins.
Those who oppress the innocent and take bribes
and deprive the poor of justice in the courts.
Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times,
for the times are evil. …
Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!
For Amos, the great sin of the Israelites is injustice. The wealthy and the privileged prey upon the poor and the powerless. God is disgusted by hypocrisy that covers predatory corruption with a veneer of piety. As for many of the other Hebrew prophets, the theme of Amos’ prophecy is social justice. His great words ring through the ages to reformers everywhere:
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
art that challenges power and corruption on the basis of moral codes, religious principle, or social justice. Prophetic voices may or may not foretell the future, often predicting punishments for the wicked.
the art of appealing to an audience’s emotions with strategic arguments and Figures of Speech, both Schemes (patterns of sound, syntax, and sense) and Tropes (plays on meaning)
a figurative pattern of expression that deviates from conventional arrangements of sound and sense through repetition or contrast: e.g. alliteration, anaphora, catalogue, parallelism
a figurative scheme that repeats the same word or phrase at the beginning of sentences or clauses: e.g. “I have a dream …” phrase repeated in Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech, (8/28/1963).
a figurative scheme which arranges phrases, clauses or sentences with the same syntactic or thematic forms: e.g. “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender” (Winston Churchill, House of Commons address, 6/4/1940).
(in French, vers libre) achieves verbal rhythms through repetitive, often parallel figures of speech, Tropes and Schemes. Free verse does not establish set patterns of syllables, stresses, or rhymes.
a trope in which language denotes a “non-literal” thing, idea, or action to characterize a “real” term. E.g. “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players” (William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 1599). Everyday language bristles with metaphors, many “dead”—i.e. we no longer notice the metaphorical term. Do you think of a tree here: “the marketing branch of the corporation”?
in the Euro-American tradition, a reference to the works, styles, and themes of Greek and Roman antiquity. More generally, an aesthetic valuing clarity, order, balance, unity, symmetry, and dignity, usually honoring a cultural tradition associated with some golden age of the past.
