Foreword

Mountains Shall Drip Sweet Wine from the Temple: Joel’s Interpretation of the Epilogue of Amos

“…20 A similar dynamic with David’s Tent appears in Amos 9.11–15, when its restoration is the precursor to fertility. Furthermore, as Aaron Schart (2003: 59) notes, the destruction of the altar that leads to death in Amos 9.1 is paralleled by the restoration of David’s Tent in Amos 9.11 that leads to life, which highlights how the Tent’s restoration leads to the rest of the pleasant changes described in the epilogue. This is the case despite the new oracular formula in Amos 9.13 (even if it belongs to a new redactional layer).…”

“…Henton Davies (1980–81), M. E. W. Thompson (1992), 10 Sabine Nägele (1995), Aaron Schart (2003), Philip R. Davies (2009), 11 Jason H. Radine (2010: 198–211; idem 2020: 141–146), Gregory R. Goswell (2011), John Anthony Dunne (2011), Tchavdar S. Hadjiev (2020: 189–191), and George Athas (2021: 229–230). As a brief summary, the main arguments that have been made for a temple interpretation include the following: (1) Nägele (1995, 192–220) argued on lexical grounds that סכה‎ and cognates do refer to Jerusalem and the temple elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible.…”

“…R. Davies (2009: 60–61, 64–69) and Dunne (2011: 368–372), in our respective ways, have made literary observations about the cultic concerns throughout Amos that anticipate a cultic resolution in the epilogue. 17 Finally, (9) some scholars have made redactional arguments about the dating of the epilogue as a whole (so Harrelson 1964: 355) or its respective layers to a time after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 586 bce ( so Schart 2003: 58–59; P. R. Davies 2009), which suggest that Amos 9.11 would have been understood to refer to the temple.…”

“…As a result of the cultic crises, Yhwh retreats to his temple in the heavens (Amos 9.5–6). On this last point, see Paas 2002: 260; Schart 2003: 47–52, 56–58.…”

“…Indeed, σκηνή is used earlier in Amos 5.25–26 lxx to refer to the cult of Moloch, suggesting that a rival cult is in view in Amos 9.11 lxx . Schart (2003: 62) adds that in the translation of Amos 9.1, which refers to the destruction of an altar, there are additions of ἱλαστήριον and πρόπυλον, which indicate that the temple in Jerusalem was in view. Its destruction (9.1) anticipates its renovation (9.11).…”