Amos 5:26

5:26 You will pick up your images ¹  of Sikkuth, ²  your king, ³ 

and Kiyyun, ⁴  your star god, which you made for yourselves,

Amos 8:1

More Visions and Messages of Judgment

8:1 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ⁵  a basket of summer fruit. ⁶ 

[5:26]  ¹ tn This word appears in an awkward position in the Hebrew, following “Kiyyun.” It is placed here for better sense.

[5:26]  ² tn The Hebrew term סִכּוּת (sikkut) apparently refers to Sakkuth, a Mesopotamian star god identified with Ninurta in an Ugaritic god list. The name is vocalized in the Hebrew text after the pattern of שִׁקוּץ (shiqquts, “detestable thing”). See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 195-96. Some English versions, following the LXX, translate as “tent” or “shrine” (NEB, NIV), pointing the term as סֻכַּת (sukkat; cf. 9:11).

[5:26]  ³ tc LXX, Vulgate, and Acts 7:43 read “Moloch” (cf. KJV). The Hebrew consonants are the same for both “king” and “Moloch” (מֹלֶךְ; molekh).

[5:26]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term כִּיּוּן (kiyyun) apparently refers to the Mesopotamian god Kayamanu, or Saturn. The name, like “Sikkuth” in the previous line, is vocalized in the Hebrew text after the pattern of שִׁקוּץ (shiqquts, “detestable thing”). See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 195-96. Some versions translate as “pedestal” (NEB, NIV), relating the term to the root כּוּן (kun).

[8:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[8:1]  ⁶ sn The basket of summer fruit (also in the following verse) probably refers to figs from the summer crop, which ripens in August-September. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 115.