Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Amos 5:23
Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
23. The songs and music accompanying the worship (cf. Amo 8:10; Isa 30:29 a) are rejected by Jehovah likewise. Of what nature these were in pre-exilic times, we do not precisely know: the descriptions in the Chronicles reflect the usage of a much later age, when the Temple music was more highly organized. The distinctly liturgical Psalms are also all probably post-exilic.
from me ] lit. from upon me: the praises of sinful Israel are represented as a burden to Jehovah, from which He would gladly be freed. Cf. Isa 1:14 (of various sacred seasons), “They are a cumbrance upon me.”
viols ] most probably harps, but possibly lutes. See the Additional Note, p. 234.
Additional Note on Chap. Amo 5:23 ( nbhel)
The Hebrew word nbhel is rendered viol in A.V., R.V., of Amo 5:23; Amo 6:5, Isa 14:11, and in A.V. of Isa 5:12 (R.V. lute), elsewhere in both versions psaltery ( 2Sa 6:5 ; 1Ki 10:12, &c.); in the P.B.V. of the Psalms, lute (Psa 33:2; Psa 57:9 (= Psa 108:3), Psa 81:2, Psa 92:4, Psa 144:9, Psa 150:3) [225] , once (Psa 71:20) vaguely music. Although there is no excuse for the same Heb. word being thus rendered differently in one and the same version, it is true that the exact instrument meant is uncertain. The LXX. usually represent nbhel by , or (Psalms generally, Isa 5:12, Neh 12:27) , here and Amo 6:5 by the general term . The was known to the Greeks as a Sidonian instrument (Athen. iv. p. 175); and we learn from Ovid ( Ars Am. 3. 327) that it was played duplici palma. It is often in the O.T. coupled with the kinnr; according to Josephus ( Ant. 8. 3. 8) the difference between the (= kinnr) and the was that the former had ten strings and was played with the plectrum, the latter had twelve notes, and was played with the hand. These are substantially all the data which we possess for determining what instrument the nbhel was. Kinnr in A.V., R.V., is always represented by harp: and if this rendering be correct, nbhel might well be the lyre. There is, however, force in the remark [226] that the kinnr is mentioned much more frequently than the nbhel, and seems to have been in more common use; the nbhel was used at the feasts of the wealthy (Amo 6:5; Isa 5:12; Isa 14:11), or in religious ceremonies; it was therefore probably a more elaborate and expensive instrument. This consideration would point to kinnr being the lyre, and nbhel the harp. The large and heavy stationary harp of modern times must not, however, be thought of: the nbhel could be played while the performer was walking (1Sa 10:5; 2Sa 6:5); and the ancients had small portable harps, of triangular shape (called accordingly by the Greeks ), which could be so used [227] . The word nbhel, however, also means in Hebrew a wine-skin (1Sa 1:24), and an earthen jar (Isa 30:14); hence if the name of the musical instrument be etymologically the same word, it would seem rather to have denoted one possessing a bulging body or resonance-box: so that, after all, it is possible that some kind of lute or guitar may be the instrument mentioned [228] .
[225] All these names of instruments occur frequently in old English writers, though they are now practically obsolete. The viol (Norm. viele, Prov. viula, Span, vihuela, viola, Dan. fiddel, A.-S. fidele, from Low Lat. vitula, vidula), was a bowed instrument, in use from the 15th to the 18th centuries, an early form of the modern violin. The lute (Fr. luth, Ital. liuto, Port. alaude, from the Arab. ’al‘d, with the a of the article elided, ‘the wood,’ applied, , to a particular instrument of wood, Lane, Arab. Lex., p. 2190), resembled a guitar, having a long neck with a bulging body, or resonance-box. It was played with a plectrum: among the Arabs it has been for long a popular instrument: see representations in Lane, Mod. Egyptians, chap. 18 (ed. 5, 2:67, 68), or Stainer, Music of the Bible, Figs. 18, 21. The psaltery may be described generally as a small lyre (see further D.B. 1 , and Grove’s Dict. of Music, s.v. Psaltery)
[226] Riehm, Handwrterbuch des Bibl. Alt. p. 1030 (ed. 2, p. 1044); Nowack, Hebr. Arch. i. 274.
[227] See representations of such portable harps in Stainer, Music of the Bible, Figs. 1 8: also (from Assyria) Engel, Music of the most Ancient Nations, pp. 29 31, and frontispiece; DB 2 s.v. Harp: Rawlinson, Anc. Monarchies, Bk. ii. ch. vii. (ed. 4) p. 529 f., 542 (a procession of musicians the same as Engel’s frontispiece): and from Egypt, Engel, p. 181 ff. (trigons, p. 195); Wilkinson-Birch, i. 465,469 470, 474 (trigons: larger harps resting on the ground, pp. 436 442, 462, 464).
[228] For representations of ancient guitars, see Rawlinson, l.c. p. 534; Wilkinson-Birch, pp. 481 483; Stainer, p. 28; Engel, pp. 204 208.
For various forms of lyre see Stainer, Figs. 9 17: Engel, pp. 38 40, 196 8; Rawlinson, l.c. pp. 531 533, 540; Wilkinson-Birch, pp. 476 478, and Plate XII., No. 16, opposite p. 480 (an interesting picture, from a tomb at Beni-hassan, representing the arrival of some Semites in Egypt): and on Jewish coins, Madden, Coins of the Jews, pp. 205, 235, 236, 241, 243 (with 3, 5, or 6 strings); Nowack, p. 274; Stainer, p. 62.
An ancient Assyrian portable harp (from Engel’s Music of the most Ancient Nations, 1870, p. 29).
The nbhel is mentioned as an instrument used for secular music in Amo 6:5, Isa 5:12; Isa 14:11, perhaps also 1Ki 10:12; and in connexion with religious ceremonies, 1Sa 10:5 (as maintaining, with other instruments, the excitement of a troop of ‘prophets’), 2Sa 6:5, Amo 5:23; and often in the later parts of the O.T., as in the Psalms quoted above, and in the Chronicles, viz. 1Ch 13:8; 1Ch 15:16; 1Ch 15:20 ; 1Ch 15:28; 1Ch 16:5; 1Ch 25:1 ; 1Ch 25:6, 2Ch 5:12; 2Ch 9:11 ; 2Ch 20:28; 2Ch 29:25, Neh 12:27, generally in conjunction with the kinnr.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Take thou away from Me – Literally, from upon Me, that is, from being a burden to Me, a weight on Me. So God says by Isaiah, your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth; they are a burden upon Me; I am weary to bear them Isa 1:14. Their songs and hymns were but a confused, tumultuous, noise, since they had not the harmony of love.
For – (And) the melody of thy viols I will not hear – Yet the nebel, probably a sort of harp, was almost exclusively consecrated to the service of God, and the Psalms were Gods own writing. Doubtless they sounded harmoniously in their own ears; but it reached no further. Their melody, like much Church-music, was for itself, and ended in itself. : Let Christian chanters learn hence, not to set the whole devotion of Psalmody in a good voice, subtlety of modulation and rapid intonation, etc., quavering like birds, to tickle the ears of the curious, take them off to themselves and away from prayer, lest they hear from God, I will not hear the melody of thy viols. Let them learn that of the Apostle, I will sing with the Spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also 1Co 14:15. Augustine, in Psa 30:1-12; Enarr. iv. (p. 203. Oxford Translation) L.: If the Psalm prays, pray; if it sorrows, sorrow; if it is glad, rejoice; if full of hope, hope; if of fear, fear. For whatever is therein written, is our mirror.
Augustine in Ps. 119 (n. 9. T. v. p. 470. Old Testament) L.: How many are loud in voice, dumb in heart! How many lips are silent, but their love is loud! For the ears of God are to the heart of man. As the ears of the body are to the mouth of man, so the heart of man is to the ears of God. Many are heard with closed lips, and many who cry aloud are not heard. Dionysius: God says, I will not hear, as He says, praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner (Ecclesiaticus 15:9), and, to the ungodly saith God, what hast thou to do, to declare My statutes? Psa 50:16, and, he that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination Pro 28:9. It is not meant hereby that the wicked ought wholly to abstain from the praise of God and from prayers, but that they should be diligent to amend, and know that through such imperfect services they cannot be saved. The prophet urges upon them the terribleness of the Day of Judgment, that they might feel and flee its terribleness, before it comes. He impresses on them the fruitlessness of their prayers, that, amending, they might so pray, that God would hear them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 23. The noise of thy songs – the melody of thy viols.] They had both vocal and instrumental music in those sacrificial festivals; and God hated the noise of the one and shut his ears against the melody of the other. In the first there was nothing but noise, because their hearts were not right with God; and in the latter there could be nothing but ( zimrath) cutting and scraping, because there was no heart-no religious sense in the thing, and nearly as little in them that used it. See on Am 6:5.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The noise of thy songs; by way of contempt and loathing, God calls their songs noise; how harmonious, delightful, and ravishing soever they might be to their ears, they were not pleasing unto God.
Songs, used in their sacrifices, and their solemn feasts; herein they imitated temple-worship, but all was unpleasing to the Lord.
I will not hear: this is not to be taken absolutely, for God heard the noise; but it is taken in a qualified sense, he did not hear with delight and acceptance.
The melody, the pleasing harmony, the sweet concert,
of thy viols; this one kind of musical instrument put for all the rest: in a word, your hypocrisy, idolatry, and injustice spoil all your services, and make God weary of you and them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
23. Take . . . away frommeliterally, “Take away, from upon Me”; theidea being that of a burden pressing upon the bearer.So Isa 1:14, “They are atrouble unto Me (literally, ‘a burden upon Me’): I am weary tobear them.”
the noise of thy songsThehymns and instrumental music on sacred occasions are to Me nothingbut a disagreeable noise.
I will not hearIsaiahsubstitutes “prayers” (Isa1:15) for the “songs” and “melody” here; but,like Amos, closes with “I will not hear.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs,…. The ten tribes, very probably, imitated the, temple music at Jerusalem, both vocal and instrumental, and had their songs and hymns of praise, which they sung to certain tunes; but the music of these is called a noise, being very disagreeable to the Lord, as coming from such carnal and wicked persons; and therefore he desires it might cease, be took away, and he be no more troubled with it:
for I will not hear the melody of thy viols: which may be put for all instruments of music used by them, as violins, harps, psalteries, &c. the sound of which, how melodious soever, the, Lord would turn a deaf ear unto, and not regard.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
It follows, Take away from me the multitude of thy songs By speaking of multitude, he aims at hypocrites, who toil much in their devices without measure or end, as we see done at this day by those under the Papacy; for they accumulate endless forms of worship, and greatly weary themselves, morning and evening; in short, they spend days and nights in performing their ceremonies, and every one devises some new thing, and all these they heap together. Inasmuch, then, as men, when they have begun to turn aside from the pure word of God, continually invent various kinds of trifles, the Prophet here touches indirectly on this foolish laboriousness ( stultan sedulitatem — foolish sedulity) when he says, Take away from me the multitude of thy songs. He might have simply said, “Thy songs please me not;” but he mentions their multitude, because hypocrites, as I have said, fix no limits to their outward ceremonies: and a vast heap especially follows, when once they take to themselves the liberty of devising this or that form of worship. Hence God testifies here, that they spend labor in vain, for he rejects what he does not command, and whatever is not rightly offered to him.
And the harmony of lyres, or of musical instruments. But נבל, nabel, was an instrument, which, as to its kind, is unknown to us now. Take away, then, from me the harmony of lyres; for the verb, take away, may refer to both clauses; though some join them to the last the verb “lo לא אשמע, la ashimo, I will not hear. The difference really is very little: but their view is the most probable, who join together the two clauses, ‘Take away from me the multitude of thy songs and the harmony of lyres;’ with which thou thinkest me to be delighted. They afterwards take לא אשמע “I will not hear,” by itself. But I contend not about such minute things: it is enough to know the design of the Prophet. It now follows —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(23) Songs.The very sound of their tumultuous songs was a burden to Jehovah. As Christ cleansed the Temple, so would He dispel all this hypocritical and perilous confusion of ideas.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Amo 5:23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
Ver. 23. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs ] No more pleasing to me than the grunting of a hog or the braying of an ass, because hateless, heartless; for as every sound is not music, so neither is every musical sound melodious to God. The voice which is made in the mouth is nothing so sweet to our ears as that which comes from the depth of the breast. “Sing with grace in your hearts,” is the best tune to all the psalms; which are therefore called “spiritual songs,” Col 3:16 , both because they are indited by the Spirit, and are to be sung with the spirit, 1Co 14:15 , and because they being so sung, do make us more spiritual in the use of them; while we sing David’s Psalms with David’s heart.
For I will not hear the melody of thy viols
“ Non vex sed votum, non musica chordula, sed cor. ”
The deeper and hollower the belly of the lute or viol is the pleasanter is the sound; the fleeter, the more grating and harsh in our ears. Think the same of God, and see how exceeding offensive to all his senses, yea, to his very soul, hypocrisy is, Isa 1:11-13 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the noise: Amo 6:5, Amo 8:3, Amo 8:10
Reciprocal: 2Sa 6:5 – David 1Ch 13:8 – with harps
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Amo 5:23. Instrumental music was not introduced by the law of Moses, hut it was later instituted by David and the Lord sanctioned it by giving it His glory (2Ch 29:25; 2Ch 5:14). But although the Lord had blessed the use of the musical instruments with his glory, after the leaders became so corrupt, that service was rejected on the same ground as were the others mentioned above.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
A call for individual repentance 5:23-24
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
In Amo 5:23-24 the singular pronoun "your" appears indicating that the call is for individuals to repent. God told His people to take away the songs that they sang when they worshipped Him because they were only so much noise in His ears. He would not even listen to the musical accompaniment. He would shut His ears as well as His nostrils (Amo 5:21, vivid anthropomorphisms).
"Today people will pay high prices for tickets to ’Christian concerts,’ yet they won’t attend a free Bible study class or Bible conference in their own church. Christian music is big business today, but we wonder how much of it really glorifies the Lord. What we think is music may be nothing but noise to the Lord." [Note: Wiersbe, p. 354.]