Remix in the Book of Amos: Are Ancient Mythic Traditions in This Prophecy?
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Have you ever listened to a famous song, only to realize years later it was a cover of an obscure underground track?
I am finding that the Bible does this often. The authors had a habit of taking previous texts and oral traditions like stories about Job, the Garden of Eden, the Divine Council or ancient battles between storm gods and sea gods, and "remixing" them to fit their own narrative.
The Book of Amos is no exception. While traditionally seen as a straightforward collection of prophecies, a closer look suggests it might be a masterclass in ancient propaganda. By examining the "epic" language of its hymns, we can see how authors repurposed older mythic traditions, texts to transform Yahweh from a local deity into a global powerhouse. Gavin Cox discusses this and compares them to Sumerian City-Laments. 1 My purpose here is to view them from the perspective of propaganda.
We’ll start with Amos 4:13 and 5:8, as some see them as originally being from the same hymn.
Amos 4:13
For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind,
And declares to a person what are His thoughts,
He who makes dawn into darkness
And treads on the high places of the earth,
Yahweh God of armies is His name.
Amos 5:8
He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
And changes deep darkness into morning,
Who also darkens day into night,
Who calls for the waters of the sea
And pours them out on the surface of the earth,
Yahweh is His name.
The "Epic" Style: Spotting the Imports
When you look at these hymns you notice a shift in tone. These verses feel bigger, more cosmic. This is what I call “epic” writing. It’s characterized by references to the creation of the cosmos, the "Deep", Leviathan, the foundations of the earth, and the stars.
The propaganda here is subtle but effective. In the post-exilic period, Biblical authors wanted to move Yahweh from being a local tribal god to a supreme creator god like El or El Elyon. By taking an existing hymn dedicated to a creator god and tacking on the phrase "Yahweh is His name," they effectively performed a hostile takeover of that god’s resume.
Turning Taunts into Tears
It wasn't just formal hymns that got the remix treatment; oral traditions were fair game too. Look at Amos 5:2:
Amos 5:2
She has fallen, she will not rise again—
The virgin Israel.
She lies unnoticed on her land;
There is no one to raise her up
There’s nothing unusual about it that would tip us off that this in an importation, except for the propaganda in 5:1
Amos 5:1
Hear this word which I am taking up for you as a song of mourning, house of Israel:
In the context of Amos 5:1, we are told this is a "song of mourning." But if you remove the author’s introduction, does the verse sound like a lament? Not necessarily.
In reality, this could have been a celebratory "taunt song" or a popular saying. The people of Southern Judea weren't always fans of Northern Israel. It’s entirely possible the author took a popular Southern slogan celebrating the North’s downfall and "rehabilitated" it into a somber funeral dirge to make it support a prophetic message.
The Mystery of the Smitten Thresholds
Perhaps the most fascinating example is Amos 9:1-4.
Amos 9:1-4
I saw the Lord (Adonai) standing beside the altar, and He said,
“Strike the pillar capitals so that the thresholds will shake,
And break them on the heads of them all!
Then I will put to death the rest of them with the sword;
They will not have a fugitive who will flee,
Nor a survivor who will escape.
Though they dig into Sheol,
From there My hand will take them;
And though they ascend to heaven,
From there I will bring them down.
And though they hide on the summit of Carmel,
I will track them down and take them from there;
And though they hide themselves from My sight on the bottom of the sea,
I will command the serpent from there, and it will bite them.
And though they go into captivity before their enemies,
From there I will command the sword and it will kill them,
And I will set My eyes against them for harm and not for good.”
The text describes the Lord standing by an altar, commanding the destruction of a temple. It uses that same "epic" language: digging into Sheol, climbing to heaven, and the serpent at the bottom of the sea.
Scholar Lawrence Zalcman proposes a fascinating theory: Amos 9:1b originally read "Smite Crete and let the Sippiteo quake." 2 With just a slight editorial tweak, the Biblical version was born.
Furthermore, the text uses the word Adonai (The Lord) instead of Yahweh. As I’ve proposed before, authors often swapped out the names of original gods for "The Lord" to hide the source material. If Amos wasn’t originally a prophet of Yahweh (a possibility we have to consider) this might be an original prophecy belonging to a completely different religious context that was later "Yahweh-ized."
Connecting Epic Traditions to Yahweh of Armies
In my previous blogpost, I showed how Amos 6:1 may have been referencing an older mythic narrative. Similarly, what follows 9:1-4 I don’t see as being a direct copying of another source but rather a reference to the god(s) in those types of sources. It uses “epic” language but shifts from the original god by using “the one who” and connects it with “Yahweh God of armies” and “Yahweh is His name”
Amos 9:5-6
Yahweh God of armies,
The One who touches the land so that it quakes,
And all those who live in it mourn,
And all of it rises up like the Nile
And subsides like the Nile of Egypt;
The One who builds His upper chambers in the heavens
And has founded His vaulted dome over the earth,
He who calls for the waters of the sea
And pours them out on the face of the earth,
Yahweh is His name.
The Crux of the Cart: The Ambiguity of Amos 2:13–16
The origin of Amos 2:13–16 is ambiguous, was it adapted from an earlier tradition or composed for this context? I’m torn as to whether it is or not.
Amos 2:13 is widely considered one of the most difficult verses in the Twelve Prophets to translate. The challenge stems from a rare Hebrew verb and an ambiguous grammatical structure, leading different interpretations of what is happening in the scene. Here is the KJV
Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.
Depending on how the verb is translated, the metaphor shifts:
The Wagon as Judge: God is the heavy cart, and the people are being rolled over and crushed.
The Wagon as the People: Israel is the cart, so overloaded with "sheaves" (sin) that its axles are snapping and it can no longer move.
Either way, it seems to me to sit oddly in the context of Amos and makes me wonder if it was imported from somewhere else.
Why Does This Matter?
The Biblical authors weren't just recording history; they were shaping it. They took the "hits" of the ancient Near East, the songs, the poems, the prophecies, and gave them a new voice. By understanding these "remixes," we get a clearer picture of how a small tribal religion grew into a world-shaping faith through the power of the pen (and a bit of clever propaganda).
1. Cox, G. "The 'Hymn' of Amos: An Ancient Flood Narrative." Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, vol. 38, no. 1, 2013, pp. 81–108. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309089213492812
2. Zalcman, Lawrence. “PHILISTINES ON THE THRESHOLD AT AMOS 9:1?” Revue Biblique (1946-), vol. 110, no. 4, 2003, pp. 481–86. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44090760. Accessed 6 May 2026.