Review of the book of Amos

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What is the significance of Amos 18-25 in regarding to other parts of the book?
Add the NRSV.
Does the passage 18-25 seen to be a fit with the preceding and following passages. Should this passage include verses from a preceding or following verses? Is this a unified passage or is it made up of parts that may not have originally belong together. What is the importance of placing these passages together or side by side for comparison? Basically, is this passage or scripture Amos 18-25 a self contained unit, How does it relate to what precedes and follows it?

NRSV:
Overall, God connects Israel's very existence with his power. Once they became powerful, it was easy to forget God due to constant trade and alliance with pagan states. Over time, they forgot God, treated him as an equal to Baal, Tiamat, etc, and relied on their "partners" for help. Yet of course, those new partners would destroy Israel once their market is saturated.

For lo, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind,
reveals his thoughts to mortals,
makes the morning darkness,
and treads on the heights of the earth—
the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name! (4:13)

This is essential to the book as a whole. God is saying that he is all powerful, is the creator of all (hence has infinite power, since this includes all possibilities) and the nations are nothing in compared to him. Empires come and go. God's people do not. Yet, Israel has joined the nations, and hence, no longer serves God's purpose.

First, the condemnation of the nations.
Second, similar sins then brought upon Israel.

This is the key passage from the NRSV:
For three transgressions of Israel,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they sell the righteous for silver,
and the needy for a pair of sandals—
they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth,
and push the afflicted out of the way;
father and son go in to the same girl,
so that my holy name is profaned;
they lay themselves down beside every altar
on garments taken in pledge;
and in the house of their God they drink
wine bought with fines they imposed (2:6-8).

The entire book is based on this. For these sins, the condemnation found in 5:18-25 (which is now permanently etched in by brain) makes sense.
Third, Israel has lost "her place" (NSRV). That is, it seeks autonomy from god and the law which it has no right to do, since, as said right after, God destroyed many of the nations and enemies of Israel. In other words, their nationhood and survival has been based on God's power, not their own. To reject this now that you're wealthy is a contradiction.
Fourth, in Amos 3, Amos, speaking for God, makes cause and effect argument: x cannot happen without y. If you hunt, you need to kill the animal and bring it back. Finding the prey comes first, of course, but they must occur in the right sequence for the hunt to be successful.
Fifth, Amos 4, the "cows of Bashan" does not refer to animals, but to the women of Israel. Since they spent fortunes on Egyptian makeup and dresses imported from the nations (among many other things), they have neglected the poor.
Sixth, Gilgal and Beth-el are mentioned explicitly in the beginning of Amos 5. Gilgal is very common, and there is no certainty which Gilgal Amos meant. The term itself is normally translated to "I have destroyed or uprooted." Some have different opinions, but in general, Gilgal refers to God's defeat of the Egyptians many years before. Beth-el is far more powerful, since it means the "House of God." The fact that they are no longer permitted to go there means much more than forbidding entrance into a city, but is a general attack on the Hebrew's poor morals and worship .
In Amos verse 8, he mentions constellations of Pleiades and Orion as if they were suns. The point is that star worship was essential to both Egyptians and Babylonians, as well as the later worship of the sun. Egyptian star worship was focused on the "Dog Star" Sirius, the traditional home of Satan (in Egyptian the god Set, often spelled Set-an). The light of the "Sirius "moonlight" to ...