Bible Strands
Amos 8:3
“In that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Lord GOD speaks through the prophet Amos to Israel immediately after the vision of the summer fruit basket, marking the moment when divine patience expires.
The words — The Hebrew הֵילִילוּ (hēlîlû) translates literally as "they will wail," directly replacing the שִׁירוֹת (šîrôṯ) "songs" of the הֵיכָל (hēḵāl) "temple" that the text declares will cease.
The thread — This substitution of mourning for worship aligns with God’s rejection of Israel’s music in Amos 5:23 and mirrors the mass death described in Amos 6:9 and Jeremiah 9:21.
Why it lands — The text states that temple celebration will become silent death, requiring the reader to acknowledge that ritual observance cannot shield a community from judgment when it coexists with oppression.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.
Cross-references
- Amos 5:23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
- Amos 6:9 And if there are ten men left in one house, they too will die.
- Jeremiah 9:21 For death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our fortresses to cut off the children from the streets, the young men from the town squares.
- Leviticus 10:3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD meant when He said: ‘To those who come near Me I will show My holiness, and in the sight of all the people I will reveal My glory.’” But Aaron remained silent.
- Amos 5:16 Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: “There will be wailing in all the public squares and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets. The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail.
- Psalms 39:9 I have become mute; I do not open my mouth because of what You have done.
- Isaiah 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!
- Jeremiah 22:18 Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: “They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’ They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!’
- Hosea 10:5 The people of Samaria will fear for the calf of Beth-aven. Indeed, its people will mourn over it with its idolatrous priests—those who rejoiced in its glory—for it has been taken from them into exile.
- Joel 1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth.