Midrasch zu Amos 5:8

(20:3) "There shall not be unto you any other gods before My presence": What is the intent of this? An analogy: A king of flesh and blood enters a province and his servants say to him: Make decrees for them. He: When they accept my rule, I will make decrees for them. For if they do not accept my rule, they will not accept my decrees. Thus did the L rd say to Israel: "I am the L rd your G d. There shall not be unto you, etc.": Am I He whose rule you have accepted? They: Yes. He: Just as you have accepted My rule, accept My decrees — There shall not be unto you any other gods before My presence. R. Shimon b. Yochai says: As stated elsewhere (Leviticus 18:2) "Am I the L rd (whose rule you accepted on Sinai)? They: Yes. He: You accepted My rule? Accept My decrees — (Ibid. 3) "As the deeds of the land of Egypt in which you dwelt you shall not do, etc." And so here: Am I the L rd your G d who took you out of the land of Egypt, whose rule you accepted? — Accept My decrees. "There shall not be unto you": What is the intent of this? (Ibid. 4) "You shall not make for yourself a graven image or the likeness, etc." would imply only that it is forbidden to make it. Whence do we derive that you may not keep what is already made? It is, therefore, written "There shall not be unto you." "other gods": Now are there other gods? Is it not written (Isaiah 37:18) "and placed their gods into fire, for they are not gods"? What, then, is the intent of "other gods"? That others call "gods." Variantly: "elohim acherim"? They "delay" ("me'achorim") good from entering the world. Variantly: "elohim acherim": They are "others" (i.e., indifferent) to those who serve them. And thus is it written (Ibid. 46:7) "He cries out to it, but it does not answer; it does not save him from his affliction." R. Yossi says: Why "other gods"? Not to give a pretext to the nations of the world to say: If they were called by His name, they would be effectual. Behold, they were called by His name and they remained ineffectual! And when were they called by His name? In the days of Enosh the son of Sheth, viz. (Genesis 4:26) "Then (men and images) were called profanely in the name of the L rd, (being rendered deities)" — whereupon Oceanus rose and flooded a third of the world, the L rd, as it were, telling them: You did a new thing and "called"; I, too, shall do a new thing and I shall "call" (to the waters of the sea), as it is written (Amos 5:8) "He 'calls' the waters of the sea, etc." R. Eliezer says: "elohim acherim": They "renew" gods for themselves every day. How so? If one had a golden god and he needed gold, he make it of silver. If he needed that, he made if of copper. If he had a copper god and he needed copper, he made it of iron or of lead. And thus is it written (Devarim 32:17) "new ones (gods), newly come." R. Yitzchak says: If we were to write down all the names of their gods, all the hides in the world would not avail, (wherefore, perforce, they must be referred to generically as "gods." R. Chanina b. Antignos says: (in confirmation of the above) Witness the Torah's denomination of (the god) Molech — anything (is called "a god") that you make a king ("melech") over you, even a chip or a shard. Rebbi says: "elohim acherim": They (these "gods") are the last (achronim) of the creations (i.e., men). And who is the "last" of the creation? One who calls them "gods."

And God spoke all these words (Exod. 20:1). He spoke them all simultaneously. He causes death and restores life at the same time; He wounds and He heals simultaneously; He answers a woman in travail, those who travel on the sea and wander on the desert, and those who are imprisoned in the east, the west, the north, and south. He forms the light and creates the darkness, makes peace and fashions evil (Isa. 45:17)—all at the same time. Dust is turned into man, and man is turned back into dust, as it is said: And bringeth on a shadow of death in the morning (Amos 5:8). What is meant by a shadow of death in the morning? It means that He restores man to his original state by morning.¹⁵According to tradition, the soul leaves the body when it is sleeping and returns in the morning, when it awakens.

It says: And all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood (Exod. 7:20), but later the blood reverted back to water. Living flesh was turned into rancid flesh, and the dead were restored to life. The staff became a serpent, and the serpent was converted into a staff again. The sea was converted into dry land, and later the dry land became a sea once more. Likewise it says: That calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth; the Lord is His name (Amos 5:8). Thus it is said: And God spoke all these words.