Albert Barnes Commentary Amos 8:3

"And the songs of the temple shall be wailings in that day, saith the Lord Jehovah: the dead bodies shall be many: in every place shall they cast them forth with silence." — Amos 8:3 (ASV)

The songs of the temple shall be howlings - Literally, “shall howl.” This means it will be as when mirthful music is suddenly broken in upon and, through the sudden agony of the singer, ends in a shriek or yell of misery. When sounds of joy are turned into wailing, all must be complete sorrow. They are not only hushed but are turned into their opposite.

Since Amos is speaking to and of Israel, “the temple” here is undoubtedly the great idol-temple at Bethel. “The songs” were the choral music with which they counterfeited the temple music arranged by David, praising—they could not make up their minds which—Nature or “the God of nature,” but in truth, worshiping the creature. The temple was often strongly built and on a height. Whether from a vague hope of help from God (as in the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans), from some human trust that the temple might be respected, from confidence in its strength, or from all these reasons together, it was the last refuge of the nearly captive people.

Their last retreat was often the scene of the final, reeling strife: the battle-cry of the assailants, the shrieks of the defenseless, the groans of the wounded, the agonized cry of unyielding despair. The prophet probably had some such scene before his mind’s eye, for he adds:

There shall be many dead bodies—literally, “Many the corpse in every place.” He sees it not as future, but as present before him.

The whole city, now so thronged with life, “the oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s scorn,” lies before him as one scene of death. Every place is thronged with corpses; none are exempt—at home, abroad, or in the temple he had just mentioned. There is no time or place for honorable burial.

They—literally, “he casts forth, hush!” Each person casts out those dear to him, like dung on the face of the earth (Jeremiah 8:2, and other passages).

Grief is too strong for words. The living and the dead are hushed as the grave. “Large cities are large solitudes,” for lack of mutual love; in God’s retribution, all their din and hum becomes a solitude once more.