Chiun

Chiun is a foreign astral deity carried by Israel during the wilderness period, named in a single prophetic indictment. The UPDV preserves the older transliteration "Kewan" rather than "Chiun" itself, but the same Amos verse is the only direct attestation.

The star-idol carried in the wilderness

Amos frames the charge as a question and an answer. First the question: "Did you⁺ bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?" (Amos 5:25). Then the indictment: "Yes, you⁺ have borne the tabernacle of your⁺ king and the Kewan--your⁺ idols, the star of your⁺ god which you⁺ made to yourselves" (Amos 5:26). The image is of an alternate, portable shrine — a rival "tabernacle" alongside the legitimate one — with a star-emblem identifying its god. The plural-you carries the indictment to the whole house of Israel rather than to a faction.

The verdict

The Kewan-worship does not stand on its own; it is the ground of the exile sentence in the next verse: "Therefore I will cause you⁺ to go into captivity beyond Damascus, says Yahweh, whose name is the God of hosts" (Amos 5:27). The star-idol carried in the wilderness becomes the rationale for the deportation Amos announces.