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Amos Chapter
One
Amos 1
Chapter Contents
Judgments against the Syrians, Philistines, Tyrians,
Edomites, and Ammonites.
GOD employed a shepherd, a herdsman, to reprove and warn
the people. Those to whom God gives abilities for his services, ought not to be
despised for their origin, or their employment. Judgments are denounced against
the neighbouring nations, the oppressors of God's people. The number of
transgressions does not here mean that exact number, but many: they had filled
the measure of their sins, and were ripe for vengeance. The method in dealing
with these nations is, in part, the same, yet in each there is something
peculiar. In all ages this bitterness has been shown against the Lord's people.
When the Lord reckons with his enemies, how tremendous are his judgments!
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Amos》
Amos 1
Verse 1
[1] The
words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning
Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son
of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
He saw —
Received by revelation.
Israel —
The kingdom of the ten tribes.
Jeroboam —
The great grand-son of Jehu.
The earth-quake — Of
which, only this text, and Zechariah 14:5, make any particular mention.
Verse 2
[2] And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from
Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of
Carmel shall wither.
Will roar —
Alluding to the roaring of an hungry lion for prey.
Jerusalem —
The city God had chosen where he dwelt, the seat of God's instituted worship,
and the royal seat of the kingdom as God had settled it, from which in both
respects the ten tribes had revolted.
The habitations —
Where the shepherds found pasturage they pitch their tents, and dwelt therein
that they might attend their flocks. And this was the delight and wealth of
these men; alluding to which Amos expresses the wealth and delight of the
kingdom of Israel.
Shall wither —
Either blasted, or dried up with drought, and turned into barrenness. So the
whole kingdom of the ten tribes, though as fruitful as Carmel should be made
horrid and desolate as a wilderness.
Verse 3
[3] Thus
saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not
turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with
threshing instruments of iron:
For three —
This certain number is put for an uncertain: three, that is, many.
Of Damascus —
Here Damascus is put for the whole kingdom of Syria.
Threshed —
Treated it with the utmost cruelty.
Gilead —
There was a country of this name, and a city, possessed by the Reubenites,
Gadites, and Manassites; Gilead here is put for the inhabitants of this country
and city, whom Hazael, king of Syria most barbarously murdered.
Verse 4
[4] But
I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of
Benhadad.
Ben-hadad —
Ben-hadad was to the Syrian kings a common name, as Pharaoh to the Egyptian
kings, and Caesar to the Roman emperors.
Verse 5
[5] I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the
plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden: and the
people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith the LORD.
The bar —
Literally the bar with which the city gates were shut, and fastened.
Of Eden —
Some royal seat, of the kings of Syria.
Kir —
Kir of Media, Isaiah 22:6, thither did Tiglath-Pilneser carry
the conquered Syrians, 2 Kings 16:9, and placed them captives in that
barren mountainous country, about fifteen years after it was foretold by Amos.
Verse 6
[6] Thus
saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn
away the punishment thereof; because they carried away captive the whole
captivity, to deliver them up to Edom:
Carried away —
All the Jews whom they had taken captive.
Edom — Their
most inveterate enemies. These Edomites were ever ready to enslave, and
tyrannize over the Jews, if by any means they could get them into their hands.
Verse 7
[7] But
I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof:
A fire —
Desolating judgments.
Gaza —
All the power and strength of Palestine is here included.
Verse 8
[8] And
I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the sceptre
from Ashkelon, and I will turn mine hand against Ekron: and the remnant of the
Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord GOD.
Ashkelon —
Another city of the Philistines, and a very strong one, which shall perish with
the king and the inhabitants thereof.
Verse 9
[9] Thus
saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Tyrus, and for four, I will not
turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole captivity
to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant:
The brotherly covenant — Which was between Hiram on the one part, and David and Solomon on the
other.
Verse 11
[11] Thus
saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn
away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword,
and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his
wrath for ever:
Pursue —
Watched for, and laid hold on every occasion to oppress Israel.
Did tear — As
a ravenous and fierce lion tears the prey.
Verse 12
[12] But
I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.
Teman —
The metropolis of Idumea, so called from Esau's grandson of that name.
Bozrah —
This was a very strong city, and one of the chief in the whole kingdom, so that
in the menace against Bozrah and Teman, the strength and glory of Edom is
threatened with an utter overthrow.
Verse 13
[13] Thus
saith the LORD; For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for
four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up
the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border:
Enlarge their border — By destroying all that dwelt in it, and hereafter might claim a title to
it.
Verse 14
[14] But
I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces
thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the
whirlwind:
With a tempest —
With irresistible force, and surprising swiftness.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Amos》
01 Chapter 1
Verse 1-2
The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa.
Amos
Though a native of the kingdom of Judah, Amos was sent with a
message to the ten tribes. The unity of the two kingdoms was not the less real
that their histories were divergent. In its origin, idea, and ultimate aim, the
theocracy was one. The division which took place after the death of Solomon was
a departure from the original conception, and the fruit of human sin. Yet, like
many other events in which the Divine purpose seems to fail, it was so
overruled as to promote the very end which it apparently frustrated. Not only
were the two kingdoms a source of moral discipline--a mutual check to each
other--but a richer, fuller illustration of God’s dealings with His people was
rendered possible than would otherwise have been attainable. This unity in
diversity, and diversity in unity, this double development, which is yet one,
must not be overlooked if we would understand aright the history of God’s
covenant people. Whatever the two kingdoms were to their own thoughts, they
were one in the eyes of God. During the vigorous reign of Jeroboam II., the
kingdom of the ten tribes attained to a high pitch of prosperity and power. As
this resulted from energy in the administration, rather than in any deeper
moral principle, it only hastened the progress of inward decay. Luxury,
oppression of the poor, lewdness, and profligacy in its many varied forms,
followed in the train. It was thus to a people at the crisis of their destiny,
in the height of apparent, but delusive prosperity, that Amos, the humble
herdman of Tekoa, and gatherer of sycamore fruit, was sent. The circumstances
of his mission gave occasion to a new step being taken in advance in the
development of the prophetic testimony. Joel, Amos’s immediate predecessor,
prophesied to those who were chargeable, indeed, with much formality and
shallowness of profession, and were therefore justly liable to severe
chastisement, but who were yet free from gross and open vice. Hence, in
unveiling the great movements of the future, he still identifies generally the
covenant people with the friends of God and the objects of Divine deliverance;
and “the nations” generally with the enemies of God, and the objects of His
righteous vengeance. In reading the Book of Amos, we find ourselves breathing
another atmosphere. The prophet no doubt first proclaims exterminating judgment
against the surrounding nations, but this is only the prelude to the
announcement of a similar doom on the chosen people themselves, who were
eagerly following in the footsteps of the heathen. The prospect is held out,
indeed, of blessing in the end, but not in a form that could convey the
slightest comfort or hope to that ungodly generation. To them at least it was
made abundantly plain that, like their rebellious fathers of old, they should
spend their days in a wilderness of tribulation, and should not be permitted to
see the promised rest. The book consists of a somewhat lengthened introduction,
chaps, 1; 2.
followed by two chief divisions. The first, chaps. 3-6., in the
simple form of prophetic addresses. The second, chaps, 7-9., in a series of
visions. The whole being concluded with a promise of future deliverance and
blessing. (Robert Smith, M. A.)
Amos
This was the earliest of four prophets, who all appeared during
the time when Assyria was the greatest world power, the other three being
Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah. It was probably during the latter half of Jeroboam’s
reign that the prophet Amos appeared. It was the age of Israel’s greatest
splendour; but prosperity, as is so often the case, brought the saddest evils
in its train. Although the Book of Kings passes quickly over the reign of
Jeroboam, and gives the briefest details, yet the pages of Amos and Hosea
abound with descriptions of the fearful evils which had crept in along with the
renewed prosperity of the nation. The simplicity which had once characterised
the national life had completely gone. In defiance of the Mosaic law, a class
of nobles had arisen, who possessed large estates, into which they swept the
smaller holdings, and “misused their power to oppress the masses, who had sunk
into a condition of poverty, and in some cases even actual slavery.”
Notwithstanding the terrible social evils, a show of worship was kept up. The
people sedulously attended the sanctuaries, and brought in abundance their sacrifices
and burnt-offerings. It would have seemed most unlikely that the luxurious
Israelite nobles and this humble man, Amos, would ever have anything to do with
each other. Yet this was the man whose voice was to ring throughout the nation
in unsparing condemnation of its many vices. Amos may be pictured as a lonely
man, whose spirit was deeply stirred within him by the blow-ledge of the sins
which were being committed by the people: a man with a heart completely given to God,
his whole being consecrated to Jehovah’s service. In the silence of his native
fields Amos was spoken to by Jehovah, and received the commission to be His
prophet. He responded to the call. Like so many others, he forsook all to obey
the Divine summons. He journeyed into the territory of Israel, and made Bethel,
Samaria, and other places his headquarters. The average observer would have
seen in the northern kingdom a nation at the zenith of its prosperity, and
would not have thought of its fall. But the keen eye of the prophet pierced through the
glittering cover which wealth had thrown over the foulest corruption . . .
There are two truths of vast importance on which Amos especially insists. He
“starts from the thought of the universal sovereignty of God.” That is the one
truth. The other is the need for righteousness. If the words which, more than
any others, describe the nature of his prophecies had to be given, we could
find none more appropriate than these: “Let judgment roll down as waters, and
righteousness as a mighty (or overflowing) stream” (Amos 7:7-17). The prophet taught
persistently that God is ever closely watching the doings of nations and of
men, and that He will reward or punish them in accordance with the eternal law
of righteousness. The great lesson he has emphasised is, that every sinful
nation, no matter how great and prosperous it may seem, will assuredly perish;
that the real strength of a people consists in righteousness. (Ernest
Elliot.)
The herdman of Tekoa
The prophet was by birth and residence a citizen of Judea.
He belonged to the district of Tekoa, a small town some twelve miles south of
Jerusalem, perched on a high hill, looking away eastwards across a waste of
barren hills to the Dead Sea peeping through their interstices, and the lofty
tableland of Moab bounding the horizon beyond. It stands on the edge of the
desert, where the fringes of agriculture thin away into a wilderness of rock
and sand, broken only by scattered patches of scanty pasturage. The town can
never have been much more than a prosperous village; but the adjacent soil is
fruitful and kindly, and its oil and honey became celebrated for their
excellence. For strategic purposes, it was fortified by Rehoboam, and it had the
advantage of lying in a region intersected by some of the busiest highways of
commerce. Its inhabitants might see much and hear more, and, in connection with
trading caravans, be drawn into travel and become acquainted with the world and
its doings. The place was thus, in several ways, not unsuitable for the
training of a prophet; and it is arbitrary to argue, as two or three scholars
have recently done, because there is now no sycamore culture in the district,
and because Amos possesses an intimate knowledge of the north, that therefore
we must look for another Tekoa somewhere in Samaria Spite of a floating
tradition to the contrary, which still survives in popular circles, the
literary merits of the Book of Amos must be rated very high. The general information
of the writer is comprehensive and minute. He can paint in detail the religious
customs, the social conditions, the local circumstances and vicissitudes of
every part of the northern kingdom. With the geography and history, the
alliances and feuds, trade relations, national institutions, and aspirations of
the neighbouring nations, he is thoroughly familiar. He is possessed of
profound ideas about nature, providence, the movements of races, and their
place and function in the ,world’s government. For breadth of survey, for
strength and massiveness of conception, alike in morals and in religion, he is
not surpassed by any of the prophets. He is a poet, orator, philosopher,
statesman. But in those days and in his social environment, he might be all this
without being a man of books and cities. Native genius, interest in the
traditions of his people, intercourse with passing caravans, personal visits to
distant parts, and a spirit awake to the presence and working of God in human
history, past, present, and future,--these were influences potent enough to
educate the man, and admirably adapted to prepare the way for the prophet. And
this school was equally open to him, whether he was a poor man, living by his
labour, now in one service, now in another, or a prosperous sheep-master and
wealthy owner of fig orchards. Jerome remarks that Amos was “rude in speech,
but not in knowledge”; and Jewish tradition has been pleased to credit him with
a stutter or impediment of speech. This is probably the origin of a mistaken
idea that his book is badly written, or at least betrays the rusticity of its
author. On the contrary; the Hebrew of Amos ranks among the purest and most
powerful compositions of the Old Testament. His language is choice and
melodious, possibly in a few peculiar spellings recording a provincial
pronunciation, or more likely the slips of the copyists’ pens. His style is
terse, dramatic, and simple, but very pointed and forcible. He loves brief
uninvolved sentences, though occasionally carried away into passionate appeal
or lyrical outbursts of poetic delineation. He indulges much in question,
apostrophe, and exclamation. He is an orator more than an artist, or a bard.
With all his simplicity we find traces of paranomasia, rhythmic arrangement,
and rhetorical construction. His exposition abounds in rich and varied imagery
derived from nature, and striking illustrations taken from everyday life. The
ordered arrangement, compact style, and general literary finish of his book
suggest slow, careful, and leisurely construction, while the fire of its
invective, the impetus of its appeals, and the terrible directness of its
denunciation prove it the record and embodiment of speech originally orally
delivered On the surface Amos may seem to make too much of mere morality, but
it is only an appearance. With him, to do right is to serve God, and the motive
must be the love of God and of our neighbour. (W. G. Elmslie, D. D.)
A sketch of Amos
I. The sphere of
life he occupied. He was a “herdman.” God has often selected the chief
messengers of His truth from men in the humbler walks of life. Elisha, David,
etc. Our Lord Himself came from a peasant cottage in Nazareth. In this fact we
have two things.
1. Worldly pride divinely rebuked,
2. Human nature divinely honoured.
II. The age in
which Amos lived. Two events are specified.
1. The political event of this period. “In the days of Uzziah, King
of Judah.” A comparatively peaceful and prosperous period.
2. The physical event of this period. Two years before the
earthquake. Why is the period of his life thus described?
III. The mission to
which he was called. What was it to pronounce Divine judgment? He announced
it--
1. As coming according to his vision.
2. As coming in a terrible form.
3. As issuing from a scene of mercy.
4. As fraught with calamitous results.
What an argument for repentance! (Homilist.)
Amos the herdman
Amos was not ashamed of his descent. He was not a farmer, but a
farm-labourer. Who cares to be on very close intimacy with a field-hand, or a
cow-herd? To a little outdoor work Amos added the process of cleaning and
preparing the fruit, either for preservation or for sale. Whilst he was doing
his farm-work and attending to his fruit, a blast from heaven struck his deeper
consciousness, and he stood up a prophet. The Lord will bring His prophets just
as He pleases, and from what place He chooses. Amos was a field-hand, and yet
he was fearless; he was all the more fearless because he was a field-hand. A
farmer could not have been so fearless. Amos was a farm-labourer, yet he was
equal to the occasion. Education is never equal to anything that is supremely
great. There are times in human history when inspiration must go to the
front--talent must go behind, genius must go into the first place. When we are
inspired we forget our rags. When God calls let not man despise. God’s
elections are startling. Amos begins where all rude, energetic minds begin;
they begin in denunciation. Judgment seems to be a natural work for them to
conduct. Amos issues his judgment against Damascus, Gaza, Tyrus, Edom, Ammon,
Moab, Judah, Israel,--all round the circle that judgment-fire sparkles and
blazes. It seems so much easier to denounce than to discriminate. Even young
prophets began with thunder and lightning. Amos again and again says, “I will
send a fire.” And the nobles were lying on divans of ivory, having corrupted
themselves to the point of rottenness. There are times in human history when
only the disinfectant that can work the real miracle is fire. Fire never fails.
We need voices of this kind; they help to keep the average of human history
well up to the mark. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
Lessons from the prophecy of Amos
It is well to notice--
1. The importance of prophecy in an evidential point of view, as one
of the supernatural elements of the Bible. To the honest, earnest, impartial
inquirer, no more convincing or impressive proof of the truth of this revealed
Word can be offered than its propHetic element affords. The age of miracles is
past. The testimony of the “more sure (confirmed) word of prophecy,” as it has
been fulfilled, and as it is daily being fulfilled before our eyes, is all the
more important.
2. The importance of the Old Testament Scriptures. The prophet Amos
alleges his own inspiration. Much has been made by hostile critics of the
supposed discrepancies and contradictions of Scripture; but how little has been
said about its marvellous unity! What is it which imparts this unity?
3. In the Book of Amos is illustrated a principle of the Divine
dealing. Amos was one of the people, and not in the order of the prophets. The
Lord had suddenly and unexpectedly called and commissioned him to be a prophet
of Israel. And so, in working for God, the question is not so much whether it
is Amos the rude, or Isaiah the polished; the question is, are we verily and
indeed called of Him? Are we qualified by His grace, and anointed by His
Spirit?
4. The doctrine of a special providence is here strikingly set forth.
Judgments were appointed to descend on several nations in succession. Than this
there can be nothing more certain, that national sins draw down national
judgments and punishments. Men are apt to think they may escape in a crowd. We
have each our share in public misfortune and in national guilt, and in God’s
sight are held liable accordingly. But it is also true, that a special
providence works in and with each of God’s true children. (R. W. Forrest, M.
A.)
The refining power of religion
One point of interest in the Book of Amos is its testimony to the
power of inspiration and religion on the untaught and uncultivated mind. It
shows how such a mind may strike out bold, simple pathways, and forcible
expressions, which arrest us with a greater force than even those of the more
refined and cultivated. Imagery borrowed from natural scenery and its
circumstances, will be among the most forcible modes of expression which such
men will use. We may often gather important lessons from this influence of
nature on the mind. She teaches us to dive more into her own calm and profound
depth, to read the will of God. In Amos we have a mind accustomed to see duties
or acts of religion through images borrowed from the external world. But not
only does the form of nature influence the ruder mind of the peasant; he is
influenced by the customs and conventionalities of the society in which he
lives. Amos makes use of these frequently in connection with his religious
mission. One practical question opens out to us, it is the real condition and
value of the uneducated mind under the influences of religion. There is often
an inclination alike to overrate as to underrate this; and serious injury is
done by both tendencies. (E. Monro.)
An unscholarly messenger
Do you remember what was the immediate agent in Bishop
Hannington’s conversion? Someone sent him a little book. Hannington determined
to read every word of it, so he began with the preface. He became impressed
with the notion that the book was unscholarly. “I therefore threw the book
away, and refused to read it.” Some time after he was leaving Exeter for St.
Petherwyn, and he spied the old book. He knew his friend would ask him if he
had read it. “I suppose I must read through it, and so I stuffed it into my
portmanteau. At Petherwyn I took the book out, and read the first chapter. I
disliked it so much that I determined never to touch it again. I rather think I
flung the book across the room. So back into my portmanteau it went, and
remained until my visit to Hurst, when I again saw it, and thought I might as
well read it, so as to be able to tell the sender about it. So once more I took
the old thing, and read straight on for three chapters or so, until at last I
came upon that called, ‘Do you feel your sins forgiven?’ And by means of this
my eyes were opened. I was in bed at the time, reading. I sprang out of bed,
and leaped about the room rejoicing and praising God that Jesus died for me.
From that day to this I have lived under the shadow of His wings in the
assurance of faith that I am His and He is mine.” The Lord used that which was
apparently contemptible to be a minister of salvation! What appeared to James
Hannington to be despicable turned out to be the instrument of his redemption.
Now God loves to use the apparently base and ignoble, and the despised! He
loves to send His power along commonplace wires! He calls into His service some
uncultured speaker, whose words tumble out in disorder, and whose thoughts are
wanting in logical succession, and He fills the ungainly speech with power, and
through the rough utterance there come spiritual stabs that pierce to the very
hearts of the hearers. He loves to use some letter which is devoid of literary
grace, and written with no grammatical accuracy, and He fills it with the
dynamic of the Holy Ghost, and it is mighty to the bringing down of strongholds.
(Sunday Companion.)
Distinguished workers of humble origin
Many of God’s most distinguished workmen have been called from
scenes of the humblest labour. It was when toiling over a shoemaker’s bench
that Carey’s soul was filled with a zeal for missionary labour. Morrison was
once a maker of shoe-lasts. John Williams, of Erromanga, was called from the
blacksmith’s shop. Dr. Livingstone from working in a cotton mill. Our Saviour
also called His disciples from among the fishermen. (J. L. Nye.)
Which he saw concerning
Israel.--
The sphere of the prophet’s labours
The prophet was specifically appointed for the Israelites, though
born elsewhere. But how, and on what occasion, he migrated into the kingdom of
Israel, we know not. It is probable that this was designedly arranged, that God
might check the insolence of the people, who flattered themselves so much in
their prosperity. Since the Israelites had hitherto rejected God’s servants,
they were now constrained to hear a foreigner and a shepherd condemning them for
their sins, and exercising the office of a judge: he who proclaims an impending destruction
is a celestial herald. This being the case, we hence see that God had not in
vain employed the ministry of this prophet; for He is wont to choose the weak
things of the world to confound the strong, and He takes prophets and teachers
from the lowest grade to humble the dignity of the world, and puts the
invaluable treasure of His doctrine in earthen vessels, that His power, as Paul
teaches us, may be made more evident. But there was a special reason as to the
prophet Amos; for he was sent on purpose severely to reprove the ten tribes;
and he handled them with great asperity. For he was not polite, but proved that
he had to do with those who were not to be treated as men, but as brute beasts;
yea, worse in obstinacy than brute beasts; for there is some docility in oxen
and cows, and especially in sheep, for they hear the voice of their shepherd,
and follow where he leads them. The Israelites were all stubbornness, and wholly
untameable. It was then necessary to set over them a teacher who would not
treat them courteously, but exercise towards them his native rusticity. (John
Calvin.)
Two years before the
earthquake.--
Earthquakes in Palestine
Palestine lies almost in the centre of one great volcanic region
of the earth’s surface, that, namely, which includes the basin of the
Mediterranean, and the provinces of Western or Central Asia. Traces of that
volcanic action are found in every direction. The black basaltic rocks of the
Hauran, the hot springs of Tiberias, and Emmaus, and Gadara, the naphtha
fountains near the Dead Sea, the dykes of porphyry, and other volcanic rocks
that force their way through thy limestone, the many caves in the limestone
rock themselves,--all these show that we are treading on ground where the
forces of the hidden fires of the earth have been, in times past, in active
operation. We are, that is, in a zone of earthquakes. On some of these
earthquakes, tremendous in their phenomena, and in the extent of the desolation
caused by them, we have full details, in earlier and even in contemporary
history. The Jewish writer, Josephus, speaks of one which occurred in b.c. 31,
as having destroyed many villages, and countless flocks, and herds, and human
lives, which he estimates (with somewhat, perhaps, of Oriental vagueness as to
statistics) now at ten, and now at thirty thousand. Herod and his army, who
were then carrying on war against the Arabs, were only saved by their being
encamped in tents, and so free from the peril of falling houses. As it was, he
had to combat the panic and depression which it spread through his troops, and
with something of a sceptical epicureanism, to assure them that these natural
phenomena were not signs of greater evils to come, but were calamities by
themselves, having no connection with any others that followed or preceded
them. Within the last thirty years again the shocks of an earthquake were felt
over the whole of Syria, in Beirdt, Damascus, Cyprus; Safed was almost utterly
destroyed; Tiberias was left little better than a heap of ruins, and one-third
of the population perished, to the number of a thousand. Rivers forsook their
beds, and left them dry for hours. The hot springs that flow into the Sea of
Tiberias were largely swollen in volume, and the level of the lake was raised.
One such convulsion has left its impress on the history of the kingdom of
Judah. It seems to have been the first great earthquake in the history of
Israel. It occurred in the time of Uzziah (Amos 1:1; Zechariah 14:5). There is no trace of
anything of the kind in the Book of Judges, or in the earlier history of the
Kings. (Dean Plumptre.)
The Lord will roar from Zion.
The stern voice of God
The prophet not only shows here, that God was the Author of
his doctrine, but at the same time he distinguishes between the true God, and
the idols, which the first Jeroboam made, when by this artifice he intended to
withdraw the ten tribes from the house of David, and wholly to alienate them
from the tribe of Judah:
it was then that he set up the calves in Dan and Bethel. The prophet now shows
that all these superstitions are condemned by the true God. “Jehovah then will
roar from Zion, He will utter His voice from Jerusalem.” He, no doubt, wished
here to terrify the Israelites, who thought they had peace with God. Since,
then, they abused His long-suffering, Amos now says that they would find at
length that He was not asleep. “When God, then, shall long bear with your
iniquities, He will at last rise up for judgment.” By “roaring” is signified
the terrible voice of God; but the prophet here speaks of God’s voice, rather
than of what are called actual judgments really executed, that the Israelites
might learn that the examples of punishments which God executes in the world
happen not by chance or at random, but proceed from His threatenings; in short,
the prophet intimates that all punishments which God inflicts on the ungodly
and the despisers of His Word are only the executions of what the prophets
proclaimed, in order that men, should there be any hope of their repentance,
might anticipate the destruction which they hear to be nigh. The prophet
commends very highly the truth of what God teaches, by saying that it is not
what vanishes, but what is accomplished; for when He destroys nations and
kingdoms, it comes to pass according to prophecies. (John Calvin.)
The penalty of sin
I. The change
which sin works in the relations between earth and heaven. “The Lord will roar
from Zion.” The figure is that of a lion ready for its prey. Can this be He of
whose tenderness Moses spoke? (Deuteronomy 32:9-14.) What had wrought
such a change between God and His people? Years of wandering, and rebellion,
and sin can alone explain this change. Contrast between the friendship and the
enmity of God a fruitful means to awaken the sinner and save His own people
from wandering (Isaiah 40:11).
II. The place from
which danger should come--Zion and Jerusalem. These were the centres of the old
national worship--places that God had chosen to put His name there. In the
palaces of Zion God had been known for a refuge. Sin turned the sources of
peace and prosperity into the seat of their mightiest enemy.
III. The time of the
prophecy of woe. An era of hope. Prosperity had returned (2 Kings 14:25). The prophecy burst
upon them like thunder out of a blue sky, or as if one, in full tide of health,
should see his own funeral procession pass. However dazzling the prosperity to
which sin may have raised men, its time of most luxuriant growth is often the
hour of its blasting. “The Judge standeth at the door.”
IV. The visitation
was to touch them on the side where they would most feel it--temporal
prosperity. “The habitations of the shepherds shall mourn”--poetic
personification of the ruin that should come to that class of which Amos had so
recently been a member. “Carmel”--the place of surpassing fertility--abounding
in rich pastures, olives, and vines. God takes what men prize most if haply
their heart may be softened by His visitation. Application
Verse
3
I will not turn away the punishment thereof.
The purpose of Divine threatenings
The order of God’s threatenings seems to have been addressed to
gain the hearing of the people. The punishment is first denounced upon their
enemies, and that, for their sins, directly or indirectly against themselves,
and God in them. Then, as to those enemies themselves, the order is not of
place or time, but of their relations to God’s people. It begins with their
most oppressive enemy, Syria; then Philistia, the old and ceaseless, although
less powerful enemy; then Tyre, not an oppressor, as these, yet violating a
relation which they had not, the bonds of a form or friendship and covenant;
malicious also and hard hearted through covetousness. Then followed Edom,
Ammon, Moab, who burst the bonds of blood also. Lastly, and nearest of all, it
falls on Judah, who had the true worship of the true God among them, but
despised it. Every infliction on those like ourselves finds an echo in our own
consciences. Israel heard and readily believed God’s judgments upon others. It
was not tempted to set itself against believing them. How then could it refuse
to believe of itself what it believed of others like itself? “Change but the
name, the tale is told of thee,” Horace says. The course of the prophecy
convicted them, as the things written in Holy Scripture for our ensamples
convict Christians. If they who sinned without law, perished without law, how
much more should they who have sinned in the law be judged by the law? God’s
judgments rolled, round like a thunder-cloud, passing from land to land, giving
warning of their approach, at last to gather and centre on Israel itself,
except it repent. In the visitations of others it was to read its own; and that
the more, the nearer God was to them. Israel is placed last, because on it the
destruction was to fall to the uttermost, and rest there. (E. B. Pusey, D.
D.)
God’s dealings with other nations
The prophet shows that God, as a Judge, would call all the
neighbouring nations Co account. Had the prophet threatened the Israelites
only, they might have thought that what they suffered was by chance, when they
saw the like things happening to their neighbours. Thus all the authority of
the prophet must have lost its power, except the Israelites were made to know
that God is the Judge of all nations. Amos puts the Israelites in the same
bundle with the Moabites, the Idumaeans, and other heathen nations; as though
he had said, “God will not spare your neighbours; but think not that ye shall
be exempt from His vengeance, when they shall be led to punishment: I now declare to you
that God will be the Judge of you all together.” The design of Amos was--
1. To set before the eyes of
the Israelites the punishment of others to awaken them, and also to induce them
to examine themselves. He designed to lead them into a teachable frame of mind: for he knew them to
be torpid in their indulgences, and also blinded by presumption, so that they
could not be easily brought under the yoke.
2. He had this also in view,
that God would punish the Syrians, because they cruelly raged against the
Israelites, especially against Gilead and its inhabitants. As God, then would
inflict so grievous a punishment on the Syrians, because they so cruelly
treated the inhabitants of Gilead, what was to be expected by the Israelites
themselves, who had been insolent towards God, who had isolated His worship,
who had robbed Him of His honour, who had in their turn destroyed one another?
For there was among them no equity, no humanity; they had forgotten all reason.
(John Calvin.)
Divine cognisance of human sins
1. That the sins of all the
peoples on the earth, whatever the peculiarities of their character or country,
are under the cognisance of God. Seven countries are named here. Heaven’s
omniscient eye detected the sill of each man of all the various men and
nations. God’s knowledge of men’s sins should--
Because they have threshed
Gilead with threshing instruments.
Signs of cruelty
We be many ways guilty of cruelty.
1. If we exercise tyrannous
cruelty, in inflicting punishments.
2. If we fight with or beat
our neighbour, or maim his body. This is a breach of the sixth commandment.
3. If we procure any way the
death of our neighbour, whether it be by sword, famine, poison, false
accusation, or otherwise.
4. If we use any of God’s
creatures hardly.
5. If because of our
neighbours’ infirmities, we use him discourteously, and make him our
laughingstock or taunting recreation.
6. If we injure a stranger.
7. If we molest any widow, or
fatherless children.
8. If we wrong the poor. This
we may do--
The enormity of the sin of persecution
The sin of inflicting suffering.
I. Persecution is a most
arrogant crime. The religious persecutor acts upon the assumption that his
ideas of religion are absolutely true that his theological knowledge is the
test by which all other opinions are to be tried; shows an arrogance before
which servile spirits bow, but from which all thoughtful and noble men recoil
with disgust and indignation But his arrogance is shadowy and harmless compared
with the arrogance of him who enters the temple of human conscience and claims
dominion over the moral workings of the soul. Yes, such arrogant men abound in
all ages, and are by no means rare, even in this age and land of what is called
civil and religious liberty.
II. Persecution is a most
absurd crime. Far wiser is the fool who would legislate for the winds or the
waves, and like Canute give commands to the billows, than he who attempts to legislate
for human thoughts and moral convictions. And truth never seems to rise in
greater power and majesty than under the hand of cruel persecution.
III. Persecution is a most
cruel crime. What ruthless inhumanities are here charged against the various peoples
mentioned. It has often been observed, that no anger is so savage as the anger
which springs up between relations of blood. A brotherly hate is the chief of
hates. No animosity burns with a more hellish heat than that connected with
religion. (Homilist.)
Verse 9-10
I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, which shall devour the
palaces thereof.
The Divine judgment on Tyre
To follow out the accomplishment of the prophecies respecting
Tyre, under the conduct of so good a guide as Bishop Newton, is a most
interesting occupation. He gives the following quotation from Maundrell. “This
city, standing in the sea, upon a peninsula, promises at a distance something
very magnificent. But when you come to it, you find no similitude of that glory
for which it was so renowned in ancient times. On the north side, it was an old
Turkish, ungarrisoned castle; besides which you see nothing here but a mere
Babel of broken walls, pillars, vaults, etc., there being not so much as one
entire house left; its present inhabitants are only a few poor wretches,
harbouring themselves in the vaults, and subsisting chiefly upon fishing, who
seem to be preserved in this place by Divine providence, as a visible evidence,
how God has fulfilled His word concerning Tyre, namely, that it should be ‘as a
top of a rock, a place for fishers to dry their nets on.’” Newton himself says: “Such hath been the
fate of this city, once the most famous in the world for trade and commerce.
But trade is a fluctuating thing:
it passed from Tyre to Alexandria, from Alexandria to Venice, from Venice to
Antwerp, from Antwerp to Amsterdam and London, the English rivalling the Dutch,
as the French are
now rivalling both. All nations almost are now wisely applying themselves to
trade; and it behoves those who are in possession of it to take the greatest
care they do not lose it. It is a plant of tender growth, and requires sun and
soil and fine seasons to make it thrive and flourish. It will not grow like the
palm tree, which, with the more weight and pressure, rises the more. Liberty is
a friend to that, as that is a friend to liberty. But the greatest enemy to
both is licentiousness, which tramples upon all law and lawful authority,
encourages riots and tumults, promotes drunkenness and debauchery, sticks at
nothing to supply its extravagance, practises every art of illicit gain, ruins
credit, ruins trade, and will, in the end, ruin liberty itself. Neither
kingdoms nor commonwealths, neither public companies nor private persons, can
long carry on a beneficial, flourishing trade without virtue and what virtue
teacheth, sobriety, industry, frugality, modesty, honesty, punctuality,
humanity, charity, the love of our country, and the fear of God. The prophets
will inform us how the Tyrians lost it; and the like causes will always produce
the like effects.” (Vincent W. Ryan, M. A.)
Verse 11-12
For three transgressions
of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof.
Edom
1. A
threatening. Here a certain number is put for an uncertain. It may be treated
jointly. Three and foyer make seven. Thus may be indicated the multitude and
magnitude of the wickedness, and the greatness and heaviness of the punishment.
It may be treated severally, and in this sense; going on still, even to a
fourth time, in provoking Me, and adding obstinacy and impenitency to their
side, I will bear them no longer.
2. The
equity. These Idumaeans were stubbornly wicked, and heaped up sin upon sin.
3. Execution
of judgment. “I win send a fire.” Fire is put in Scripture for a most
grievous plague, by sword, or famine, or pestilence. Now for the application.
Edom is a special type of the kingdom of Anti-Christ.
Antichristian Esau is Edom. The similitude between them we will consider--
1. In
their persons;
2. in
their sins; and
3. in
their judgments. (T. Taylor, D. D.)
Verses 13-15
I will not turn away the punishment thereof.
God’s dealing with nations
I. The opportunity
for repentance which all possess. The punishment of the six heathen nations, as
of Judah and Israel, opens with a picture of the forbearance of God which had
preceded this hour of wrath. “For three transgressions of--, and for four, I
will not turn away the punishment thereof.” The cup of iniquity was not full
till the fourth transgression. God’s dealing with individuals is such--“Who
hath hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered?” (Proverbs 29:1.)
II. Persistence in
course of sin has only one end. “I will not turn away the punishment thereof.”
Men may put far away the evil day, but all history, all prophecy, all strivings
of conscience point to the certainty of ruin.
III. The causes of
the divine indignation vary according to human light. In the fate of Tyrus, for
instance (Amos 1:9), we see that a brotherly
covenant (the league of Hiram with David and Solomon) formed no barrier to the
grasping spirit of the mercantile nation. Edom (Amos 1:11) “did pursue his brother with
the sword, and cast off all pity.” The heathen nations were to suffer because
they had offended against those eternal principles of compassion and of truth
which are written on the hearts of all men alike. Judah (Amos 2:4) and Israel (Amos 1:6-8) were judged by a higher
standard, for the light had been greater. “In Judah is God known; His name is
great in Israel.”
IV. The vindication
of God’s ways to men which these pictures of national sin furnish is complete.
The preservation of truth and purity is of far higher moment than the fate of
one nation, for human society can only be founded on the eternal principles of
right and wrong. The detail of Israel’s sin makes us shrink back with horror.
Their law gave no power to sell an insolvent debtor, but they were ready to
sell the righteous man (one in trouble through no fault of his own) for silver;
and the poor (whom there was none to succour), to provide for themselves a pair
of luxurious sandals. They panted after the very dust which the poor spread on
their head in token of mourning, and by the vilest sin they profaned the name
of God which was called on them as His people. Even their altars witnessed
their extortions (Amos 1:8; Deuteronomy 24:12-13) and banquetings.
Application--The prophet would have the people clearly understand the equity of
the judgments which he foretold. Men can be impartial in estimating the sin of
others (David and Nathan’s parable). To study God’s dealings with others will
often open our eyes to our own future. (J. Telford, B. A.)
Great sufferings following great sins
This passage illustrates three truths.
1. That the sins of all the people on the earth, whatever the
peculiarities of their character or conduct, are under the cognisance of God.
2. That of all the sins of the people, that of persecution is
peculiarly abhorrent to the Divine nature.
I. Great sins
entail great sufferings. The calamities threatened to these different tribes of
different lands are of the most terrible description. But they are all such as
to match their crimes.
1. The connection between great sins and great sufferings is
inevitable. The Moral Governor of the world has so arranged matters that every
sin brings with its own punishment, and it is only when the sin is destroyed
the suffering ceases. Thank God this sin can be destroyed through faith in the
mediation of Him who came to put away sin by faith in the sacrifice of Himself.
2. Tim connection between great sins and great sufferings is
universal. All these sinful peoples had to realise it from their own bitter
experience. It does not matter where, when, or how a man lives, his sins will
find him out.
II. Great sins
often entail great sufferings upon people who are not the actual offenders.
“The fire,” which is here the instrument of God’s retribution to us sinners,
would not only scathe the persons and consume the property of the actual
offenders, but others. The fact is patent in all history and in all experience,
that men here suffer for the sins of others. Two facts may reconcile our
consciences to this.
1. That few, if any, suffer more than their consciences tell them
they deserve.
2. That there is to come a period when the whole will appear to be in
accord with the justice and goodness of God. (Homilist.)
The atrocities of barbarism and the sins of civilisation
The sins Amos condemns in the heathen are at first sight very
different from those which he exposes within Israel. Not only are they sins of
foreign relations, of treaty and war, while Israel’s are all civic and
domestic; but they are what we call the atrocities of barbarism--wanton war,
massacre and sacrilege; while Israel’s are rather the sins of civilisation--the
pressure of the rich upon the poor, the bribery of justice, the seduction of
the innocent, personal impurity, and other evils of luxury. So great is this
difference that a critic more gifted with ingenuity than insight, might
plausibly distinguish, in the section before us, two prophets with two very
different views of national sin--a ruder prophet, and of course an earlier, who
judged nations only by the flagrant drunkenness of their war; and a more subtle
prophet, and of course a later, who exposed the masked corruptions of their
religion and their peace. Such a theory would be as false as it would be
plausible. For not only is the diversity of the objects of the prophet’s
judgment explained by this, that Amos had no familiarity with the interior life
of other nations, and could only arraign their conduct at those points where it
broke into light in their foreign relations, while Israel’s civic life he knew
to the very core. But Amos had besides a strong and a deliberate aim in placing
the sins of civilisation as the climax of a list of the atrocities of
barbarism. He would recall what men are always forgetting, that the former are
really more cruel and criminal than the latter; that luxury, bribery, and
intolerance, the oppression of the poor, the corruption of the innocent and the
silencing of the prophet--what Christ calls offences against His little
ones--are even more awful atrocities than the wanton horrors of barbarian
warfare. (Geo. Adam Smith, D. D.)
That they might enlarge
their borders.--
Enlarging our borders
The message that comes from the old Hebrew prophet is the
injunction to make our lives broader, larger, richer than they already are. Men
are enlarged by travel, but the best part of that enlargement comes from
intercourse with other human beings. The world of physical nature can do much
to enlarge a man, but the world of human minds and hearts can do more. A man is
like a planet; he is in the field of two forces, the centrifugal and the
centripetal. As he grows, two methods are open to him. His idea of perfect
manhood may be reached by pruning away excrescences. This is the conventional
way: it produces
a Chesterfield. The other is the educating of all his faculties to their full limit: this produces a
Gladstone or a Browning. It exhibits many faults in a man; but it enlarges his
borders, and gives magnitude and grandeur. Every one of us desires, or thinks
he desires, breadth of thought, range of sympathy. Yet at our best we are never
full, rounded circles. We may openly resent any imputation of narrowness, but
in our hearts we must plead guilty. Let us learn to measure ourselves. How
intolerant is youth of the methods of age! Let youth learn to enlarge its
borders, and include the thoughts and feelings and methods of age. Every man,
if he devotes himself earnestly to his life’s calling, must be, in some degree,
narrowed by it. At least, he must give so much time to it that but little
remains, and but little strength, for other things. This in itself is not an
evil; but it frequently happens that such a man becomes wilfully narrow, and
underrates or despises pursuits and faculties which are quite as high as his
own. “Enlarge your borders,” is the command of our text. Broaden your sympathies!
Extend your range of observation and understanding! Pierce through to the
realities of things, and do not be deceived by externals! We all sadly need
this injunction. Herein lies much of the inefficiency of our modern charitable
work. The visitor and visited are not in touch, and never can be until both
shall have their borders enlarged. In another field our text finds ready
application. It is the field of theology, Men of broad religions views are so
rare in our time, that the Sodom of our modern denominational life hardly seems
worthy to be saved. There is a want of intellectual capacity to see the “other
side of things.” There is such a radical difference in the very texture of
men’s minds, that the same facts, especially in art, in poetry, and in religion,
will lead equally good and able men to widely different conclusions. Many are
the forces which serve to enlarge our borders, as often without our
consciousness as with it. Whatever opens up the minds and hearts of men to each
other, whether it be joy or sorrow, is a blessing to them. The lessons which
God teaches us through the varied experiences of life are, many of them, hard
and bitter, but the wayward human heart needs deep probing. But the grandest enlargement
of life is that which comes through the thought of God. It can enlarge your
life by putting into your hand the key of love and compassion, which can open
the doors of human hearts as can nothing else on this broad earth. A
consciousness of God is the greatest broadening and deepening power which can
come into any life. (Bradley Gilman.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》