Amos 1:3

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: THUS SAITH THE LORD. Here begins a series of threatenings of vengeance against six other states, followed by one against Judah, and ending with one against Israel, with whom the rest of the prophecy is occupied. The eight predictions are in symmetrical stanzas, each prefaced by "Thus saith the Lord." Beginning with the sin of others, which Israel would be ready enough to recognize, he proceeds to bring home to Israel her own guilt. Israel must not think hereafter, because she sees others visited similarly to herself, that such judgments are matters of chance; nay, they are divinely foreseen and foreordered, and are confirmations of the truth that God will not clear the guilty. If God spares not the n...

It is singular that Amos said that his words were concerning Israel, and that he should now turn to speak of Damascus and the country of Syria. This seems inconsistent; for why does he not perform the office committed to him? why does he not reprove the Israelites? why does he not threaten them? why does he not show their sins? and why does he speak of the destruction then nigh to the people of Syria? But it is right here to consider what his design was. He shows briefly, in the last verse, that ruin was nigh the Israelites; for God, who had hitherto spared them, was now resolved to ascend his tribunal. But now, that he might better prepare the Israelites, he shows that God, as a judge, would call all the neighboring nations to an account. For had the Prophet threatened the Israelites only, they might have thought that what they suffered was by chance, when they saw the like things happe...

Verse Amos 1:3. _FOR THREE TRANSGRESSIONS OF DAMASCUS, AND FOR FOUR_] These expressions of _three_ and _four_, so often repeated in this chapter, mean _repetition, abundance_, and any thing that goes towards _excess_. _Very, very exceedingly_; and so it was used among the ancient Greek and Latin poets. See the passionate exclamation of Ulysses, in the storm, _Odyss_., lib. v., ver. 306: - Τρις μακαρες Δαναοι και τετρακις, οἱ τοτ' ολοντο Τροιῃ εν ευρειῃ, χαριν Ατρειδῃσι φεροντες. "_Thrice happy_ Greeks! and _four times_ who were slain In Atreus' cause, upon the Trojan plain." Which words _Virgil_ trans

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 relation 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 former friendship and covenant; malicious also and hardhearted through covetousness. Then follow 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 ow...

EXPOSITION VERSE 1-CH. 2:16 PART I. APPROACHING JUDGMENT. VERSE 1-CH. 2:3 _§ 1. The nations bordering on the Holy Land are solemnly summoned to judgment._ AMOS 1:1, AMOS 1:2 Heading of the book, with short summary of its contents. AMOS 1:1 Heading. THE WORDS. So Jeremiah begins his prophecy (Jeremiah 1:1), and the writer of Ecclesiastes (Ecclesiastes 1:1). That the words am not thos

THUS SAITH THE LORD,.... Lest it should be thought that the words that Amos spoke were his own, and he spake them of himself, this and the following prophecies are prefaced in this manner; and he begins with the nations near to the people of Israel and Judah, who had greatly afflicted them, and for that reason would be punished; which is foretold, to let Israel see that those judgments on them did not come by chance; and lest they should promise themselves impunity from the prosperity of these sinful nations; and to awaken them to a sense of their sin and danger, who might expect the visitation of God for their transgressions; as also to take off all offence at the prophet, who began not with them, but with their enemies: FOR THREE TRANSGRESSIONS OF DAMASCUS, AND FOR FOUR, I WILL NOT TURN AWAY [THE PUNISHMENT] THEREOF; Damascus was an ancient city; it was in the times of Abraham,...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS I. JUDGMENT ANNOUNCED AGAINST THE NATIONS, JUDAH, AND ISRAEL CHAPTER 1 _ 1. The introduction (Amos 1:1) _ 2. Damascus (Amos 1:3) 3. Philistia (Amos 1:6) 4. Tyre (Amos 1:9) 5. Edom (Amos 1:11) 6. Ammon (Amos 1:13) Amos 1:1. It has been pointed out that Amos does not say like so many of the other prophets, “the Word of the Lord which came un

DAMASCUS. It is Yahweh who speaks by the mouth of the prophets. The mention of Damascus, the capital of the Aramaean or Syrian kingdom, would at once arrest attention, for until recently Israel had been engaged in a severe struggle (p. 69) with this kingdom (Damascus stands here for the whole region). Damascus, then, had committed sins (lit. rebellions) not once or twice or thrice, but again and again (three, yea, four). It might look as though an earlier threat of punishment had been forgotten by Yahweh and the sentence of doom revoked. But such was not the case (I will not turn it back, a formula repeated in Amos 1:6; Amos 1:9; Amos 1:11; Amos 1:13;...

THUS SAITH THE LORD. Jehovah's words: not the words of Amos.. The prophetic formula. See App-82. See the twelve with Jehovah, in verses: Amos 3:6; Amos 3:9; Amos 3:11; Amos 3:13; Amos 2:1; Amos 2:4; Amos 2:6; Amos 8:12; Amos 5:4;...

_For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four_ Similarly Amos 1:6_; Amos 1:9; Amos 1:11; Amos 1:13_, Amos 2:1; Amos 2:4; Amos 2:6. The numbers are of course to be understood not literally, but typically, a concrete number being chosen for the sake of assisting the imagination: three would be a sufficient number, but they are augmented by a fourth, conceived implicitly as an aggravation of the three; the measure of guilt, in other words, is