Amos 3:15

And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD. AND I WILL SMITE THE WINTER ... WITH THE SUMMER HOUSE - (; ). Winter houses of the great were in sheltered positions facing the south, to get all possible sunshine; summer houses in forests and on hills, facing the east and north. AND THE HOUSES OF IVORY - having their walls, doors, and cielings inlaid with ivory. So Ahab's house (; ). Remarks: (1) Thrice the prophet addressed the same solemn summons, Hear ye this word ...

Amos shows again that in vain the great people trusted in their wealth and fortified places; for these could not hinder God from drawing them forth to punishment. As then abundance blinds men, and as they imagine themselves to be as it were inaccessible, especially when dwelling in great palaces, the Prophet here declares, that these houses would be no impediment to prevent God’s vengeance to break through; _I will then destroy the winter-house together with the summer-house. _Amos no doubt intended by this paraphrase to designate the palaces. The poor deem it enough to have a cottage both for winter and summer; for they change not the parts of their buildings, so as to inhabit the hotter in winter, and to refresh themselves in the colder during summer: no such advantage is possessed by the poor, for they are content with the same dwelling through life. But as the rich sought warmth in w...

9-15 That power which is an instrument of unrighteousness, will justly be brought down and broken. What is got and kept wrongfully, will not be kept long. Some are at ease, but there will come a day of visitation, and in that day, all they are proud of, and put confidence in, shall fail them. God will inquire into the sins of which they have been guilty in their houses, the robbery they have stored up, and the luxury in which they lived. The pomp and pleasantness of men's houses, do not fortify against God's judgments, but make sufferings the more grievous and vexatious. Yet a remnant, according to the election of grace, will be secured by our great and good Shepherd, as from the jaws of destruction, in the worst times....

Verse Amos 3:15. _I WILL SMITE THE WINTER HOUSE WITH THE SUMMER HOUSE_] I will not only destroy the _poor habitations_ and _villages_ in the country, but I will destroy those of the _nobility_ and _gentry_ as well as the _lofty palaces_ in the fortified cities in which they dwell in the _winter season_, as those _light_ and _elegant seats_ in which they spend the _summer season_. Dr. _Shaw_ observes that "the hills and valleys round about Algiers are all over beautified with gardens and _country seats_, whither the inhabitants of _better_ _fashion_ retire during the _heats of the summer season_. They are _little white houses_, shaded with a variety of _fruit trees_ and _evergreens_, which beside shade and retirement, afford a _gay_ and _delightful prospect toward the sea_. The _gardens_ are all...

AND I WILL SMITE THE WINTER HOUSE WITH THE SUMMER HOUSE - Upon idolatry, there follow luxury and pride. “So wealthy were they,” says Jerome, “as to possess two sorts of houses, “the winter house” being turned to the south, the “summer house” to the north, so that, according to the variety of the seasons, they might temper to them the heat and cold.” Yet of these luxuries, (so much more natural in the East where summer-heat is so intense, and there is so little provision against cold) the only instance expressly recorded, besides this place, is “the winter house” of Jehoiakim. In Greece and Rome , the end was attained, as with us, by north and south rooms in the same house. These, which Amos rebukes, were like our town and country houses, separate residences, since they were to be destroyed, one on the other. “Ivory houses” were houses, paneled, or inlaid, with ivory. Such a palace Ahab b...

EXPOSITION VERSE 1-CH. 6:14 Part II. THREE ADDRESSES PARTICULARIZING THE SINS OF ISRAEL AND ANNOUNCING IMMINENT JUDGMENT. AMOS 3:1 _§ 1. First address: the prophet begins by showing Israel's ingratitude for past mercies _(Amos 3:1, Amos 3:2)_, and his own commission to announce the coming judgment _(Amos 3:3). They have drawn this upon themselves by iniquities which astonish even heathen

AND I WILL SMITE THE WINTER HOUSE WITH THE SUMMER HOUSE,.... Both the one and, the other shall fall to the ground, being beat down by the enemy, or shook and made to fall by the earthquake predicted, Amos 1:1; as Kimchi thinks: kings and great personages had houses in the city in the winter season, in which they lived for warmth; and others in the country in the summertime, to which they retired for the benefit of the air; or they had, in one and the same house, a summer and a winter parlour; see Judges 3:20; it signifies that the destruction should reach city and country, and deprive them of what was for their comfort and pleasure: AND THE HOUSES OF IVORY SHALL PERISH; or "of the tooth" l; the elephant's tooth, of which ivory is made. Ahab made a house of ivory; and perhaps more were made by others a

II. THE PROPHETIC MESSAGES UNCOVERING THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE CHAPTER 3 The First Discourse _ 1. There is cause for judgment (Amos 3:1) _ 2. The coming judgment visitation (Amos 3:9) Amos 3:1. “Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You have I only known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities.” This is the solemn beginning of the special messages addressed to the nation by the humble herdman of Tekoa. The Lord had singled them out from the other nations. He had separated them unto Himself. With His mighty power and outstretched arm He had del

GUILT AND DOOM OF SAMARIA. The prophet proceeds to apply the lesson. The peoples are summoned to proclaim the fate that has befallen (Amos 3:9 *) the castles of Ashdod and those in the land of Egypt, and then to assemble and witness the sins of Samaria. From the mountains of Samaria, the city presents a spectacle of great turmoil and deep-rooted oppression. And the reason is (Amos 3:10) that the ruling classes have no proper sense of what is right or straightforward. Wrong thought brings wrong doing, and wrong doing inevitably brings punishment. Therefore an adversary will succeed in encompassing the land and will be the means of bringing low the proud and rich potentates. Amos knew by experience that when the lion attacks the sheep, often all that can be saved is two legs or the piece of an ear ...

WINTER HOUSE. Compare Jeremiah 36:22. SUMMER HOUSE. Compare Judges 3:20. HOUSES OF IVORY. Put by Figure of speech _Synecdoche_ (of the Whole), App-6, for the parts inlaid, paneled, or overlaid with ivory. Compare 1 Kings 22:39; Psalms 45:8. THE GREAT. many....