Amos 3:2

You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. YOU ONLY HAVE I KNOWN - i:e., acknowledged as my people, and treated with special favour (; ). Compare the use of "know," ; ; ; . THEREFORE I WILL PUNISH. The greater the privileges, the heavier the punishment for the abuse of them: for to the other offences there is added, in this case, ingratitude. When God's people do not glorify Him, He glorifies Himself by punishing t...

The Prophet afterwards declares what he had in charge, _Only you have I known of all the families of the earth: I will therefore visit you for your iniquities. _Many think that he still concedes to the Israelites what they were wont to boast of, — that they were separated from the common class of men, because the Lord had adopted them: but it seems rather to be a reproach cast on them. God then brings forward here his benefits, of which we noticed yesterday a similar instance, that he might enhance the more the sin of the people, in returning the worst recompense to God, by whom they had been so liberally and so kindly treated: “I,” he says, “have loved you _only.” _It is indeed true, that the Israelites, as we have in other places often observed, gloried in their privileges; but the Prophet seems not to have this in view. God then expostulates with them for being so ungrateful: You only...

1-8 The distinguishing favours of God to us, if they do not restrain from sin, shall not exempt from punishment. They could not expect communion with God, unless they first sought peace with him. Where there is not friendship, there can be no fellowship. God and man cannot walk together, except they are agreed. Unless we seek his glory, we cannot walk with him. Let us not presume on outward privileges, without special, sanctifying grace. The threatenings of the word and providence of God against the sin of man are certain, and certainly show that the judgments of God are at hand. Nor will God remove the affliction he has sent, till it has done its work. The evil of sin is from ourselves, it is our own doing; but the evil of trouble is from God, and is his doing, whoever are the instruments. This should engage us patiently to bear public troubles, and to study to answer God's meaning in...

Verse Amos 3:2. _YOU ONLY HAVE I KNOWN_] I have taken no other people to be my own people. I have _approved_ of you, loved you, fed, sustained, and defended you; but because you have forsaken me, have become idolatrous and polluted, therefore _will I punish you_. And the punishment shall be in proportion to the privileges you have enjoyed, and the grace you have abused....

YOU ONLY HAVE I KNOWN OF ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH; THEREFORE I WILL PUNISH YOU FOR ALL YOUR INIQUITIES - Such is the one law of God. The nearer anyone is brought unto God, the worse is his fall, and, his trial over, the more heavily is he punished. Nearness to God is a priceless, but an awesome gift. The most intense blessing becomes, by the abuse of free will, the most dreadful woe. For the nearer God places anyone to His own light, the more malignant is the choice of darkness instead of light. The more clearly anyone knows the relation to God, in which God has placed him, the more terrible is his rejection of God. The more God reveals to any, what He is, His essential perfections, His holiness and love, the more utter, tearful malignity it is, to have been brought face to face with God, and to have in deed said to Him, “On Thy terms I will have none of Thee.” The angels who sinned...

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

YOU ONLY HAVE I KNOWN OF ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH,.... All the families or nations of the earth, and all the inhabitants of it, are known by the Lord, as he is the omniscient God; but none had been known by him as a family, or a nation, with that love and affection as this family had been, or distinguished by his favours and blessings as they, not only temporal, but spiritual; besides the land of Canaan, and all the good things in it, they had the law of the Lord, his word, worship, and ordinances, among them; he chose them for himself above all people, and gave peculiar marks of his affection to them, and special instances of his goodness, and of his care over them, and concern for them; see Deuteronomy 4:6; THEREFORE I WILL PUNISH YOU FOR ALL YOUR INIQUITIES; or "visit upon you" c; or "against you"; in a way of chastisement and correction; they were a family he

THEREFORE It is noteworthy that Jehovah's controversy with the Gentile cities which hated Israel is brief: "I will send a fire." But Israel had been brought into the place of privilege and so of responsibility, and the Lord's indictment is detailed and unsparing. Compare (Matthew 11:23); (Luke 12:47); (Luke 12:48)....

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

ISRAEL'S RESPONSIBILITY AND THE PROPHET'S OBLIGATION. Amos, after addressing the children of Israel, includes Judah by adding the whole family, unless this is a gloss, as it may be, since the inclusion of Judah here seems inappropriate. Yahweh had selected Israel for special notice and favour. On that account its apostasy and sin were all the more deserving of punishment. The law of cause and effect applies here as elsewhere. When two walk in accord (so Ehrlich, comparing Genesis 22:8), the reason is that they have made an appointment (_mg.)._ When a lion roars, it is because he scents the prey. When vv. young lion growls from his lair, it is because he has made a capture. When a bird falls on the ground, it is because a boomerang has struck it. When a trap springs up from the ground, it is because it has caught something. When a horn is blown in the city, it is because there is some cau...