Amos 5:23

Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. TAKE THOU AWAY FROM ME - literally, 'Take away from upon me;' the idea being that of a burden pressing upon the bearer. So , "They are a trouble unto me (literally, a burden upon me): I am weary to bear them." THE NOISE OF THY SONGS - the hymns and instrumental music on sacred occasions are to me nothing but a disagreeable noise. FOR I WILL NOT HEAR THE MELODY OF THY VIOLS. Isaiah substitutes "prayers" () for the "songs" and "melody" here; but, like Amos, closes with "I will not hear," "yea, when ye make many prayers I will not hear....

It follows, _Take away from me the multitude of thy songs _By speaking of multitude, he aims at hypocrites, who toil much in their devices without measure or end, as we see done at this day by those under the Papacy; for they accumulate endless forms of worship, and greatly weary themselves, morning and evening; in short, they spend days and nights in performing their ceremonies, and every one devises some new thing, and all these they heap together. Inasmuch, then, as men, when they have begun to turn aside from the pure word of God, continually invent various kinds of trifles, the Prophet here touches indirectly on this foolish laboriousness (_stultan sedulitatem _ — foolish sedulity) when he says, _Take away from me the multitude of thy songs. _He might have simply said, “Thy songs please me not;” but he mentions their multitude, because hypocrites, as I have said, fix no limits to th...

18-27 Woe unto those that desire the day of the Lord's judgments, that wish for times of war and confusion; as some who long for changes, hoping to rise upon the ruins of their country! but this should be so great a desolation, that nobody could gain by it. The day of the Lord will be a dark, dismal, gloomy day to all impenitent sinners. When God makes a day dark, all the world cannot make it light. Those who are not reformed by the judgments of God, will be pursued by them; if they escape one, another stands ready to seize them. A pretence of piety is double iniquity, and so it will be found. The people of Israel copied the crimes of their forefathers. The law of worshipping the Lord our God, is, Him only we must serve. Professors thrive so little, because they have little or no communion with God in their duties. They were led captive by Satan into idolatry, therefore God caused them t...

Verse Amos 5:23. _THE NOISE OF THY SONGS - THE MELODY OF THY VIOLS._] They had both _vocal_ and _instrumental music_ in those sacrificial festivals; and God hated the _noise_ of the _one_ and _shut_ his _ears_ against the _melody_ of the _other_. In the _first_ there was nothing but _noise_, because their _hearts_ were not right with God; and in the _latter_ there could be nothing but (זמרת _zimrath_) cutting and scraping, because there was _no heart_-no religious sense in the thing, and nearly as little in them that used it. See on Amos 6:5....

TAKE THOU AWAY FROM ME - Literally, “from upon Me,” that is, from being a burden to Me, a weight on Me. So God says by Isaiah, “your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth; they are a burden upon Me; I am weary to bear them” Isaiah 1:14. Their “songs” and hymns were but a confused, tumultuous, “noise,” since they had not the harmony of love. FOR - (And) THE MELODY OF THY VIOLS I WILL NOT HEAR - Yet the “nebel,” probably a sort of harp, was almost exclusively consecrated to the service of God, and the Psalms were God’s own writing. Doubtless they sounded harmoniously in their own ears; but it reached no further. Their melody, like much Church-music, was for itself, and ended in itself. : “Let Christian chanters learn hence, not to set the whole devotion of Psalmody in a good voice, subtlety of modulation

EXPOSITION VERSE 1-CH. 6:14 § 8. _Third address_:_ the prophet utters a lamentation over the fall of Israel_. (Amos 6:1.) He calls her to repentance, while he shows wherein she has declined from the right way. To make this plain, he contrasts God's power and majesty with the people's iniquity, instances of which he gives (Amos 6:4). The only condition of safety is amendment (Amo 6:13 -15); and as they refuse to reform, they shall have cause to lament (verses 16, 17). This threat is enforced by the two emphatic "woes" that follow, the first of which demonstrates the baselessness of their trust in their covenant relation to God (verses 18-27); the second denounces the careless lives of the chiefs, who, revelling in luxury, believed not in the coming judgment ...

TAKE THOU AWAY FROM ME THE NOISE OF THY SONGS,.... The ten tribes, very probably, imitated the, temple music at Jerusalem, both vocal and instrumental, and had their songs and hymns of praise, which they sung to certain tunes; but the music of these is called a noise, being very disagreeable to the Lord, as coming from such carnal and wicked persons; and therefore he desires it might cease, be took away, and he be no more troubled with it: FOR I WILL NOT HEAR THE MELODY OF THY VIOLS: which may be put for all instruments of music used by them, as violins, harps, psalteries, c. the sound of which, how melodious soever, the, Lord would turn a deaf ear unto, and not regard....

Amos 5:4. _For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:_ And that it just the message of God to professing Christians now: «Seek ye me.» Get away from your mere ceremonies, from trusting in your outward performances, and get to God himself. Get beyond your fellow-worshippers and your ministers, beyond your sanctuaries and your supposed holy places, and get in spirit and in truth to God himself: «Seek ye me, and ye shall live.» Amos 5:5. _But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal and pass not to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Beth-el shall come to nought._ These were the places where the calves and other idols were set up for the worship of God by means of visible symbols. That was the Romanism of that day. Pure spiritual

CHAPTER 5 The Third Discourse _ 1. The lamentation (Amos 5:1) _ 2. Seek the Lord and ye shall live (Amos 5:4) 3. The wailing (Amos 5:16) 4. The captivity announced (Amos 5:21) Amos 5:1. This chapter begins with a lamentation over the fallen daughter of Israel. “She shall no more rise” has been used as an argument against the future and literal restoration of Israel. The prophet has only the present government of God over that generation in view and does not deny at all a future rising as so abundantly predicted in the prophetic Word. “The

ISRAEL'S DELUSIONS. The prophet resumes the subject of Israel's delusions, how she disregards the essential conditions of real welfare. In Amos 5:18 he deals with a peculiar example of this, the conception or rather misconception of the day of Yahweh. The current belief was that when the day of Yahweh dawned, He would surely vindicate His people and punish their foes. Amos urges that this belief is a serious and unfortunate mistake, and conceives the day of Yahweh as a day of reckoning for His own people. What good will it do you? Yahweh's day is a day of darkness and not light (Harper). The prudent course would be at once to seek God and live. Simply to long and pray for the day of Yahweh is to flee from one danger and fall into another which may be more deadly (Amos 5:19). After disposing of this peculiar delusion,