Amos 6:11

For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts. FOR, BEHOLD, THE LORD COMMANDETH, AND HE WILL SMITE. His word of command, when once given, cannot but be fulfilled (). His mere word is enough to smite with destruction. THE GREAT HOUSE WITH BREACHES, AND THE LITTLE HOUSE WITH CLEFTS - He will spare none, great or small (). Jerome interprets the great house as Israel and the small house as Judah; the former being reduced to breaches or ruins-literally, drops; the latter, though injured with clefts or rents, which threaten its fall, is yet still for a time permitted to stand....

This verse is added only to confirm the former sentence. The Prophet indeed intimates, that the common people, as well as the chiefs, in vain trusted in their quiet state; for the Lord would destroy them all together, from the highest to the lowest. _Behold, Jehovah, _he says, _commands etc_. ; by using the word commands, he means, that God had many reasons why he should take away and destroy them all. But he goes farther than this, and intimates that their destruction was dependent on the sole will of God; as though he said, “Though the Lord may not send for ministers of vengeance, though he may not prepare great forces, yet his word only, whenever it shall go forth, will consume you all.” We now then perceive what the Prophet means by the word “commands.” He afterwards adds, _He will smite the great house with confusions, _or, according to some, _with breaking _ רסס, _resas, _means pro...

8-14 How dreadful, how miserable, is the case of those whose eternal ruin the Lord himself has sworn; for he can execute his purpose, and none can alter it! Those hearts are wretchedly hardened that will not be brought to mention God's name, and to worship him, when the hand of God is gone out against them, when sickness and death are in their families. Those that will not be tilled as fields, shall be abandoned as rocks. When our services of God are soured with sin, his providences will justly be made bitter to us. Men should take warning not to harden their hearts, for those who walk in pride, God will destroy....

Verse Amos 6:11. _HE WILL SMOTE THE GREAT HOUSE WITH BREACHES_] The great and small shall equally suffer; no distinction shall be made; rich and poor shall fall together; death has received his commission, and he will spare none. _Horace_ has a sentiment precisely like this, Carm. Lib. i., Od. iv., v. 13. Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum TABERNAS, Regumque TURRES. With equal pace impartial fate Knocks at the _palace_ as the _cottage_ gate. But this may refer particularly to the houses of the poor in Eastern countries; their mud walls being frequently full of _clefts_; the earth of which they are built sel

THE LORD COMMANDETH AND HE WILL SMITE - Jerome: “If He commandeth, how doth He smite? If He smiteth, how doth He command? In that thing which He “commands” and enjoins His ministers, He Himself is seen to “smite.” In Egypt the Lord declares that He killed the first-born, who, we read, were slain by “the destroyer” Exodus 12:23. The “breaches” denote probably the larger, “the cleft” the smaller ruin. The greater pile was the more greatly destroyed....

EXPOSITION AMOS 6:1 With a second woe the prophet denounces the chiefs of the whole nation, who were quite satisfied with the present state of things, and, revelling in luxury, feared no coming judgment. AMOS 6:1 THEM THAT ARE AT EASE IN ZION; living in fancied security and self-pleasing (Isaiah 32:9, Isaiah 32:11; Zephaniah 1:12). Judah is included in the denunciation, because she is equally guilty; the whole covenant nation is sunk in the same dangerous apathy. Septuagint, τοῖς ἐξουθ

FOR, BEHOLD, THE LORD COMMANDETH,.... Hath determined and ordered the judgment before, and what follows: Kimchi paraphrases it, hath decreed the earthquake, as in Amos 3:15; of which he understands the following: AND HE WILL SMITE THE GREAT HOUSE WITH BREACHES; or "droppings" h; so that the rain shall drop through: AND THE LITTLE HOUSE WITH CLEFTS; so that it shall fall to ruin; that is, he shall smite the houses both of great and small, of the princes, and of the common people, either with an earthquake, so that they shall part asunder and fall; or, being left without inhabitants, shall of course become desolate, there being none to repair their breaches. Some understand, by the "great house", the ten tribes of Israel; and, by the "little house", the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; to which sense the Targum seems to incline, "he will smite the

CHAPTER 6 The Fourth Discourse _ 1. Woe to them that are at ease in Zion (Amos 6:1) _ 2. The punishment announced (Amos 6:7) Amos 6:1. This woe concerns the great men, the chiefs of the nation, who were sunk into a godless self-security, and dreamt on in their darkness, while the clouds of judgment were gathering above them. They were to go from Calneh to Hamath and then down to Gath of the Philistines. Calneh was built by Nimrod in the land of Shinar Genesis 10:10; Hamath was the capital of a Syrian kingdom, and Gath the center of Philistia. These places were the places of vileness and corruption. But were the kingdoms of both J

THE MISERABLE FATE OF THESE RULERS. Yahweh solemnly declares (Amos 6:8) that the pride (_mg.)_ of Jacob, the vainglory which has displaced true glory, has become an abomination to Him. There follows a difficult section, Amos 6:9 f., which does not suit the context very well and may have been added by a scribe. It seems to describe the horrors of a siege or plague. So terrible is the scourge that in a house where there are ten men none may escape (Amos 6:9). A kinsman (_mg._), whose privilege it is to burn sacred spices in honour of the dead (_cf._ Jeremiah 34:5;...

BEHOLD. Figure of speech _Asterismos._ App-6....