Amos 7:17

Therefore thus saith the LORD; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land. THEREFORE THUS SAITH THE LORD; THY WIFE SHALL BE AN HARLOT IN THE CITY - i:e., shall be forced by the enemy, while thou art looking on, unable to prevent her dishonour (; ). The words, "saith THE LORD," are in striking opposition to "thou sayest" (). AND THY LAND SHALL BE DIVIDED BY LINE - among the foe. AND THOU SHALT DIE IN A POLLUTED LAND. Israel regarded every foreign land as that which really...

Now follows a denunciation, _Therefore thus saith Jehovah _This לכן, _lacen_, therefore, shows that Amaziah suffered punishment, not only because he had corrupted God’s worship, because he had deceived the people by his impostures and because he had made gain by the disguise of religion; but because he had insolently dared to oppose the authority of God, and to turn aside the Prophet from his office, both by hidden crafts and by open violence. Inasmuch then as he had attempted to do this, Amos now declares that punishment awaited him. We hence see that destruction is doubly increased, when we set up a hard and iron neck against God, who would have us to be pliant, and when he reproves us, requires from us at least this modesty — that we confess that we have sinned. But when we evade, or when we proceed still outward, this issue will at last follow — that God will execute double vengeance...

10-17 It is no new thing for the accusers of the brethren, to misrepresent them as enemies to the king and kingdom, as traitors to their prince, and troublers of the land, when they are the best friends to both. Those who make gain their godliness, and are governed by the hopes of wealth and preferment, are ready to think these the most powerful motives with others also. But those who have a warrant from God, like Amos, ought not to fear the face of man. If God, that sent him, had not strengthened him, he could not thus have set his face as a flint. The Lord often chooses the weak and foolish things of the world to confound the wise and mighty. But no fervent prayers, or self-denying labours, can bring proud sinners to bear faithful reproofs and warnings. And all who oppose or despise the Divine word, must expect fatal effects to their souls, unless they repent....

Verse Amos 7:17. _THY WIFE SHALL BE A HARLOT_] As this was _the word of_ _the Lord_, so it was fulfilled; but as we have no farther account of this idolatrous priest, so we cannot tell in what circumstances these threatenings were executed. 1. His wife was to be a public prostitute; she was probably such already privately in the temple, as the wife of an idolatrous priest. 2. His sons and daughters were to fall by the sword . 3. Their _inheritance_ was to be taken by strangers. 4. And himself was to die a captive in a heathen land. _ISRAEL SHALL SURELY GO INTO CAPTIVITY_] He now declares fully what he had not declared before, though Amaziah had made it a subject of accusation. This particular was probably revealed at this instant, as well as those which concerned Amaziah and his family....

THY WIFE SHALL BE A HARLOT - These were, and still are, among the horrors of war. His own sentence comes last, when he had seen the rest, unable to hinder it. Against his and her own will, she should suffer this. Jerome: “Great is the grief, and incredible the disgrace, when the husband, in the midst of the city and in the presence of all, cannot hinder the wrong done to his wife , for the husband had rather hear that his wife had been slain, than defiled.” What he adds “thy daughters” (as well as his “sons”) “shall fall by the sword,” is an unwonted barbarity, and not part of the Assyrian customs, who carried off women in great numbers, as wives for their soldiery . Perhaps Amos mentions the unwonted cruelty, that the event might bring home the more to the minds of the people the prophecies which relate to themselves. When this had been fulfilled before his eyes , “Amaziah himself, who...

EXPOSITION VERSE 1-CH. 9:10 Part III. FIVE VISIONS, WITH EXPLANATIONS, CONTINUING AND CONFIRMING THE PREVIOUS PROPHECY. The afflictions are climactic, increasing in intensity. The first two symbolize judgments which have been averted by the prophet's intercession; the third and fourth adumbrate judgments which are to fall inevitably; and the fifth proclaims the overthrow of the temple and the old theocracy. AMOS 7:1 _§ 1. The first vision, of locusts, represents Israel as a field eaten down to the ground, but shooting up afresh, and its utter destruction postponed at the prophet's prayer._...

THEREFORE THUS SAITH THE LORD,.... For withstanding the prophet of the Lord, and forbidding him to speak in his name against the idolatry of Israel, as well as for his own idolatry: THY WIFE SHALL BE AN HARLOT IN THE CITY: either of Bethel or Samaria; either through force, being ravished by the soldiers upon taking and plundering the city; so Theodoret and others: or rather of choice; either, through poverty, to get bread, or through a vicious inclination, and that in a public manner: the meaning is, that she should be a common strumpet; which must be a great affliction to him, and a just punishment for his idolatry, or spiritual adultery; this must be before the siege and taking of Samaria, since by that time the priest's wife would be too old to be used as a harlot: AND THY SONS AND THY DAUGHTERS SHALL FALL BY THE SWORD; either of Shallum, who smote Zachariah the son of Jeroboam with...

III. THE FIVE VISIONS OF THE PROPHET CHAPTER 7 Three Visions and the Opposition Against Amos _ 1. The vision of locusts (Amos 7:1) _ 2. The vision concerning the fire (Amos 7:4) 3. The vision of the plumbline (Amos 7:7) 4. Opposition against Amos (Amos 7:10) Amos 7:1. In the first vision Amos saw how the Lord prepared locusts (not grasshoppers as in the A.V. They started in with their destructive work, just as they did in the day of Joel. Then Amos interceded in behalf of the sinful nation, “O Lord, GOD, forgive, I beseech Thee, by whom

EFFECT OF AMOS-' PUBLIC UTTERANCES. A historical episode is here interposed. Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, interrupts the work of Amos, charging him, by twisting his words, with conspiracy (Amos 7:10). So revolutionary is he that the earth (_not_ the land) cannot bear all his words. Really he had spoken not of Jeroboam but of the house of Jeroboam. There is perhaps a note of scorn in the word seer (almost equivalent to visionary). Amos had better flee to Judah and earn his bread and prophesy there. Amos retorts that he was no professional prophet. He had earned his bread by tending sheep and cultivating fig-mulberries (rather than sycamore trees). In Syria these did not grow in such high and cold regions as Tekoa, but the pasture-grounds and gardens of its shepherds may well have extended on the E. down to the Dead Sea (_cf._ G. A. Smith). Amos refuses for the moment to be silenced ...

THUS SAITH THE LORD. See note on Amos 1:3, BE AN HARLOT: i.e. become. victim to the lust of the invader. LAND. soil. Hebrew adamah. DIVIDED, &c.:. e. partitioned. IN. POLLUTED LAND. on polluted (i e. heathen) soil, FORTH OF. from upon....