Amos 8:1

Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit. BEHOLD A BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT - "summer fruit;" Hebrew, Kaitz. In Amos 8:2, "end" is in the Hebrew Keetz. The similarity of sounds implies that, as the summer is the end of the year, and the time of the ripeness of fruits, so Israel is ripe for her last punishment, ending her national existence. As the fruit is plucked when ripe from the tree, so Israel from her land. The fruit-gathering, like our 'crop', was called from cutting; so also the word end is from the same root [ qaatsats (H7112), cutting off]....

By these words or by this vision the Prophet confirms what we have already observed — that paternal chastisements would no longer be exercised towards the people of Israel. God indeed, as it is well known, had so treated that people, that he ever spared them even in their greatest calamities. It was with a suspended hand that God ever struck that people, until after many trials they at length seemed so refractory, as not to be benefited by such remedies. This subject then Amos now pursues: but a vision was shown to him to confirm more fully God’s judgment, or at least to produce a greater impression on the minds of the people. God showed to him a _Basket _full of summer-fruit. By summer-fruit, I doubt not, he means a ripe punishment, as though he said, that the vices of the people had ripened, that vengeance could no longer be deferred: for an exposition of the vision immediately follows...

1-3 Amos saw a basket of summer fruit gathered, and ready to be eaten; which signified, that the people were ripe for destruction, that the year of God's patience was drawing towards a conclusion. Such summer fruits will not keep till winter, but must be used at once. Yet these judgments shall not draw from them any acknowledgement, either of God's righteousness or their own unrighteousness. Sinners put off repentance from day to day, because they think the Lord thus delays his judgments....

CHAPTER VIII _This chapter begins with a fourth vision denoting the certainty_ _and nearness of the destruction of Israel_, 1-3. _The prophet then proceeds to reprove their oppression and_ _injustice_, 4-7. _Strong and beautiful figures, by which is represented the_ _complete dissolution of the Israelitish polity_, 8-10. _The people threatened with a most awful judgment; a FAMINE of_ _the word of God_, 11-14. NOTES ON CHAP. VIII Verse Amos 8:1. _A BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT._] As sum

THUS HATH THE LORD GOD SHOWED ME - The sentence of Amaziah pronounced, Amos resumes just where he left off, before Amaziah broke in upon him. His vehement interruption is like a stone cast into the deep waters. They close over it, and it leaves no trace. Amos had authenticated the third vision; “Thus hath the Lord God shewed me.” He resumes in the self-same calm words. The last vision declared that the end was certain; this, that it was at hand. A BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT - The fruit was the latest harvest in Palestine. When it was gathered, the circle of husbandry was come to its close. The sight gives an idea of completeness. The symbol, and the word expressing it, coincide. The fruit-gathering קיץ _qayits_, like our “crop,” was called from “cutting.” So was the word, “end,” “cutting off,” in (קץ _qêts_). At harvest-time there is no mo

EXPOSITION AMOS 8:1 § 5. _In the fourth vision, the basket of summer fruit, the Lord shows that the people is ripe for judgment. _Explaining this revelation, Amos denounces the oppression and greed of the chieftains (verses 4-10), and warns them that those who despise the Word of God shall some day suffer from a famine of the Word (verses 11-14). AMOS 8:1 A BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT; Septuagint, ἄγγος ἰξευτοῦ_, _"a fowler's vessel;" Vulgate, _uncinus pomorum, _which Jerome explains," Sicut uncino rami arborum detrahuntur ad poma carpenda, ita ego proximum captivitatis tempus attraxi." The word _chelub _is taken to mean "a basket of wickerwork;" it is used for "a cage" in...

THUS HATH THE LORD GOD SHOWED UNTO ME,.... Another vision, which is the fourth, and after the following manner: AND, BEHOLD, A BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT; not of the first ripe fruit, but of such as were gathered at the close of the summer, when autumn began. So the Targum, "the last of the summer fruit;'' such as were fully ripe, and would not keep till winter; or, if kept, would rot; but must be eaten directly, as some sort of apples, grapes, c. denoting the people of Israel being ripe for destruction, and would be quickly devoured by their enemies and that, as they had had a summer of prosperity, they would now have a sharp winter of adversity....

CHAPTER 8 The Fourth Vision: The Basket With Summer Fruit _ 1. The vision (Amos 8:1) _ 2. Israel ripe for judgment (Amos 8:4) 3. The coming days of famine (Amos 8:11) Amos 8:1. In his fourth vision the prophet beholds a basket of summer fruit. The Hebrew shows that it was a basket filled with ripe fruit. The ripe fruit is a symbol that Israel was ripe for the harvest of judgment. The message of the Lord to the prophet is, “The end is come upon My people Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.” The songs would be changed into howling lamentations and many should be slain....

THE VISION OF THE BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT. The account of the visions is now resumed. This time the prophet sees a basket of summer fruit (Amos 8:1), and Yahweh explains (Amos 8:2) that the summer fruit (_kayiṣ?)_ symbolises the end (_kçṣ?)_ of the people of Israel. Thus we have a play upon words (as in Jeremiah 1:11 f.). In that day (Amos 8:3) the songs in the palace (_not_ temple) shall be turned into wailing. There shall be dead bodies everywhere, and these shall be cast away in silence without burial. This scene of the dead demands dead silence. 3. AND THE SONGS OF THE TEMPLE SHALL BE HOWLINGS: lit. and the songs of the palace shall wa

THE LORD GOD. Heb, Adonai Jehovah. See note on Amos 1:8 SUMMER FRUIT. Hebrew kayitz. ripe, "summer" being put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Adjunct), App-6, for ripe fruits characterizing the summer. Compare 2 Samuel 16:2.Jeremiah 40:12....