Amos 8:10

And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day. AND I WILL BRING UP ... BALDNESS UPON EVERY HEAD - a sign of mourning (, "On all their heads shall be baldness;" ; ). I WILL MAKE IT AS THE MOURNING OF AN ONLY SON - "it," i:e., the earth (). I will reduce the land to such a state that there shall be the same occasion for mourning as when parents mourn for an only son ...

The Prophet pursues the same subject; but he omits the figurative mode which he had before adopted. He therefore denounces vengeance more openly, — that God would turn their festal-days into mourning, and their songs into lamentation. This was designedly mentioned; for the Israelites, we know, flattered themselves on account of their ceremonies by which at the same time they more and more provoked God’s displeasure: for the worship of God, which they pretended to perform, was mere superstition, and was therefore a profanation of true religion. Though then they thus brought on themselves God’s judgment by their wicked ceremonies, they yet thought that they were sufficiently disguised; for as Jeremiah says, ceremonies are to hypocrites the dens of robbers, (Jeremiah 7:10.) So here the Prophet speaks expressly of festal-days and of songs, — “Think ye that I am pacified on your feast-days, w...

4-10 The rich and powerful of the land were the most guilty of oppression, as well as the foremost in idolatry. They were weary of the restraints of the sabbaths and the new moons, and wished them over, because no common work might be done therein. This is the character of many who are called Christians. The sabbath day and sabbath work are a burden to carnal hearts. It will either be profaned or be accounted a dull day. But can we spend our time better than in communion with God? When employed in religious services, they were thinking of marketings. They were weary of holy duties, because their worldly business stood still the while. Those are strangers to God, and enemies to themselves, who love market days better than sabbath days, who would rather be selling corn than worshipping God. They have no regard to man: those who have lost the savour of piety, will not long keep the sense o...

Verse Amos 8:10. _I WILL TURN YOUR FEASTS INTO MOURNING_] See on Amos 8:3. _A BITTER DAY._] A time of grievous calamity....

I WILL TURN YOUR FEASTS INTO MOURNING - He recurs to the sentence which he had pronounced Amos 8:3, before he described the avarice and oppression which brought it down. Hosea too had foretold, “I will cause all her mirth to cease, her feast-days, etc” Hosea 2:11. So Jeremiah describes, “the joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning” Lamentations 5:15. The Book of Tobit bears witness how these sayings of Amos lived in the hearts of the captive Israelites. The word of God seems oftentimes to fail, yet it finds those who are His. “I remembered,” he said, “that prophecy of Amos, your feasts shall be turned into mourning” (Tobit 2:6). The correspo

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...

AND I WILL TURN YOUR FEASTS INTO MOURNING, AND ALL YOUR SONGS INTO LAMENTATION,.... Either their religious feasts, the feasts of pentecost, tabernacles, and passover; at which three feasts there were eclipses of the sun, a few years after this prophecy of Amos, as Bishop Usher q observes: the first was an eclipse of the sun about ten digits, in the year 3213 A.M. or 791 B.C., June twenty fourth, at the feast of pentecost; the next was almost twelve digits, about eleven years after, on November eighth, 780 B.C., at the feast of the tabernacles; and the third was more than eleven digits in the following year, 779 B.C., on May fifth, at the feast of the passover; which the prophecy may literally refer to, and which might occasion great sorrow and concern, and especially at what they might be thought to forebode: but particularly this was fulfilled when these feasts could not be observed any...

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....

DEVELOPMENT OF THE THEME OF AMOS 3. This section, which re-echoes Amos 2:6, has been regarded as a conglomeration of rather loosely-connected fragments (_cf._ G. A. Smith). The prophet addresses himself to those who persecute and destroy the needy and humble (Amos 8:4), the ruthless and godless rich who regard holy days and Sabbaths as tiresome interruptions of business and as troublesome reproaches to their guilty conscience (Amos 8:5), who traffic in the lives of the poor (see Amos 2:6) and tamper with the very staff of life (Amos 8:6). Such men and such deeds Yahweh will never forget or forgiv

YOUR FEASTS. Reference to Pentateuch (Exodus 12:14; Exodus 23:15; Exodus 23:16; Leviticus 23). App-92. SACKCLOTH. BALDNESS. The outward symbols of mourning. Compare Amos 8:3.Isaiah 15:2.Ezekiel 7:18. IT: i.e. the land....