Amos 9:2

Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: THOUGH THEY DIG INTO HELL, THENCE SHALL MINE HAND TAKE THEM - though they hide ever so deeply in the earth (). THOUGH THEY CLIMB UP TO HEAVEN, THENCE WILL I BRING THEM DOWN - though they ascend the greatest heights (Job 20:6; ; .)...

Here the Prophet denounces horrible punishments; but not without reason, for there was astonishing torpidity in that people, as there is usually in all hypocrites when they have any shadow of excuse. They were then the only elect people in the whole world. When, therefore, they thought that they excelled others and that they were endued with singular privileges beyond all other nations, this glory inebriated them, and they imagined that God was in a manner bound to them, as we have seen in other places. This, then, was the reason why the Prophet in so many ways enlarged on the judgment of God on hypocrites; it was, that they might be terrified by the vehemence and severity of his words. Hence he says_, If they dig for themselves passages to hell, _that is, to the center of the earth, for שאול, _shaul, _is here put for the center; _thence shall my hand draw them forth; _and then, If they...

1-10 The prophet, in vision, saw the Lord standing upon the idolatrous altar at Bethel. Wherever sinners flee from God's justice, it will overtake them. Those whom God brings to heaven by his grace, shall never be cast down; but those who seek to climb thither by vain confidence in themselves, will be cast down and filled with shame. That which makes escape impossible and ruin sure, is, that God will set his eyes upon them for evil, not for good. Wretched must those be on whom the Lord looks for evil, and not for good. The Lord would scatter the Jews, and visit them with calamities, as the corn is shaken in a sieve; but he would save some from among them. The astonishing preservation of the Jews as a distinct people, seems here foretold. If professors make themselves like the world, God will level them with the world. The sinners who thus flatter themselves, shall find that their profess...

Verse Amos 9:2. _THOUGH THEY DIG INTO HELL_] Though they should get into the deepest caverns; _though they climb up to heaven _- get to the most inaccessible heights; I will drag them up from the one, and pull them down from the other....

Height or depth are alike open to the Omnipresent God. The grave is not so awful as God. The sinner would gladly “dig through” into hell, bury himself, the living among the dead, if so he could escape the sight of God. But thence, God says, “My hand shall take them,” to place them in His presence, to receive their sentence. Or if, like the rebel angels, they could “place” their “throne amid the stars Isaiah 14:12 of God thence will I bring them down,” humbling, judging, condemning....

EXPOSITION AMOS 9:1 § 6_. The fifth vision displays the Lord standing by the altar and _commanding the destruction of the temple (Amos 9:1). No one shall escape this judgment, flee whither he will (Amos 9:2); for God is Almighty (Amos 9:5, Amos 9:6). Their election shall not save the guilty Israelites; still they shall not be utterly destroyed (Amos 9:7). AMOS 9:1...

THOUGH THEY DIG INTO HELL, THENCE SHALL MINE HAND TAKE THEM,.... That is, they that endeavour to make their escape from their enemies, though they seek for places of the greatest secrecy and privacy; not hell, the place of the damned; nor the grave, the repository of the dead; neither of which they chose to he in, but rather sought to escape them; but the deepest and darkest caverns, the utmost recesses of the earth, the very centre of it; which, could they get into, would not secure them from the power and providence of God, and from their enemies in pursuit of them, by his permission: THOUGH THEY CLIMB UP TO HEAVEN, THENCE WILL I BRING THEM DOWN; the summit of the highest mountains, and get as near to heaven, and at as great a distance from men, as can be, and yet all in vain. The Targum is, "if they think to be hid as it were in hell, from thence their enemies shall take them by my...

HELL Hebrew, "Sheol," (_ See Scofield) - (Habakkuk 2:5). _...

CHAPTER 9 The Passing of a Kingdom and the Coming of the Kingdom _ 1. The fifth vision: The passing of a kingdom (Amos 9:1) _ 2. The coming of the kingdom (Amos 9:11) Amos 9:1. In his fifth vision the prophet saw the Lord standing by the altar. He utters His word. The description of what is to take place is very vivid. He stands by the altar and the people are assembled before Him. He smites the lintel of the door, so that everything trembles and the building falls upon them, cutting all of them in the head and none can escape. Even if they break into sheol (not hell, but the world of spirits in the unknown regions), from thence His hand will take them; if they climb into heaven, He would bring them down. If t

THE VISION OF AN AVENGING GOD. The last vision impresses upon Amos the anger and omnipotence of the supreme ruler and judge. Yahweh is seen (Amos 9:1) stationed by or over the altar (_i.e._ of Bethel) or over an altar. The agents of His vengeance are bidden by the prophet to smite the Temple. The command goes forth to cut them (the pillars) off at the top of all of them. Those who escape the shattering of the Temple (the last of them) will fall by the sword. There will be no escape for them either in the superhuman heights and depths (Amos 9:2) or in the terrestrial thickets and caves of the almost inaccessible heights of Carmel (Amos 9:3), or in the bottom of the sea. The serpent, that terrible monster which was supposed to have its home in the s