Amos 3:15

the winter house See Jeremiah 36:22.

with the summer house Eglon (Judges 3:20) had a "cool upper story," i.e. an additional apartment, built on the flat roof of the house, with latticed windows, allowing free circulation for the air (cf. Moore, Judges, pp. 96, 97 f.); but here separate buildings, such as the wealthy might be able to indulge in, appear to be intended. Both terms are to be understood collectively, and not confined to the royal palaces alone. An interesting illustration of the passage has been supplied recently by an almost contemporary inscription from Zinjirli, near Aleppo, in which Bar-rekûb, king of Sham'al, vassal (lit. servant, 2 Kings 16:7) of Tiglath-pileser (תגלתפליסר), says he has beautified his father's house in honour of his ancestors, the kings of Sham'al (i.e. as a mausoleum), "and it is for them a summer-houseand a winter-house[149] " (i.e. for perpetual use).

[149] פהא בית שתוא להם והא בית כיצא (Sachau in the Sitzungsberichteof the Berlin Academy, 22 Oct. 1896, p.1052).

houses of ivory i.e. houses of which the walls were panelled or inlaid with ivory (cf. Psalms 45:8; also ch. Amos 6:4). Ahab (1 Kings 22:39), it seems, had found imitators.

the great houses rather many houses (R.V. marg.): cf. Isaiah 5:9. "The desolation should be wide as well as mighty" (Pusey).