Amos 6:14

But For, justifying the low estimate of their power, expressed in Amos 6:13.

raise up not absolutely, as Amos 2:11 (for the Assyrians had long existed as a nation), but against you, i.e. as your adversaries. As in Habakkuk 1:6 (of the Chaldaeans) the term is used of the unconscious instruments of Providence: cf. 1 Kings 11:14; 1 Kings 11:23; also Isaiah 10:5. (The Hebrew words in Exodus 9:16, and in Isaiah 41:2; Isaiah 41:25; Isaiah 45:13 are both different: in Ex. made thee to stand, i. e. to endure;in Is. stirred up, i.e. impelled into activity, as Isaiah 13:17.) Properly, am raising up: cf. Amos 7:8; and on Joel 2:19.

God of hosts the title designates Jehovah appropriately, as one able to wield the powers of the world: cf. Amos 5:27, and p. 232.

afflict or oppress, often used of oppression by a foreign power (Exodus 3:9; Judges 4:3; Judges 6:9 &c.). Lit. to crush(Numbers 22:25).

from the entering in of Hamath unto the wâdy of the -Arâbâh] i.e. over the whole extent of territory which had been recently recovered from Israel by Jeroboam II., who (2 Kings 14:25) "restored the border of Israel from the entering in of Hamath unto the sea of the -Arábah." The "entering in of Hamath," as was observed on Amos 6:2, marks the furthest limit of Israelitish territory on the north. The -Arábah(comp. Deuteronomy 1:1 R.V. marg.) is the deep depression, varying from 2 to 14 miles across, through which the Jordan flows, and in which the Dead Sea lies (hence one of its Biblical names, the "sea of the -Arábah," Deuteronomy 3:17; Deuteronomy 4:49; Joshua 3:16; Joshua 12:3), and which is prolonged southwards to the Gulf of -Aḳabah. At present, the northern part of this valley is called el-Ghôr, i.e. the Hollow, or Depression, the ancient name being limited to the part between the S. end of the Dead Sea, and the Gulf of -Aḳabah, the "Wâdy el--Ar ăbah." See further the writer's Commentary on Deut., p. 3, with the references. The "Wâdy" (see on Amos 5:24) of the -Arábah intended, can be identified only by conjecture; but it must, it seems, have been some fairly well-known Wâdy, and one also that might naturally be adopted as a boundary; hence it is generally supposed, with much plausibility, to have been the Wâdy el-Aḥsâ, which, flowing down from the south-east, enters the -Arábah about 3 miles S. of the Dead Sea, and then, turning northwards, runs straight into the lower end of the Dead Sea. The stream, which is a considerable one, divides now the district of Kerak from that of Jebal (Gebal, Psalms 83:7, the ancient Gebalene), which would correspond, respectively, to the ancient Moab, and the N. part of Edom.