PART III. Chapter S 7 9 (1) Amos 7:1 to Amos 9:10. A series of visions, interrupted in Amos 7:10-17 by an historical episode, and followed in each case by longer or shorter explanatory comments, intended to reinforce, under an effective symbolism, the lesson, which Amos found so hard to impress, th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thus_ DID _the Lord_ JEHOVAH SHEW _me_ The same formula, Amos 7:4_; Amos 7:7_, Amos 8:1. Cf. "shewed me" (also in the description of a vision), Jeremiah 24:1; Zechariah 3:1. Lit. _caused me to see_, the correlative of _saw_(_râ"âh_), viz. in a vision, 1 Kings 22:17; 1 Kings 22:19; Isaiah 6:1 [ Continue Reading ]
The first vision. The devouring locusts.... [ Continue Reading ]
The locusts had eaten up all the HERB _of the land_(Exodus 10:12; Exodus 10:15), when Amos intercedes on behalf of his people, urging its inability to recover itself, if the work of destruction should still continue. The term _herb_is not limited to grass, but denotes green herbage generally (with t... [ Continue Reading ]
CONCERNING _this_ viz. concerning the further undefined calamity, which He had purposed, and of which Amos had rightly interpreted the locusts as being the harbinger. "God is said to _repent_" (lit., as Arabic seems to shew, to _sigh deeply_, or _groan_) "_upon_(or _over) evil_, which He has either... [ Continue Reading ]
The second vision. The devouring fire. _called to contend by fire_ Jehovah arraigns His people: and fire is the agent which he summons against them (cf. _to dispute_, or _litigate, with fire_, Isaiah 66:16). For the idea of Jehovah's _contending_(in a forensic sense) with His people, comp. Isaiah 3... [ Continue Reading ]
Again the prophet intercedes, in the same words as before, except that he does not pray that God would _forgive_His people, but that He would _cease, desist_, from His work of judgement. And, once more, the intercession of Amos obtains a mitigation of the punishment.... [ Continue Reading ]
_upon_ or leaning _over_(cf. Amos 9:1), i.e. (R.V.) BESIDE. The prophet sees Jehovah _stationed_(Genesis 28:13; Isaiah 3:13 a, Isaiah 21:8 b), _niẓẓâb_, implying a rather more set and formal attitude than _-ômçd_, -standing," _beside a plummet-wall_(i.e. a wall built to the plummet), and holding _a... [ Continue Reading ]
The third vision. The plumb-line. Here Amos does not see the calamity itself, but only the symbol that it is decreed (cf. the almond-tree, and the seething pot, in Jeremiah 1:11; Jeremiah 1:13).... [ Continue Reading ]
_what seest thou?_ The question is addressed to Amos for the purpose of attaching the explanation of the symbol to the answer, which he is naturally expected to give correctly (exactly Song of Solomon 8:2; Jeremiah 1:11; Jeremiah 1:13; Jeremiah 24:3). _I_ AM SETTING _A_ PLUMMET, &c. The plummet bein... [ Continue Reading ]
_high places_ local sanctuaries, usually situated on eminences (1 Kings 14:23; 2 Kings 17:10 f.), a little outside the towns to which they belonged (cf. 1 Samuel 9:12; 1 Samuel 9:14; 1Sa 9:19; 1 Samuel 9:25; 1 Samuel 10:5), sometimes, where no natural eminence was available, erected, it is probable,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Amos hath conspired_, &c. Amos had not, as a matter of fact, done this: he had not himself spoken treasonably against the king, or made any attempt upon his life, nor had he incited others to rebel against him. But he had foretold disaster for the house of Jeroboam, and threatened Israel generally... [ Continue Reading ]
A historical episode, intimately connected with the preceding visions, and arising out of them. In particular, Amos, in explaining the last of these visions, had spoken so unambiguously, even, in appearance, threatening the person of the king, that Amaziah, the priest of Beth-el, denounces him to Je... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jeroboam shall die by the sword_ This had not been said by Amos, at least, if the extant book of his prophecies contains all that he said upon the subject. It was _the house of Jeroboam_which Amos had threatened in Amos 7:9: but Amaziah, it seems, gives the prophecy a more personal character, hopin... [ Continue Reading ]
Jeroboam apparently took no account of the priest's message. Accordingly Amaziah himself endeavours to induce Amos to leave the country. _O thou seer_ or _gazer_(_ḥôzeh_, not _rô"eh_, -seer," 1 Samuel 9:9, though a synonym of it; see Isaiah 30:10, quoted on Amos 1:1). _Rô"eh_is used in 1 Samuel 9:9;... [ Continue Reading ]
_for it_is _the king's_ SANCTUARY, _and it_is A NATIONAL TEMPLE] Lit. _the temple of the kingdom_. Beth-el was the principal sanctuary of the northern kingdom, under the special patronage and support of the king.... [ Continue Reading ]
_I_was _no prophet, and I_was _no prophet's son_ i.e. not one of the "sons of the prophets," as the companies, or guilds, of prophets, at Beth-el, Gilgal, and other places, are called in the Book of Kings (1 Kings 20:35; 2 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 2:5; 2 Kings 2:7; 2 Kings 2:15; 2 Kings 4:1; 2 Kings 4:38;... [ Continue Reading ]
Amos" retort.... [ Continue Reading ]
It was while HE was engaged in the ordinary occupations of his rustic life, that he became conscious of a call, which he could not but obey (cf. Amos 3:8), to become the prophet of Jehovah's people, Israel. FROM FOLLOWING _the flock_ Cf. (of David) 2 Samuel 7:8; Psalms 78:71.... [ Continue Reading ]
_drop not_thy word] The same expression, also used figuratively of a prophetic utterance, in Micah 2:6; Micah 2:11 and Ezekiel 20:46; Ezekiel 21:2 [Heb. 21:2, 7]. It was suggested probably by the flow of words, which were apt to stream from the prophets" lips, when they were under the influence of t... [ Continue Reading ]
Amaziah had sought to silence Amos: Amos, speaking in the name of the God who had thus called him to be His prophet, so far from modifying or withdrawing his previous utterances, reaffirms them even more emphatically and distinctly than before.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thy wife shall be a harlot_&c. As before (Amos 6:8), the vision of a captured city rises before him: Amaziah's wife will be treated as a harlot by the victorious conquerors (cf. Isaiah 13:16; Zechariah 14:2); his children, daughters as well as sons, will perish by the sword; his lands will be distr... [ Continue Reading ]