Amos 9:1. The fifth vision, the smitten sanctuary. The people are all assembled for worship in their sanctuary: Jehovah is seen standing by the altar, and commanding the building to be so smitten that it may fall and destroy the worshippers: none, it is emphatically added, shall escape the irrevocab... [ Continue Reading ]
_standing_ STATIONED (Amos 7:7). BY _the altar_ lit. _over_, i.e. _leaning over_, an idiomatic use of the preposition, found elsewhere, as Numbers 23:3; Numbers 23:6; 1 Kings 13:1 &c.: cf. ch. Amos 7:7. The altar meant is the altar at Beth-el, the chief Israelitish sanctuary and national religious... [ Continue Reading ]
Two examples of places, inaccessible to man, in which they are pictured hyperbolically as seeking to escape the Divine hand; Sheol, the deep and cavernous (Isaiah 14:15) abode of the dead, which was located by the Hebrews far down below the earth (Deuteronomy 32:22; Job 26:5; Ezekiel 32:18); and the... [ Continue Reading ]
In whatever direction they flee, wherever they essay to hide themselves, and even though they should be in captivity in the enemy's land, they will not be able to elude the Divine anger.... [ Continue Reading ]
Two other examples of remote or inaccessible hiding-places, similarly contrasted; Carmel, rising abruptly out of the sea, and the depths of the ocean which it overhangs. Carmel was in two ways a hiding-place: (1) As usual in limestone formations, it abounds in caves said by some to be more than 2000... [ Continue Reading ]
Even in captivity they would not be safe; they might escape the destruction of the foe, but the Divine sword should yet overtake them. _before their enemies_ Driven before them, like a flock of sheep: cf. Lamentations 1:5. _I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good_ To _set the eye... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the Lord_, JEHOVAH _of hosts,_is _he that toucheth the land, and it_ MELTETH, _and all that dwell therein_ MOURN] In a thunderstorm, a cyclone, or an earthquake, for instance, spreading devastation upon the earth, and causing terror among its inhabitants. Cf. Psalms 104:32 ("he toucheth the mou... [ Continue Reading ]
Such a terrible announcement of judgement might seem to need confirmation: Amos therefore pauses, to describe, in two majestic verses, the power of the God who has been provoked, and who thus threatens His vengeance: all great movements in nature are due to Him (Amos 9:5); He sits on high and can co... [ Continue Reading ]
_That buildeth his_ UPPER CHAMBERS _in the heaven, and hath founded his_ VAULT UPON _the earth_ The Hebrews pictured the sky as a solid vault (_firmamentum_), resting at its extremities upon the earth (Job 26:11): in this vault the heavenly bodies were imagined to revolve: "in front of it" (i.e. in... [ Continue Reading ]
An objection met. The Israelites were only too ready to argue (cf. Amos 3:2; Jeremiah 7:1-15) that Jehovah, after the many marks of favour which He had bestowed upon His people, would never cast them off, as He had now declared that He would do (Amos 9:1-6). He replies, Is Israel, merely as Israel,... [ Continue Reading ]
_the house of Jacob … the house of Israel_ i.e. (cf. Amos 5:1; Amos 5:4; Amos 5:6; Amos 6:14; Amos 7:10; Amos 7:16; also Amos 6:8; Amos 7:2; Amos 7:5; Amos 8:7) the northern kingdom, which alone from... [ Continue Reading ]
Jehovah's eyes are against (Job 7:8) the sinful kingdom, whatsoever or wheresoever it be, and He will destroy it from off the face of the earth (Deuteronomy 6:15), save only, if the kingdom be that of the chosen people, it will not be destroyed by Him utterly: only the sinners in it will perish. Tho... [ Continue Reading ]
The nation must go into exile (Amos 4:2 f., Amos 5:27 &c.); it must even be SHAKEN to and fro among the nations, as in a sieve: but no sound grain of corn will fall to the ground and be lost. The dispersion of Israel in all directions is compared by the prophet to the movement of a sieve, in which t... [ Continue Reading ]
_which say, The evil shall not_ DRAW NEAR, _or_ COME IN FRONT ABOUT _us_ i.e. shall not meet us in any direction. The sinners whom the prophet has here specially in view are those who, trusting to the fact that they were members of the chosen people (cf. Amos 3:2), or relying upon their zeal in an e... [ Continue Reading ]
The Epilogue Amos closes, as the prophets are wont to close their discourses, with the promise of a brighter future. The dynasty of David, though for the time humbled, will be reinstated in its former splendour and power (Amos 9:11); and the blessings of peace will be shared in perpetuity by the en... [ Continue Reading ]
_That they may possess the remnant of Edom_&c. i.e. that the empire of David may be restored to its former limits. The allusion is to the nations the Philistines, Moab, Ammon, Aram of Zobah, Damascus, Edom, &c. which, though they had been conquered by David (2 Samuel 8, &c.), had afterwards revolted... [ Continue Reading ]
A hyperbolical description of the fertility of the soil. So rapid will be the growth of the crops, that the ploughman will hardly have finished breaking up the ground for seed, when the corn will be ready for the reaper; so abundant will be the vintage, that before the grapes are all trodden out, th... [ Continue Reading ]
The prosperity and happiness to be enjoyed by Israel upon its own land in the future.... [ Continue Reading ]
To the land thus blessed by nature, Israel shall be restored: it shall rebuild its waste places, and dwell in them securely; it shall also enjoy, without interruption or interference, the varied produce of the soil. _I will_ TURN _the captivity_ The precise sense of the Hebrew expression is disputed... [ Continue Reading ]
Israel will moreover remain permanently settled in its own land. _And I will plant them … and they shall no more be pulled up_, &c. Cf. Jeremiah 24:6 ("I will plant them and not pull them up"); Jeremiah 42:10. For similar promises, see Jeremiah 32:41; Ezekiel 34:28; Isaiah 60:21; Joel 3:20; and else... [ Continue Reading ]