Now Amos prophesies here against the Moabites, and proclaims respecting them what we have noticed respecting the other nations, — that the Moabites were wholly perverse, that no repentance would be hoped for, as they had added crimes to crimes, and reached the highest pitch of wickedness; for, as we... [ Continue Reading ]
He therefore adds a threatening, _I will send a fire on Moab, which shall devour the palaces of _ קריות _, Koriut _We have stated that what the Prophet means by these modes of speaking is that God would consume the Moabites by a violent punishment as by a burning fire, that fortified places could no... [ Continue Reading ]
He finally adds, _And I will cut off the judge from the midst of her, and will slay her princes, saith Jehovah. _God here declares, that the kingdom of the Moabites and the people shall be no more; for we know that men cannot exist as a body without some civil government. Wherever then there is an a... [ Continue Reading ]
Amos turns now his discourse to the tribe of Judah, and to that kingdom, which still continued in the family of David. He has hitherto spoken of heathen and uncircumcised nations: what he said of them was a prelude of the destruction which was nigh the chosen people; for when God spared not others w... [ Continue Reading ]
We now see what sort of crime is that of which the Prophet speaks. At last a threatening follows, “The Lord saith, Fire will I send on Judah, which shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.’ But all this we have already explained. Let us now proceed —... [ Continue Reading ]
The Prophet here assails the Israelites, to whom he had been sent, as we have said at the beginning. He now omits every reference to other nations; for his business was with the Israelites to whom he was especially appointed a teacher. But he wished to set before them, as in various mirrors, the jud... [ Continue Reading ]
Here Amos charges them first with insatiable avarice; they panted for the heads of the poor on the dust of the earth. This place is in my judgment not well understood. שאף, _shaph, _means to pant and to breathe, and is taken often metaphorically as signifying to desire: hence some render the words,... [ Continue Reading ]
Here the Prophet again inveighs against the people’s avariciousness, and addresses his discourse especially to the chief men; for what he mentions could not have been done by the common people, as the lower and humbler classes could not make feasts by means of spoils gained by judicial proceedings.... [ Continue Reading ]
God expostulates here with the Israelites for their ingratitude. He records the benefits he had before conferred on that people; and then shows how unworthily and disgracefully they had conducted themselves; for they forgot their many blessings and proudly despised God, and acted as if they were lik... [ Continue Reading ]
He afterwards subjoins, _I have made you to ascend from the land of Egypt; I have made you to walk in the desert for forty years, in order to possess the land of the Amorite. _The circumstances here specified are intended to confirm the same thing, that God had miraculously redeemed his people. Men,... [ Continue Reading ]
He now subjoins, _I have raised from your sons Prophets, and Nazarites from your young or strong men, _(for בחרים, _becharim_, as we have elsewhere said, are called by the Hebrews chosen men;) then from your youth or chosen men have I raised Nazarites. _Was it not so, O children of Israel? _or certa... [ Continue Reading ]
But it now follows, _Ye have to the Nazarites quaffed wine, and on the Prophets ye have laid a command, that they should not prophesy _God complains here that the service which he had instituted had been violated by the people. It seems indeed a light offense, that wine had been given to the Nazarit... [ Continue Reading ]
The verb עיק, _oik, _in Hebrew is often transitive, and it is also a neuter. This place then may admit of two interpretations. The first is, that God was pressed under the Israelites, as a wagon groans under too much weight; and so God expostulates by Isaiah, that he was weighed down by the Israelit... [ Continue Reading ]
I explained yesterday the verse, in which the Prophet says, in the name of God, that the people were like a grievous and heavy burden, as though they were a wagon laden with many sheaves. I stated that the Prophet’s words are differently explained by many interpreters, who give this view, — that God... [ Continue Reading ]