AMOS—NOTE ON Amos 1:3 three transgressions... four. This poetic device expresses totality (compare Proverbs 30:15, Proverbs 30:18, Proverbs 30:21). It introduces the judgment on all seven neighboring nations (Amos 1:6, Amos 1:9, Amos 1:11, Amos 1:13; Amos 2:1, Amos 2:4), and upon Israel as well (Amos 2:6). One way of separating grain kernels from their hulls was to put all the grain in a pile and then have oxen pull threshing sledges of iron around on the pile. Amos says Syria has treated the people of Gilead as though they were nothing but a pile of grain, crushing them into the ground.

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