MOAB - The relation of Moab to Israel is only accidentally different from that of Ammon. One spirit actuated both, venting itself in one and the same way, as occasion served, and mostly together (see the note at Amos 1:13). Beside those more formal invasions, the history of Elisha mentions one proba... [ Continue Reading ]
IT SHALL DEVOUR THE PALACES OF KERIOTH - Literally, “the cities,” that is, a collection of cities. It may have received a plural form upon some enlargement, as Jerusalem received a dual form, as a double city. The name is, in different forms, very common . In the plain or high downs of Moab itself,... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I WILL CUT OFF THE JUDGE - The title “judge” (shophet) is nowhere used absolutely of a king. Holy Scripture speaks in several places of “all the judges of the earth” Job 9:24; Psalms 2:10; Psalms 148:11; Proverbs 8:16; Isaiah 40:23. Hosea Hosea 13:10, under “judges,” includes “kings and princes,... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THREE TRANSGRESSIONS OF JUDAH ETC. - Rup.: “Here too there is no difference of Jew and Gentile. The word of God, a just judge, spareth no man’s person. whom sin joins in one, the sentence of the Judge disjoins not in punishment” Romans 2:12. “As many as have sinned without law, shall also perish... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL SEND A FIRE UPON JUDAH - All know now, how Jerusalem, its temple, and its palaces perished by fire, first by Nebuchadnezzar, then by the Romans. Yet some two centuries passed, before that first destruction came. The ungodly Jews flattered themselves that it would never come. So we know that a... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THREE TRANSGRESSIONS OF ISRAEL, AND FOR FOUR - In Israel, on whom the divine sentence henceforth rests, the prophet numbers four classes of sins, running into one another, as all sins do, since all grievous sins contain many in one, yet in some degree distinct: (1) Perversion of justice; (2) o... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT PANT AFTER THE DUST OF THE EARTH - Literally, “the panters!” with indignation. Not content with having rent from him the little hereditary property which belonged to each Israelite, these creditors grudged him even the “dust,” which, as a mourner, he strewed on his head Job 2:12, since it too w... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY LAY THEMSELVES DOWN - They condensed sin. By a sort of economy in the toil of sinning, they blended many sins in one; idolatry, sensuality, cruelty, and, in all, the express breach of God’s commandments. The “clothes” here are doubtless the same as the “raiment” in the law, the large enfolding... [ Continue Reading ]
YET - (and I) I (Emphatic) destroyed Such were “their” doings; such their worship of “their God.” And what had “God” done? what was it, which they thus requited? THE AMORITE - These, as one of the mightiest of the Canaanite tribes, stand in Moses for all. Moses, in rehearsing to them the goodness of... [ Continue Reading ]
ALSO I - (Literally, “And I,” I, emphatic; thus and thus did ye to Me; and thus and thus, with all the mercy from the first, did I to you,) I brought you up from the land of Egypt It is this language in which God, in the law, reminded them of that great benefit, as a motive to obedience; “I brought... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I RAISED UP OF YOUR SONS FOR PROPHETS - Amos turns from outward mercies to inward, front past to present, from miracles of power to miracles of grace. God’s past mercies live on in those of today; the mercies of today are the assurance to us that we have a share in the past; His miracles of grac... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT YE GAVE THE NAZARITES WINE TO DRINK - Literally, “and,” (this, on their part, was the consequence of what God did for them) “ye caused the Nazarites to drink wine.” God appointed; Israel strove to undo His appointment. God “raised up Nazarites,” as a testimony to them; they sought to make His se... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, I AM PRESSED UNDER YOU - God bore His people, as the wain bears the sheaves. “Ye yourselves have seen,” He said to them by Moses, “how I bare you on eagle’s wings, and brought you unto Myself” Exodus 19:4. “Thou hast seen how the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the... [ Continue Reading ]
Israel relied, against God, on his own strength. “Have we not,” they said, “taken to us horns by our own strength?” Amos 6:13. Amos tells them then, that every means of strength, resistance, flight, swiftness of foot, of horse, place of refuge, should fail them. Three times he repeats, as a sort of... [ Continue Reading ]