_Behold a basket of summer fruit_ This symbolically denoted that Israel's sins were now ripe for judgment, and that as the fruit, when it is ripe, is taken from the trees, so, their iniquity being now ripe, they should be taken off the land in which they dwelt. The two Hebrew words, קוצ, _kaits, sum... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the songs of the temple shall be howlings_, &c. Houbigant renders it, _And the singers of the palace shall howl_, the word היכל, signifying _palace_ as well as _temple;_ and as Amos prophesied against Israel, not against Judah, the temple, properly so called, could not be meant here. _There sha... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hear, O ye that swallow up the needy_ That greedily and cruelly devour such as would have been objects of your compassion, had you been just and merciful as well as rich and great. He alludes to the greater fish swallowing up the lesser. _To make the poor of the land to fail _ Either to root them o... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob_ That is, by himself; _Surely I will never forget any of their works_ God is said to remember men's sins when he punishes them. We may learn by this passage, and many others in Scripture, that however slightly men may think of it, God takes particular... [ Continue Reading ]
_Shall not the land tremble_ Shall not the state, or government, and all the people of the land, be terribly afraid, and greatly troubled; _for this This_, that you have done, O house of Israel, in sinning, and this that God will do in punishing? _And every one mourn that dwelleth therein_ Shall not... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will cause the sun to go down at noon_ Calamitous times are often expressed in the Scriptures by the failing of the light of the sun, and the day's being overspread with darkness. So Israel's sun did begin to go down, as at noon, under the dark cloud of conspiracies and civil wars by Shallum, Men... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will turn your feasts into mourning_ God commanded the Jews to celebrate their festivals with joy and gladness; but this it would be impossible for them to do under such melancholy circumstances and manifestations of the divine displeasure. _And all your songs into lamentation_ The particular psa... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold the days come, saith the Lord_ This is spoken of events which were yet at some distance. _That I will send a famine in the land, not of bread, &c., but of hearing the words of the Lord_ When Amos prophesied, and for a considerable time after, there were several prophets, and abundant opportu... [ Continue Reading ]
_And they shall wander from sea to sea_ From the sea of Tiberias to the great sea, from one border of the country to another. _And from the north even to the east_ The prophet omits naming the _south_, because the idolaters, to whom he directs his discourse, would choose to inquire anywhere rather t... [ Continue Reading ]
_They that swear by the sin of Samaria_ That is, by the calf which Jeroboam set up as an object of _worship_ at Beth-el, not far from Samaria, committing a great sin in so doing, and making Israel to sin. Swearing, according to the sense in which the word is here taken, is a solemn invocation of the... [ Continue Reading ]