Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition)
Ooifs Judgments against Judah and Israd. AMOS III. IsraeUs Ingratitude to Qod.
they unjustly fined. 9. Yet—My former benefits to yon heighten your ingratitude. tl>e Amorlte—the most powerful of all llie Canaanite nations, and therefore put for them all (Genesis 15. 16; 48. 22; Deuteronomy 1. 20; .loshua
Moab took on the king of Edom, when the forces of Israel and Judah had retired after their successful campaign against Moab, leaving Edom without allies. The Hebrew tradition is, that Moab in revenge tore from their grave, and burned the bones of the king of Edom, the ally of Jehoram and Jehoshaphat, who was already buried. Probably the " burning of the bones" means, he burned the king of Edom alioe, reducing his very bones to lime. [MauRER.] a. iClrloth—the chief city of Moab, called also KirMoab {Isaiah 15. 1); the form is plural here, as including both the acropolis and town itself (see Jeremiah 48. 24, 41, Margin), die wltU tumult i.e., amidst the tumult of battle (Hosea 10. 14). 3. the Judge—the chief magistrate, the supreme source of justice. "King" not being used. It seems likely a cliange of government had before this time substituted for kings, supreme judges. 4. From foreign kingdoms he passes to Judah and Israel, lest it Bhould be said, he was strenuous in denouncing sins abroad, but connived at those of his own nation. Judah's
7. 7). heiglit . . . like . . . cedars—(Numbers 13. 32, 3.3.) destroyed his fiiiit . . . above . . . roots . . . beneath —i. e., destroyed him utterly (Job 18. .16; Ezekiel 17. 9; Malachi 4. 1). 10. brought you up from . . . Egypt "brought up" is tlie phrase, as Egypt was low and flat, and Canaan hilly, to possess the land of tlie Amorite— the Amorites strictly occupied both sides of the Jordan, and the mountains afterward possessed liy Judah; but tliey here, as in t'. 9, stand .for all the Canaanites. God kept Israel forty years in the wilderness, whicli tended to di.scipline them in His statutes, so as to be the better fitted for entering on the possession of Canaan. 11. Additional obligations under which Israel lay to God ; the prophets, and Nazarites, appointed by Him, to furnish religious instruction and examples of holy self-restraint, of your young men—It was a specimen of Israel's highly favoured state, that, of the class most addicted to pleasures, God chose those who by a solemn vow bound themselves to abstinence from all produce of the vine, and from all ceremonial and moral defilement. The Nazarite was not to shave (Numbers 6. 2, &c.). God left nothing undone to secure the purity of their worship and their faithfulness guilt differs from that of all the others, in that It was directly against God, not merely against man. Also because Judah's sin was wilful and wittingly against light and knowledge, law—the Mosaic code in general, commaitdments—or statutes, the ceremonies and civil laws, their lies—their lying idols (Psalm 40. 4; Jeremiah 16. 19), from which they drew false hopes. The order is to be observed. The Jews first cast off the Divine law, then fall into lying errors; God thus visiting them with a righteous retribution (Romans 1. 25, 26, 28 ; 2 Thessalonians 2. 11, 12). The pretext of a good intention is hereby refuted: the "lies" that mislead them are "tfieir (own) lies." [Calvin.] after . . . wlilcli their fathers . . . wallied—we are not to follow the fathers in error, but must follow tiie word of God alone. Nay, it was an aggravation of the Jews' sin, that it was not confined to preceding generations; the sons rivalled the sins of their fathers (Matthew 2;5. 32; Acts 7.51). [Calvin.] 5. a Are—Nebuchadnezzar. 6. Israel—the ten tribes, tlie main subject of Amos' prophecies, sold the righteous—Israel's Judges for a br.be are induced to condemn in judgment him who has a righteous cause; in violation of Deuteronomy 16. 19. the poor for a pair of shoes—Zti., iandais of wood, secured on tlie foot by leathern straps ; less valuable than shoes.
to it (Lamentations 4. 7). The name comes from a Hebrew root, Nazar, " to set apart." Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist were Nazarites. Is It not even thus—WlH any of you dare to deny it is so? 13. Ye so despised these my favours, as to tempt the Nazarite to break his vow; and forbad the prophets prophesying (Isaiah 30. 10). So Amaziah forbad Amos (ch. 7. 12, 13, 14). 13. I am pressed under you—so Calvin (cf. Isaiali 1. 14). Margin translates actively, "I will depress your place," i. e., I wiU make it narrow, a metaphor for afflicting a people; the opposite of enlarging, i. e., relieving (Psalm 4. 1 ; Proverbs 4.
12). Maurer translates, "I will press you down" (not as Margin, " your place;" so the Hebrew, Job 40. 12; or v. 7 in Hebrew text). Amos, as a shepherd, appropriately draws his similes from rustic scenes. 14. flight shall perish from . . . swift—even the swift shall not be able to escape, strong shall not strengthen his force i. e., shall not be able to use his strength, himself— his life. 10. flee
Cf. tlie same phrase, for the most paltry bribe, ch. 8. 6; Ezekiel 13. 19 ; Joel 3. 3. They were not driven by poverty to such a sin; beginning with suffering themselves to be tempted by a large bribe, they at last are so reckless of all shame as to prostitute justice for the merest trifle. Amos convicts them of injustice, incestuous unchastity, and oppression first, as these were so notorious that they could not deny them, before he proceeds to reprove their contempt of God, which they would have denied on the ground that they worshipped God in the form of the calves. 7. pant after . . . dust of . . . earth on . . , head of . . . poor—j. e., eagerly thirst for this object, by their oppression to prostrate the poor so as to cast the dust on their head.s in mourning on the earth (cf. 2 Samuel. . . naked—if any escape, it must be witli llie loss of accoutrements, and all that would impede rapid ttitcht.. They must be content with saving their life alone.
CHAPTEE III.
Ver. 1-15. God's extraordinary Love, being repaid BY Israel with Ingratitude, of necessity caj.j,s for Judgments, which the Prophets announce, not at random, but by God's commission, which they cannot BUT FULFIL. THE OPPRESSION PREVALENT IN ISRAEL WILL BRING DOWN RUIN ON ALL SAVE A hMALL REMNANT. 1. Children of Israel—not merely ihe ten tribes, but " the whole family brought up from Egypt ;" all the descendants of Jacob, including Judah and Benjamin.
1. 2; Job 2. 12; Ezekiel 27. 30). .turn aside . . . way of. . . meek—pervert their cause (ch. 5. 12; Job 24. 4 [Gro-
TltJs]; Isaiah 10. 2). a man and his father—a crime " not BO much as named among the Gentiles" (1 Corinthians 5.
Cf. Jeremiah 8.3, and Micah 2.3, on "family" for tlie nation. However, as the prophecy following refers to Ihe ten tribes, t/iej/ must be chiefly, If not solely, meant: they were the majority of the nation; and so Amos concedes what they so often boasted, that they were the elect people of God [Calvin], but implies that this only heightens their sins. a. You only have I known—i. t., acknowledged as my people, and treated with peculiar favour (Exodus 19. 5 ; Deuteronomy 4. 20). Cf. the use of " know," Psalm 1.6; 144. 3 ; John 10. 14 ; 2 Timothy 2. 19. therefore 1 will punish—the greater the privileges, the heavier the punishment for the abuse of them; for to the other offences there is added, in this case, Ingratitude. When God's people do not glorify Him, He glorifies Himself by punishing them. 3. Here follow several questions of a parable-like kind, to awaken conviction in the people. Can two walk together, except they be agreed 1—Can God's prophets be so unanimous in prophesj'ing against you. If God's Spirit were not Joined with them, or if their
1). When God's people sin in the face of light, they often fall lower tlian even those who know not God. go In unto tlie game maid—from v. 8 it seems likely the damsel meant is one of the prostitutes attached to the idol Astarte's temple : prostitution being part of her filthy worship, to profane my . . . name—Israel In such abominations as it were designedly seeks to insult God.
8. lay tliemselves . . . upon clothes laid to pledge the outer garment, which Exodus 22. 25-27 ordered to be restored to the poor man before sunset, as being his only covering. It aggravated the crime, that they lay on these clothes in an idol temple, by every altar—they partook In a recumbent posture of their idolatrous feasts; the ancients being in the habit of reclining at full length In eating, the upper part of the body resting on the left elbow, not sitting as we do. drink . . . wine of the condemned—t. e., wine bought with the money of those whom