Commentary on Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah and Nahum John Calvin (continued)
Amos 9
Amos 9:1
1. I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.
1. Vidi Dominum stantem super altare, et dixit, Percute superliminare et coommovebunter postes, et afÒiget (vel, afÒige, in modo imperativo) in capite omnes, et novissimum ipsorum (vel, posteritatem) gladio occidam; non effuget ex ipsis fugiens, neque evadet ex ipsis qui evadit.
The Prophet confirms the threatening which we have already explained; for he says that the people would be soon removed, as there was now no hope of repentance. But it must first be observed, that he speaks not here of the profane temples which Jeroboam the first had built in Dan and in Bethel, but of the true and lawful temple; for it would not have been befitting that this vision should have been made to the Prophet in one of those profane temples, from which, we know, God was far away. Had God appeared in Dan or Bethel, it would have been an indirect approbation of superstition. They are then mistaken who think that the vision was given to the Prophet in any other place than on mount Zion, as we have shown in other places. For the Prophets say not, that God had spoken either in Dan or in Bethel, nor had there been any oracle announced from these places; for God designed in every way to show that he had nothing to do with those profane rites and abominations.
It is then certain that God appeared to his Prophet on mount Zion, and on the lawful altar. 66
Let us now see the design of the vision. The greater part of interpreters think that 66Calvin is not without many expounders, who agree with him in this view; yet the reasons assigned do not apply. "Though the true God," as Dr. Henderson justly observes, "was seen beside the idolatrous altar, it was not for the purpose of receiving homage, but of commanding that the whole of the erection and worship at Bethel should be destroyed." — Ed.