Amos 4

Volume 1

Amos Chapter 4

1604 words

Am 4:1-13.

DENUNCIATION OF

ISRAEL'S

NOBLES FOR

OPPRESSION; AND OF THE

WHOLE

NATION FOR

IDOLATRY; AND FOR

THEIR

BEING

UNREFORMED

EVEN BY

GOD'S

JUDGMENTS:

THEREFORE

THEY

MUST

PREPARE FOR THE

LAST AND

WORST

JUDGMENT OF

ALL.

1. kine of Bashan--fat and wanton cattle such as the rich pasture of

Bashan (east of Jordan, between Hermon and Gilead) was famed for

(De 32:14;

Ps 22:12;

Eze 39:18).

Figurative for those luxurious nobles mentioned,

Am 3:9, 10, 12, 15.

The feminine, kine, or cows, not bulls, expresses

their effeminacy. This accounts for masculine forms in the

Hebrew being intermixed with feminine; the latter being

figurative, the former the real persons meant.

say to their masters--that is, to their king, with whom

the princes indulged in potations

(Ho 7:5),

and whom here they importune for more wine. "Bring" is singular,

in the Hebrew implying that one "master" alone is

meant.

2. The Lord--the same Hebrew as "masters"

(Am 4:1).

Israel's nobles say to their master or lord, Bring us drink: but "the

Lord" of him and them "hath sworn," &c.

(Ps 89:35).

he will take yon away--that is God by the instrumentality of the enemy.

with hooks--literally, "thorns" (compare

2Ch 33:11).

As fish are taken out of the water by hooks, so the Israelites are to

be taken out of their cities by the enemy

(Eze 29:4;

compare

Job 41:1, 2;

Jer 16:16;

Hab 1:15).

The image is the more appropriate, as anciently captives were led by

their conquerors by a hook made to pass through the nose

(2Ki 19:28),

as is to be seen in the Assyrian remains.

3. go out at the breaches--namely, of the city walls broken by the

enemy.

every cow at that which is before her--figurative for

the once luxurious nobles (compare "kine of Bashan,"

Am 4:1)

shall go out each one right before her; not through the gates, but

each at the breach before him, not turning to the right or left,

apart from one another.

ye shall cast them into the palace--"them," that is, "your

posterity," from

Am 4:2.

You yourselves shall escape through the breaches, after having cast

your little children into the palace, so as not to see their

destruction, and to escape the more quickly. Rather, "ye shall cast

yourselves into the palace," so as to escape from it out of the

city [CALVIN]. The palace, the scene of the

princes' riots

(Am 3:10, 15; 4:1),

is to be the scene of their ignominious flight. Compare in the similar

case of Jerusalem's capture, the king's escape by way of the

palace, through a breach in the wall

(Eze 12:5, 12).

GESENIUS translates, "Ye shall be cast (as captives)

into the (enemy's) stronghold"; in this view, the enemy's stronghold is

called "palace," in retributive contrast to the "palaces" of Israel's

nobles, the store houses of their robberies

(Am 3:10).

4. God gives them up to their self-willed idolatry, that they may see

how unable their idols are to save them from their coming calamities. So

Eze 20:39.

Beth-el--

(Am 3:14).

Gilgal--

(Ho 4:15; 9:15; 12:11).

sacrifices every morning--as commanded in the law

(Nu 28:3, 4).

They imitated the letter, while violating by calf-worship the spirit, of

the Jerusalem temple-worship.

after three years--every third year; literally, "after three

(years of) days" (that is, the fullest complement of days, or a

year); "after three full years." Compare

Le 25:20;

Jud 17:10,

and "the days" for the years,

Joe 1:2.

So a month of days is used for a full month, wanting no

day to complete it

(Ge 29:14,

Margin;

Nu 11:20, 21).

The Israelites here also kept to the letter of the law in bringing in

the tithes of their increase every third year

(De 14:28; 26:12).

5. offer--literally, "burn incense"; that is, "offer a sacrifice of

thanksgiving with burnt incense and with leavened bread." The

frankincense was laid on the meat offering, and taken by the priest from

it to burn on the altar

(Le 2:1, 2, 8-11).

Though unleavened cakes were to accompany the peace offering

sacrifice of animals, leavened bread was also commanded

(Le 7:12, 13),

but not as a "meat offering"

(Le 2:11).

this liketh you--that is, this is what ye like.

6-11. Jehovah details His several chastisements inflicted with a view

to reclaiming them: but adds to each the same sad result, "yet have ye

not returned unto Me"

(Isa 9:13;

Jer 5:3;

Ho 7:10);

the monotonous repetition of the same burden marking their pitiable

obstinacy.

cleanness of teeth--explained by the parallel, "want of bread." The

famine alluded to is that mentioned in

2Ki 8:1

[GROTIUS]. Where there is no food to masticate,

the teeth are free from uncleanness, but it is the cleanness of want.

Compare

Pr 14:4,

"Where no oxen are, the crib is clean." So spiritually, where all is

outwardly smooth and clean, it is often because there is no solid

religion. Better fighting and fears with real piety, than peace and

respectable decorum without spiritual life.

7. withholden . . . rain . . . three months to . . . harvest--the time

when rain was most needed, and when usually "the latter rain" fell,

namely, in spring, the latter half of February, and the whole of March

and April

(Ho 6:3;

Joe 2:23).

The drought meant is that mentioned in

1Ki 17:1

[GROTIUS].

rain upon one city . . . not . . . upon

another--Any rain that fell was only partial.

8. three cities wandered--that is, the inhabitants of three cities

(compare

Jer 14:1-6).

GROTIUS explains this verse and

Am 4:7,

"The rain fell on neighboring countries, but not on Israel, which

marked the drought to be, not accidental, but the special judgment of

God." The Israelites were obliged to leave their cities and homes to

seek water at a distance [CALVIN].

9. blasting--the blighting influence of the east wind on the corn

(Ge 41:6).

when . . . gardens . . . increased--In vain ye multiplied your gardens,

&c., for I destroyed their produce. BOCHART

supports Margin, "the

multitude of your gardens."

palmer worm--A species of locust is here meant, hurtful to fruits

of trees, not to herbage or corn. The same east wind which brought the

drought, blasting, and mildew, brought also the locusts into Judea

[BOCHART],

(Ex 10:13).

10. pestilence after the manner of Egypt--such as I formerly sent on

the Egyptians

(Ex 9:3, 8,

&c.; Ex 12:29;

De 28:27, 60).

Compare the same phrase,

Isa 10:24.

have taken away your horses--literally, "accompanied with the captivity

of your horses"; I have given up your young men to be slain, and their

horses to be taken by the foe (compare

2Ki 13:7).

stink of your camps--that is, of your slain men (compare

Isa 34:3;

Joe 2:20).

to come up unto your nostrils--The Hebrew is more emphatic, "to

come up, and that unto your nostrils."

11. some of you--some parts of your territory.

as God overthrew Sodom--

(De 29:23;

Isa 13:19;

Jer 49:18; 50:40;

2Pe 2:6;

Jude 7).

"God" is often repeated in Hebrew instead of "I." The

earthquake here apparently alluded to is not that in the reign of

Uzziah, which occurred "two years" later

(Am 1:1).

Traces of earthquakes and volcanic agency abound in Palestine. The

allusion here is to some of the effects of these in previous times.

Compare the prophecy,

De 28:15-68,

with Am 4:6-11

here.

as a firebrand plucked out of . . . burning--(Compare

Isa 7:4;

Zec 3:2).

The phrase is proverbial for a narrow escape from utter extinction.

Though Israel revived as a nation under Jeroboam II, it was but for a

time, and that after an almost utter destruction previously

(2Ki 14:26).

12. Therefore--as all chastisements have failed to make thee "return

unto Me."

thus will I do unto thee--as I have threatened

(Am 4:2, 3).

prepare to meet thy God--God is about to inflict the last and worst

judgment on thee, the extinction of thy nationality; consider then what

preparation thou canst make for encountering Him as thy foe

(Jer 46:14;

Lu 14:31, 32).

But as that would be madness to think of

(Isa 27:4;

Eze 22:14;

Heb 10:31),

see what can be done towards mitigating the severity of the coming

judgment, by penitence

(Isa 27:5;

1Co 11:31).

This latter exhortation is followed up in

Am 5:4, 6, 8, 14, 15.

13. The God whom Israel is to "prepare to meet"

(Am 4:12)

is here described in sublime terms.

wind--not as the Margin, "spirit." The God with whom thou

hast to do is the Omnipotent Maker of things seen, such as the

stupendous mountains, and of things too subtle to be seen,

though of powerful agency, as the "wind."

declareth unto man . . . his thought--

(Ps 139:2).

Ye think that your secret thoughts escape My cognizance, but I am the

searcher of hearts.

maketh . . . morning darkness--

(Am 5:8; 8:9).

Both literally turning the sunshine into darkness, and figuratively

turning the prosperity of the ungodly into sudden adversity

(Ps 73:12, 18, 19;

compare

Jer 13:16).

treadeth upon . . . high places--God treadeth down the proud of the

earth. He subjects to Him all things however high they be

(Mic 1:3).