Amos 6

Am 6:1-14.

DENUNCIATION OF

BOTH THE

SISTER

NATIONS

(ESPECIALLY

THEIR

NOBLES)

FOR

WANTON

SECURITY--ZION, AS

WELL AS

SAMARIA:

THREAT OF THE

EXILE:

RUIN OF

THEIR

PALACES AND

SLAUGHTER OF THE

PEOPLE:

THEIR

PERVERSE

INJUSTICE.

1. named chief of the nations--that is, you nobles, so eminent

in influence, that your names are celebrated among the chief nations

[LUDOVICUS DE DIEU]. Hebrew, "Men designated by name among the

first-fruits of the nations," that is, men of note in Israel, the

people chosen by God as first of the nations

(Ex 19:5;

compare

Nu 24:20)

[PISCATOR].

to whom . . . Israel came--that is, the princes to whom the Israelites

used to repair for the decision of controversies, recognizing their

authority [MAURER]. I prefer to refer "which" to the antecedent "Zion"

and "Samaria"; these were esteemed "chief" strongholds among the heathen

nations "to whom . . . Israel came" when it entered Canaan;

Am 6:2

accords with this.

2. Calneh--on the east bank of the Tigris. Once powerful, but

recently subjugated by Assyria

(Isa 10:9;

about 794 B.C.).

Hameth--subjugated by Jeroboam II

(2Ki 14:25).

Also by Assyria subsequently

(2Ki 18:34).

Compare

Am 6:14.

Gath--subjugated by Uzziah

(2Ch 26:6).

be they better--no. Their so recent subjugation renders it

needless for Me to tell you they are not. And yet they once

were; still they could not defend themselves against the enemy. How

vain, then, your secure confidence in the strength of Mounts

Zion and Samaria! He takes cities respectively east, north, south, and

west of Israel (compare

Na 3:8).

3. Ye persuade yourselves that "the evil day" foretold by the

prophets is "far off," though they declare it near

(Eze 12:22, 27).

Ye in your imagination put it far off, and therefore bring near

violent oppression, suffering it to sit enthroned, as it

were, among you

(Ps 94:20).

The notion of judgment being far off has always been an incentive to

the sinner's recklessness of living

(Ec 8:12, 13;

Mt 24:48).

Yet that very recklessness brings near the evil day which he puts far

off. "Ye bring on fever by your intemperance, and yet would put it far

off" [CALVIN].

4. (See

Am 2:8).

beds of ivory--that is, adorned, or inlaid, with ivory

(Am 3:15).

stretch themselves--in luxurious self-indulgence.

lambs out of the flock--picked out as the choicest, for their

owners' selfish gratification.

5. chant--literally, "mark distinct sounds and tones."

viol--the lyre, or lute.

invent . . . instruments . . . like David--They fancy they equal David

in musical skill

(1Ch 23:5;

Ne 12:36).

They defend their luxurious passion for music by his example:

forgetting that he pursued this study when at peace and free

from danger, and that for the praise of God; but they pursue for

their own self-gratification, and that when God is angry and ruin is

imminent.

6. drink . . . in bowls--in the large vessels or basins in which

wine was mixed; not satisfied with the smaller cups from which it

was ordinarily drunk, after having been poured from the large mixer.

chief ointments--that is, the most costly: not for health or

cleanliness, but wanton luxury.

not grieved for the affliction of Joseph--literally, "the breach,"

that is, the national wound or calamity

(Ps 60:2;

Eze 34:4)

of the house of Joseph

(Am 5:6);

resembling in this the heartlessness of their forefathers, the sons of

Jacob, towards Joseph, "eating bread" while their brother lay in the

pit, and then selling him to Ishmaelites.

7. Therefore . . . shall they go captive with the

first--As they were first among the people in rank

(Am 6:1),

and anointed themselves "with the chief ointments"

(Am 6:6),

so shall they be among the foremost in going into captivity.

banquet--literally, the "merry-making shout of revellers"; from an

Arabic root, "to cry out." In the Hebrew, marzeach; here, there

is an allusion to mizraqu, "bowls"

(Am 6:6).

them that stretched themselves--on luxurious couches

(Am 6:4).

8. the excellency of Jacob--

(Ps 47:4).

The sanctuary which was the great glory of the covenant-people

[VATABLUS],

(Eze 24:21).

The priesthood, and kingdom, and dignity, conferred on them by God.

These, saith God, are of no account in My eyes towards averting

punishment [CALVIN].

hate his palaces--as being the storehouses of "robbery"

(Am 3:10, 15).

How sad a change from God's love of Zion's gates

(Ps 87:2)

and palaces

(Ps 48:3, 13),

owing to the people's sin!

the city--collectively: both Zion and Samaria

(Am 6:1).

all that is therein--literally, "its fulness"; the multitude of

men and of riches in it (compare

Ps 24:1).

9. If as many as ten

(Le 26:26;

Zec 8:23)

remain in a house (a rare case, and only in the scattered villages, as

there will be scarcely a house in which the enemy will leave any), they

shall all, to a man, die of the plague, a frequent concomitant of war

in the East

(Jer 24:10; 44:13;

Eze 6:11).

10. a man's uncle--The nearest relatives had the duty of burying the

dead

(Ge 25:9; 35:29;

Jud 16:31).

No nearer relative was left of this man than an uncle.

and he that burneth him--the uncle, who is also at the

same time the one that burneth him (one of the "ten,"

Am 6:9).

Burial was the usual Hebrew mode of disposing of their dead. But in

cases of necessity, as when the men of Jabesh-gilead took the bodies of

Saul and his three sons from the walls of Beth-shan and burned them to

save them from being insulted by the Philistines, burning was

practised. So in this case, to prevent contagion.

the bones--that is, the dead body

(Ge 50:25).

Perhaps here there is an allusion in the phrase to the emaciated

condition of the body, which was little else but skin and bones.

say unto him that is by the sides of the house--that is, to the only

one left of the ten in the interior of the house

[MAURER]

(compare Note,

see on

Isa 14:13).

Hold thy tongue . . . we may not . . . mention

. . . the Lord--After receiving the reply, that none is

left besides the one addressed, when the man outside fancies the man

still surviving inside to be on the point, as was customary, of

expressing devout gratitude to God who spared him, the man outside

interrupts him, "Hold thy tongue! for there is not now cause for

mentioning with praise

(Jos 23:7)

the name of Jehovah"; for thou also must die; as all the ten are

to die to the last man

(Am 6:9;

compare

Am 8:3).

Formerly ye boasted in the name of Jehovah, as if ye were His peculiar

people; now ye shall be silent and shudder at His name, as hostile to

you, and as one from whom ye wish to be hidden

(Re 6:16),

[CALVIN].

11. commandeth, and he will smite--His word of command, when once

given, cannot but be fulfilled

(Isa 55:11).

His mere word is enough to smite with destruction.

great house . . . little house--He will spare none,

great or small

(Am 3:15).

JEROME interprets "the great house" as Israel, and

"the small house" as Judah: the former being reduced to branches or

ruins, literally, "small drops"; the latter, though injured with

"clefts" or rents, which threaten its fall, yet still permitted to

stand.

12. In turning "judgment (justice) into gall (poison), and . . .

righteousness into hemlock" (or wormwood, bitter and noxious), ye act as

perversely as if one were to make "horses run upon the rock" or to

"plough with oxen there"

[MAURER]. As horses and oxen are useless on a

rock, so ye are incapable of fulfilling justice

[GROTIUS]. Ye impede the

course of God's benefits, because ye are as it were a hard rock on which

His favor cannot run. "Those that will not be tilled as fields, shall be

abandoned as rocks" [CALVIN].

13. rejoice in a thing of naught--that is, in your vain and fleeting

riches.

Have we not taken to us horns--that is, acquired power, so as to

conquer our neighbors

(2Ki 14:25).

Horns are the Hebrew symbol of power, being the

instrument of strength in many animals

(Ps 75:10).

14. from the entering in of Hamath--the point of entrance for an

invading army (as Assyria) into Israel from the north; specified here,

as Hamath had been just before subjugated by Jeroboam II

(Am 6:2).

Do not glory in your recently acquired city, for it shall be the

starting-point for the foe to afflict you. How sad the contrast to the

feast of Solomon attended by a congregation from this same

Hamath, the most northern boundary of Israel, to the

Nile, the river of Egypt, the most southern boundary!

unto the river of the wilderness--that is, to Kedron, which empties

itself into the north bay of the Dead Sea below Jericho

(2Ch 28:15),

the southern boundary of the ten tribes

(2Ki 14:25,

"from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain") [MAURER]. To the river Nile, which skirts the

Arabian wilderness and separates Egypt from Canaan [GROTIUS]. If this verse includes Judah, as well as Israel

(compare

Am 6:1,

"Zion" and "Samaria"), GROTIUS' view is correct;

and it agrees with

1Ki 8:65.