Amos 3:11

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; An adversary [there shall be] even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled.

Ver. 11. Therefore thus saith the Lord] And he saith it in great haste and heat; as appeareth by that concise kind of expression that he here useth, after the manner of those that are thorough angry, and therefore say not much, but mean to do the more, Aposiopesis, ut Quos ego (Virg. Aen. i. 135).

An adversary round about the land] A distresser at every corner; that as all the borderers have beheld thy wickedness, so shall they thy wretchedness, by reason of the enemy and the avenger, who shall meet thee at every turn, and leave thee neither hope of better nor place of worse.

And he shall brinq down thy strength from thee] Thee in the feminine gender; haply because they should be so enfeebled and impoverished: or else, to express the heat of God's anger against them, as Numbers 11:15, where meek Moses, being in a great passion of anger and grief together, saith to God, "If thou" (in the feminine) "deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand," &c.; he was so out of measure moved that he could not fill up his speech, nor utter the last syllable, At for Atta, ex magna perturbatione.

Thy strength] Thy strongholds, or thy riches, those treasures of wickedness wherein thou trustest, Pro 10:2 Amos 3:15, "The rich man's wealth is his strong city." It is called his strength because he confideth in it, 1 Timothy 6:17, and because he is enabled, by it, to bring about his designs.

And thy palaces shall be spoiled] They shall be blown up, because their foundation was laid upon fireworks, their mortar mixed with blood, their materials raked together by rapine and robbery; their furniture, and those ill gotten goods therein hid and hoarded, shall be given, hosti non haeredi, not to thine heir, but to thine enemy for a booty. "An inheritance may be hastily gotten at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed," Proverbs 20:21. "As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end be a fool," Jeremiah 17:11. A poor fool God will make of him ere he hath done with him, as he did for Balaam, Achan, Ahab, Gehazi, the rich man, Luke 12:16,21; Luke 16:19,31 .