Amos 9:4

And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.

Ver. 4. And though they go into captivity, &c.] And so may hope the worst is over ("Surely the bitterness of death is past," 1Sa 15:32) yet it shall prove otherwise: the hypocrite's hope is as the giving up the ghost, saith Job and that is but cold comfort; or, as the spider's web, spun out of her own bowels; and, when the besom comes, swept to the muckhill.

Before their enemies] Whose custom was to drive their captives before them, Lam 1:5 young and o1d, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, Isaiah 20:4. Or, "before their enemies," that is, before they are taken captive by the enemies, by voluntary yielding, in hope of quarter for their lives. The Jews indeed had a promise from the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 21:9, that if they went out and fell to the Chaldeans that besieged them they should have their lives for a prey but the ten tribes had no such promise made them; they were strangers from the covenants Ephesians 2:12, and therefore could look for no mercy. Loammi, and therefore Loruhamah Hosea 1:8, the ark and the mercy seat were never sundered.

Thence will I command the sword] See Isa 13:15-16 Jeremiah 9:10; Jeremiah 43:11 Ezekiel 14:17 .

And I will set mine eyes upon them] Heb. eye (Emphaticoteron est quam si dixisset Oculo pluraliter. Mercer), viz. the eye of my providence, that oculus irretortus, whereby I will look them to death, and take course that nothing shall go well with them; see a little below, Amos 9:8 Jer 21:10 Psalms 34:10. In Tamerlane's eyes sat such a majesty as man could hardly endure to behold; and man in talking with him became dumb. He held the East in such awe, as that he was commonly called, The wrath of God and terror of the world. Augustus Caesar frowned to death Cornelius Gallus; and so did Queen Elizabeth Sir Christopher Hatton, lord chancellor God's enemies are sure to perish at the rebuke of his countenance, Psalms 80:16, and if he but set his eyes upon them for evil, and not for good, all occurrences shall certainly work together for the worst unto them.