PART I. Chapter S 1 2 After the title (Amos 1:1), and exordium (Amos 1:2), describing graphically the withering effects of Jehovah's voice, as it peals forth from Zion, Amos proceeds to take a survey (Amos 1:3 to Amos 2:5) of the principal nations bordering upon Israel Damascus, the Philistines, Ty... [ Continue Reading ]
Amos 1:1. The Heading _The words of_ The same title as Jeremiah 1:1; Ecclesiastes 1:1; Proverbs 30:1; Proverbs 31:1; Nehemiah 1:1. _among_ i.e. _one of, of:_see (in the Heb.) 1 Kings 2:7; Proverbs 22:26. _herdmen_ NAḲAD-KEEPERS. The word (_nôḳçd_) is a peculiar one [ Continue Reading ]
Amos 1:2. The Exordium 2. _The Lord_ JEHOVAH, or, strictly, YAHWÈH, the personal name by which the supreme God was known to the Hebrews. The name whatever its primitive signification may have been was interpreted by them (see Exodus 3:14) as signifying _He that is_(or _He that will be_), viz. not i... [ Continue Reading ]
_For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four_ Similarly Amos 1:6_; Amos 1:9; Amos 1:11; Amos 1:13_, Amos 2:1; Amos 2:4; Amos 2:6. The numbers are of course to be understood not literally, but typically, a concrete number being chosen for the sake of assisting the imagination: three would be a... [ Continue Reading ]
Amos 1:3 TO AMOS 2:5. The sins of Israel's neighbours 3 5. DAMASCUS. The first denunciation lights upon the Syrian kingdom of Damascus, the best-organized and most formidable of Israel's neighbours, with whom, shortly before, during the 80 years of the -Syrian wars" (_c_. 880 800 b.c.), the dynastie... [ Continue Reading ]
_But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael_, AND IT _shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad_ The same refrain (only the names being varied), Amos 1:7_; Amos 1:10; Amos 1:12_, Amos 2:2; Amos 2:5, and (with _kindle_for _send_) Amos 1:14. Hosea (Hosea 8:14) adopts it from Amos ("And I will send a... [ Continue Reading ]
The punishment.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND _I will break the bar of Damascus_ Damascus will be powerless to resist the besieger. The allusion is to the -bars" of bronze or iron by which the gates of every fortified city were secured (see Deuteronomy 3:5; 1 Kings 4:13), and which, when a city is captured, are spoken of as -broken" (Lamen... [ Continue Reading ]
_For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four_&c. The form of expression as in Amos 1:3, where see note. Gaza was the southernmost city of the Philistines: it lay on and about a hill, rising 100 feet out of the plain, at three miles distance from the sea, and some 50 miles S.W. of Jerusalem. "Fift... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PHILISTINES. The second denunciation is directed against the Philistines, the old and troublesome enemies of Israel, on the S.W. Four representative cities are mentioned; the sin with which they are taxed being that of trafficking in slaves with Edom.... [ Continue Reading ]
_But I will send a fire &c._ The verse is framed exactly as Amos 1:4. _Wall_, with allusion to Gaza's being a stronghold.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the inhabitant_ See on Amos 1:5. _from Ashdod_ Another of the five chief Philistine cities (Joshua 13:3; 1 Samuel 6:17 f.) is here specified, Ashdod, about 21 miles N.N.E. of Gaza, and 3 miles from the sea-coast. It was a strong fortress, and served also as a half-way station on the great caravan-r... [ Continue Reading ]
TYRE, the great commercial city of the North, next receives her doom from the prophet's lips. Tyre, as the most important of the Phoenician cities, is taken as representing Phoenicia generally. For defensive purposes Tyre was strongly fortified; but the Phoenicians were not an aggressive people: th... [ Continue Reading ]
_because he did pursue his brother with the sword_ Edom and Israel are frequently spoken of as -brethren" (Deuteronomy 2:4; Deuteronomy 23:7; Obadiah 1:10; Obadiah 1:12; cf. Genesis 27:40-41): they were more closely related to each other than was either to any of their other neighbours: and the unbr... [ Continue Reading ]
EDOM. The home of the Edomites was S. of the Dead Sea, immediately on the E. of the deep depression, which extends from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akabah, in ancient times the S. part of the -Arábah (comp. on Amos 6:14), now the valley of the -Arăbah. The capital of Edom was Sela (Petra), remarkab... [ Continue Reading ]
_upon Teman_ According to Eusebius and Jerome (_Onomastica_, ed. Lagarde, pp. 156, 260), a district of the chiefs (-dukes" [_duces_) of Edom in Gebal, but also, they add, a village about 15 (Jerome 5) miles from Petra, and the station of a Roman garrison. From Ezekiel 25:13, where it is implied that... [ Continue Reading ]
_because they have ript up the women with child_ OF _Gilead_ A barbarity probably not uncommon in ancient warfare, at least among more cruel or uncivilized combatants: see 2 Kings 8:12 (Hazael), 2 Kings 15:16 (Menahem); Hosea 13:16; cf. Hosea 10:14: comp. the similar cruelty of dashing children in p... [ Continue Reading ]
The AMMONITES. The Ammonites occupied the district E. of Jordan bounded by the Arnon on the S., and by the territory of Reuben and the upper course of the Jabbok, on the W. Their capital was Rabbah, mentioned in Amos 1:14. They were closely related to their neighbours on the S., the Moabites, being... [ Continue Reading ]
_But I will kindle a fire_ Varied from _I will send_of the other cases: see on Amos 1:4. _in the wall of Rabbah_ The capital city of the Ammonites, and indeed the only Ammonite city mentioned in the O.T.: named elsewhere, 2 Samuel 11:1; 2Sa 12:27; 2 Samuel 12:29 (1 Chronicles 20:1); Joshua 13:25; Je... [ Continue Reading ]
_And their king shall go into captivity_, &c. INTO EXILE (Amos 1:5). The verse is borrowed by Jeremiah, with slight changes, in his prophecy against the Ammonites (Jeremiah 49:3), "For their king shall go into exile, his priests and his princes together" where the addition of -priests" makes it prob... [ Continue Reading ]