PART II. Chapter S 3 6 In the second part of Amos's book the indictment and sentence of Amos 2:6-16 are further developed and justified. It consists of three main discourses, each introduced by the solemn opening words, _Hear ye this word_(Amos 3:1; Amos 4:1; Amos 5:1). CHAPTER 3 Amos begins by r... [ Continue Reading ]
_the whole family_ The expression used includes naturally Judah, though, as the context shews, Amos is practically thinking only of Israel. For _family_, used in the sense of a whole people, cf. Amos 3:2; Jeremiah 8:3; Micah 2:3.... [ Continue Reading ]
_You only_&c. The pron. is emphatic by its position, in the Heb., as in the English. _known_ i.e. known favourably, noticed, regarded: so Genesis 18:19, "I have _known_him to the end that he may command his children and his household after him that they may keep the way of Jehovah," &c.; Hosea 13:5... [ Continue Reading ]
_Can_ better _Will?_or _Do?_if one sees two persons walking together, it may be inferred that, either at the time or previously, they have come to some agreement to do so. The example may have been suggested by Amos's experience of the wild moorlands of Tekoa, or of the desert regions of Judah, in w... [ Continue Reading ]
Examples of sights, or sounds, from which the action of some proper or sufficient cause may, in each case, be inferred.... [ Continue Reading ]
Such a severe rebuke might provoke contradiction among the prophet's hearers: he therefore proceeds to indicate the authority upon which it rests, arguing by means of a series of illustrations drawn from the facts of common life, that every event or occurrence in nature implies the operation of some... [ Continue Reading ]
_when he hath no prey_ i.e. when it is not within his reach: the roar is that with which the lion springs upon its prey: cf. Isaiah 5:29 _a_(not Isaiah 5:29 _b_, where the word used is a different one; see below); Psalms 104:21, "roaring for prey"; Ezekiel 22:25, "like a roaring lion, tearing the pr... [ Continue Reading ]
WILL _a bird fall_ INTO _a_ NET _upon the earth_, WHEN THERE IS _no_ BAIT _for it?_ The _paḥ_must have been a kind of net; not improbably like the bird-traps figured in Wilkinson-Birch, _Ancient Egyptians_, ed. 1878, ii. 103, consisting of network strained over two semicircular flaps, moving on a c... [ Continue Reading ]
Similarly the horn is a signal of danger; calamity is a sign that Jehovah has willed it; and the appearance of a prophet is an indication that Jehovah has sent him.... [ Continue Reading ]
IS _A_ HORN (Amos 2:2) _blown in_ A _city, and_ ARE _the people not_ IN ALARM?] Of course they are: for they know it to be the signal of approaching danger. The horn was blown as a summons to repel an invader, &c. (Hosea 5:8; Jeremiah 6:1; Ezekiel 33:3 f.; 1 Corinthians 14:8). WILL _evil_ HAPPEN _i... [ Continue Reading ]
_Surely_ FOR, the reason, however, following not in Amos 3:7 but in Amos 3:8 (to which Amos 3:7 is subordinate): -I give all these examples of events and occurrences in nature being due regularly to their proper cause, for Jehovah does nothing without communicating His purpose to His prophets, and w... [ Continue Reading ]
The heathen themselves are invited to bear witness whether the sins of Samaria do not deserve judgement. _Publish_&c. PROCLAIM IT (lit. _make it to be heard_) OVER _the palaces in Ashdod_, &c., i.e. on their flat roofs, whence all can hear (cf. Matthew 10:27): the nobles of Ashdod (Amos 1:8) and Egy... [ Continue Reading ]
_know not to do right_ Wrong-doing has become their second nature. _Right_(a rare word) is properly _what is straight in front_, fig. _clear, true, straightforward_(Isaiah 26:10; Isaiah 59:14; 2 Samuel 15:3). _store up violence and robbery in their palaces_ The nobles and great men, in Samaria as in... [ Continue Reading ]
The sentence. _An adversary_ or _Distress_, a rendering which most moderns prefer. there shall be _even round about_ The Hebrew is harsh: a very slight change, supported by Pesh. (יְסֹבֵב for וּסְבִב), yields _shall surround_(or _encircle_), which is to be preferred. _he shall bring down thy stren... [ Continue Reading ]
So sudden will be the surprise, so overwhelming the numbers of the foe, that of the luxurious nobles of Samaria only an insignificant remnant will escape with their bare lives: all the rest will be swept away by the foe. _As the shepherd taketh_&c. better, RESCUETH (R.V.). A shepherd would bring su... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hear ye, and testify_ AGAINST, &c. The persons addressed might be the heathen nobles of Philistia and Egypt (Amos 3:9 _b_). But in view of the fact that they are not to _see_, but to _hear_, and that it is the divine sentence in Amos 3:14 which is to be virtually the subject of their testimony, it... [ Continue Reading ]
_visit_ Cf. on Amos 3:2. _I will also visit_ I WILL VISIT: there is no -also"; the וְ, by a common Hebrew idiom, merely introduces the verbal predicate. _the altars of Beth-el_ Beth-el, now _Beitin_, was in Amos's day the principal sanctuary of the northern kingdom. It lay on the sloping side of a... [ Continue Reading ]
The thought of Amos 3:11 is further developed. The ruin will be complete: the idolatrous altars, and the sumptuous palaces, will alike be involved in it.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the winter house_ See Jeremiah 36:22. _with the summer house_ Eglon (Judges 3:20) had a "cool upper story," i.e. an additional apartment, built on the flat roof of the house, with latticed windows, allowing free circulation for the air (cf. Moore, _Judges_, pp. 96, 97 f.); but here separate buildin... [ Continue Reading ]