Amos 6:2

Two diametrically opposed explanations of this verse have been given. (1) It has been regarded as continuing the argument of Amos 6:1, the cities named in it being referred to as examples of prosperity: Can you find, from Calneh and Hamath in the North of Syria to the Philistine border on the South, a single kingdom -better" (i.e. more flourishing) than your own? Thus has Jehovah favoured you; and ye requite Him with indifference and neglect (Amos 6:3). Therefore (Amos 6:7) the sentence is, Ye shall be amongst the first to go into exile. The argument is similar to that of Amos 2:9-16; Amos 3:2: Israel has been visited by Jehovah with unwonted favour; that however will not exempt it from punishment, if it acts in such a way as to merit punishment. So Ew., Hitz., Keil, W. R. Smith, Proph. p. 138, &c. (2) It has been taken as introductory to Amos 6:3, the places named in it being pointed to as examples of fallen greatness: if cities, till recently so flourishing, so far from being now -better," or more prosperous (Jeremiah 44:17), than Israel and Judah, have been overtaken by disaster, let Israel take warning betimes, and not rely too implicitly that its present good fortune will continue to attend it: the ground why such warning is needed follows then in Amos 6:3. So Baur, Pusey, Schrader, von Orelli, Wellhausen. In support of this view it may be urged that it is not very obvious why the places named especially the distant Calneh should be specially selected as examples of flourishing cities: the age was one in which the cities of Western Asia were liable at any moment to be roughly treated by the Assyrians (see below); and of Gath, in particular, it is observed that it is not mentioned among the Philistine cities enumerated either by Amos himself in Amos 1:7-8, or in Jeremiah 47, or Zephaniah 2:4-7, or Zechariah 9:5-7; and hence it has been inferred (G. A. Smith, Geogr. p. 194) that it must have been destroyed by the Assyrians about 750 b.c. But, on the whole, the former, which is also the general view, seems preferable. Hamath (see below) was taken by Sargon in 720; and the conquest of Calneh at least, if it be the same as Calno is alluded to as recent in 701 (Isaiah 10:9); and there is no sufficient reason for supposing (Schrad., Wellh.; cf. G. A. Smith, p. 173 n.) that the verse is an insertion in the original text of Amos made towards the end of the 8th cent. b.c.

Calneh The identification is uncertain. A Calneh is mentioned as an ancient Babylonian city in Genesis 10:10; and a Calno is alluded to in Isaiah 10:9 as a place conquered recently by the Assyrians. According to some, Calneh may be the place usually called Zirlabaor Zarilab, the characters of which, however, admit of being read ideographically as Kulunu, and which is mentioned by Sargon in b.c. 710 as one of his conquests (Schrader, K.A.T[166][167], pp. 96, 444). According to others (Winckler, Gesch. Bab. und Ass. p. 225; Tiele, Bab.-Ass. Gesch. p. 230 [168]) it is Kullani, a place mentioned in the Eponym Canon (G. Smith, Eponym Canon, p. 50) as (apparently) the principal conquest of Tiglath-pileser III. in b.c. 738: as this king was engaged that year in the north of Syria, there is a probability that it was in that region; and it is accordingly identified by Mr Tomkins (Proceedings of the Soc. of Bibl. Arch. 9 Jan. 1883, p. 61) with the present Kullanhou, about six miles from Tel Arfad(Arpad), a little N. of Aleppo (notice Calno and Arpad together in Isaiah 10:9). Guthe, Das Zukunftsbild des Jesaia(1885), p. 43, and Dillmann (on Isaiah 10:9) would identify it with Kunulua, or Kinalia, the capital of the land of Patin, between the Afrin and the Orontes, on the S.E. of Antioch, some 70 or 80 miles N. of Hamath [169], and consequently in the same neighbourhood as Kullanhou.

[166] .A.T.… Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.

[167] … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.

[168] Who distinguishes it from the Calneh (Kulunu) of Genesis 10:10.

[169] See Schrader, Keilinschr. und Geschichtsforschung(1878), p. 217 f.; Delitzsch, Paradies, p. 274. Asshurnazirpal (b.c. 885 860), in his "Standard Inscription," iii. 72 (R.P.2 ii. 170; or Schrader, K.B.i. 107) speaks of receiving immense tribute from it.

Hamath an important town, situated some 150 miles N. of Dan, beyond the broad valley of Coele-Syria, on the Orontes (el-A̅ṣî), the seat of an independent kingdom, whose king Toi (or Tou) is mentioned in the time of David (2 Samuel 8:9 f.), and the modern Ḥamâ, a place of 60,000 inhabitants. The territory of Hamath extended at least as far S. as Riblah (2 Kings 23:33; 2 Kings 25:21), in Coele-Syria, about 50 miles S. of Hamath itself. The "entrance to Hamath," i.e. probably (G. A. Smith, p. 177; Buhl, Geogr. Pal., pp. 66, 110) the mouth of the pass between the Lebanons, a little N. of Rĕḥôb and Dan (Numbers 13:21; cf. Judges 18:28), which was considered the starting-point of the road to Hamath, is often named as the northern limit of Israelitish territory (Amos 6:14; 2 Kings 14:25; Joshua 13:5; Jdg 3:3; 1 Kings 8:65; Ezekiel 47:20; Ezekiel 48:1; Numbers 34:8; cf. Numbers 13:21). Hamath is mentioned frequently in the Assyrian Inscriptions. In 854 b.c. its king Irchulina joined Ben-hadad of Syria and Ahab of Israel in a great coalition against the Assyrians, and was defeated with his allies by Shalmaneser II. (Schrader, K.A.T[170][171] p. 201 f.). Disastrous losses were inflicted upon it by Tiglath-pileser III. in 740, and by Sargon in 720 (ib.pp. 221, 323 f.; cf. Isaiah 10:9; and see also Delitzsch, Paradies, pp. 275 278).

[170] .A.T.… Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.

[171] … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.

go down from the high central ground of Palestine to the plain by the sea, on which the Philistine cities were situated. So regularly, as Judges 14:1; Jdg 14:19, 1 Samuel 13:20; and conversely -went up," 1 Samuel 6:9. The use in geographical descriptions of these two terms should always be noted.

Gath the fifth (see on Amos 1:7-8) chief town of the Philistines (Joshua 13:3; 1 Samuel 6:17), one of the homes of the giant race of the Rephaim, Joshua 11:22; 2 Samuel 21:18-22 (cf. 1 Samuel 17:4), mentioned also in 1 Samuel 21:10; 1 Samuel 27:11; 2 Samuel 15:18 (600 warriors from Gath forming part of David's body-guard), Micah 1:10, and elsewhere. If"Gimtu Asdudim" (? Gath of the Ashdodites) be this place, it is spoken of also as taken by Sargon at the same time that he took Ashdod (above, on Amos 1:8), in b.c. 711 (K.A.T[172][173] p. 399; cf. pp. 166, 444). Its site is uncertain. It is frequently mentioned next to Ekron, and from 1 Samuel 17:52 appears to have lain between Ekron and the vale of Elah (probably the Wâdy es-Sunt); hence many have sought it at Tell eṣ-Ṣâfiyeh, a commanding height, 11 miles S. by E. of Ekron, rising out of the plain, where the Wâdy es-Sunt opens into it, and looking across Philistia to the sea. Cf. G. A. Smith, Geogr., pp. 194 197.

[172] .A.T.… Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.

[173] … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.