Amos 6:8

The contemplation of such strange moral obliquity excites the prophet's indignation, which finds expression in the oath (cf. Amos 4:2; Amos 8:7), in which Jehovah solemnly affirms that He abhorsIsrael.

by himself Lit. by his soul:the same oath, Jeremiah 51:14 only. (Jehovah's -soul," Isaiah 1:14; Isaiah 42:1; Jeremiah 5:9; Jeremiah 6:8 al.)

abhor From being Israel's guardian and protector He is turned into its foe. Comp. for the general thought Deuteronomy 28:63; Hosea 5:12; Hosea 5:14; Hosea 13:7 f.; Isaiah 63:10; and below, ch. Amos 9:4.

excellency pride, whether of Israel's vain-glorious temper itself (Isaiah 9:9), or of the objects of which it is proud, its affluence, material splendour, military efficiency, &c. The word will bear either sense: see (a) Hosea 5:5; Hosea 7:10; Isaiah 16:6; and (b) Nahum 2:3; Psalms 47:4; Zechariah 9:6. On the feeble and very inadequate rendering -excellency," see the Additional Note, p. 238.

his palaces in which Israel's pride is only too manifest; the homes of the nonchalantnobles, founded on oppression (cf. Jeremiah 22:13-17, of Jehoiakim), and enriched by what had been wrung from the indigent (cf. ch. Amos 3:10).

and I will deliver up&c. As in Amos 2:14-16; Amos 3:11 f., Amos 4:2 f., Amos 5:16, there rises before the prophet's eye a vision of invasion, one of the accompaniments of which would be naturally the siege of the strong cities.

Additional Note on Chap. Amos 6:8 (excellent, excellency)

The words excellencyand excellentare unfortunately, to the great detriment of the sense, used frequently in both the Authorized and the Revised Versions, to represent various Hebrew words expressive of majesty, pride, glory[230]. Excellencyis thus used (as here) for gâ"ôn, majesty, pride(in a good or a bad sense according to the context), in Exodus 15:7 ("in the greatness of thy majesty(cognate with the verb rendered -hath triumphed gloriously" in v. 1, 21; lit. hath risen up majestically) thou overthrowest them that rise up against thee"); Isaiah 13:19 (A.V. pride), Isaiah 60:15 ("an everlasting pride"); Ezekiel 24:21 (R.V. pride, as Leviticus 26:19 in A.V., in the same phrase); Amos 8:7; Nahum 2:2; Psalms 47:4; Job 37:4 (R.V. majesty); for ga"ăwâh, majesty, Deuteronomy 33:26; Deuteronomy 33:29; Psalms 68:34; for gôbah, loftiness, Job 40:10 (R.V. dignity, using -excellency" for gâ"ôn); for hâdâr, splendour, glory, Isaiah 35:2 (-the splendourof Carmel," -the splendourof our God"); and excellentfor gâ"ôn, Isaiah 4:2 (read this verse, "In that day shall the sprouting of Jehovah be for an ornament and for a glory, and the fruit of the land for majestyand for beauty, to them that escape of Israel," and it both expresses more exactly the original, and also exhibits more clearly the prophet's thought that a true glory is to take the place of the false glory which, as ch. 2, 3 has shewn, is to vanish away); for gç"ûth, also majesty, Isaiah 12:5 (R.V. marg. gloriously); for "addîr, nobleor glorious, Psalms 8:1; Psalms 8:9 ("How gloriousis thy name in all the earth!"), Psalms 16:3 (the saints of God are the nobles, in whom the Psalmist delights), Psalms 76:4 ("all-bright (?) [231] art thou, and glorious, (coming down) from the mountains of prey"); for nisgâb, exalted(so R.V.), Psalms 148:13: in the Prayer-Book Version of the Psalms, it stands similarly for "addîr, Psalms 8:1; Psalms 8:9, for nikbâdôth, -gloriousthings," Psalms 87:2, for nisgâb, exalted, Psalms 139:5 (i.e. here, too high for me), Psalms 148:12: cf. excelfor "addîr, Psalms 16:3. These renderings are the more to be regretted, as the Hebrew words in question are elsewhere expressed quite correctly: thus gâ"ônis pridein A.V., R.V., of Isaiah 23:9; Jeremiah 13:9 (-the pride of Judah"), Hosea 5:5; Hosea 7:10; Zechariah 9:6; Zechariah 10:11 &c.; majestyin Isaiah 2:10; Isaiah 2:19; Isaiah 2:21; Micah 5:4; gç"ûthis majesty, Isaiah 26:10; Psalms 93:1; "addîris gloriousin Isaiah 33:21 (R.V. in majesty); noble, Jeremiah 14:3; Jeremiah 30:21 (R.V. here prince), and the cognate verb is gloriousin Exodus 15:6; Exodus 15:11; hâdâris majestyin Psalms 21:6; Psalms 29:4; Psalms 96:6 and frequently; and nisgâbis constantly exalted(as Isaiah 2:11; Isaiah 2:17 &c.), and with name(exactly as Psalms 148:13), Isaiah 12:4. It is of course true that idiom sometimes imposes limits to the principle of representing the same Hebrew word uniformly by the same English one (for the corresponding words in two languages seldom develope their meanings quite symmetrically); but the use of excellent, and excellency, for the words here in question, is thoroughly gratuitous, and affords simply an "excellent" illustration of that needless and often misleading creation of "artificial distinctions" which the late Bishop Lightfoot criticized with such justice (On a Fresh Revision of the English New Testament, chap. IV. § 2).

[230] The root-idea of gâ"ôn, ga"ăwâh, gç"ûthis, it is true, to rise up, grow tall(see Ezekiel 47:5; Job 8:11), which is also that of the Lat. excello: but no one can pretend that this sense is perceptible in the English words excellentand excellency; and in the Hebrew words also the primary physical sense has largely given way to the derived metaphorical one. The writer formerly thought it possible that these English words had become weakened in meaning since 1611; but the quotations in Murray's English Dictionarylend no support to this supposition.

[231] Read probably (cf. Amos 6:8) terrible(נורא for נאור).