Amos 8:1

Amos 8:1 to Amos 9:11. The visions resumed.

Amos 8:1-14. The fourth vision (Amos 8:1-3). The basket of summer fruit.

1. Thus did the Lord Jehovah cause me to see] The same formula as before, Amos 7:1; Amos 7:4.

a basket of summer fruit Partly the thought of Israel's ripenessfor judgement, but chiefly the Heb. word ḳêtz, "end," brings up before the prophet's mental eye in his vision, agreeably with the principles explained on Amos 7:1, the basket of ḳaitz, "summer fruit [189]." Similarly, in Jeremiah's inaugural vision (Jeremiah 1:11-12), the thought of Jehovah's watching(shôḳçd) over His word to perform it, produces by association of sounds the image of the almond-tree (shâḳçd), the symbolism of which is afterwards explained, as that of the "summer fruit" is explained here.

[189] The two words, though similar in sound, are not however connected etymologically: in the corresponding Arabic words, the last letter is not the same.