Amos 9:7-10

An objection met. The Israelites were only too ready to argue (cf. Amos 3:2; Jeremiah 7:1-15) that Jehovah, after the many marks of favour which He had bestowed upon His people, would never cast them off, as He had now declared that He would do (Amos 9:1-6). He replies, Is Israel, merely as Israel, apart from moral qualifications, more to Me than other nations? It is true, I led Israel out of Egypt, and gave them a home in Palestine: but I directed similarly the migrations of other nations, the Philistines, for example, and the Syrians: the sinful kingdom, whether it be Israel or any other nation, will perish before Me, the only limitation being that I will not absolutely annihilate the house of Jacob.

Are ye not as the sons of the Kushites unto me? The Kushites, or Ethiopians, are mentioned as a distant people, far removed from the grace and knowledge of God, despised on account of their dark colour (cf. Jeremiah 13:23), and perhaps also on account of slaves being often drawn from them. Degenerate Israel is no more in Jehovah's eyes than these despised Kushites. Kushis often named in the O.T. (e.g. Genesis 10:6-7; Isaiah 11:11; Isaiah 18:1; Isaiah 20:3-5; Isaiah 37:9; Isaiah 43:3): it was the name (in Egyptian Inscriptions Késh) borne by the people inhabiting the region to the south of Egypt (corresponding generally to the modern Soudan, i.e. the country of the Blacks (Arab, aswad, "black"). Their capital was Napata, on the Nile.

Did I not bring up Israel out of the land of Egypt? cf. Amos 2:10.

and the Philistines from Caphtor guiding them therefore not less than I guided Israel. Caphtoris in all probability Crete [200]. It is named elsewhere as the original home of the Philistines; see Deuteronomy 2:23 and Jeremiah 47:4 (where the Philistines are called "the remnant of the isle [or coast-land] of Caphtor"). These passages make it probable that in the ethnographical table of Genesis 10, in Amos 9:14, "and the Casluhim, from whom the Philistines came forth, and the Caphtorim," the clause respecting the Philistines is misplaced, and should be transposed to follow Caphtorim. A connexion with Crete is also rendered probable by the name Kerçthim, which in other passages (Ezekiel 25:16; Zephaniah 2:5; cf. 1 Samuel 30:14) is that of a tribe closely associated, if not (Zephaniah 2:5) identical, with the Philistines.

[200] Sayce formerly, with Ebers, identified it with the coast-land of the Delta; but he now (Academy, Apr. 14, 1894, p. 314) regards this view as untenable.

and Aram from Kir See on Amos 1:5.