Amos 1:6-10

PUNISHMENT PROMISED, THE HEATHEN NATIONSGAZA AND TYRE

TEXT: Amos 1:6-10

6

Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Gaza, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they carried away captive the whole people, to deliver them up to Edom:

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but I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.

8

And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the sceptre from Ashkelon; and I will turn my hand against Ekron; and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord Jehovah.

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Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions, of Tyre, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof: because they delivered up the whole people to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant:

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but I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.

QUERIES

a.

Where are Gaza, Ashdod and Ekron, and for what does God hold them responsible?

b.

Where is Tyre?

c.

What is the brotherly covenant?

PARAPHRASE

This is the Lord's word: For sin after sin of Gaza, I will not leave her unpunished. Because these Philistines captured whole cities and areas of My holy land and people and sold every last one of them into slavery to the Edomites I will consume them in the fires of judgment. I will slaughter the inhabitants of the major cities of Philistia even the potentates of these cities I will slaughter. The very last people of the Philistine race I will cause to perish.
This is the Lord's word: For sin after sin of Tyre, I will not leave her unpunished. Because of their slave-trade with Edom and because they forgot the peaceful alliances and behavior of My covenant people toward them, I will consume the cities and peoples of Phoenicia in the fires of judgment,

SUMMARY

Philistia and Phoenicia are roared at by the Lord. They have captured whole cities of the covenant people and sold them into slavery.

COMMENT

Amos 1:6. FOR THREE TRANSGRESSIONS OF GAZA. BECAUSE THEY CARRIED AWAY CAPTIVE THE WHOLE PEOPLE. By mentioning most of the principal cities of Philistia, Amos means to include the whole nation under the judgment of God. The book of Judges mentions the Philistines as a major contender against the Hebrews for the possession of Palestine. When David united all Israel under his rule, he decisively defeated the Philistines in two major battles (2 Samuel 5:17-25) and from this time on, the Philistine grip was broken until after the death of Solomon. Then at the division of the kingdom the Philistines reasserted the independence they had lost to David and captured whole cities selling the people into slavery. Sargon (722-705 B.C.) captured the Philistine cities, deported some of the inhabitants and set over them an Assyrian governor. The later struggles between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids (Egypt and Syria), prophesied by Daniel 11, caused great suffering and devastation to the Philistine cities. This practically closes their history as strictly Philistinian. They continued in N.T. times as non-Jewish centers, becoming Hellenistic cities.

Amos has in mind such carrying away of captives as occurred in 2 Chronicles 21:16 (cf. Joel 3:3-4). These Philistines captured whole cities and areas of Hebrew people and sold them to Edomites and to the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians probably sold them, in turn, to the Greeks (cf. Joel 3:6).

Amos 1:7. I WILL SEND A FIRE ON THE WALL OF GAZA. It could be that Amos meant literal fire would destroy these heathen cities since the destructive forces of fire have always been a major result of warfare in every age. But it most probably is a figure of the judgment of God. (cf. Matthew 3:12; John 15:6, etc.).

Amos 1:8. I WILL CUT OFF THE INHABITANT FROM ASHDOD. ASHKELON. EKRON. AND THE REMNANT OF THE PHILISTINES SHALL PERISH. Three more of the principal cities of Philistia are here mentioned, only Gath is left out, and this not because it was not to be judged. It is clear that God means the Philistines as a nation or race shall perish. And so it is true today, Philistia is no longer a nation and the Philistines are no longer a people. All of these cities were located in the plain of Philistia, a part of which is now known as the Gaza Strip. Egypt and the Jews are still fighting over this territory. Its former glory and power has long since melted into the dust of antiquity. but the Word of God stands as firmly as ever today!

Amos 1:9-10. FOR THREE TRANSGRESSIONS OF TYRE. BECAUSE THEY DELIVERED UP THE WHOLE PEOPLE TO EDOM, AND REMEMBERED NOT THE BROTHERLY COVENANT. Tyre was the capital of Phoenicia. It was north of Mt. Carmel and south of Sidon. The people were seafaring people. Tyre was one of the principal seaports of that entire territory bounded by the Mediterranean coast. They imported and exported many different things among which were slavesmen, women and children often Hebrew captives of raids by the Philistines, and the Syrians. David and Solomon had entered into a friendly alliance with the king of Tyre (2 Samuel 5:11; 1 Kings 5:15 ff) but the people of Tyre of Amos-' generation had forgotten that. Furthermore they were not mindful of the fact that no king of Israel or Judah had ever made war on Phoenicia. Their indifference and cruelty to the covenant people of God through their slave-trading was wholly unjustifiable and God announces that He will visit them with His judgment.

In 322 B.C. in the course of his conquest of the East, Alexander the Great appeared before Tyre. The island stronghold (where the people of the old city of Tyre had fled at the siege of Nebuchadnezzar almost 300 years earlier) closed her gates, and Alexander was forced to build a causeway, and after long months of frustration and vast penetration, take the city by costly storming. Alexander built the causeway out of the timbers and stones of the old city of Tyre by scraping its site flat like the top of a rock. Tyre was broken, and the causeway still remains, a place, as Ezekiel foretold, on which fishermen might dry their nets (cf. Ezekiel 26:5-14; Ezekiel 47:10; cf. also Isaiah 23; Zechariah 9). Tyre made a measure of political recovery and for a period functioned as a republic. She struck an early treaty with Rome, and her independence was respected until 20 B.C. when Augustus withdrew it. The remaining history of Tyre is without significance. The ancient city of Tyre on the mainland has never been rebuilt!

QUIZ

1.

Tell of the history of Philistia. What of the people of Philistia today?

2.

What does Amos mean by speaking of fire upon each of these cities?

3.

Tell of the history of Tyre. What of the people of Tyre today?