Amos 9

The Man with a Difficult Message from God

Amos

Mark Kirkpatrick

Chapter 9

God’s judgement against Israel

v1 I saw the *Lord standing by the *altar.

He said: ‘Hit the top of the columns.

I want the base of the building to shake.

Make the columns fall on the people’s heads.

If there are any people still alive, then I will kill them with a sword. No one will be able to run away; not one will escape.

v2 If they dig deep into the grave, I will pull them up from there.

If they go up to heaven, I will bring them down from there.

v3 Even if they hide at the top of Mount Carmel, I will search for them.

Then I will catch them.

They might try to hide at the bottom of the sea.

But I will command the snake to bite them.

v4 Perhaps they will go into *exile.

Even there, I will order their enemies to kill them with the sword.

I will watch them carefully.

But I will watch for ways to bring them injury.

I will not look for ways to do good things for them.’

Verse 1 Paul wrote that ‘nothing can separate us from the love of Christ’ (Romans 8:35). But in this chapter, nothing will stop God’s anger against Israel. The *Lord is ready to speak again. Amos shows us a picture of God standing by a *temple. There were usually columns on a *temple. They supported the building. But God is going to break these columns. Everything will shake. When this happens people will die. God wants to be sure that people will die. He will even chase them with a sword.

Verse 2 God controls everything everywhere. It is impossible to hide from him. Even the grave is not safe. God’s anger is like a fire. It will even burn the ‘grave below’ (Deuteronomy 32:22). Even if people escape to heaven God will bring them back.

Verse 3 Carmel was a high mountain. On it, there were forests with many trees. It was a good place to hide. The bottom of the sea was also a good place to hide. Jonah probably thought that he was safe in the fish (Jonah 2:6-7). People believed then that a large dangerous ‘snake’ lived in the sea. It lived at the very bottom. But God would search everywhere in the deep sea. He would find the people who were escaping from him. Then he would give his order to the snake to kill them.

Verse 4 Even *exile would not be a protection. The people in *exile must die too. God was going to watch them closely. This is usually a sign of God’s good plans for a person (Jeremiah 24:6). But now God wanted them to die. The *Israelites deserved this because they had done so many wrong things.

v5 The *Lord, the *Lord *Almighty will touch the earth and it will melt. Then all the people who live in Israel will weep.

They will cry for the dead people.

The land will rise and fall like the Nile River in Egypt.

v6 The *Lord builds his upper rooms in the *heavens.

He puts his skies over the earth.

He calls for the waters of the sea.

He pours this water over the earth.

His name is the *Lord!

v7 The *Lord says this: ‘Israel, you are like the *Ethiopians to me.

I brought Israel out of Egypt.

I brought the *Philistines from Caphtor and the *Arameans from Kir.’

v8 The *Lord the Ruler is watching this *sinful nation, Israel.

He says, ‘I am going to destroy Israel completely.

But I will not completely destroy Jacob’s family.’

Verse 5 Verses 5 and 6 are probably from a song. But Amos has used the song as part of God’s *judgement. God has huge power. He can destroy the world if he wants to. Amos refers to the Nile again. He did this in 8:8. God has power over the rivers. He can shake the earth too. The people in Israel deserved all of God’s anger.

Verse 6 God is a builder. He made heaven and earth. The earth is like a wonderful palace. God’s measurements are different from the measurements of men. He has huge scales when he builds. Verse 6b is the same as 5:8b. Amos wants to repeat the same idea. In the *Old Testament water is usually a sign of life. But God will now use water as a sign of death.

Verse 7 God now speaks again. Israel was not different from other nations. The *Ethiopians, *Egyptians, *Philistines and *Arameans were all special to God too. God led Israel out of Egypt. But he also led the *Philistines from Crete to their country. And he led the *Arameans from Kir to Syria. (We do not know where Kir was.)

Verse 8 This verse is similar to 9:4. The *Lord continued to look very closely at Israel. He did not like what he saw. Israel would no longer be a nation. However, there would be a few people left, so there was some hope. Other *prophets often gave some hope to Israel too (Hosea 1:11; Joel 2:18-19).

v9 I will give the command to shake the nation of Israel.

I will scatter the *Israelites among all the nations.

It will be like a person who *sieves grain.

A person shakes the grain while he *sieves.

The good grain falls through the holes.

But the small stones will not fall through onto the ground.

v10 The people who *sin will say: ‘Nothing bad will happen to us.’ But other people will kill them with their swords.

Verse 9 This verse is similar to 9:1. God has some serious work to do. Israel will not be the same when he finishes. Israel is like good grain mixed with small stones. The small stones are the bad parts of Israel. God will not allow any small stone to fall through the *sieve. A *sieve is a flat thing that has lots of small holes in it. People use it to separate things. God only wants good people to live.

Verse 10 There are *sinful people in Israel. They think that they will live. But Amos does not want to give them any hope. They will certainly die.

God will bring back Israel’s people to himself

v11 ‘David’s tent has fallen down.

But a day is coming when I will build it again.

I will mend the holes in the walls.

I will again build the walls that people have ruined.

I will build it like it was before.’

v12 Part of the land of Edom remains.

But the people in Israel will win wars against the people from Edom.

They will also win wars against other nations that were once mine’, says the *Lord.

The *Lord will do these things.

v13 ‘There is a time coming’, says the *Lord.

‘A person will be ploughing a field.

He will catch up with a person who is harvesting the crops.

A person will walk on *grapes.

He will catch up with the person who was planting the *grapes.

New wine will run down from the mountains.

It will flow from all the hills.

v14 I will bring back my people, Israel, from *exile.

They will build again the cities that people have ruined.

And they will live in those cities.

They will plant fields of *grapes.

And they will drink the wine that comes from them.

They will make gardens and eat the fruit.

v15 I will plant my people on their own land.

I will not pull them out again.

This is the land that I gave them.’ This is what the *Lord your God says.

Verse 11 In the final verses of Amos, there is hope. The ten *tribes in the north had separated themselves from Judah. This was sad. King David had wanted unity for his country. Jerusalem was now going to fall. The *Babylonians would take Jerusalem. Amos was interested in the future. He looked back to David’s time, but he was really thinking of the future. The word for ‘has fallen’ could also mean ‘ is going to fall’. Perhaps Amos was looking forward to the fall of Jerusalem. This happened in 539 *B.C. Later, the *Jews returned to Jerusalem and built the wall again. We read about this in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. But after Jesus’ time the Romans sent most *Jews out of the land. They have only returned in large numbers since 1947.

Verse 12 David defeated the people who lived in Edom. But then Edom fought back against Solomon (1 Kings 11:14) and became free (2 Kings 8:20). Edom represents the enemies of Israel. Another leader would follow David. He would be the Christ. He would defeat Israel’s enemies. He would also rule the world.

Verse 13 Amos now gives us two pictures. In this future time, there would be a lot of food. As soon as a person had harvested a crop, someone else would sow the next crop! *Grapes were an important crop in Israel. In the future, there would be a huge amount of wine. There would be more wine than the people could drink.

Verse 14 Again, Amos looks to the future. He looks beyond the *exile. The *Jews would be able to return to their land. They would be able to do normal things. They would be able to grow plenty of food for themselves. There would be enough to eat. There would be security.

Verse 15 Amos finishes with a promise. The *Israelites would have their own land. They would not have to worry about *exile again. They would be like a crop that God himself has planted. This is like another promise from God. God said that there would be no second flood. He would not kill all people again (Genesis 8:21). *Sin had separated the people from God. But when Christ returned, there would be no more *sin. People would no longer want to destroy anything. Instead, they would want to build. We cannot be sure where this perfect time of peace and happiness will be. Perhaps it will be in Israel. Perhaps it will be in the new heaven and the new earth. We can read about the new heaven and the new earth in Revelation 21.

Lord ~ a special name for God. God told the Jews that this was his name. Some Bibles use ‘LORD’ for this special name. There is another word ‘lord’ which means someone with authority. This is why I have translated as ‘the Lord the ruler’ the title that really is ‘lord LORD’.)
Jew ~ a person who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
altar ~ a table where the priest burned animals and gave other gifts as a sacrifice to God or to false gods.
sacrifice ~ to give a gift to God of an animal or food. Usually people burnt all or part of this gift. This may be a way to thank God, or to ask him to forgive us.
exile ~ the time when the Israelites had to leave the land of Israel. (They went into exile.)
Israelites ~ people living in Israel, sons of Jacob.
temple ~ the special building in Jerusalem where Jews worshipped God.
Jew ~ a person who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
worship ~ a way to act when we are with God.
Israelites ~ people living in Israel, sons of Jacob.
Almighty ~ better than everyone else; the Lord of everything. This can also mean that God leads the armies of heaven.
Lord ~ a special name for God. God told the Jews that this was his name. Some Bibles use ‘LORD’ for this special name. There is another word ‘lord’ which means someone with authority. This is why I have translated as ‘the Lord the ruler’ the title that really is ‘lord LORD’.)
Jew ~ a person who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
heavens ~ the place where God and Christ are; the place of happiness and peace where God lives and rules; the sky.
Ethiopians ~ people who came from a country called Ethiopia.
Philistines ~ people who came from a country called Philistia.
Arameans ~ people who came from a country called Aram.'sin, sinful ~ when people do bad things against God or other people.
judgement ~ when God says what is right or wrong; when somebody says who is right or wrong; sometimes when God punishes people for wrong things that they have done.'Old Testament ~ the first part of the Bible, which the writers wrote before Christ’s birth.
Egyptians ~ people who came from Egypt.
prophet ~ a man or woman who was able to speak God’s words to the people.
sieve ~ a sieve is a flat thing that has lots of small holes in it; people use it to separate things; to sieve is to separate things with a sieve.'sin, sinful ~ when people do bad things against God or other people.
grape ~ a type of fruit. People make wine with it.
tribe ~ a large group of people from the same family; family from one man. The first Jews were the 12 sons of Jacob. The family of each son became a tribe.
Jew ~ a person who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
Babylonians ~ people who came from a place called Babylon.
Jew ~ a person who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
grape ~ a type of fruit. People make wine with it.'sin, sinful ~ when people do bad things against God or other people.