Amos 3:12

In the corner of a bed, &c.— Sitting in the CORNER, is in the East a stately attitude, and expressive of superiority: and it has been so universal, that Lord Whitworth assures us, that among the Russians, who lately had many eastern customs among them, they were wont to place the picture of their guardian saint in a corner of their rooms. This circumstance may serve to explain the present passage, which has sadly embarrassed commentators. But the observing that the most honourable place of the eastern divans is the corner, gives this easy explanation, that "just as a shepherd is oftentimes able to save from the jaws of a devouring lion no more than some small piece of the sheep carried off by that beast; so an adversary round about the land of Israel should spoil its palaces, and scarcely any part of it should be recovered out of that adversary's hands, more than the city which sits among the cities of Israel as in the corner of a bed, in the most honourable place; that is, as undoubtedly Samaria did, being looked upon as the royal city." But to gain more perfectly the acquiescence of the reader's mind in this explication, it may be requisite to shew, that the Hebrew word מטה mittah, which is here translated bed, may be understood of a divan; which Dr. Russel describes as a part of a room raised above the floor, spread with a carpet in winter, and with fine mats in summer; along the sides, says he, are thick mattresses, about three feet wide, covered commonly with scarlet cloth; and large bolsters of brocade, fluffed hard with cotton, are set against the walls (or rails, when so situated as not to touch the walls) for the conveniency of leaning.—As they use no chairs, it is upon these that they sit, and all their rooms are so furnished. This description is perfectly conformable to that of other authors, who agree that on these they take their repasts, and sleep; and that they are very capacious. The word mittah certainly sometimes signifies a small, floored, moveable elevation, as in 2 Samuel 3:31 where we translate it bier; but there is no need to suppose that it always signifies such a small moveable thing: it may, for any thing that appears to the contrary, signify the same sort of conveniency as is called at Aleppo a divan. These are now used very universally throughout the East; and we know that the people of those countries are very tenacious of their old customs: this therefore, probably, is an ancient one. On the mittah they used to sit to eat, as well as to sleep, as we learn chap. Amos 6:4. 1 Samuel 28:23.Esther 1:6; Esther 7:8 from which last passage it appears, that the ancient eastern mittah was much larger than the beds which the old Greeks and Romans used in their repasts; since Haman went up, and prostrated himself before queen Esther, on the mittah where she was sitting; which it cannot be imagined he would have thought of doing, had the old eastern mittah been like a Greek or Roman bed. He would rather have kneeled on the floor, or prostrated himself upon it, and kissed the hem of her robe; which he could not do, seated as he was near the corner of a large eastern mittah, without going up upon it, which accordingly he did in order to beg for his life. Thus Dr. Pocock tells us, that not only the eastern consul went upon the sofa (which is the same thing with what is called a divan at Aleppo) when he visited the Caia of the Pasha at Tripoli; but those who attended him also, though they placed themselves there in the humble posture of kneeling, so as to rest on their hams. The stately bed on which Aholibah is represented as sitting, Ezekiel 23:41 seems to mean the floor of an idol temple; for on the floor of such places, it appears from chap. Amos 2:8 they used to lie down upon clothes or carpets; and the going up to them by steps made it very much resemble an eastern mittah. These observations may be sufficient to give us the meaning of the prophet in general; and perhaps this explanation of the first clause may serve to lead us into the sense of the other, which our translators have rendered, in Damascus in a couch, but the margin of our Bibles reads, on the bed's feet. We cannot suppose that the original word is to be considered as a proper name, and translated Damascus, because Israel did not, as far as we know, dwell in any numbers there; though there was a very good understanding between the two kingdoms of Samaria and Damascus in the times here referred to, as may be seen, Isaiah 7:2. I cannot, however, acquiesce in the marginal reading, the bed's feet, which, one would imagine must signify the very reverse of the preceding sentence, and mark out the lowest place.

Pagnin supposes that the words are to be translated, And in the corner of a couch; in which case it would be a sort of repetition of the foregoing thought in other terms; but there may be objections to this interpretation. It seems most natural, upon a collation of the passages where the word ערשׂ eres, occurs, not to understand it as signifying the diminutive of מטה mittah, a couch, but the furniture of an eastern divan; and so, where these two words are joined together, they are not to be considered as an oriental repetition, but as an agreeable diversification of the thought. Thus Psalms 6:6. I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim (the divan on which I am placed); I water my couch (or the divan furniture) with my tears. Mattresses, or something of that kind, must have been used, without doubt, for sleeping upon in those times; and from chap. Amos 2:8 it appears that the Israelites used carpets, or something of that sort, in their feasts, as the Easterns do now. This furniture, I presume, is to be understood by the term eres, which we render couch. Perhaps, Deuteronomy 3:11 where an eres is said to be of iron, may be thought to overthrow this opinion: but this does not appear to me; the using of furniture for a mittah, full of small pieces of iron, like a coat of mail, may surely impress the mind with as strong an idea of the martial roughness of the gigantic Og, as the having a bedstead made of iron instead of wood, ivory, or silver. If this sense of the word eres be admitted, this clause, to answer the preceding, must signify, in general, the richest furniture of a divan, appropriated to persons of the greatest distinction. Nor will there be any great difficulty in the word used, if we suppose the word Damascus to signify something made at Damascus, and that this city anciently gave its name to some of its works, as it has certainly done in later times; some of our richest silks being thence called damasks. The learned Castalio supposes the word to signify some costly works made at Damascus, and Genesis 15:2 seems sufficiently to prove it; where Abraham's steward is called this Damascus Eliezer,—"this man of Damascus; that is, Eliezer;" and if it may signify a man of Damascus, surely it may equally signify a manufacture of that city. It is certain, that the prophet Ezekiel, who lived not very long after the time of Amos, represents Damascus as a place of trade, and in particular as trafficking in wine, and what we render white wool, Ezekiel 27:18 but which may equally well be understood to mean woollen fit for the use of nobles. For the word there translated wool, appears to be used Ezekiel 44:17 for wool wrought up, or woollen cloth; and the word which is translated white, is used but once more in the Old Testament. See the note on Judges 5:10. The result of the whole is, that Amos, as it should seem, signifies, that "As a shepherd saves a small portion of a sheep or a goat out of the jaws of a lion; so, though the rest of the company shall be miserably destroyed, they shall escape who sit or dwell in Samaria, in the corner of the divan, on the damask mattress; the royal and most beautified, that is, of all the cities of Israel." This custom may serve also to illustrate Nehemiah 9:22 which may be thus rendered, Thou didst divide them to the corner; that is to say, according to the explanation above given, "Thou didst give Sihon and Og into their hands, and the various tribes of the Canaanites; and not only so, but didst give the pre-eminence to Israel, and make them chief among the nations round about them." It may not, perhaps, be improper here to add, that the word divide (in the original חלק chalak) is used 1 Chronicles 24:3 to express David's appointing the sons of Aaron to their different charges. See the Observations, p. 266.