Amos 4 - Introduction
IV. A continuation in highly tropical and sarcastic language of the denunciation of the kingdom and nobles of Samaria, which was commenced in the previous chapter.... [ Continue Reading ]
IV. A continuation in highly tropical and sarcastic language of the denunciation of the kingdom and nobles of Samaria, which was commenced in the previous chapter.... [ Continue Reading ]
BASHAN. — This contained the rich pasture-lands east of the Jordan, between Hermon and the mountains of Gilead, where cattle flourished. The “strong bulls of Bashan” (Psalms 22:12) were descriptive of the malignant enemies of the ideal sufferer. The feminine “kine” refers to the luxurious self-indul... [ Continue Reading ]
FISHHOOKS. — Descriptive of the suddenness and irresistible character of the seizure, whereby, as a punishment for their wanton selfishness, the nobles were to be carried away as captives from their condition of fancied security. The strangeness of the imagery has led to a variety of interpretations... [ Continue Reading ]
EVERY COW... — Render _each one_ (ref. to the women, Amos 4:1) _straight before her._ The enemy shall have broken down the city’s defences, and the women shall tamely go forth through the breaches into captivity. The next clause is very obscure. It is best to take the verb as passive, _Ye shall be t... [ Continue Reading ]
BETHEL... GILGAL. — In bitterly ironical words the prophet summons Israel to the calf-worship of Bethel, and to similar rites of bastard Jehovah-worship at Gilgal. These spots were full of sacred associations. The sarcastic force of the passage is lost in E.V. For “three years” read _every three day... [ Continue Reading ]
The margin is more correct, and gives the key to the passage. Render, _and offer by burning your thank-offering of leaven._ Leaven was not allowed in any sacrifice offered by fire. Amos ironically calls upon them to break the Levitical law (Leviticus 7:13; Leviticus 23:17), as he knew they were in t... [ Continue Reading ]
CLEANNESS OF TEETH is, by the poetic parallelism, identified with the want of bread, the former phrase being a graphic representation of one of the ghastly aspects of famine; clean, sharp, prominent teeth projecting from the thin lips. Notwithstanding their chastisement, God says, “Ye have not retur... [ Continue Reading ]
THREE MONTHS TO THE HARVEST. — The withdrawal of rain at this period (February and March) is at the present day most calamitous to the crops in Palestine. CAUSED IT TO RAIN... — The tenses should be regarded as expressing repetition of the act, and might be, with advantage, rendered as present _cau... [ Continue Reading ]
BLASTING AND MILDEW. — Burning up the corn before it is ready to ear, and producing a tawny yellow, instead of golden red, was another judgment. Nothing escapes the Divine visitation. “Your gardens, vineyards, fig-trees, and olive-trees” — which in a well-watered enclosure might escape the general d... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH THE CAPTIVITY OF YOUR HORSES. — This, the marginal reading, is more exact. Egypt is the birthplace of the plague or black death, and the circumstances augmenting its horror are here terribly portrayed. G. Baur thinks, that since the drought is mentioned after the famine as its true cause, so he... [ Continue Reading ]
OVERTHROWN. — Another awful calamity, an earthquake, is referred to, and perhaps a volcanic eruption. Dr. Pusey enumerates a long series of earthquakes, which distressed Palestine, though not the central parts of the country, from the time of Julian to the twelfth century. The allusion to Sodom and... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS WILL I DO. — What is he about to do? It is left in awful uncertainty, but the doom is wrapt up in the boundless possibilities of the Divine judgment involved in the drawing very near of the Lord Himself, to execute what He has said and sworn by His Holiness in Amos 4:2. All that had previously... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD OF HOSTS. — The Lord whom they have to meet is no mere national deity, but the supreme Creator. CREATETH THE WIND. — Not “spirit” (as margin). But the two ideas “wind” and “spirit” were closely associated in Heb. (as in Greek), being designated by the same word _ruach_ (in Greek πνεῦμα, comp. J... [ Continue Reading ]