Amos 5:10

They hate him that rebuketh in the gate,.... Openly and publicly in the courts of judicature: wicked judges hated the prophets of the Lord, such as Amos, who faithfully reproved them for the

They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. They hate him that rebuketh in the gate - the judge who condemns their iniquity in the place of judgment (Isaiah 29:21).

Either this is the prophet’ s complaint of them without further expecting their compliance with his advice, or he foretells what they will do, judges and people. They hate him that rebuketh; they both hate them that rebuke; judges hate the prophets, who rebuke corrupt judges; and the people hate impartial judges, if any such be among them. In the gate; where judges sat, and where the prophets did many times deliver their message. They abhor him that speaketh uprightly; they cannot brook any one that deals plainly and honestly with them, whether judge, prophet, or private person.

Amos 5:10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.Ver. 10. They hate him that rebuketh in the gate] In dome iudicii, saith the Chaldee: for the gate was the place of judgment, Amos 5:12; Amos 5:15 Deuteronomy 17:5; Deuteronomy 17:12; Deuteronomy 17:15. Those, then, that did not approve and applaud the oppressions and wrongdealings of the judges, and rich bribers, but cried out against such, and took the same liberty to rebuke them that they did to commit them, these were hated, cane peius et angue, worse than any toad. Thus Ahab hated Micaiah, the Sodomites Lot, the Jews Jeremiah, their successors Christ, the Baptist, Stephen, Paul. Thus those of Geneva hated Farellus, their faithful minister, tried him for his life, banished him out of their territories. Thus afterwards some of them hated Calvin, calling him Cain; yea, calling their dogs Calvin, in derision and detestation of him. And thus Bishop Ridley, lamenting the state of England, even of thy greatest magistrates, saith he, some (the king’ s Highness excepted) evermore unkindly and ungently against those that went about most busily and wholesomely to cure their sore backs, spurned privily, and would not spare to speak evil of them, even to the prince himself; and yet would they toward the same preachers outwardly bear a jolly countenance and fair face. As for Latimer, Lever, Bradford, Knox, their tongues were so sharp, they ripped in so deep in their galled backs, to have purged them, no doubt, of their filthy matter that was festered in their hearts, of insatiable covetousness, of filthy carnality and voluptuousness, of intolerable ambition and pride, of ungodly loathsomeness to hear poor men’ s cases, and to hear God’ s word. And these men, of all others, these magistrates then could never abide, &c. Thus he, and much more to the same purpose. They were then sick of a Noli me tangere, do not be touched by me, and so, alas, they are still. How few Vespasians to be found, of whom Quintilian testifieth, that he was patientissimus veri, one that would patiently hear the naked truth of things; not toothless truths only, but such as touched to the quick! How few Davids, that loved Nathan the better ever after, for dealing so plainly and faithfully with him, and made him of his cabinet council! How few Queen Elizabeths, who called often for her Deering by whom she was barely told of her faults; though the bishops, those court parasites, would never suffer him to preach more before her! The Queen of Navarre would not hearken to such ministers as disliked that fatal French match (that gave opportunity afterwards to the Parisian Massacre) in regard of the diversity of religions; but inclined rather to those that smoothed her up, and told her that it would lay the foundation of a lasting and most happy peace.

(10) Rebuker in the Gate.—The person so described might be the prophet himself. So also he that speaketh uprightly.

Verse 10. They hate him that rebuketh in the gate] They cannot bear an upright magistrate, and will not have righteous laws executed.

10. The prophet reverts to the subject of Amo 5:7, which was interrupted by Amos 5:8-9. They hate him that reproveth in the gate, &c.] They are heedless (Amos 5:7) of the claims of justice: they will not listen either to the exposure of wrong-doing or to the defence of innocence, in the public place of judgement. The same phrase, ‘the reprover in the gate,’ in a similar connexion, recurs Isaiah 29:21 : it denotes the person, whether judge or advocate, who indicts, impeaches, seeks to convict, the wrong-doer; cf. Job 13:10; Job 22:4, and the corresponding subst. ‘reproof,’ or ‘indictment’ (R.V. ‘reasoning’), Job 13:6 The ‘gate’—more exactly the ‘gate-way,’ with a depth corresponding to the thickness of the wall, in which it was constructed, and no doubt with seats along each side—is the Oriental forum: and it is often alluded to as the place in which the ‘elders’ sat, and justice was administered (e.g. Amos 5:12; Amos 5:15; Deuteronomy 21:19; Deuteronomy 22:15; Deuteronomy 25:7; Rth 4:1-2; Rth 4:11; Job 31:21; Psalms 127:5). him that speaketh uprightly] sincerely or blamelessly (Judges 9:16; Psalms 15:2); any one who comes forward to speak honestly in defence of the innocent, is the object of their undisguised ‘abhorrence.’ Abhor forms a climax upon hate: cf. Psalms 5:5 b, 6b.

They hate him that rebuketh - “The gate” is the well-known place of concourse, where just or, in Israel now, unjust judgment was given Deuteronomy 25:7; Job 5:4; Job 31:21; 2 Samuel 15:2; Proverbs

8. The seven stars — R.V., “Pleiades”; literally, a cluster, that is, of stars.