Amos 5:13

Therefore the prudent shall keep silence at that time,.... Not the prophets of the Lord, whose business it was at all times to reprove, and not hold their peace, let the consequence be what it would;

Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time. Therefore the prudent - the spiritually wise.

Therefore, because that men are so universally impatient of hearing reproof, and yet their sins so much abound, and so much deserve reproof; since they will sooner turn against the speaker, than turn from the sin spoken against. The prudent; the wise men; prophets, say some, but I rather think other private men are here meant, whose private capacity alloweth them to keep silence when others must speak. Shall keep silence; be forced to it, say some, they shall be silenced; this is true, but rather here is a voluntary, chosen silence toward vile corrupters of law and justice, who will nothing mend though reproved; or a silence before God, owning his justice in punishing such sinners. For it is an evil time; both for the sinfulness of it, which provoketh God to wrath, and for the sorrows, troubles, wars, and captivity of this people, by the Assyrians.

Amos 5:13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it [is] an evil time.Ver. 13. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence] According to that old and good rule, Either keep silence, or speak that which is better than silence, ησιγαν, ηκρεισσοναοιγηςλεγειν. There is "a time to keep silence, and a time to speak," Ecclesiastes 3:7, and it is a singular skill to time a word, Isaiah 50:4, to set it upon its circumferences, Proverbs 25:11, so to speak, and so to do, as those that shall be judged by the law of liberty, James 2:12. He that would be able to speak right and forcible words, must first learn how and when to keep silence. It is not good casting pearls before swine; nor pulling a bear or mad dog by the ear. It is the true ambition of a Christian, to study to he quiet, to meddle with his own business, 1 Thessalonians 4:11, ιδιοπραγμονειν, to affect rather quietness from the wicked world than acquaintance with it, and to pass through it with as little noise and notice as he can. Not but that God’ s faithful servants must cry aloud, and not spare, lifting up their voices like a trumpet, &c., Isaiah 58:1, and casting away the inverse trumpets of Furius Fulvus, which sounded a retreat, when they should have sounded an alarm. But this must be done with godly discretion. Zeal should eat us up, but not eat up our wisdom (saith one), nor should policy eat up our zeal. The apostles professed that they could not but speak the things that they had heard and seen; they must either vent or burst. And yet holy Paul (who was full of the spirit of judgment and of burning, Isaiah 4:4), though he preached at Ephesus (where he lived two years and more together) that they be no gods that are made with hands; yet he made no particular invective against their great goddess Diana, whereon they so impotently doted, Acts 19:26; Acts 19:37, He that hath a good mixture of zeal and prudence is like a ship well ballasted, that sails with a prosperous gale; but zeal without discretion is like fire on the chimney top; or like mettle in a blind horse; or the devil in the demoniac, that cast him sometimes into the fire, and sometimes into the water. What a storm of persecution raised Bishop Abdias in Persepolis by his intemperate zeal, not bridled with discretion; as the poets fable that Minerva put a golden bridle upon Pegasus, lest he should fly too fast? And it was some disadvantage to Paul, when in the council (though provoked and unjustly smitten) he called the high priest whited wall; he was glad to excuse it by his ignorance. We may not he too bold or too forward to speak in a good matter, to such as hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and abhor him that speaketh uprightly, Amos 5:10.

(13) Prudent . . . silence.—The dumb silence of the prudent is the awful curse which comes upon a people when they are given up to selfishness and rapacity. Thus the doom:—“Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone.”

Verse 13. The prudent shall keep silence] A wise man will consider that it is useless to complain. He can have no justice without bribes; and he has no money to give: consequently, in such an evil time, it is best to keep silence.

13. In a time such as that, the prudent man will keep silence; a complaint, or accusation, or attempt to redress the wrongs which he sees about him, will be perilous to him, if he be in a good position, and will only add to his sufferings, if he be poor. shall keep] will keep, viz. if he is guided by his prudence. in that time] not, at a future time, but at a time such as that which has been just described. an evil time] a time when a man may well be anxious for his personal safety (cf. Psalms 49:5).

Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time - The “time” may be either the time of the obduracy of the wicked, or that of the common punishment.

11-13. Israel’s moral depravity demands speedy judgment. The sin which arouses the indignation of the prophet most is the oppression of the poor (Amos 2:6-7). In punishment the unjustly gained possessions will be withdrawn.