Amos 6:12

Shall horses run upon the rocks? or will [one] plough [there] with oxen?.... Will any man be so weak and foolish, to propose or attempt a race for horses upon rocks, where they and their riders would

Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock: Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen?

Shall horses run upon the rock? would it not be dangerous to horse and rider? If prophets and pious men exhort, threaten, or advise, they endanger themselves, it does no more good than if you would run your horse on the slippery precipices of rocks. Or, all is lost labour on these hardened sinners. Will one plough there with oxen? your hearts are hard as the rocks; my prophets’ preaching, my lesser judgments warning you, all gentler means used, are but as a husbandman’ s ploughing the rocks. These shall therefore be torn up by the roots, your state and kingdom shall be utterly overthrown. For ye, you judges and governors in the ten tribes, and in Judah too, have turned judgment, see , into gall, or poison; by those laws they took away life, and forfeited estate, which, had the laws been rightly executed, had saved both. The fruit of righteousness, all that fruit which equity and justice would have produced by due application of the law, hath been wormwood, grief, and complaints, by your wresting and perverting the law. Into hemlock, a deadly and pernicious weed so the course of your courts have been.

Amos 6:12 Shall horses run upon the rock? will [one] plow [there] with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:Ver. 12. Shall horses run upon the rock] Is it possible they should do so and not first break their hoofs, and then their necks? will the rider therefore venture there? were it not matchless madness in him? Will one plough there with oxen] Sure he will conceive it too hard a tug, and too vain a labour. Jerome rendereth it Bubalis, with wild oxen; which, not accustomed to the yoke, are like to make but wild work wherever they are ploughed with. Now as there is no good horse racing upon a rock, nor fit ploughing there; so neither must you ever hope to escape unpunished, or to keep up your commonwealth unshattered, so long as ye deal thus preposterously, perversely, and absurdly, Proverbs 14:14. That of Virgil is not much unlike: “ Atque idem iungat vulpes, et mulgeat hircos. ” For ye have turned judgment into gall, &c.] Or into poison; the Chaldee rendereth it, into the head of hurtful serpents. The word seemeth to signify the poison of serpents, which is in the head. See Hosea 10:4. And the fruit of righteousness into hemlock] Or wormwood, as if ye were akin to that star in the Revelation that is styled Wormwood, Revelation 8:11, that great Antichrist, who would make the world believe that he hath power, de iniustitia facere iustitiam, ex nihilo aliquid, ex virtute vitium, that is, of injustice to make justice, of nothing to make something, of virtue vice, to dispense with any of the Ten Commandments, to make new articles of the Creed, to dispose of all kingdoms at his pleasure, and what not (Bellarm. lib. 4, de Pontif. Roman.)? Pope John XXIII saith, that he may grant a dispensation against the law of nature and of nations, against St. Paul and St Peter, against the four Gospels. The Council of Constance comes in with a Non obstante against Christ’ s own institution, withholding the cup from the sacrament; and the like for priests’ marriages, prayers in a known tongue, singing of Psalms. When the cardinals meet to choose a Pope they make a vow, whosoever is chosen he shall swear to such articles as they make. And Sleidan telleth us, that the Pope is no sooner chosen but he breaks them all, and checks their insolencies, as if they went about to limit his power, to whom all power is given both in heaven and earth, both in spirituals and temporals. And, indeed, he is called the beast, in respect of his civil power, and the false prophet, in respect of his spiritual; and the star Wormwood, because being himself in the gall of bitterness and bond of perdition, he turneth all judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousess into wormwood: see Amos 5:7.

(12) The questions require a negative answer, and show that the conduct of Israel is as inconsistent and senseless as the supposition involved in the interrogation: that horses should climb steep cliffs, or oxen plough in the rocky gorge. The conception of oppression, luxury, and pride being the forerunners of prosperity and peace is anomalous. The idea is, that that which should have insured the stability of the state, the embodiment of its conscience, had been turned into narcotic poison—the self-satisfaction of personal greed. Rôsh, the Hebrew for “gall,” is a poisonous kind of plant with bitter taste, and resembling, according to Jerome, stalks of grass, and propagating itself with such rapidity that it is difficult to exterminate it. (Comp. Hosea 10:4. Speaker’s Commentary suggests “poppy-head.”) In Amos 5:7 the word expressed here by “hemlock” is rendered “worm-wood,” as in Jeremiah 9:15; Jeremiah 23:15; Deuteronomy 29:18, &c., a rendering which should have been retained here. Gall and worm-wood are constantly associated in Old Testament prophecy in this metaphorical sense.

Verse 12. Shall horses run upon the rock] First, they could not do it, because they were unshod; for the shoeing of horses with iron was not then known. Secondly, If they did run on the rock, it would be useless to their owner, and hurtful to themselves. Thirdly, And it would be as useless to plough on the rock with oxen; for there it would be impossible to sow with any advantage. Fourthly, Just as useless and injurious would it be to put gall in the place of judgment, and hemlock in the place of righteousness. You have not only been labouring in vain for yourselves, but you have also been oppressive to others; and for both ye shall suffer.

12. Do horses run upon crags? doth one plow (there) with oxen? or (dividing one word into two) doth one plow the sea with an ox? that ye have turned judgement into poison, &c.] The two questions are meant to represent what is obviously unnatural and absurd. Do horses run over the jagged crags, or do men plough there with oxen (or with the emendation, Do men plough the sea with oxen), that ye do what is not less preposterous and unreasonable, viz. turn justice into injustice, and so transform what is wholesome into a poison? For the figure ‘turn judgement into poison,’ see Amos 5:7 (“into wormwood”). The emendation proposed (which, though conjectural, is supported by many of the best modern scholars) is recommended by the fact that it avoids the unusual plural beḳ ?ârîm and also obviates the necessity of mentally understanding “there” in the second clause of the verse. gall] poison: Heb. rôsh, occurring also Deuteronomy 32:32-33; Hosea 10:4; Jeremiah 8:14; Lamentations 3:5; Psalms 69:21; Job 20:16; and coupled, as here, with ‘wormwood’ (cf. ch. Amos 5:7), Deuteronomy 29:18; Jeremiah 9:15; Jeremiah 23:15; Lamentations 3:19. Deuteronomy 29:18, Hosea 10:4 shew that some poisonous plant is denoted by the word (so that the rendering gall is certainly wrong), though, since it is quite uncertain what plant is meant, it is impossible to render otherwise than by a perfectly general term, such as poison. As rôsh also signifies ‘head,’ some have thought poppies, of which several species are found in Palestine, to be the plant denoted by the word. the fruit of righteousness] i.e. the effects of righteousness (or justice), which would normally be wholesome and beneficial to society, but which, as it is perverted by the nobles of Israel into injustice, become wormwood (Amos 5:7), i.e. something bitter and deleterious to all.

The two images both represent a toil, which people would condemn as absurd, destructive, as well as fruitless. The horse’s hoofs or his limbs would be broken; the plowing-gear would be destroyed.

12. Shall horses run upon the rock? — Or, cliff. The answer is an emphatic No. The attempt would result in the horses’ undoing. Will one plow there with oxen? — Again the answer is, No. The plow would be broken and the oxen hurt.