Amos 9:4

And though they go into captivity before their enemies,.... Alluding to the manner in which captives are led, being put before their enemies, and so carried in triumph; see Lamentations 1:5; though

And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.

Though they go into captivity; those excluded from safety every where else may perhaps hope that yet the enemy may spare. Captives are the slaves, the possession of their conquering enemies; these make profit of them by selling them to others, or employing them in labour and service. Before their enemies: this seems to intimate some voluntariness in these people going before the conqueror, whom they hope hereby to mollify and sweeten, that he may use them well; yet this hope shall fail them too. Thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: the enemy should, either out of cruel humour and hatred against them, or on any slight occasion and disgust, slay them as if they had commission from me so to do: neither propriety in them, nor service by them, nor profit in the sale of these poor and miserable captives, should be safety to them, they should be accounted as sheep for the slaughter. I will set mine eyes upon them; I will perpetually watch over them, and then be sure no opportunity will be let slip. For evil, to afflict and punish them, and not for good, for their benefit. Thus was the course of God’ s providence against them from the days Amos aimeth at unto this very day, and God hitherto hath, and still doth, make good his threat against this idolatrous, cruel, oppressing people.

Amos 9:4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.Ver. 4. And though they go into captivity, &c.] And so may hope the worst is over ("Surely the bitterness of death is past," 1 Samuel 15:32) yet it shall prove otherwise: the hypocrite’ s hope is as the giving up the ghost, saith Job and that is but cold comfort; or, as the spider’ s web, spun out of her own bowels; and, when the besom comes, swept to the muckhill. Before their enemies] Whose custom was to drive their captives before them, Lamentations 1:5 young and o1d, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, Isaiah 20:4. Or, "before their enemies," that is, before they are taken captive by the enemies, by voluntary yielding, in hope of quarter for their lives. The Jews indeed had a promise from the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 21:9, that if they went out and fell to the Chaldeans that besieged them they should have their lives for a prey but the ten tribes had no such promise made them; they were strangers from the covenants Ephesians 2:12, and therefore could look for no mercy. Loammi, and therefore Loruhamah Hosea 1:8, the ark and the mercy seat were never sundered. Thence will I command the sword] See Isaiah 13:15-16 Jeremiah 9:10; Jeremiah 43:11 Ezekiel 14:17. And I will set mine eyes upon them] Heb. eye (Emphaticoteron est quam si dixisset Oculo pluraliter. Mercer), viz. the eye of my providence, that oculus irretortus, whereby I will look them to death, and take course that nothing shall go well with them; see a little below, Amos 9:8 Jeremiah 21:10 Psalms 34:10. In Tamerlane’ s eyes sat such a majesty as man could hardly endure to behold; and man in talking with him became dumb. He held the East in such awe, as that he was commonly called, The wrath of God and terror of the world. Augustus Caesar frowned to death Cornelius Gallus; and so did Queen Elizabeth Sir Christopher Hatton, lord chancellor God’ s enemies are sure to perish at the rebuke of his countenance, Psalms 80:16, and if he but set his eyes upon them for evil, and not for good, all occurrences shall certainly work together for the worst unto them.

Verse 4. I will set mine eyes upon them for evil] I will use that very providence against them which before worked for their good. Should they look upward, they shall see nothing but the terrible lightning-like eye of a sin-avenging God.

4. Even in captivity they would not be safe; they might escape the destruction of the foe, but the Divine sword should yet overtake them. before their enemies] Driven before them, like a flock of sheep: cf. Lamentations 1:5. I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good] To set the eye upon is elsewhere found always in a good sense = to keep watch over, take under one’s care (see Jeremiah 24:6; Jeremiah 39:11). For evil and not for good, as Jeremiah 21:10 (with “to set the face against”), Jeremiah 39:16; and (with “watch over”) Jeremiah 44:27. God’s watchful care and love is transformed, through His people’s sin, into hostility (cf. on Amos 6:8).

Captivity - , at least, seemed safe. The horrors of war are over. Men enslave, but do not commonly destroy those whom they have once been at the pains to carry captive.

1. I saw — The other visions are introduced with “Jehovah showed unto me.” The Lord — He is the central figure in this vision, not a symbolic object or act. Standing — As in Amos 7:7.