Amos 1

Amos 1:1

Amos 1:1. Amos was not a prophet “professionally” (chapter 7: 14); that is, he was not devoting his life among the group of men classed as prophets, but was a shepherd by occupation. But the Lord can call upon a man from any walk of life to receive instruction and directions to whatever work is needed. For instance, the Lord called Moses from this very same occupation to take upon him the great work that was to engage him all the rest of his life (Exodus 3:1-2). Likewise, Amos was called upon to receive a prophetic message and write it down to become a part of the Bible. Israel and Judah- mean the 10-tribe and 2-tribe kingdoms which were in power when Amos was called.

The time of his call is spe¬cifically Indicated by naming the kings who were reigning over the Jews, and the date is made still more definite by its relation to an earthquake that is recorded in history. I shall give the reader the information of this very unusual circumstance: “ While Uzziah was in this state [condition of prosperity and power], and making prepa-rations for futurity, he was corrupted in his mind by pride, and became in¬solent, and this on account of that, abundance which he had of things that will soon perish, and despised that power which is of eternal duration (which consisted in piety toward God, and in the observation of his laws); accordingly, when a remarkable day was come, and a general festival was to be celebrated, he put on the holy garment, and went into the temple to offer incense to God upon the golden altar, which he was prohibited to do by Azariah the high priest.

In the meantime, a great earthquake shook the ground, and a rent was made in the temple, and the bright rays of the sun shone through it, and felt upon the king’ s face, insomuch that the leprosy seized upon him immediately; and before tfie city, at a place called Erpge, half the mountain broke off from the rest of the west, and rolled itself four furloughs, and stood still at the east mountain, til] the roads, as well as the king’ s gardens, were spoiled by the obstruction.”— Josephus, An¬tiquities, Book 9. Chapter 10, Section 4. This was not the first and only time where God expressed his attitude to¬ward a situation by some interference with the established order of things in creation. He caused the sun to stand still for Joshua (Joshua 10:13), and the shadow lo go backward for Isaiah (2 Kings 20:11). The difference in the cases being that the two mentioned last were to show His approval of what was being done, while the one of our verse was to demonstrate His disap-proval. It is all in keeping with the thought in Hebrews 1:1. Amos 1:2

Amos 1:2

See the comments on Joel 3:16 for the various meanings of “ roar.” In the present case it signifies the intensity of the Lord’ s feelings against the wrongs of the heathen na¬tions, as well as those of some of His own people. Jerusalem is named as the place from which the voice of the Lord will sound, because that was the capital of his kingdom on earth. Carmel shall wither implies that it would be a remarkable event for such a place to fail. I shall quote what Funk and Wagnalls Standard Bible Dictionary says: “It [Carmel) was also famed in literary composition for natural beauty, Together with Sharon, Lebanon, and Bashan it is one of the points of Pales-tine which especially show God’ s favor to Israel in bestowing such a country upon it. Its devastation is, therefore, a sign of the decided displeasure of Jehovah.”

Amos 1:3

Amos 1:3. The prophet now takes up the Lord’s denunciations against cer¬tain cities and nations. Damascus was the capital of Syria that lay just north of Palestine. Threshed Gilead is a figurative description of the cruel treatment that Damascus accorded that district, i’or three transgressions, and for four. This form of speech is used a number of times, and means that the ones accused had not been guilty just once or even twice, but they had done so three or four times; had been guilty repeatedly.

Amos 1:4

Amos 1:4. Hazael and Ben-hadad were father and son who reigned succes-sively over Syria (2 Kings 13; 2 Kings 24). God threatens to destroy the buildings of these men because of the “three or four” transgressions. Amos 1:5

Amos 1:5

A bar is used to defend a house or other place against an un-friendly Intruder. To break the bar of Damascus would therefore mean to overcome the defence of the city and expose it to an enemy. Him that holdeth the scepter means the king, and he was to be cut off from the house of Eden. Smith’ s Bible Dictionary ren¬ders this phrase “ Beth-Eden,” and says it means “ house of pleasure,” and that it was probably a country residence of the kings of Damascus. The cap¬tivity unto Kir was fulfilled and the account of it Is in 2 Kings 16: 9.

Amos 1:6

Amos 1:6. Gaza was an important town of the Philistines, and 2 Chron¬icles 28: 18 records an instance of the greediness of those people for con-quest. Carried cetpfu’ e the whole cap-tivity means that the Philistines were not satisfied with taking some of the people, but wished to remove the en¬tire population and sell them as slaves to the Edomites.

Amos 1:7

Amos 1:7. The Philistines were pun-ished for their cruelty, and 2 Kings 18 : S gives an account of one instance of it.

Amos 1:8

Amos 1:8. All of the towns named were in the land of the Philistines, and were to share in the chastisement that God threatened to bring against that land.

Amos 1:9

Amos 1:9. Tyrus (or Tyre) was the principal city of the Phoenicians, a country lying along the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The complaint against this city was that it had taken some of God’ s people and turned them over to the Edomitee who had long been bitter foes of Israel. Brotherly covenant means that fraternal under-standing that should exist between nations located near each other. This friendship had been indicated pre-viously in the dealing with David and Solomon (2 Samuel 5:11).

Amos 1:10

Amos 1:10. Devour the palaces means to destroy the houses of the kings of Tyre.

Amos 1:11

Amos 1:11. The Edomites were always bitter enemies of Israel. They were descended from Esau and seemed to have harbored a resentment for the people of Israel who were descendants of Esau’ s twin brother Jacob. Did pursue his brother with the sword had been predicted In Genesis 27:40, yet God was always jealous of his own people and would not tolerate any im-proper motive that any nation showed against them,

Amos 1:12

Amos 1:12, Teman and Bozrah were cities of the Edomites, and they were destined to feel the wrath of God for their Injustices against Israel.

Amos 1:13

Amos 1:13. The Ammonites were de-scendants of Lot (Genesis 19:38), and sometimes were given favorable regard by the Lord because of their relation to Israel, but He always condemned even his own children when they did wrong. These Ammonites were so greedy for territory that they com¬mitted the brutal acts in order to de¬stroy the population of the territory they wished to seize.

Amos 1:14

Amos 1:14. Smith’ s Bible Dictionary says that Rabbah was the chief city of the Ammonites, hence the most valu-able of their buildings would be there. But the city was threatened with in-vasion from an enemy army that would devour (destroy) those houses.

Amos 1:15

Amos 1:15. To go into captivity merely means to be taken captive by the at-tacking army and be taken from his seat of authority.