PART II. CHAPTERS 3–6

In the second part of Amos’s book the indictment and sentence of Amos 2:6-16 are further developed and justified. It consists of three main discourses, each introduced by the solemn opening words, Hear ye this word (Amos 3:1, Amos 4:1, Amos 5:1).

CHAPTER 3

Amos begins by rudely shaking the Israelites from their security. The Israelites argued that the fact of Jehovah’s having chosen the nation was a guarantee of its safety; but the prophet replies, You mistake the conditions of His choice; for that very reason He will punish you for your iniquities (Amos 3:1-2). Nor does the prophet say this without a real power constraining him: can any effect in nature take place without a sufficient cause? (Amos 3:3-8). Let the heathen themselves testify if justice rules in Samaria! (Amos 3:9 f.) Ere long, Jehovah will visit Israel: its pride and luxury will be brought to a sudden end, its palaces will be spoiled, and its altars thrown down (Amos 3:11-15).

1. the whole family] The expression used includes naturally Judah, though, as the context shews, Amos is practically thinking only of Israel. For family, used in the sense of a whole people, cf. Amos 3:2; Jeremiah 8:3; Micah 2:3.

2. You only &c.] The pron. is emphatic by its position, in the Heb., as in the English.

known] i.e. known favourably, noticed, regarded: so Genesis 18:19, “I have known him to the end that he may command his children and his household after him that they may keep the way of Jehovah,” &c.; Hosea 13:5, “I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought”; Psalm 1:6; Psalm 37:18, and elsewhere. Israel was the only nation whom Jehovah ‘knew’ in this special sense, and visited with the tokens of His friendship.

families of the earth] Genesis 12:3; Genesis 28:14.

therefore I will punish you &c.] The Israelites argued, from the privileges bestowed upon them, that they were the recipients of God’s favour, irrespectively of their deeds: Amos retorts that, so far from this being the case, their privileges augment their responsibilities: instead of proving Himself their saviour, whether they are obedient to His will or not, He will, if they are disobedient, visit their iniquities upon them. So in Jeremiah 7 the men of Judah point to the material Temple in their midst as the palladium of their security; but the prophet retorts in a similar strain, that, if they desire to merit Jehovah’s protection, and wish Jerusalem to escape the fate of Shiloh, they must ‘amend their ways,’ and practise more consistently than they have done hitherto the ordinances of civil righteousness (Jeremiah 7:3-15).

punish you for] R.V. more lit., visit upon you, as the same phrase is often rendered, Amos 3:14; Exodus 20:5; Jeremiah 5:9; Jeremiah 5:29; Jeremiah 23:2 (but punish, Jeremiah 11:22, Jeremiah 25:12, Jeremiah 29:32, &c.). The expression is particularly frequent in Jeremiah.

iniquities] the conventional, and sufficient rendering of ‘âwôn. Etymologically, however, as Arabic shews (where the corresponding verb ghawâ means to err, or go astray), the idea expressed by it is that of deviation from the right track, error: so the corresponding verb, 2 Samuel 7:14; 2 Samuel 24:17; 1 Kings 8:47 al. Comp. the writer’s Notes on the Hebrew Text of Samuel, on 1 Samuel 20:30.

3. Can] better Will? or Do? if one sees two persons walking together, it may be inferred that, either at the time or previously, they have come to some agreement to do so. The example may have been suggested by Amos’s experience of the wild moorlands of Tekoa, or of the desert regions of Judah, in which “men meet and take the same road by chance as seldom as ships at sea” (G. A. Smith, p. 82).

be agreed] lit. have appointed themselves (or each other), i.e. have met by agreement (Job 2:11; Joshua 11:5), or have agreed to be together.

Additional Note on Chap. Amos 3:13 (Jehovah of hosts)

The title “Jehovah of hosts” is one which occurs with great frequency in the prophets (except Obadiah, Joel, Jonah, Daniel, and, somewhat remarkably, Ezekiel: Hosea, Micah, Nahum, and Habakkuk, however use it each once only), and fifteen times in eight Psalms (Psalms 24, 46, 48, 59, 69, 80, 84, 89): in the historical books it is found only in 1 Samuel 1:3; 1 Samuel 1:11; 1 Samuel 4:4; 1 Samuel 15:2; 1 Samuel 17:45, 2 Samuel 5:10 (= 1 Chronicles 11:9), 2 Samuel 6:2; 2 Samuel 6:18, 2 Samuel 7:8; 2 Samuel 7:26 (= 1 Chronicles 17:7; 1 Chronicles 17:24), 2 Samuel 7:27, 1 Kings 18:15; 1 Kings 19:10; 1 Kings 19:14, 2 Kings 3:14; 2 Kings 19:31, several of these occurrences being in the mouth of prophets: it is thus preeminently the prophetical title of Jehovah. The origin of the expression is not certainly known. Host is used in Hebrew in the sense of an army of men (as in the common phrase, “captain of the host,” 1 Kings 1:19 &c.); in addition to this, however, the Hebrews pictured the angels (1 Kings 22:19; cf. Psalm 68:17; Psalm 103:21; Psalm 148:2), and also the stars (Deuteronomy 4:19; Jeremiah 8:2; Isaiah 34:4; Isaiah 40:26; Isaiah 45:12), as forming a ‘host.’ Accordingly it is supposed by some (as Kautzsch, art. Zebaoth, in Herzog’s Realencyclopädie; G. A. Smith, pp. 57 f.: cf. Schultz, O.T. Theol. I. 139–141) that the expression originally denoted Jehovah as a warrior, the leader of Israel’s forces (cf. Exodus 14:14; Exodus 15:3; Numbers 21:14 [the “Book of Jehovah’s Wars”], 1 Samuel 17:45; 1 Samuel 18:17; 1 Samuel 25:28; Psalm 24:8; Psalm 60:10); but (as it occurs in many passages where an exclusively martial sense would be inappropriate) that it was afterwards gradually enlarged so as to denote Him also as the God who had other “hosts” at His command, and could employ, for instance, the armies of heaven (cf. Jdg 5:20; 2 Kings 6:17) on His people’s behalf: according to others (as Smend, Alttest. Religionsgeschichte, pp. 185–188) it had this wider sense from the beginning. Ewald (History of Israel, iii. 62; Lehre der Bibel von Gott, II. i. 339 f.; comp. Oehler, O.T. Theol. §§ 195–198) made the clever and original suggestion that the expression may have first arisen on occasion of some victory under the Judges, when it seemed as if Jehovah descended with His celestial hosts to the help of the armies of Israel (cf. Jdg 5:13): “born” thus “in the shout of victory,” it fixed itself in the memory of the people, and larger ideas gradually attached themselves to it, until in the prophets it became “the loftiest and most majestic title” of Israel’s God. Thus, whatever uncertainty may rest upon the origin of the expression, all agree that as used by the prophets it is Jehovah’s most significant and sublimest title: it designates Him, namely, as One who has at His disposal untold ‘hosts’ of spiritual and material agencies, and is Lord of the forces of nature, in a word, as the Omnipotent (comp. Cheyne, Origin of the Psalter, p. 323). It is accordingly in the LXX. often (2 Sam. and Minor Prophets (usually), Jer. (frequently): elsewhere Κύριος Σαβαὼθ is generally used[220]) very appropriately represented by κύριος παντοκράτωρ[221] ‘Lord Omnipotent’ (more exactly ‘Lord all-sovereign’: Westcott, Historic Faith, p. 215). The prophets often employ the title with much effectiveness and force; and it is necessary to bear in mind the ideas suggested by it, if their use of it is to be properly understood (comp., for instance, its use in Amos 3:13, Amos 4:13, Amos 5:14; Amos 5:27, Amos 6:8; Amos 6:14).

[220] In the Psalms, and occasionally in other books, κύριος τῶν δυνάμεων (i.e. of forces, hosts: see Numbers 2, 10 in the LXX. passim).

[221] Comp. in the N.T. 2 Corinthians 6:18, and nine times in the Revelation, viz. Revelation 1:8, Revelation 4:8, Revelation 11:17, Revelation 15:3, Revelation 16:7; Revelation 16:14, Revelation 19:6; Revelation 19:15, Revelation 21:22 (ὁ θεὸς ὁ παντοκράτωρ; comp. in Amos Κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ παντοκράτωρ. The rend. “Almighty” in Rev. connects the word wrongly with Shaddai [see p. 81], for which παντοκράτωρ stands only in Job, and never there with ὁ θεὸς preceding).

3–5. Examples of sights, or sounds, from which the action of some proper or sufficient cause may, in each case, be inferred.

3–8. Such a severe rebuke might provoke contradiction among the prophet’s hearers: he therefore proceeds to indicate the authority upon which it rests, arguing by means of a series of illustrations drawn from the facts of common life, that every event or occurrence in nature implies the operation of some cause adequate to produce it: if, therefore, he has spoken such a word, it is because there has been a sufficient cause impelling him to do so. The questions, it is obvious, require in each case a negative answer.

4. when he hath no prey] i.e. when it is not within his reach: the roar is that with which the lion springs upon its prey: cf. Isaiah 5:29 a (not Isaiah 5:29 b, where the word used is a different one; see below); Psalm 104:21, “roaring for prey”; Ezekiel 22:25, “like a roaring lion, tearing the prey.”

cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?] give forth his voice (Jeremiah 2:15) out of his lair, &c.? the allusion is to the growl of satisfaction with which the animal consumes its prey when caught: hence ‘growl,’ would be a better paraphrase than ‘cry’: see Isaiah 5:29 b (where ‘roar’—nâham, not shâ’ag, as in clause a—should be rather growl: cf. W. R. Smith, The Prophets of Israel, pp. 129, 243).

An ancient Egyptian Bird-trap. (From Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians, 1878, ii. 103).

5. Will a bird fall into a net upon the earth, when there is no bait for it?] The paḥ must have been a kind of net; not improbably like the bird-traps figured in Wilkinson-Birch, Ancient Egyptians, ed. 1878, ii. 103, consisting of network strained over two semicircular flaps, moving on a common axis: this was laid upon the ground, and when the bait in the middle was touched by a bird, the two flaps, by a mechanical contrivance, flew up and closed, entrapping the bird.

gin] bait. The môḳçsh (lit. a fowling-instrument) is shewn by the present passage to have been something connected with the paḥ, without which the latter was useless: elsewhere it often denotes metaphorically that which allures a person to destruction (e.g. Exodus 23:33; Deuteronomy 7:16; 1 Samuel 18:21): hence it must have been something more definite than gin, and probably corresponded nearly to what we should term the bait.

will a net spring up from the ground without taking (something)?] The construction of the paḥ was such that the flaps would not start up from the ground without a bird being there for the net to enclose.

6. Is a horn (Amos 2:2) blown in a city, and are the people not in alarm?] Of course they are: for they know it to be the signal of approaching danger. The horn was blown as a summons to repel an invader, &c. (Hosea 5:8; Jeremiah 6:1; Ezekiel 33:3 f.; 1 Corinthians 14:8).

will evil happen in (R.V. befall) a city, and Jehovah hath not done it?] Will evil—i.e. calamity, misfortune, as 1 Samuel 6:9—happen in a city without having its sufficient cause in Jehovah’s purpose? The Hebrews often took no account of what we term ‘secondary causes’; and a calamity, such as famine or pestilence, which might be the natural consequence of some physical antecedent, is thus referred here directly to Jehovah’s operation.

6–8. Similarly the horn is a signal of danger; calamity is a sign that Jehovah has willed it; and the appearance of a prophet is an indication that Jehovah has sent him.

7. Surely] For,—the reason, however, following not in Amos 3:7 but in Amos 3:8 (to which Amos 3:7 is subordinate): ‘I give all these examples of events and occurrences in nature being due regularly to their proper cause, for Jehovah does nothing without communicating His purpose to His prophets, and when He does so the call to declare it is an irresistible one (Amos 3:8)’: hence when the prophet speaks, and especially when he comes forward with a message such as that contained in Amos 3:2, it may be inferred that it is because he has heard Jehovah’s voice commanding him to do so.

doeth nothing, except he have revealed &c.] An exaggeration, of course, of the actual fact; but Amos means naturally nothing of importance, so far as Israel was concerned. Prophets, whose mission it was to guide and advise Israel, appeared at all important crises in the national history.

secret] Heb. sôd, properly friendly or confidential conversation (ὁμιλία, which the corresponding word in Syriac is often used to express), Psalm 55:14 : then, on the one hand, friendliness, friendship (Job 29:4; Psalm 25:14; Proverbs 3:32,—see R.V. marg. in these passages), and in a more concrete sense, a secret (Proverbs 25:9); on the other hand, a body holding confidential intercourse together, a council, or conclave, of familiar friends (Job 19:19, R.V. marg.; Jeremiah 15:17). In the latter sense sôd occurs in two passages illustrating the present one, Jeremiah 23:18; Jeremiah 23:22, where Jeremiah implies that the true prophets have access to the “council” of Jehovah, and preach the principles which are there approved (cf. Job 15:8, R.V. marg.; also Psalm 89:7).

his servants the prophets] An expression otherwise used chiefly by writers of the age of Jeremiah (2 Kings 17:13; 2 Kings 17:23; 2 Kings 21:10; 2 Kings 24:2; Jeremiah 7:25; Jeremiah 25:4; Jeremiah 26:5; Jeremiah 29:19; Jeremiah 35:15; Ezekiel 38:17; also Zechariah 1:6; Daniel 9:10).

9–10. The heathen themselves are invited to bear witness whether the sins of Samaria do not deserve judgement.

Publish &c.] proclaim it (lit. make it to be heard) over the palaces in Ashdod, &c., i.e. on their flat roofs, whence all can hear (cf. Matthew 10:27): the nobles of Ashdod (Amos 1:8) and Egypt are to be invited to come and judge for themselves of the moral condition of Samaria. The persons addressed may be the prophets; or, more probably, those, whoever they might be, capable of bearing the message; cf. Isaiah 40:1; Isaiah 57:14; Isaiah 62:11; Jeremiah 5:1; Jeremiah 5:10; Jeremiah 5:20, &c.

the mountains of Samaria] i.e. surrounding Samaria. Samaria, the hill which Omri fortified and made his capital (1 Kings 16:24), and which, in the days of its prosperity, must have presented to the eye an imposing ‘crown’ (Isaiah 28:1) of battlements, is a fine rounded eminence, standing in the centre of a magnificent amphitheatre of mountains, with the Mediterranean visible through a gap in the distance. Upon these mountains the prophet pictures the inhabitants of the palaces of Ashdod and Egypt assembled, for the purpose of looking down into the Israelite capital and observing the malpractices rampant within her.

the great tumults] or confusions, disorders, the result of a state in which might rules over right. Cf. Ezekiel 22:5 (of Jerusalem).

the oppressed] rather, oppression, as Job 35:9. Cf. Jeremiah 6:6; Ezekiel 22:7; Ezekiel 22:12; Ezekiel 22:29.

10. know not to do right] Wrong-doing has become their second nature. Right (a rare word) is properly what is straight in front, fig. clear, true, straightforward (Isaiah 26:10; Isaiah 59:14; 2 Samuel 15:3).

store up violence and robbery in their palaces] The nobles and great men, in Samaria as in Jerusalem (Isaiah 1:23; Isaiah 3:14, &c.) the irresponsible oppressors of the poor, are referred to: they accumulate treasures, but as these are amassed by violence and robbery, they in reality treasure up violence and robbery in their palaces (cf. Isaiah 3:14, end).

robbery] A strong word, implying violent treatment, and often more adequately represented by wasting or devastation (cf. Amos 5:9; cp. on Joel, p. 81). Coupled with violence, as here, Jeremiah 6:7; Jeremiah 20:8, Ezekiel 45:9, Habakkuk 1:3 (A. V. spoil or spoiling).

11–15. The sentence.

An adversary] or Distress, a rendering which most moderns prefer.

there shall be even round about] The Hebrew is harsh: a very slight change, supported by Pesh. (יְסֹבֵב for וּסְבִב), yields shall surround (or encircle), which is to be preferred.

he shall bring down thy strength] or, thy strength shall be brought down, as the same Hebrew may be rendered (Ges.-Kautzsch, § 144. 3a), though Wellh. would read hûrad for hôrîd. The foe will encircle the land; the strong ‘crown’ of Samaria will be ‘brought down’ to the ground (cf. Deuteronomy 28:52; Ezekiel 30:6; Isaiah 28:2 b); and its palaces (Amos 3:10) will be plundered.

12. So sudden will be the surprise, so overwhelming the numbers of the foe, that of the luxurious nobles of Samaria only an insignificant remnant will escape with their bare lives: all the rest will be swept away by the foe.

As the shepherd taketh &c.] better, rescueth (R.V.). A shepherd would bring such remains of a missing animal to his master, as evidence that it had really been torn by beasts (Exodus 22:13; cf. Genesis 31:39). The comparison, which is suggested no doubt by the experiences of Amos’ shepherd life, illustrates forcibly both the scant numbers and the shattered condition of the survivors, besides hinting at the formidable powers of the assailant.

be taken out] be rescued.

that sit in Samaria in the corner of a divan] The grandees of Samaria are represented as sitting luxuriously in the cushioned corners of their divans. In Assyria the king reclined, or sat up, on a couch beside the table, leaning his weight upon his left elbow, and having his right hand free and disposable (see the representation in Rawlinson’s Anc. Monarchies, ed. 4, i. 493). In the modern oriental houses of the wealthy (Van Lennep, Bible Customs in Bible Lands, p. 460, referred to by Mitchell), ‘a divan,’ or cushioned seat, about a yard in width, extends along three sides of the principal room, while a row of richly woven stuffed cushions lines the wall behind, and forms a support for the back: the seat of honour is the inmost corner of the divan, opposite the door. In some such luxurious state the magnates of Samaria sat in Amos’s day. The framework of the seat was often inlaid with ivory (Amos 6:4).

and in Damascus in a couch] The Hebrew text can hardly be right; nor, as pointed, is the Heb. word here found (d’mésheḳ) identical with that for Damascus (damméseḳ). Most moderns render and on the damask (whence R.V. silken cushions) of a couch. This rendering yields an excellent sense; but it cannot be regarded as certain: for (1) it is doubtful whether, in the time of Amos, Damascus was yet celebrated for the manufacture which in modern European languages is called after it: (2) in Arabic also, the name of the material (dimaḳs), which has been appealed to in support of this explanation, differs from that of the city (Dimaḳsh); hence it is very questionable whether it really derives its name from it. It is considered by Fränkel, Aram. Fremdwörter im Arabischen, p. 40, to be varied by metathesis from midaḳs, a form which also occurs, and which in its turn is derived from the Syr. mîtaḳs, which is the Greek μέταξα. Whatever uncertainty there may be about the word, it must, however, either be, or be the corrupt representative of, a term either synonymous or parallel with corner, in the preceding clause.

13. Hear ye, and testify against, &c.] The persons addressed might be the heathen nobles of Philistia and Egypt (Amos 3:9 b). But in view of the fact that they are not to see, but to hear, and that it is the divine sentence in Amos 3:14 which is to be virtually the subject of their testimony, it is probable that, as in Amos 3:9 a, ideal bearers of the divine message are intended by the prophet. Testify, i.e. declare solemnly, as Genesis 43:3; Deuteronomy 8:19; Psalm 50:7; Psalm 80:8; and frequently.

the Lord Jehovah, the God of hosts] In Amos 4:13, Amos 5:14-15, Amos 6:8; Amos 6:14, Hosea 7:5, “Jehovah, the God of hosts”; in ch. Amos 5:27, “the God of hosts”; in Amos 5:16, “Jehovah, the God of hosts, the Lord”; in Amos 9:5, “The Lord, Jehovah of hosts”; in the prophets generally, simply “Jehovah of hosts.” The finest and most expressive of Jehovah’s titles, used pre-eminently by the prophets, and designating Him, in a word, as the Omnipotent. See the Additional Note, p. 231 f.

14. visit] Cf. on Amos 3:2.

I will also visit] I will visit: there is no ‘also’; the וְ, by a common Hebrew idiom, merely introduces the verbal predicate.

the altars of Beth-el] Beth-el, now Beitin, was in Amos’s day the principal sanctuary of the northern kingdom. It lay on the sloping side of a low hill about 10 miles N. of Jerusalem, on the right hand of the great route leading northwards to Shechem and Samaria. It must have been regarded as a sacred spot from very early times: its maẓẓçbâh, or sacred stone pillar, was connected by tradition with a memorable occasion in the life of the patriarch Jacob (Genesis 28:10-22; cf. Genesis 35:1-8; Hosea 12:4; it is alluded to as a sanctuary in 1 Samuel 10:3); and its time-honoured sanctity, taken in conjunction with its situation at the extreme south of Jeroboam’s kingdom, on the immediate route to Jerusalem, no doubt led him to select it as one of his chief sanctuaries (1 Kings 12:28-33). Here he established one of the two calves of gold, erected an altar, and instituted a priesthood to serve it (ib.: cf. Amos 7:10). Amos represents Beth-el as being the most popular sanctuary of the northern kingdom: it was under the special patronage of the king (Amos 7:13); altars (in the plural) had taken the place of the single altar of Jeroboam I. (1 Kings 13:1); the sanctuary was crowded with worshippers (Amos 9:1); an elaborate ritual was observed there (Amos 4:4-5), and the houses of the wealthy were numerous (Amos 3:15). Comp. also Amos 3:5; Hosea 4:15; Hosea 10:5; Hosea 10:8; Hosea 10:15. The altar and sanctuary of Beth-el were finally destroyed by Josiah (2 Kings 23:15). At present Beth-el is nothing more than a poor village, containing, it is said, about 400 persons. See Rob. B.R[148] i. 448 f.; Stanley, S. and P. pp. 217–223; Memoirs of the P. E. F. Survey, ii. 295 f.; Moore, Comm. on Judges, pp. 40, 42, 433.

[148] .R. … Edw. Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine (ed. 2, 1856).

the horns of the altar] which conferred the right of asylum upon those who laid hold of them (see 1 Kings 1:50-51; 1 Kings 2:28): but even this refuge should fail Israel in the day of visitation, which Amos here foresees. On the ‘horns’ of the altar, see also Jeremiah 17:1; Ezekiel 43:15; Ezekiel 43:20; Exodus 27:2 (on the altar of burnt-offering); Exodus 30:2 (on the altar of incense); Psalm 118:27. They were an important adjunct to the altar: and at least in the ritual of the Temple at Jerusalem the ceremonial of atonement could in many cases only be completed upon them (Leviticus 4:7; Leviticus 4:18; Leviticus 4:25; Leviticus 4:30; Leviticus 4:34). A stelè from Teima (S.E. of Edom), containing an interesting Aramaic inscription, shews the ‘horns’ rising from the corner of an altar, and curved like those of an ox (Perrot and Chipiez, Hist. of Art in Sardinia, Judaea, &c., i. 304).

14–15. The thought of Amos 3:11 is further developed. The ruin will be complete: the idolatrous altars, and the sumptuous palaces, will alike be involved in it.

15. the winter house] See Jeremiah 36:22.

with the summer house] Eglon (Jdg 3:20) had a “cool upper story,” i.e. an additional apartment, built on the flat roof of the house, with latticed windows, allowing free circulation for the air (cf. Moore, Judges, pp. 96, 97 f.); but here separate buildings, such as the wealthy might be able to indulge in, appear to be intended. Both terms are to be understood collectively, and not confined to the royal palaces alone. An interesting illustration of the passage has been supplied recently by an almost contemporary inscription from Zinjirli, near Aleppo, in which Bar-rekûb, king of Sham’al, vassal (lit. servant, 2 Kings 16:7) of Tiglath-pileser (תגלתפליסר), says he has beautified his father’s house in honour of his ancestors, the kings of Sham’al (i.e. as a mausoleum), “and it is for them a summer-house and a winter-house[149]” (i.e. for perpetual use).

[149] פהא בית שתוא להם והא בית כיצא (Sachau in the Sitzungsberichte of the Berlin Academy, 22 Oct. 1896, p.1052).

houses of ivory] i.e. houses of which the walls were panelled or inlaid with ivory (cf. Psalm 45:8; also ch. Amos 6:4). Ahab (1 Kings 22:39), it seems, had found imitators.

the great houses] rather many houses (R.V. marg.): cf. Isaiah 5:9. “The desolation should be wide as well as mighty” (Pusey).