--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 103 of 769 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/103/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 103. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/103/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 2 of 2. ## 103. Amos · 3 of 10 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/103/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/103/#p-N [¶0] 1. Their judges were mercenary and corrupt. They took bribes to condemn the righteous; and even for articles of clothing, such as a pair of shoes, they condemned the poor man, and delivered him into the hands of his adversary. [¶1] 2. They were unmerciful to the poor generally. They pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor; or, to put it on the head of the poor; or, they bruise the head of the poor against the dust of the earth. Howsoever the clause is understood, it shows them to have been general oppressors of the poor, showing them neither justice nor mercy. [¶2] 3. They turn aside the way of the meek. They are peculiarly oppressive to the weak and afflicted. [¶3] 4. They were licentious to the uttermost abomination; for in their idol feasts, where young women prostituted themselves publicly in honor of Astarte, the father and son entered into impure connections with the same female. [¶4] 5. They were cruel in their oppressions of the poor; for the garments or beds which the poor had pledged they retained contrary to the law, Exodus 22:7-26, which required that such things should be restored before the setting of the sun. [¶5] 6. They punished the people by unjust and oppressive fines, and served their tables with wine bought by such fines. Or it may be understood of their appropriating to themselves that wine which was allowed to criminals to mitigate their sufferings in the article of death; which was the excess of inhumanity and cruelty. ### Verse 9 [¶7] Yet destroyed I the Amorite - Here follow general heads of God's mercies to them, and the great things he had done for them. [¶8] 1. Bringing them out of Egypt. [¶9] 2. Miraculously sustaining them in the wilderness forty years. [¶10] 3. Driving out the Canaanites before them, and giving them possession of the promised land. [¶11] 4. Raising up prophets among them to declare the Divine will. [¶12] 5. And forming the holy institution of the Nazarites among them, to show the spiritual nature of his holy religion, [Amo 2:9-11]. ### Verse 12 [¶14] But ye gave the Nazarites wine - This was expressly forbidden in the laws of their institution. See [Num 6:1-3]. [¶15] Prophesy not - They would not worship God, and they would not hear the voice of his prophets. ### Verse 13 [¶17] Behold, I am pressed under you - The marginal reading is better: "Behold, I will press your place, as a cart full of sheaves presseth." I will bring over you the wheel of destruction; and it shall grind your place - your city and temple, as the wheel of a cart laden with sheaves presses down the ground, gravel, and stones over which it rolls. ### Verse 14 [¶19] The flight shall perish from the swift - The swiftest shall not be able to save himself from a swifter destruction. None, by might, by counsel, or by fleetness, shall be able to escape from the impending ruin. In a word, God has so fully determined to avenge the quarrel of his broken covenant, that all attempts to escape from his judgments shall be useless. ### Verse 15 [¶21] Neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself - I believe all these sayings, [Amo 2:13-16], are proverbs, to show the inutility of all attempts, even in the best circumstances, to escape the doom now decreed, because the cup of their iniquity was full. ### Verse 16 [¶23] Shall flee away naked - In some cases the alarm shall be in the night; and even the most heroic shall start from his bed, and through terror not wait to put on his clothes. ### Introduction [¶25] This chapter begins with reproving the twelve tribes in general, [Amo 3:1], [Amo 3:2]; and then particularly the kingdom of Israel, whose capital was Samaria. Thee prophet assures them that, while they were at variance with God, it would be unreasonable in them to expect his presence or favor, [Amo 3:3-8]. Other neighboring nations are then called upon to take warning from the judgments about to be inflicted upon the house of Israel, which would be so general that only a small remnant should escape them, [Amo 3:9-15]. The image used by the prophet on this occasion, (see [Amo 3:12]), and borrowed from his former calling, is very natural and significant, and not a little dignified by the inspired writer's lofty air and manner. ### Verse 1 [¶27] Against the whole family - That is, all, both the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. In this all the twelve tribes are included. ### Verse 2 [¶29] You only have I known - I have taken no other people to be my own people. I have approved of you, loved you, fed, sustained, and defended you; but because you have forsaken me, have become idolatrous and polluted, therefore will I punish you. And the punishment shall be in proportion to the privileges you have enjoyed, and the grace you have abused. ### Verse 3 [¶31] Can two walk together - While ye loved and served me, I dwelt in you and walked among you. Now ye are become alienated from me, your nature and mine are totally opposite. I am holy, ye are unholy. We are no longer agreed, and can no longer walk together. I can no longer hold communion with you. I must cast you out. The similes in this and the three following verses are all chosen to express the same thing, viz., that no calamities or judgments can fall upon any people but by the express will of God, on account of their iniquities; and that whatever his prophets have foretold, they have done it by direct revelation from their Maker; and that God has the highest and most cogent reason for inflicting the threatened calamities. This correctness of the prophets' predictions shows that they and I are in communion. ### Verse 4 [¶33] Will a lion roar - Should I threaten such a judgment without cause? ### Verse 5 [¶35] Can a bird fall in a snare - Can ye, as a sinful people, fall into calamities which I have not appointed? [¶36] Shall one take up a snare - and have taken nothing - Will the snare be removed before it has caught the expected prey? - shall I remove my judgments till they are fully accomplished? This is a curious passage, and deserves farther consideration. The original, literally translated, is nearly as follows: "Shall the trap arise from the ground; and catching, shall it not catch?" Here is a plain allusion to such traps as we employ to catch rats, foxes, etc. The jaws of the trap opening backward, press strongly upon a spring so as to keep it down; and a key passing over one jaw, and hooking on a table in the center, the trap continues with expanded jaws, till any thing touch the table, when the key, by the motion of the table, being loosened, the spring recovers all its elastic power, and throws up the jaws of the trap, and their serrated edges either close in each other, or on the prey that has moved the table of the trap. Will then the jaws of such a trap suddenly spring up from the ground, on which before they were lying flat, and catch nothing? Shall they let the prey that was within them escape? Certainly not. So my trap is laid for these offenders; and when it springs up, (and they themselves will soon by their transgressions free the key), shall not the whole family of Israel be inclosed in it? Most certainly they shall. This is a singular and very remarkable passage, and, when properly understood, is beautifully expressive. ### Verse 6 [¶38] Shall a trumpet be blown - The sign of alarm and invasion. [¶39] And the people not be afraid? - Not take the alarm, and provide for their defense and safety? [¶40] Shall there be evil in a city - Shall there be any public calamity on the wicked, that is not an effect of my displeasure? The word does not mean moral evil, but punishment for sin; calamities falling on the workers of iniquity. Natural evil is the punishment of moral evil: God sends the former when the latter is persisted in. ### Verse 7 [¶42] Surely the Lord God will do nothing - In reference to the punishment, correction, or blessing of his people: - [¶43] But he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets - They are in strict correspondence with him, and he shows them things to come. Such secrets of God are revealed to them, that they may inform the people; that, by repentance and conversion, they may avoid the evil, and, by walking closely with God, secure the continuance of his favor.