Verse 11
I have overthrown some of you - In the destruction of your cities I have shown my judgments as signally as I did in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; and those of you that did escape were as "brands plucked out of the fire;" if not consumed, yet much scorched. And as the judgment was evidently from my hand, so was the deliverance; "and yet ye have not returned unto me, saith the Lord."
Verse 12
Therefore thus will I do unto thee - I will continue my judgments, I will fight against you; and, because I am thus determined: -
Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel - This is a military phrase, and is to be understood as a challenge to come out to battle. As if the Lord had said, I will attack you immediately. Throw yourselves into a posture of defense, summon your idols to your help: and try how far your strength, and that of your gods, will avail you against the unconquerable arm of the Lord of hosts! This verse has been often painfully misapplied by public teachers; it has no particular relation to the day of judgment, nor to the hour of death. These constructions are impositions on the text.
Verse 13
He that formeth the mountains - Here is a powerful description of the majesty of God. He formed the earth; he created the wind; he knows the inmost thoughts of the heart; he is the Creator of darkness and light; he steps from mountain to mountain, and has all things under his feet! Who is he who hath done and can do all these things? Jehovah Elohim Tsebaoth, that is his name.
1. The self-existing, eternal, and independent Being.
2. The God who is in covenant with mankind.
3. The universal Commander of all the hosts of earth and heaven. This name is farther illustrated in the following chapter. These words are full of instruction, and may be a subject of profitable meditation to every serious mind.
Introduction
This chapter opens with a tender and pathetic lamentation, in the style of a funeral song, over the house of Israel, [Amo 5:1], [Amo 5:2]. The prophet then glances at the awful threatening denounced against them, [Amo 5:3]; earnestly exhorting them to renounce their idols, and seek Jehovah, of whom he gives a very magnificent description, [Amo 5:4-9]. He then reproves their injustice and oppression with great warmth and indignation; exhorts them again to repentance; and enforces his exhortation with the most awful threatenings, delivered with great majesty and authority, and in images full of beauty and grandeur, [Amo 5:10-24]. The chapter concludes with observing that their idolatry was of long standing, that they increased the national guilt, by adding to the sins of their fathers; and that their punishment, therefore, should be great in proportion, [Amo 5:25-27]. Formerly numbers of them were brought captive to Damascus, [2Kgs 10:32], [2Kgs 10:33]; but now they must go beyond it to Assyria, [2Kgs 15:29]; [2Kgs 17:6].
Verse 1
Hear ye this word - Attend to this doleful song which I make for the house of Israel.
Verse 2
The virgin of Israel - The kingdom of Israel, or the ten tribes, which were carried into captivity; and are now totally lost in the nations of the earth.
Verse 3
The city that went out by a thousand - The city that could easily have furnished, on any emergency, a thousand fighting men, can now produce scarcely one hundred - one in ten of the former number; and now of the hundred scarcely ten remain: so reduced was Israel when Shalmaneser besieged and took Samaria, and carried the residue into captivity.
Verse 4
Seek ye me, and ye shall live - Cease your rebellion against me; return to me with all your heart; and though consigned to death, ye shall be rescued and live. Deplorable as your case is, it is not utterly desperate.
Verse 5
But seek not Beth-el - There was one of Jeroboam's golden calves, and at Gilgal were carved images; both were places in which idolatry was triumphant. The prophet shows them that all hope from those quarters is utterly vain; for Gilgal shall go into captivity, and Beth-el be brought to naught. There is a play or paronomasia on the letters and words in this clause: הגלגל גלה יגלה ובית אל יהיה לאון haggilgal galoh yigleh, ubeith el yiheyeh leaven. "This Gilgal shall go captive into captivity; and Beth-el (the house of God) shall be for Beth-aven," (the house of iniquity.)
Verse 6
Seek the Lord, and ye shall live - Repeated from [Amo 5:4].
In the house of Joseph - The Israelites of the ten tribes, of whom Ephraim and Manasseh, sons of Joseph, were the chief.
Verse 7
Ye who turn judgment to wormwood - Who pervert judgment; causing him who obtains his suit to mourn sorely over the expenses he has incurred in gaining his right.
Verse 8
That maketh the seven stars and Orion - Or, Hyades and Arcturus, Kimah and Kesil. See my notes on [Job 9:9]; [Job 38:32], where the subject of this verse is largely considered.
Turneth the shadow of death into the morning - Who makes day and night, light and darkness.
Calleth for the waters of the sea - Raising them up by evaporation, and collecting them into clouds.
And poureth them out - Causing them to drop down in showers upon the face of the earth. Who has done this? Jehovah is his name.
Verse 9
That strengtheneth the spoiled - Who takes the part of the poor and oppressed against the oppressor; and, in the course of his providence, sets up the former, and depresses the latter.
Verse 10
They hate him that rebuketh in the gate - They cannot bear an upright magistrate, and will not have righteous laws executed.
Verse 11
Your treading is upon the poor - You tread them under your feet; they form the road on which ye walk; and yet it was by oppressing and impoverishing them that ye gained your riches.
Ye take from him burdens of wheat - Ye will have his bread for doing him justice.
Verse 12
I know your manifold transgressions - I have marked the multitude of your smaller crimes, as well as your mighty offenses. Among their greater offenses were,
1. Their afflicting the righteous.
2. Taking bribes to blind their eyes in judgment. And,
3. Refusing to hear the poor, who had no money to give them.