12. Therefore--as all chastisements have failed to make thee "return unto Me."
thus will I do unto thee--as I have threatened ([Am 4:2], ).
prepare to meet thy God--God is about to inflict the last and worst judgment on thee, the extinction of thy nationality; consider then what preparation thou canst make for encountering Him as thy foe ([Jr 46:14]; [Lu 14:31], ). But as that would be madness to think of ([Is 27:4]; [Eze 22:14]; [He 10:31]), see what can be done towards mitigating the severity of the coming judgment, by penitence ([Is 27:5]; [1Co 11:31]). This latter exhortation is followed up in [Am 5:4], [6, 8], 14, 15.
13. The God whom Israel is to "prepare to meet" ([Am 4:12]) is here described in sublime terms.
wind--not as the Margin, "spirit." The God with whom thou hast to do is the Omnipotent Maker of things seen, such as the stupendous mountains, and of things too subtle to be seen, though of powerful agency, as the "wind."
declareth unto man ... his thought--([Psa 139:2]). Ye think that your secret thoughts escape My cognizance, but I am the searcher of hearts.
maketh ... morning darkness--([Am 5:8]; ). Both literally turning the sunshine into darkness, and figuratively turning the prosperity of the ungodly into sudden adversity ([Psa 73:12], [18, 19]; compare [Jr 13:16]).
treadeth upon ... high places--God treadeth down the proud of the earth. He subjects to Him all things however high they be ([Mi 1:3]). Compare [De 32:13]; , where the same phrase is used of God's people, elevated by God above every other human height.
Chapter 5
Am 5:1-27. Elegy over the Prostrate Kingdom: Renewed Exhortations to Repentance: God Declares that the Coming Day of Judgment Shall Be Terrible to the Scorners Who Despise It: Ceremonial Services Are Not Acceptable to Him Where True Piety Exists Not: Israel Shall Therefore Be Removed Far Eastward
1. lamentation--an elegy for the destruction coming on you. Compare [Eze 32:2], "take up," namely, as a mournful burden ([Eze 19:1]; ).
2. virgin of Israel--the Israelite state heretofore unsubdued by foreigners. Compare [Is 23:12]; [Jr 18:13]; , ; [La 2:13]; may be interpreted, Thou who wast once the "virgin daughter of Zion." Rather, "virgin" as applied to a state implies its beauty, and the delights on which it prides itself, its luxuries, power, and wealth [Calvin].
no more rise--in the existing order of things: in the Messianic dispensation it is to rise again, according to many prophecies. Compare [2Ki 6:23]; , for the restricted sense of "no more."
forsaken upon her land--or, "prostrated upon," &c. (compare [Eze 29:5]; ) [Maurer].
3. went out by a thousand--that is, "the city from which there used to go out a thousand" equipped for war. "City" is put for "the inhabitants of the city," as in [Am 4:8].
shall leave ... hundred--shall have only a hundred left, the rest being destroyed by sword and pestilence ([De 28:62]).
4. Seek ye me, and ye shall live--literally, "Seek ... Me, and live." The second imperative expresses the certainty of "life" (escape from judgment) resulting from obedience to the precept in the first imperative. If they perish, it is their own fault; God would forgive, if they would repent ([Is 55:3], ).
5. seek not Beth-el--that is, the calves at Beth-el.
Gilgal--(See on [Am 4:4]).
Beer-sheba--in Judah on the southern frontier towards Edom. Once "the well of the oath" by Jehovah, ratifying Abraham's covenant with Abimelech, and the scene of his calling on "the Lord, the everlasting God" ([Ge 21:31], ), now a stronghold of idolatry ([Am 8:14]).
Gilgal shall surely go into captivity--a play on similar sounds in the Hebrew, Gilgal, galoh, yigleh: "Gilgal (the place of rolling) shall rolling be rolled away."
Beth-el shall come to naught--Beth-el (that is, the "house of God"), called because of its vain idols Beth-aven (that is, "the house of vanity," or "naught," [Ho 4:15]; , ), shall indeed "come to naught."
6. break out like fire--bursting through everything in His way. God is "a consuming fire" ([De 4:24]; [Is 10:17]; [La 2:3]).
the house of Joseph--the kingdom of Israel, of which the tribe of Ephraim, Joseph's son, was the chief tribe (compare [Eze 37:16]).
none to quench it in Beth-el--that is, none in Beth-el to quench it; none of the Beth-el idols on which Israel so depended, able to remove the divine judgments.
7. turn judgment to wormwood--that is, pervert it to most bitter wrong. As justice is sweet, so injustice is bitter to the injured. "Wormwood" is from a Hebrew root, to "execrate," on account of its noxious and bitter qualities.
leave on righteousness in ... earth--Maurer translates, "cast righteousness to the ground," as in [Is 28:2]; [Da 8:12].
8. the seven stars--literally, the heap or cluster of seven larger stars and others smaller ([Job 9:9]; ). The former whole passage seems to have been in Amos' mind. He names the stars well known to shepherds (to which class Amos belonged), Orion as the precursor of the tempests which are here threatened, and the Pleiades as ushering in spring.
shadow of death--Hebraism for the densest darkness.
calleth for the waters of the sea--both to send deluges in judgment, and the ordinary rain in mercy ([1Ki 18:44]).
9. strengtheneth the spoiled--literally, "spoil" or "devastation": hence the "person spoiled." Winer, Maurer, and the best modern critics translate, "maketh devastation (or destruction) suddenly to arise," literally, "maketh it to gleam forth like the dawn." Ancient versions support English Version. The Hebrew is elsewhere used, to make, to shine, to make glad: and as English Version here ([Psa 39:13]), "recover strength."
the spoiled shall come--"devastation," or "destruction shall come upon" [Maurer]. English Version expresses that, strong as Israel fancies herself after the successes of Jeroboam II ([2Ki 14:25]), even the weakest can be made by God to prevail against the strong.
10. him that rebuketh in the gate--the judge who condemns their iniquity in the place of judgment ([Is 29:21]).
abhor him that speaketh uprightly--the prophet telling them the unwelcome truth: answering in the parallelism to the judge, "that rebuketh in the gate" (compare [1Ki 22:8]; [Pr 9:8]; ; [Jr 36:23]).
11. burdens of wheat--burdensome taxes levied in kind from the wheat of the needy, to pamper the lusts of the great [Henderson]. Or wheat advanced in time of scarcity, and exacted again at a burdensome interest [Rabbi Salomon].
built houses ... but not dwell in them ... vineyards, ... but not drink wine of them--according to the original prophecy of Moses ([De 28:30], 38, 39). The converse shall be true in restored Israel ([Am 9:14]; [Is 65:21], ).
12. they afflict ... they take--rather, "(ye) who afflict ... take."
bribe--literally, a price with which one who has an unjust cause ransoms himself from your sentence ([1Sa 12:3], Margin; [Pr 6:35]).
turn aside the poor in the gate--refuse them their right in the place of justice ([Am 2:7]; [Is 29:21]).
13. the prudent--the spiritually wise.
shall keep silence--not mere silence of tongue, but the prudent shall keep himself quiet from taking part in any public or private affairs which he can avoid: as it is "an evil time," and one in which all law is set at naught. [Ep 5:16] refers to this. Instead of impatiently agitating against irremediable evils, the godly wise will not cast pearls before swine, who would trample these, and rend the offerers ([Mt 7:6]), but will patiently wait for God's time of deliverance in silent submission ([Psa 39:9]).
14. and so--on condition of your "seeking good."
shall be with you, as ye have spoken--as ye have boasted; namely, that God is with you, and that you are His people ([Mi 3:11]).
15. Hate ... evil ... love ... good--([Is 1:16], ; [Ro 12:9]).
judgment in the gate--justice in the place where causes are tried.