land is not able to bear all his words--They are so many and so intolerable. A sedition will be the result. The mention of his being "priest of Beth-el" implies that it was for his own priestly gain, not for the king or state, he was so keen.
11. Jeroboam shall die, &c.--Amos had not said this: but that "the house of Jeroboam" should fall "with the sword" ([Am 7:9]). But Amaziah exaggerates the charge, to excite Jeroboam against him. The king, however, did not give ear to Amaziah, probably from religious awe of the prophet of Jehovah.
12. Also--Besides informing the king against Amos, lest that course should fail, as it did, Amaziah urges the troublesome prophet himself to go back to his own land Judah, pretending to advise him in friendliness.
seer--said contemptuously in reference to Amos' visions which precede.
there eat bread--You can earn a livelihood there, whereas remaining here you will be ruined. He judges of Amos by his own selfishness, as if regard to one's own safety and livelihood are the paramount considerations. So the false prophets ([Eze 13:19]) were ready to say whatever pleased their hearers, however false, for "handfuls of barley and pieces of bread."
13. prophesy not again--([Am 2:12]).
at Beth-el--Amaziah wants to be let alone at least in his own residence.
the king's chapel--Beth-el was preferred by the king to Dan, the other seat of the calf-worship, as being nearer Samaria, the capital, and as hallowed by Jacob of old ([Ge 28:16], ; , ). He argues by implication against Amos' presumption, as a private man, in speaking against the worship sanctioned by the king, and that in the very place consecrated to it for the king's own devotions.
king's court--that is, residence: the seat of empire, where the king holds his court, and which thou oughtest to have reverenced. Samaria was the usual king's residence: but for the convenience of attending the calf-worship, a royal palace was at Beth-el also.
14. I was no prophet--in answer to Amaziah's insinuation ([Am 7:12]), that he discharged the prophetical office to earn his "bread" (like Israel's mercenary prophets). So far from being rewarded, Jehovah's prophets had to expect imprisonment and even death as the result of their prophesying in Samaria or Israel: whereas the prophets of Baal were maintained at the king's expense (compare [1Ki 18:19]). I was not, says Amos, of the order of prophets, or educated in their schools, and deriving a livelihood from exercising the public functions of a prophet. I am a shepherd (compare [Am 7:15], "flock"; the Hebrew for "herdsman" includes the meaning, shepherd, compare [Am 1:1]) in humble position, who did not even think of prophesying among you, until a divine call impelled me to it.
prophet's son--that is, disciple. Schools of prophets are mentioned first in First Samuel; in these youths were educated to serve the theocracy as public instructors. Only in the kingdom of the ten tribes is the continuance of the schools of the prophets mentioned. They were missionary stations near the chief seats of superstition in Israel, and associations endowed with the Spirit of God; none were admitted but those to whom the Spirit had been previously imparted. Their spiritual fathers travelled about to visit the training schools, and cared for the members and even their widows ([2Ki 4:1], ). The pupils had their common board in them, and after leaving them still continued members. The offerings which in Judah were given by the pious to the Levites, in Israel went to the schools of the prophets ([2Ki 4:42]). Prophecy (for example, Elijah and Elisha) in Israel was more connected with extraordinary events than in Judah, inasmuch as, in the absence of the legal hierarchy of the latter, it needed to have more palpable divine sanction.
sycamore--abounding in Palestine. The fruit was like the fig, but inferior; according to Pliny, a sort of compound, as the name expresses, of the fig and the mulberry. It was only eaten by the poorest (compare [1Ki 10:27]).
gatherer--one occupied with their cultivation [Maurer]. To cultivate it, an incision was made in the fruit when of a certain size, and on the fourth day afterwards it ripened [Pliny, Natural History, 13.7,14]. Grotius from Jerome says, if it be not plucked off and "gathered" (which favors English Version), it is spoiled by gnats.
15. took me as I followed the flock--So David was taken ([2Sa 7:8]; [Psa 78:70], ). Messiah is the antitypical Shepherd ([Psa 23:1-6]; [Joh 10:1-18]).
unto my people--"against" [Maurer]; so [Am 7:16]. Jehovah claims them still as His by right, though slighting His authority. God would recover them to His service by the prophet's ministry.
16. drop--distil as the refreshing drops of rain ([De 32:2]; [Eze 21:2]; compare [Mi 2:6], ).
17. Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city--that is, shall be forced by the enemy, while thou art looking on, unable to prevent her dishonor ([Is 13:16]; [La 5:11]). The words, "saith THE Lord are in striking opposition to "Thou sayest" ([Am 7:16]).
divided by line--among the foe.
a polluted land--Israel regarded every foreign land as that which really her own land was now, "polluted" ([Is 24:5]; [Jr 2:7]).
Chapter 8
Am 8:1-14. Vision of a Basket of Summer Fruit Symbolical, of Israel's End. Resuming the Series of Symbols Interrupted by Amaziah, Amos Adds a Fourth. The Avarice of the Oppressors of the Poor: The Overthrow of the Nation: The Wish for the Means of Religious Counsel, when There Shall Be a Famine of the Word
1. summer fruit--Hebrew, kitz. In [Am 8:2] "end" is in Hebrew, keetz. The similarity of sounds implies that, as the summer is the end of the year and the time of the ripeness of fruits, so Israel is ripe for her last punishment, ending her national existence. As the fruit is plucked when ripe from the tree, so Israel from her land.
2. end--([Eze 7:2], ).
3. songs of ... temple--([Am 5:23]). The joyous hymns in the temple of Judah (or rather, in the Beth-el "royal temple," [Am 7:13]; for the allusion is to Israel, not Judah, throughout this chapter) shall be changed into "howlings." Grotius translates, "palace"; compare [Am 6:5], as to the songs there. But [Am 5:23], and [Am 7:13], favor English Version.
they shall cast them forth with silence--not as the Margin, "be silent." It is an adverb, "silently." There shall be such great slaughter as even to prevent the bodies being buried [Calvin]. There shall be none of the usual professional mourners ([Am 5:16]), but the bodies will be cast out in silence. Perhaps also is meant that terror, both of God (compare [Am 6:10]) and of the foe, shall close their lips.
4. Hear--The nobles needed to be urged thus, as hating to hear reproof.
swallow up the needy--or, "gape after," that is, pant for their goods; so the word is used, [Job 7:2], Margin.
to make the poor ... to fail--"that they (themselves) may be placed alone in the midst of the earth" ([Is 5:8]).
5. So greedy are they of unjust gain that they cannot spare a single day, however sacred, from pursuing it. They are strangers to God and enemies to themselves, who love market days better than sabbath days; and they who have lost piety will not long keep honesty. The new moons ([Nu 10:10]) and sabbaths were to be kept without working or trading ([Ne 10:31]).
set forth wheat--literally, "open out" stores of wheat for sale.
ephah--containing three seahs, or above three pecks.
making ... small--making it below the just weight to purchasers.
shekel great--taking from purchasers a greater weight of money than was due. Shekels used to be weighed out in payments ([Ge 23:16]). Thus they committed a double fraud against the law ([De 25:13], ).
6. buy ... poor for silver ... pair of shoes--that is, that we may compel the needy for money, or any other thing of however little worth, to sell themselves to us as bondmen, in defiance of [Le 25:39]; the very thing which brings down God's judgment ([Am 2:6]).
sell the refuse of ... wheat--which contains no nutriment, but which the poor eat at a low price, being unable to pay for flour.
7. Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob--that is, by Himself, in whom Jacob's seed glory [Maurer]. Rather, by the spiritual privileges of Israel, the adoption as His peculiar people [Calvin], the temple, and its Shekinah symbol of His presence. Compare [Am 6:8], where it means Jehovah's temple (compare [Am 4:2]).
never forget--not pass by without punishing ([Am 8:2]; [Ho 8:13]; ).
8. the land ... rise up wholly as a flood--The land will, as it were, be wholly turned into a flooding river (a flood being the image of overwhelming calamity, [Da 9:26]).
cast out and drowned, &c.--swept away and overwhelmed, as the land adjoining the Nile is by it, when flooding ([Am 9:5]). The Nile rises generally twenty feet. The waters then "cast out" mire and dirt ([Is 57:20]).
9. "Darkness" made to rise "at noon" is the emblem of great calamities ([Jr 15:9]; [Eze 32:7-10]).
10. baldness--a sign of mourning ([Is 15:2]; [Jr 48:37]; [Eze 7:18]).
I will make it as ... mourning of an only son--"it," that is, "the earth" ([Am 8:9]). I will reduce the land to such a state that there shall be the same occasion for mourning as when parents mourn for an only son ([Jr 6:26]; [Zec 12:10]).
11. famine of ... hearing the words of the Lord--a just retribution on those who now will not hear the Lord's prophets, nay even try to drive them away, as Amaziah did ([Am 7:12]); they shall look in vain, in their distress, for divine counsel, such as the prophets now offer ([Eze 7:26]; [Mi 3:7]). Compare as to the Jews' rejection of Messiah, and their consequent rejection by Him ([Mt 21:43]); and their desire for Messiah too late ([Lu 17:22]; [Joh 7:34]; ). So, the prodigal when he had sojourned awhile in the "far-off country, began to be in want" in the "mighty famine" which arose ([Lu 15:14]; compare [1Sa 3:1]; ). It is remarkable that the Jews' religion is almost the only one that could be abolished against the will of the people themselves, on account of its being dependent on a particular place, namely, the temple. When that was destroyed, the Mosaic ritual, which could not exist without it, necessarily ceased. Providence designed it, that, as the law gave way to the Gospel, so all men should perceive it was so, in spite of the Jews' obstinate rejection of the Gospel.
12. they shall wander from sea to sea--that is, from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean, from east to west.
from ... north ... to ... east--where we might expect "from north to south." But so alienated was Israel from Judah, that no Israelite even then would think of repairing southward, that is, to Jerusalem for religious information. The circuit is traced as in [Nu 34:3], &c., except that the south is omitted. Their "seeking the word of the Lord" would not be from a sincere desire to obey God, but under the pressure of punishment.