Today's reading describes a situation familiar to every believer. It is about people who, having received from God everything they have, have completely forgotten Him. It seems to them that...
Today's reading describes a situation familiar to every believer. It is about people who, having received from God everything they have, have completely forgotten Him (vv. 1-2, 8). It seems to them that what they have received came to them by right, and that no one will ever be able to take it from them. This, one might think, is how the whole world lives. Few people think about whether what they have is deserved or undeserved, especially if it was, as people usually say in such cases, "earned by honest labor." To realize how dependent a person is on God in everyday life, one must have a deep and stable relationship with Him.
Perhaps this is exactly why God does not remind of His benefactions those who know little or nothing at all about Him. He does not need followers who follow Him from the same motives that make a debtor reckon with a lender, for such compelled relationships have nothing in common with love. But through the prophet He speaks of this directly to His own people, reproaching them for having forgotten everything God has done for them. God reminds them that Israel is surrounded by nations superior to it in every respect, and that if it has not yet been wiped from the face of the earth, this is only thanks to God's help, about which the people do not think at all.
Why, then, does God act differently in this case? It may be precisely because His people are in view. The history of the Jewish people is inseparable from the revelation they received: they were formed as a nation during the Exodus, and without God's direct intervention in history this people would simply not have existed. Under such circumstances, forgetting one's relationship with God is literally like death, and the Lord reminds the inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom of this through His prophet.
Here before us is not a desire to reproach for ingratitude or to remind them of past and present benefactions, but a reminder of the relationships without which the people will cease to exist, without which they will simply disappear from the face of the earth. And if God reproaches His people here for anything, it is not so much ingratitude as the fact that they forgot the relationships that once bound them to their God - the God who remembers everything, even when people would be glad to forget everything.
5 The deplorable condition of Israel, Amo 5:1-3.
An exhortation to seek God, Amo 5:4-15.
Judgments denounced, Amo 5:16-20.
Notwithstanding their outward services, Amo 5:21-27.
5:2 The virgin - So she was, when first espoused to God.Upon her land - Broken to pieces upon her own land, and so left as a broken vessel.
5:3 By a thousand - That sent out one thousand soldiers.An hundred - Shall lose nine parts of them.
5:4 Ye shall live - It shall be well with you.
5:5 Seek not - Consult not, worship not the idol at Bethel, Gilgal, or Beersheba.
5:6 The house of Joseph - The kingdom of the ten tribes, the chief whereof was Ephraim, the son of Joseph. In Beth-el - If once this fire breaks out, all your idols in Beth-el shall not be able to quench it.
5:7 Ye - Rulers and judges. Judgment - The righteous sentence of the law. To wormwood - Proverbially understood; bitterness, injustice and oppression. Leave off - Make to cease in your courts of judicature.
5:8 The seven stars - A constellation, whose rising about September was usually accompanied with sweet showers. Orion - Which arising about November brings usually cold, rains and frosts intermixt very seasonable for the earth. The shadow of the earth - The greatest adversity into as great prosperity. Dark with might - Changes prosperity into adversity.That calleth - Commands the vapour to ascend, which he turns into rain; and then pours from the clouds to make the earth fruitful.
5:9 The strong - The mighty, victorious and insolent.Shall come - Shall rally and form a siege against their besiegers.
5:10 They - The judges and people. In the gate - Where judges sat, and where the prophets many times delivered their message.
5:11 Your treading - You utterly oppress the helpless.Ye take - Ye extort from the poor great quantities of wheat, on which he should live.
5:12 In the gate - In their courts of justice.
5:13 Shall keep silence - Be forced to it. Evil - Both for the sinfulness of it, and for the troubles, wars, and captivity now at hand.
5:14 With you - To bless and save you yet.
5:15 The evil - All evil among the people, and yourselves.Love - Commend, encourage, defend: let your heart be toward good things, and good men. Remnant - What the invasions of enemies, or the civil wars have spared, and left in Samaria and Israel.
5:16 Therefore - The prophet foreseeing their obstinacy, proceeds to denounce judgment against them. The husbandman - This sort of men are little used to such ceremonies of mourning, but now such also shall be called upon; leave your toil, betake yourselves to publick mourning.
5:17 Vineyards - In these places were usually the greatest joy.Pass through - To punish all every where.
5:18 That desire - Scoffingly, not believing any such day would come.To what end - What do you think to get by it? Is darkness - All adversity, black and doleful. Not light - No joy, or comfort an it.
5:19 And a bear - You may escape one, but shall fall in another calamity. Into the house - At home you may hope for safety, but there other kind of mischief shall meet you.
5:21 I hate - Impure and unholy as they are. Will not smell - A savour, of rest or delight, I will not accept and be pleased with.
5:23 Thy songs - Used in their sacrifices, and solemn feasts; herein they imitated the temple - worship, but all was unpleasing to the Lord.Will not hear - Not with delight and acceptance. Thy viols - This one kind of musical instrument is put for all the rest.
5:24 Let judgment - Let justice be administered constantly.Righteousness - Equity. Stream - Bearing down all that opposes it.
5:25 Have ye - Their fathers and they, tho' at so great a distance of time, are one people, and so the prophet considers them.Unto me - Was it to me, or to your idols, that you offered, even in the wilderness?
5:26 Ye have borne - Ye carried along with you in the wilderness; the shrine, or canopy in which the image was placed.Moloch - The great idol of the Ammonites. Chiun - Another idol.
5:27 Therefore - For all your idolatry and other sins, in which you have obstinately continued.
6 The security of Israel and Judah, Amo 6:1-6.
Their punishment, Amo 6:7-14.
6:1 At ease - That neither fear nor believe the threatened judgments of God. In Zion - That is put for the kingdom of the two tribes, and principally the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Samaria - Woe to them also who rely upon the strength, wealth, and policy of the kingdom of Samaria or Israel. Which - Which two cities, Zion and Samaria.Named chief - Accounted the chief cities of that part of the world.To whom - To which place all Israel had recourse, the two tribes to Zion, the ten tribes to Samaria.
6:2 Pass ye - Run over the history of that great and ancient city.Hemath - Head of the Syrian kingdom, lately overthrown by Tiglath - Pilneser, and a fresh instance of God's just indignation against secure sinners. Gath - The chief city of the Philistines, a few years before wasted by the arms of Hazael; by these examples learn to amend your ways, or expect to perish in them.Greater - That is, greater than these kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and their borders, or bounds, greater than these of Israel and Judah.
6:3 Ye - That flatter yourselves the day of darkness foretold, is far off. The seat - The judgment seat which should relieve the oppressed, is made a seat of violence.
6:4 That lie - That out of laziness or luxury, lay themselves to rest.And eat - The very best in all their flock.
6:5 That chant - That in a time of deep mourning entertain themselves with songs, and musical instruments.
6:6 In bowls - Not in little vessels, but probably bowls: they drank these filled as full as they could hold too, and in design to drink each other down. And anoint - In those hot countries this anointing was much used. Not grieved - Nothing affected with the calamities of their country.
6:7 The banquet - The feastings of voluptuous ones shall cease.
6:8 The excellency - All that the seed of Jacob accounts a glory and excellency to them, all their external privileges and worship.
6:9 Remain - Escaping the enemies sword. Ten men - Many men, a certain number for an uncertain. They shall die - Tho' they escape a while, they shall not finally escape.
6:10 Uncle - Or near kinsman, instead of those who were wont to do this, and were paid for it; but now none of these remaining, the next to the dead must, as well as he is able, take him up on his shoulders, and carry him. That burneth - Though the Jews mostly buried, yet in some cases they burned the dead bodies, as in this of pestilence.The bones - The flesh being consumed, the bones are reserved to be buried.Unto him - Any one he sees near the house out of which the bones are carried. Is there yet any - Is any one living in your house.Hold thy tongue - Do not complain, lest thou thyself be killed, lest all be rifled. For - It is too late to seek God, who is executing his immutable decree.
6:11 For behold - It seems to be the continued speech of him who took care of the dead, ver. Amo 6:10, God hath sent out war, famine, and pestilence. The great house - The palaces of great men shall have great breaches made in them, and the cottages of poor men shall, by lesser strokes, be ruined.
6:12 Shall horses - If prophets exhort or advise, it does no more good than if you would run your horses upon the precipices of rocks.
6:13 Who rejoice - In your victories, alliances, and idols.Have we not - We have raised ourselves to greatness by our wisdom and courage.
6:14 Hemath - A city of Syria, bordering on Israel, north - east.The wilderness - Which is the south - west parts of Canaan.So all your country shall be destroyed.