He said: “Yahweh will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the pastures of the shepherds will mourn, and the top of Carmel will wither.”
Parallel Translations
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He said: “Yahweh will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the pastures of the shepherds will mourn, and the top of Carmel will wither.”
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And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.
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And he said: The LORD roareth from Zion, and uttereth His voice from Jerusalem; and the pastures of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.
Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to Amos 1:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Joel 3:16 Yahweh will roar from Zion, and thunder from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will shake; but Yahweh will be a refuge to his people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel.
- Jeremiah 25:30 “Therefore prophesy against them all these words, and tell them, “ ‘Yahweh will roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation. He will mightily roar against his fold. He will give a shout, as those who tread grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.
- Isaiah 42:13 Yahweh will go out like a mighty man. He will stir up zeal like a man of war. He will raise a war cry. Yes, he will shout aloud. He will triumph over his enemies.
- Amos 9:3 Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out there; and though they be hidden from my sight in the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it will bite them.
- Jeremiah 12:4 How long will the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole country wither? Because of the wickedness of those who dwell therein, the animals and birds are consumed; because they said, “He won’t see our latter end.”
- Nahum 1:4 He rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languishes.
- Proverbs 20:2 The terror of a king is like the roaring of a lion. He who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life.
- Isaiah 33:9 The land mourns and languishes. Lebanon is confounded and withers away. Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.
- Isaiah 35:2 It will blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. Lebanon’s glory will be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They will see Yahweh’s glory, the excellence of our God.
- Jeremiah 14:2 “Judah mourns, and its gates languish. They sit in black on the ground. The cry of Jerusalem goes up.
- Jeremiah 50:19 I will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan. His soul will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.
- Hosea 13:8 I will meet them like a bear that is bereaved of her cubs, and will tear the covering of their heart. There I will devour them like a lioness. The wild animal will tear them.
- Joel 1:9-13 The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh’s house. The priests, Yahweh’s ministers, mourn. The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes. Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished. The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men. Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house.
- Joel 1:16-18 Isn’t the food cut off before our eyes; joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered. How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
- Joel 2:11 Yahweh thunders his voice before his army; for his forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome, and who can endure it?
- Amos 3:7-8 Surely the Lord Yahweh will do nothing, unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets. The lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord Yahweh has spoken. Who can but prophesy?
- Amos 4:7-8 “I also have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city. One place was rained on, and the piece where it didn’t rain withered. So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water, and were not satisfied: yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.
- 1 Samuel 25:2 There was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats; and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
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Explain this verse (18 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain He employs here the same words which we explained…
He employs here the same words which we explained yesterday in the Lecture on Joel; but for another purpose. By saying, ‘Jehovah from Zion shall roar,’ Joel intended to set forth the power of God, who had been for a time silent, as though he was not able to repel his enemies. As God was then despised by the ungodly, Joel declares that he had power, by which he could instantly break down and destroy all his enemies and defend his Church and chosen people. But now Amos, as he addresses the Israelites, does here defend the pure worship of God from all contempt and declares to the Israelites, that how much soever they wearied themselves in their superstitions they still worshipped their own devices; for God repudiated all the religion they thought they had. There is, then, to be understood an implied or indirect contrast between mount Zion and the temples which the first Jeroboam built in Dan and Bethel. The Israelites imagined that they worshipped the God of their father Abraham; and there were in those places greater displays (pompae — pomps) than at Jerusalem. But the Prophet Amos pours contempt on all these fictitious forms of worship; as though he said, “Ye indeed boast that the God of Abraham is honored and worshipped by you; but ye are degenerate, ye are covenant breakers, ye are perfidious towards God; he dwells not with you, for the sanctuaries, which you have made for yourselves, are nothing but brothels; God has chosen no habitation for himself, except mount Zion; there is his perpetual rest: Roar then will Jehovah from Zion.”
We now see what the Prophet had in view: for he not only shows here, that God was the author of his doctrine, but at the same time distinguishes between the true God and the idols, which the first Jeroboam made, when by this artifice he intended to withdraw the ten tribes from the house of David and wholly to alienate them from the tribe of Judah: it was then that he set up the calves in Dan and Bethel. The Prophet now shows that all these superstitions are condemned by the true God: Jehovah then shall roar from Zion, he will utter his voice from Jerusalem. He no doubt wished here to terrify the Israelites, who thought they had peace with God. Since, then, they abused his long-suffering, Amos now says that they would find at length that he was not asleep. “When God then shall long bear with your iniquities, he will at last rise up for judgment.”
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By roaring is signified, as we said yesterday, the terrible voice of God; but the Prophet here speaks of God’s voice, rather than of what are called actual judgments really executed, that the Israelites might learn that the examples of punishments which God executes in the world happen not by chance, or at random, but proceed from his threatening; in short, the Prophet intimates that all punishments which God inflicts on the ungodly and the despisers of his word, are only the executions of what the Prophets proclaimed, in order that men, should there be any hope of their repentance, might anticipate the destruction which they hear to be nigh. The Prophet then commends here very highly the truth of what God teaches, by saying that it is not what vanishes, but what is accomplished; for when he destroys nations and kingdoms, it comes to pass according to prophecies: God then shall utter his voice from Jerusalem
Then it follows, And mourn shall the habitations of shepherds אבל, abel, means to mourn, and also to be laid waste, and to perish. Either sense will well suit this place. If we read, mourn, etc., then we must render the following thus, and ashamed shall be the head, or top, of Carmel. But if we read, perish, etc., then the verb בש besh must be translated, wither; and as we know that there were rich pastures on Carmel, I prefer this second rendering: wither then shall the top of Carmel; and the first clause must be taken thus, and perish shall the habitations of shepherds
As to what is intended, we understand the Prophet’s meaning to be, that whatever was pleasant and valuable in the kingdom of Israel would now shortly perish, because God would utter his voice from Zion The meaning then is this, — “Ye now lie secure, but God will soon, and even suddenly, put forth his power to destroy you; and this he will do, because he denounces on you destruction now by me, and will raise up other Prophets to be heralds of his vengeance: this will God execute by foreign and heathen nations; but yet your destruction will be according to these threatening which ye now count as nothing. Ye indeed think them to be empty words; but God will at length show that what he declares will be fully accomplished.”
With respect to Carmel, there were two mountains of this name; but as they were both very fertile, there is no need to take much trouble to inquire of which Carmel the Prophet speaks. Sufficient is what has been said, — that such a judgment is denounced on the kingdom of Israel as would consume all its fatness; for as we shall hereafter see, and the same thing has been already stated by the Prophet Hosea, there was great fertility as to pastures in that kingdom.
We must, at the same time, observe, that the Prophet, who was a shepherd, speaks according to his own character, and the manner of life which he followed. Another might have said, ‘Mourn shall the whole country, tremble shall the palaces,’ or something like this; but the Prophet speaks of mount Carmel, and of the habitations of shepherds, for he was a shepherd. His doctrine no doubt was despised, and many profane men probably said, “What! he thinks that he is still with his cows and with his sheep; he boasts that he is God’s prophet, and yet he is ever engrossed by his stalls and his sheepfolds.” It is then by no means improbable, but that he was thus derided by scornful men: but he purposely intended to blunt their petulance, by mingling with what he said as a Prophets those kinds of expressions which savored of his occupation as a shepherd. Let us now proceed —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Whatsoever is fruitful and pleasant in Israel, shall shortly…
Whatsoever is fruitful and pleasant in Israel, shall shortly perish.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Amo 1:2 And he said, The LORD will roar…
Amo 1:2 And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.
Ver. 2. And he said, The Lord will roar] This is spoken for the terror of the wicked, as the like was, Joe 3:16, for the comfort of the godly. {See Trapp on "Joe 3:16"} The word, as Moses, saves the Israelite, slays the Egyptian; and is as the fragrance of precious ointment, of which Oecumenius tells us that it refresheth the dove but killeth the beetle, Columbam vegetat, scarabaeum necat. See 2Co 2:16. {See Trapp on "2Co 2:16"} The prophet here tells idolatrous Israel to their teeth that God will no longer deal fairly with them, as a shepherd, but fiercely, as a lion; he will not only roar upon them, but rend the caul of their hearts; as the lion, together with his roar, lays his paws upon the prey; and that ye may know that these are not hobgolbin terms, devised on purpose to frighten silly people, and that I shoot not popguns at you.
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The habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, &c.] That is, all your bravery shall down; all your wealth and worldly greatness shall wither; the top of your Carmel, the zenith of your prosperity, shall be blasted, and the scene soon altered. All this the prophet, used to shepherdy, expresseth accordingly, artis sum usus sermonibus (as it is natural for all artists to do), but with a great deal of life and boldness. Navita de ventis, de tauris narrat arator. Verbis vivis, animatis sententiis, et spiritus fervore flagrantissimus, as Bucholcer saith of Savonarola’s Meditations upon Psal. 51.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain He; Amos.
He; Amos.
The Lord; the Almighty and Eternal, whom you of the ten tribes have forsaken, and thereby have provoked to displeasure.
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Will roar: the prophet, alluding to what was dreadful, dangerous, and most rousing to shepherds, the roaring of a hungry lion that comes out of his den for prey, doth express the danger of Israel, and would awaken them to a sense of it, that they might prevent it by repentance, before the Lord tears them in pieces as a lion tears his prey.
From Zion; either the temple, in opposition to Jeroboam’s idolatrous chapels; or intimating their defection and sin in leaving Zion for Dan and Beth-el.
Utter his voice: this explains and confirms the former metaphorical expression of God’s wrath.
From Jerusalem; the city God had chosen, where he dwelt, the seat of God’s instituted worship in the matters of religion, and the royal seat of the kingdom as God had settled it, from which in both respects the ten tribes had revolted. This whole paragraph you have Joe 3:16, which see; and Jer 25:30.
The habitations of the shepherds: where the shepherds found convenient pasturage they pitched their tents, or built them cottages, and dwelt therein, that they might attend the care of their flocks, for which they also made folds; and this was the delight and wealth of these men: now by allusion to these Amos expresseth all the wealth, greatness, and delightfulness of the kingdom of Israel. Princes are, in the Greek dialect, shepherds of the people, people are the flock, towns and cities are the habitations of both; and so the Scripture useth the expression, Jer 2:8; 3:15; Eze 34:2,7-9; Na 3:18, which see.
Shall mourn; be made desolate, and reduced to a sad, mournful, and lamentable state, in which men shall see nothing but matter of sadness and tears.
Carmel; there were two places of this name, and though distant from each other, yet both very fruitful, and much used by shepherds; the one was in the northern parts of Canaan, whither Elijah resorted; the other in Judah, the southern parts of Canaan: now this was nearer Tekoa, better known to Amos, and therefore some think this to be here intended; but the other was in Israel, which is here threatened, and therefore fitter to be the emblem of the ten tribes, and meant here, say others: whichever you choose, it is no hard thing to accommodate it to the prophet’s purpose of Carmel: see Nah 1:4.
Shall wither; either blasted, or else dried up with drought, and turned into barrenness. So the whole kingdoms of the people threatened, and of the ten tribes, though as fruitful and pleasant as Carmel, should be made horrid and desolate as a dry and barren wilderness. See Joe 1:12,17.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And he said,.... That is, the Prophet Amos, before…
And he said,.... That is, the Prophet Amos, before described; he, being under divine inspiration, said as follows:
the Lord will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; not from Samaria, nor from Dan and Bethel, but from Zion and Jerusalem, where the temple of the Lord stood; and out of the holy of holies in it, where was the seat of the divine Majesty; and his voice being compared to the roaring of a lion, denotes his wrath and vengeance; and is expressive of some terrible threatening prophecy he would send from hence, by one or other of his prophets; perhaps Amos may mean himself; and who, having been a shepherd or herdsman in the wilderness, had often heard the terrible roaring of the lion, to which he compares his prophecy concerning the judgments of God on nations. Some think reference is had to the earthquake, as Aben Ezra; and which might be attended with thunder and lightning, the voice of God:
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and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn; that is, the huts or cottages they dwell in, erected for the more convenient care of their flocks; these, by a figure, are said to mourn, because exposed to the violent heat of the sun in this time of drought; or because forsaken by the shepherds; or it may design the shepherds themselves that dwelled in them, that should mourn because there was no pasture for their flocks, the grass being dried up, and withered away: and indeed it may be rendered, "the pastures of the shepherds shall mourn" (s); being destroyed by the drought, as the cattle upon them are said to mourn and groan, Joe 1:18;
and the top of Carmel shall wither; a fruitful mountain in the land of Israel; there were two of this name, one in the tribe of Judah, near which Nabal dwelt, Sa1 25:2; another in the tribe of Asher, near to Ptolemais or Aco; some think the former is meant, as being nearer Tekoa, and more known to Amos; others the latter, because Israel or the ten tribes are prophesied against; though Carmel may be taken for any and all fruitful places in the land; and the top or chief of it withering may signify the destruction of everything pleasant and useful. Some think Amos speaks figuratively in the language of a herdsman or shepherd, as artificers and mechanics do in their own way (t); and so by "shepherds" he means kings and princes; and, by their "habitations", their kingdoms, cities, towns, and palaces; and, by "Carmel", their wealth, riches, and precious things, which should all be destroyed; and to this agrees the Targum,
"the habitations of kings shall become desolate, and the strength of their fortresses shall be made a desert.''
(s) "pascua pastorum", Vatablus, Piscator, Grotius, Burkius. (t) "Navita de ventis, de tauris narrat arator, Enumerat miles vulnera, pastor oves". Propert. I. 2. Eleg. 1.
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John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Will roar - Alluding to the roaring of an…
Will roar - Alluding to the roaring of an hungry lion for prey. Jerusalem - The city God had chosen where he dwelt, the seat of God's instituted worship, and the royal seat of the kingdom as God had settled it, from which in both respects the ten tribes had revolted. The habitations - Where the shepherds found pasturage they pitch their tents, and dwelt therein that they might attend their flocks. And this was the delight and wealth of these men; alluding to which Amos expresses the wealth and delight of the kingdom of Israel. Shall wither - Either blasted, or dried up with drought, and turned into barrenness. So the whole kingdom of the ten tribes, though as fruitful as Carmel should be made horrid and desolate as a wilderness.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 2. The Lord will roar from Zion] It…
Verse 2. The Lord will roar from Zion] It is a pity that our translators had not followed the hemistich form of the Hebrew: -
Jehovah from Zion shall roar,
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And from Jerusalem shall give forth his voice;
And the pleasant dwellings of the shepherds shall mourn,
And the top of mount Carmel shall wither.
Carmel was a very fruitful mountain in the tribe of Judah, Jos 15:56; Isa 35:2.
This introduction was natural in the mouth of a herdsman who was familiar with the roaring of lions, the bellowing of bulls, and the lowing of kine. The roaring of the lion in the forest is one of the most terrific sounds in nature; when near, it strikes terror into the heart of both man and beast.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Amo 1:2. The Lord will roar from Zion —…
Amo 1:2. The Lord will roar from Zion — This and the next clause occur, Joe 3:16, and a similar one, Jer 25:30, where see the notes. The meaning is, that God would soon spread terror, like beasts of prey when they roar, chap. Amo 3:8 : or, that he would soon display his power in executing judgment. And utter his voice from Jerusalem — The city God had chosen, where he dwelt; the seat of his instituted worship, and the royal seat of the kingdom, as God had settled it, but from which, in both respects, the ten tribes had revolted. The habitations of the shepherds shall mourn — The shepherds were wont to pitch their tents where they found pasturage, and to dwell therein, that they might attend their flocks. But it is here foretold, that the pasture-ground should wither and become barren, through a drought which would take place, and of which the prophet speaks, chap. Amo 4:7-8. Carmel was a mountainous tract of ground, which ran through the two tribes of Issachar and Zebulon. It is often described as one of the most fruitful places in all Judea: see Isa 33:9; Isa 35:2 : upon which account the word is sometimes taken appellatively, and translated a fruitful field.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The Lord will roar - Amos joins on his…
The Lord will roar - Amos joins on his prophecy to the end of Joel’s, in order at once in its very opening to attest the oneness of their mission, and to prepare people’s minds to see, that his own prophecy was an expansion of those words, declaring the nearer and coming judgments of God. Those nearer judgments, however, of which he spake, were but the preludes of the judgments of the Great Day which Joel foretold, and of that last terrible voice of Christ, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” of whom Jacob prophesies; “He couched, He lay down as a lion, and as a young lion; who shall raise Him up?” Gen 49:9. God is said to “utter His” awful “voice from Zion and Jerusalem,” because there He had set His Name, there He was present in His Church. It was, as it were, His own place, which He had hallowed by tokens of His presence, although “the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him.” In the outset of his prophecy, Amos warned Israel, that there, not among themselves in their separated state, God dwelt. Jeremiah, in using these same words toward Judah, speaks not of Jerusalem, but of heaven; “The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter His voice from His holy habitation” Jer 25:30. The prophecy is to the ten tribes or to the pagan: God speaks out of the Church. He uttereth His Voice out of Jerusalem, as He saith, “Out of Zion shall go forth, the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” Isa 2:3, “where was the Temple and the worship of God, to shew that God was not in the cities of Israel, that is, in Dan and Bethel, where were the golden calves, nor in the royal cities of Samaria and Jezreel, but in the true religion which was then in Zion and Jerusalem.”
And the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn - Perhaps, with a feeling for the home which he had loved and left, the prophet’s first thought amid the desolation which he predicts, was toward his own shepherd-haunts. The well-known Mount Carmel was far in the opposite direction in the tribe of Asher. Its name is derived from its richness and fertility, perhaps “a land of vine and olive yards.” In Jerome’s time, it was “thickly studded with olives, shrubs and vineyards.” “Its very summit of glad pasturcs.”
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It is one of the most striking natural features of Palestine. It ends a line of hills, 18 miles long, by a long bold headland reaching out far into the Mediterranean, and forming the south side of the Bay of Acco or Acre. Rising 1,200 feet above the sea , it stands out “like some guardian of its native strand;” yet withal, it was rich with every variety of beauty, flower, fruit, and tree. It is almost always called “the Carmel,” “the rich garden-ground.” From its neighborhood to the sea, heavy dews nightly supply it with an ever-renewed freshness, so that in mid-summer it is green and flowery . Travelers describe it, as “quite green, its top covered with firs and oaks, lower down with olives and laurels, and everywhere excellently watered.” “There is not a flower,” says Van de Velde , “that I have seen in Galilee or on the plains along the coasts, that I do not find here again on Carmel. It is still the same fragrant lovely mountain as of old.” : “Its varied world of flowers attracts such a number of the rarer vari-colored insects that a collector might for a whole year be richly employed.” “It is a natural garden and repository of herbs.”
Its pastures were rich, so as to equal those of Bashan. “It gives rise to a number of crystal streams, the largest of which gushes from the spring of Elijah” Jer 50:19; Nah 1:4. It had abundant supplies in itself. If it too became a desert, what else would be spared? “If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” Luk 23:31. All, high and low, shall be stricken in one common desolation; all the whole land, fromm “the pastures of the shepherds” in the south to Mount Carmel in the North. And this, as soon as God had spoken. “He spake, and it was made.” So now, contrariwise, He uttercth His Voice, and Carmel hath languished. Its glory hath passed away, as in the twinkling of an eye. God hath spoken the word, and it is gone.
What depended on God’s gifts, abides; what depended on man, is gone. There remains a wild beauty still; but it is the beauty of natural luxuriance. “All,” says one who explored its depths , “lies waste; all is a wilderness. The utmost fertility is here lost for man, useless to man. The vineyards of Carmel, where are they now? Behold the long rows of stones on the ground, the remains of the walls; they will tell you that here, where now with difficulty you force your way through the thick entangled copse, lay, in days of old, those incomparable vineyards to which Carmel owes its name.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Carmel. "God’s vineyard," may dente any fruitful mountain. Amos…
Carmel. "God’s vineyard," may dente any fruitful mountain. Amos refers to pastoral affairs. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain will roar--as a lion (Joe 3:16). Whereas Jehovah is…
will roar--as a lion (Joe 3:16). Whereas Jehovah is there represented roaring in Israel's behalf, here He roars against her (compare Psa 18:13; Jer 25:30).
from Zion . . . Jerusalem--the seat of the theocracy, from which ye have revolted; not from Dan and Beth-el, the seat of your idolatrous worship of the calves.
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habitations . . . mourn--poetical personification. Their inhabitants shall mourn, imparting a sadness to the very habitations.
Carmel--the mountain promontory north of Israel, in Asher, abounding in rich pastures, olives, and vines. The name is the symbol of fertility. When Carmel itself "withers," how utter the desolation! (Sol 7:5; Isa 33:9; Isa 35:2; Jer 50:19; Nah 1:4).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 2. Preface. A verse by itself, containing a general…
2. Preface. A verse by itself, containing a general announcement of judgment. It is but loosely connected with its context; hence it has been claimed that Amos borrowed it from Joel. This cannot be, since Joel is later than Amos. The more recent commentators regard the verse a late interpolation in Amos, dependent on Joe_3:16. Proof of this is lacking; it is equally possible that the passage in Joel is dependent on Amos, especially since the thought of the former is an expansion and exaggeration of that of the latter. Harper advances six reasons against the authenticity of the verse, but not one of them carries conviction. As a preparation for the more detailed delineation of judgment, which is the substance of the book, the verse is not inappropriate. A Judaean prophet would naturally consider Zion the center of Jehovah’s activity; Carmel, which feels the heaviest blow, is a locality in the north, whither Amos was sent.
Roar — The figure is that of a lion roaring as he leaps upon his prey; therefore a herald of imminent destruction.
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Utter his voice — Thunder (Psa_18:13; Psa_46:6, etc.), proclaiming the breaking forth of a destructive tempest. Both phrases express the idea of God’s manifestation in awful judgment (compare Jer_25:30).
Zion… Jerusalem — The earthly habitation of Jehovah, from which his manifestations proceed.
2b calls attention to the consequences of the divine manifestation.
Habitations — R.V., “pastures” (Joe_2:22; Psa_23:2). A pastoral term, equivalent to homestead, including both land and dwellings.
Mourn — Partly in consternation (Amo_8:8; Amo_9:5) when they hear the roar of Jehovah, partly in grief over the destruction wrought and impending.
Top of Carmel — In Hebrew with the article, “the Carmel,” that is, “the garden land.” A mountain ridge in Israel, about twelve miles long, varying in height from five hundred to eighteen hundred feet, running from southeast to northwest, and projecting into the Mediterranean. It is famous because of the events described in 1 Kings 18. Its name was given to it on account of its beauty and fertility (Amo_9:3), which in a measure it still retains. Its top is filled with luxuriant growth of every kind.
Wither — Or, dry up. No more vivid picture of destruction could be painted (Isa_33:9; Nah_1:4). “As the blood runs cold through terror, so Amos pictures the sap of the plants and trees as ceasing to flow when Jehovah’s thunder is heard pealing over the land” (compare Joe_3:16).
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain Amo_1:2. The Exordium
Amo_1:2. The Exordium
2. The Lord] Jehovah,—or, strictly, Yahwèh,—the personal name by which the supreme God was known to the Hebrews. The name—whatever its primitive signification may have been—was interpreted by them (see Exo_3:14) as signifying He that is (or He that will be), viz. not in an abstract sense, He that exists, but He that comes to be, i.e. He whose nature it is ever to express Himself anew, and to manifest Himself under fresh aspects to His worshippers, but who at the same time is determined only by Himself (“I will be that which I will be”), and who is therefore self-consistent, true to His promises, and morally unchangeable[112].
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[112] See more fully an Essay by the present writer on the Tetragrammaton, in Studia Biblica, vol. i. (1885), p. 15–18; Schultz, Theol. of the O. T. ii. 138.
Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem] The words recur verbatim, Joel 3 :(4) 16, and with a modification of the thought, Jer_25:30 (“Jehovah will roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation”). The temple on Zion is Jehovah’s earthly abode; and from it the manifestations of His power over Israel or the world are conceived as proceeding. By the use of the term roar, the prophet shews that he has the figure of a lion in his mind (see Amo_3:8; and cp. Hos_11:10; also Isa_31:4; Hos_13:7-8); and as the ‘roar’ (shâ’ag, not nâham) is the loud cry with which the animal springs upon its prey, it is the sound of near destruction which the prophet hears pealing from Zion. In utter (lit. give) his voice the roar of Jehovah’s voice is compared further with the rolling thunder (cf. Psa_18:13; Psa_46:6; Psa_68:33; Joe_2:11; Isa_30:30): it was the Hebrew idea that in a thunderstorm Jehovah descended and rode through the heavens enveloped in a dark mass of cloud: the lightning-flashes were partings of the cloud, disclosing the brilliancy concealed within (Psa_18:9-13; Job_36:29-32; Job_37:2-5); and the thunder was His voice (comp. the common expression voices for thunder, Exo_9:23; Exo_9:28-29; Exo_9:33-34; Exo_19:16; Exo_20:18; 1Sa_12:17-18; Job_28:26; Job_38:25; and see also Psa_29:3-9).
and the pastures of the shepherds] not habitations; for they are spoken of as ‘springing with young grass’ (Joe_2:22; cp. Psa_23:2), as ‘dropping’ (with fertility) Psa_65:12, and as being ‘dried up’ Jer_23:10 : at most, if the text of Psa_74:20 be sound (see Cheyne and Kirkpatrick), ne’ôth will be a word like homestead, including both the farm and the dwellings upon it. Even, however, if this be the case, habitations is a bad rendering, being much too general. The term is a pastoral one; and Amos, in using it, may have thought primarily of the pastures about his own native place, Tekoa.
shall mourn] partly in consternation (Amo_8:8, Amo_9:5), as they hear the peal of Jehovah’s thunder, partly on account of the desolation, which (see the next clause) that thunder is conceived as producing. A land, when its vegetation is dried up, or destroyed (Jer_12:11), is said poetically to ‘mourn’: for mourn and be dried up, as here, in parallelism, see Jer_12:4; Jer_23:10; comp. mourn and languish (of the land, or its products) Isa_24:7; Isa_33:9; Joe_1:10.
the top of Carmel] Jehovah’s judgment does not stop at Tekoa; it sweeps northwards, and embraces even the majestic, thickly-wooded headland of Carmel. Carmel—in the Heb. usually with the art., the Carmel, i.e. the garden-land—is the bold, bluff promontory, one of the most conspicuous of the natural features of Palestine, formed by a ridge of hills, some 18 miles long, and 1200–1600 feet high, stretching out far into the Mediterranean Sea, and forming the S. side of the Bay of Acre. It still bears the character which its name suggests. “Modern travellers delight to describe its ‘rocky dells with deep jungles of copse’—‘its shrubberies thicker than any others in central Palestine’ (Stanley)—‘its impenetrable brushwood of oaks and other evergreens, tenanted in the wilder parts by a profusion of game and wild animals’ (Porter), but in other parts bright with hollyhocks, jasmine, and various flowering creepers” (D.B[113][114] s.v.). The luxuriant forests of Carmel are often alluded to in the O.T.: ch. Amo_9:3 (as a hiding-place), Isa_35:2 (‘the majesty of Carmel’), Mic_7:14; and (poetically) as shaking off their leaves, or languishing, Isa_33:9, Nah_1:4.
[113] .B. … Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, ed. 1, or (from A to J) ed. 2.
[114] … Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, ed. 1, or (from A to J) ed. 2.
shall be dried up] as the blood runs cold through terror, so Amos pictures the sap of plants and trees as ceasing to flow, when Jehovah’s thunder is heard pealing over the land. Cf. Nah_1:4. In Joe_3:16 the effects of His thunder are that “the heavens and the earth shake.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (2) Roar.—The prolonged thunder-peal, or lion’s roar, of the…
(2) Roar.—The prolonged thunder-peal, or lion’s roar, of the Divine voice, reverberates from the theocratic metropolis of Zion, to the luxuriant slopes of the noble Carmel, which forms the southern promontory of the Bay of Acre. The “pastures of the Shepherds” remind us of Psalms 23, and refers us to the prophet’s own home in the wilderness of Tekoah. The same expression “head (or ‘top’) of Carmel” occurs in 1Ki_18:42, and in Amo_9:3. Compare the modern name Ras-el-Kerum. The whole country from south to north is summoned to listen to the Divine voice.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And he said. This is the commencement of "the…
And he said. This is the commencement of "the words" of Amos (ver. 1); and herein the prophet gives a short summary of the judgment which he has to pronounce. The following clause is a repetition Joe_3:16; and Amos thus connects his prophecy with that of his predscessor, to show the unity of prophetic mission, and to warn the Jews that God"s punishments are not directed exclusively on heathen nations. To the nations denounced by Joel, Amos adds others of Israel"s enemies, viz. Syria, Ammon, and Moab. Roar voice. The thunder is the voice of God announcing his coming to judge. From Zion. Not from Dan and Bethel, the seats of idolatrous worship, but from Jerusalem, the abode of his presence. The habitations; better, the pastures. It is only natural that Amos, the shepherd, should use such terms to express the idea that the whole land, from Jerusalem on the south to Carmel on the north, should feel the vengeance of the Lord. Shall mourn; explained by the following term, shall wither; i.e. shall lose their verdure. (comp. Jer_12:11; Hos_4:3) The top of Carmel. This is the Mount Carmel, which stretches boldly into the sea on the south of the Bay of Acre, and is remarkable for its extreme fertility, its rich pastures, its vines, olives, fruits, and flowers. Thomson, "The Land and the Book;" writes thus about it: "The celebrated ridge, called in the Bible Merest Carmel, and by the Arabs Jebel Kurmul, or Mar Elyas, in honour of Elijah, is an extension of the hills of Samaria, in a northwesterly direction, for a distance of about eighteen miles, terminating in the bold promontory of Carmel, which descends almost literally into the sea. It is steep and lofty where it overhangs the Mediterranean above Haifa, and on that face which overlooks the Plain of Acre on the north, and that of Esdraelon towards the southeast. There is no special excellency in Carmel at the present day, whatever may be said of Sharon. Its name, Kurmul, or Kerm-el, signifies "the vineyard of God;" but its vineyards have all disappeared. It was a glorious mountain, however, and a prominent landmark; according to Jeremiah, (Jer_46:18) Carmel was a resort of herdsmen. Amos says, "The habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither," in the time of the threatened judgment, and this implies that its pastures were not ordinarily liable to wither. This may, in part, have been occasioned by the heavy dews which its lofty elevation, so near the sea, causes to distil nightly upon its thirsty head. I found it quite green and flowery in midsummer. It was a noble pasture field, and, in reference to that characteristic, Micah utters his sweet prayer, "Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel; let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
The thunder that both frights and smites.
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These words are an echo of Joe_3:16. We hence infer the continuity of the two prophetic messages. The one strikes the keynote, and the other takes up and continues the strain.
I DIVINE INTERVENTION. This is to end a period of quiescence. It is:
1. Intervention. "Utters his voice." The silence of God is often treated as equivalent to inaction. (Psa_28:1 Psa_50:21) So his speech would mean his becoming active, whether for good or for evil. Here the breaking silence is for evil. God bears long with his open enemies, and longer still with his seeming friends. But inactivity does not show indifference nor inattention. It is simply forbearance, that will not strike till it must. Action delayed is no less certain, and will be no less vigorous for the delay.
2. Angry intervention. Shall "roar," like a lion ready to devour. Not till his anger burneth sore does God break the silence. But when he breaks it he does so emphatically. He thunders with his voice. His roar expresses wrath, and preludes a stroke; and is thus power and light in one. (Job_37:5 Job_40:9)
3. Forcible intervention. God"s speech is followed by action. It is more; it is accompanied by action. It is more still; it is itself action. Creative power, preserving power, redeeming power, each goes forth in a word (Psa_33:6, Psa_33:9; Mat_9:2) Christ says, "Be clean," "Come forth;" and the sick are whole, and the dead live at his word. In speaking, God acts. The thunder of his voice is loaded with the electricity of his power. The vehicle of the Divine active energy is, in fact, a word.
II GOD"S BASIS OF OPERATIONS. God intervenes in character, and along established lines. He operates:
1. From Jerusalem. This is God"s own city, the metropolis of his earthly kingdom. Nothing could be more appropriate. Going forth to war, the king marches from his capital. There he has his magazine, his arsenal, and his headquarters. From thence he can bear down resistlessly on foes from whatever side, with all the resources of his kingdom.
2. From Zion. God"s seat and citadel within his city. The place he loves and chooses and honours above all others. (Psa_87:2 Psa_132:13 Psa_48:12, Psa_48:13) Here he has made his dwelling place. (Psa_68:16 Psa_132:14) The place out of which go forth salvation and destruction. The place out of which the things that come are perfect after their kind. If they be blessings, there are no others so sweet; if curses, no others so stern. Zion is the beating heart of the spiritual world, which sends forth pure or poisoned blood to each greatest and least extremity.
3. From the temple. This is not mentioned, but it is necessarily implied. The glory of Jerusalem was Zion, and the glory of Zion (using the word in its broad sense) was God"s house. This was his sanctuary. There he dwelt in symbolic presence. There he revealed himself in symbolic portraiture. There he operated in unparalleled energy. Thence accordingly we might expect his activity to issue. (Psa_20:2) There, too, was his mercy seat, from which judgment never came till every merciful expedient had been tried, but would come then with the fury of outraged goodness. Now, Jerusalem and Zion and God"s house are each a type, and their common anti-type is the Church of Christ. And this is God"s base of spiritual operations through all time (Isa_2:3; Luk_24:47) He dwells in it (Act_7:38; Eph_1:23) speaks by it, (Eph_3:10) operates through it, (Dan_2:44) and conquers in it. (Dan_7:13, Dan_7:22)
III AFTER THE CAMPAIGN. God makes no fruitless expedition. The armies of his judgments leave desolation in their track.
1. The pastures wither. God"s voice, as a figure for meteorological phenomena, is often spoken of as changing the surface of the earth. (Psa_29:3-9) Here it stands for many agencies, including these, and especially drought. Nature is one, and if any part suffers the other parts suffer with it. (Jer_25:36) Amos, as a herdsman, thinks naturally first of the calamity as it would affect the pastures by which he made his living. God"s judgments strike each man in his special interest. It is as menacing this interest chiefly that they are feared.
2. The head of Carmel is dried up. Carmel was in the north, and the pastures in the prophet"s mind were in the south. The enumeration, therefore, points to the withering as prevailing over the entire land. Carmel was one of the richest and best-watered spots in Palestine. When it was withered, all other places must have been scorched. God"s judgments come seldom, and with tardy foot; but they are thorough, and make an end of their work (1Sa_3:12; Isa_60:12) Nor was this a passing visitation. It remains in its leading characteristics till the present day. Carmel, as its name implies, was rich in vineyards. Now there is only scrub, and the debris of ruined walls. The "head" is dried up, that might once have been said to "drop down new wine.
The voice of terror.
This imagery is evidently derived from the prophet"s own experience. In the southeast of Palestine the lion was a frequent and formidable visitor, which every herdsman had reason to dread. The majestic roar of the king of beasts is here employed to denote the judgments of the Lord upon the disobedient and rebellious, especially of Israel.
I OBSERVE WHENCE THE VOICE OF THREATENING PROCEEDS.
1. It is the voice of the Lord that voice which assumes now the accentsof compassion and mercy, and again the tones of wrath, but which is always authoritative.
2. It proceeds from the sacred city, which was the favoured abode ofJehovah.
II AND WHITHER THE VOICE OF THREATENING PENETRATES. From the habitations of the shepherds in the south, to the flowery Carmel in the north, this roar makes itself heard. That is to say, it fills the land. Judah and Israel alike have by disobedience and rebellion incurred Divine displeasure, and against both alike the denunciations of the prophet go forth.
III CONSIDER THE EFFECT WHICH THE VOICE OF THREATENING SHOULD PRODUCE.
1. Reverent attention.
2. Deep humiliation and contrition.
3. Repentance and prayer.
4. Such reformation as the heavenly summons imperativelydemands. T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain The Lord will roar from Zion.
Amo_1:2
The Lord will roar from Zion.
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The stern voice of God
The prophet not only shows here, that God was the Author of his doctrine, but at the same time he distinguishes between the true God, and the idols, which the first Jeroboam made, when by this artifice he intended to withdraw the ten tribes from the house of David, and wholly to alienate them from the tribe of Judah: it was then that he set up the calves in Dan and Bethel. The prophet now shows that all these superstitions are condemned by the true God. Jehovah then will roar from Zion, He will utter His voice from Jerusalem. He, no doubt, wished here to terrify the Israelites, who thought they had peace with God. Since, then, they abused His long-suffering, Amos now says that they would find at length that He was not asleep. When God, then, shall long bear with your iniquities, He will at last rise up for judgment. By roaring is signified the terrible voice of God; but the prophet here speaks of Gods voice, rather than of what are called actual judgments really executed, that the Israelites might learn that the examples of punishments which God executes in the world happen not by chance or at random, but proceed from His threatenings; in short, the prophet intimates that all punishments which God inflicts on the ungodly and the despisers of His Word are only the executions of what the prophets proclaimed, in order that men, should there be any hope of their repentance, might anticipate the destruction which they hear to be nigh. The prophet commends very highly the truth of what God teaches, by saying that it is not what vanishes, but what is accomplished; for when He destroys nations and kingdoms, it comes to pass according to prophecies. (John Calvin.)
The penalty of sin
I. The change which sin works in the relations between earth and heaven. The Lord will roar from Zion. The figure is that of a lion ready for its prey. Can this be He of whose tenderness Moses spoke? (Deu_32:9-14.) What had wrought such a change between God and His people? Years of wandering, and rebellion, and sin can alone explain this change. Contrast between the friendship and the enmity of God a fruitful means to awaken the sinner and save His own people from wandering (Isa_40:11).
II. The place from which danger should come--Zion and Jerusalem. These were the centres of the old national worship--places that God had chosen to put His name there. In the palaces of Zion God had been known for a refuge. Sin turned the sources of peace and prosperity into the seat of their mightiest enemy.
III. The time of the prophecy of woe. An era of hope. Prosperity had returned (2Ki_14:25). The prophecy burst upon them like thunder out of a blue sky, or as if one, in full tide of health, should see his own funeral procession pass. However dazzling the prosperity to which sin may have raised men, its time of most luxuriant growth is often the hour of its blasting. The Judge standeth at the door.
IV. The visitation was to touch them on the side where they would most feel it--temporal prosperity. The habitations of the shepherds shall mourn--poetic personification of the ruin that should come to that class of which Amos had so recently been a member. Carmel--the place of surpassing fertility--abounding in rich pastures, olives, and vines. God takes what men prize most if haply their heart may be softened by His visitation. Application
(1) The concurrence of testimony among all Divine messengers to the certainty of vengeance due for wrong. Only false prophets can utter the smooth things which sinners would fain hear.
(2) The change in Gods dealings with men wrought by sin. (J. Telford, B. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain "Roar," etc. Cf. Isa 42:13; Jer 25:30-33; Hos 11:10;…
roar
"Roar," etc. Cf. Isa 42:13; Jer 25:30-33; Hos 11:10; Hos 11:11; Joe 3:16. It will be found that wherever the phrase occurs it is connected with the destruction of Gentile dominion (see "Times of the Gentiles," Luk 21:24. (See Scofield "Rev 16:19") and the blessing of Israel in the kingdom. Without a doubt a near fulfilment upon Syria occurred 2Ki 14:28 but the expression, "the Lord will roar," looks forward to a vaster fulfilment. See Scofield "Joe 1:4".
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 1:2 This message speaks of judgment at the day…
1:2 This message speaks of judgment at the day of the Lord. • Mount Zion (the Temple in Jerusalem) was the logical source of a message from the Lord. • Mount Carmel rises from the Mediterranean Sea and is well watered even in time of drought. If all the grass on Mount Carmel withered, it would be the sign of a catastrophic drought.
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