Hear this word that Yahweh has spoken against you, children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying:
Parallel Translations
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Hear this word that Yahweh has spoken against you, children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying:
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Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,
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Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying:
Cross-references (12)
Passages linked to Amos 3:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Amos 2:10 Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.
- Jeremiah 8:3 Death will be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Micah 3:1 I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice?
- 2 Chronicles 20:15 and he said, “Listen, all Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, king Jehoshaphat. Yahweh says to you, ‘Don’t be afraid, and don’t be dismayed because of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.
- Isaiah 48:12 “Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he. I am the first. I am also the last.
- Jeremiah 31:1 “At that time,” says Yahweh, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”
- Ezekiel 37:16-17 “You, son of man, take one stick, and write on it, ‘For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions.’ Then take another stick, and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions.’ Then join them for yourself to one another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand.
- Hosea 4:1 Hear Yahweh’s word, you children of Israel; for Yahweh has a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “Indeed there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.
- Isaiah 46:3 “Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been carried from their birth, that have been carried from the womb.
- Jeremiah 33:24-26 “Don’t consider what this people has spoken, saying, ‘Has Yahweh cast off the two families which he chose?’ Thus they despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.” Yahweh says: “If my covenant of day and night fails, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; then I will also cast away the offspring of Jacob, and of David my servant, so that I will not take of his offspring to be rulers over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to be reversed and will have mercy on them.”
- Hosea 5:1 “Listen to this, you priests! Listen, house of Israel, and give ear, house of the king! For the judgment is against you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread on Tabor.
- Revelation 2:29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (24 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain The Prophet wished doubtless by these words to confirm…
The Prophet wished doubtless by these words to confirm his own authority, for he saw that his doctrine was regarded with contempt: and it is probable that the words recited here were not only once delivered by him, but had been often repeated. We know how great was the pride and confidence of that people: it was therefore needful to beat it down, that they might be habituated to dread and fear, when God reproved them by his Prophets.
It was then the common mode of speaking, when he said, Hear the word which God has spoken concerning your, O children of Israel. He brings forward here the name of God, that they might know that they had not to do with a mortal man, or with a shepherd, such as he was. We then observe here, what I have just referred to, and that is, that the Prophet seeks to strengthen his authority as a teacher, that he might gain more respect among the people. But he adds, concerning the whole family which I brought up out of Egypt It is certain that this discourse was not addressed except to the ten tribes; why, then, does the Prophet speak here so generally? Even because the kingdom of Israel formed the greater portion of the race of Abraham, and on this account they boasted that the adoption continued to be possessed by them. Since, then, they despised the tribe of Judah, and the half-tribe of Benjamin, which was connected with it, and had ever boasted of their great number, the Prophet says here, by way of concession, that they were indeed the blessed seed, the posterity of Abraham; in a word, the elect people, whom God had redeemed from Egypt. Then the Prophet includes not here the kingdom of Judah, but concedes to the Israelites what they boasted, — that they were the elect people, the holy race of Abraham, the very nation which had been miraculously delivered. “Let, then,” he says, “all these boastings be granted, yet God will not, on this account, desist from executing his judgment upon them.”
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We now apprehend the design of the Prophet: he first seeks to gain respect for his doctrine, and takes occasion to speak of his own vocation, that he brought nothing of his own, but only discharged faithfully the office committed to him; yea, that he was the organ of the Holy Spirit, and adduced nothing from his own mind, but only spoke what the Lord had commanded him. And then, as the Israelites, relying on their large number, thought that wrong was done them, when they were severely reprehended by the Prophets, and as there was an absurd rivalship between them and the kingdom of Judah, the Prophet concedes to them that for which they were foolishly proud; but, at the same time, he shows that they in vain confided in their number, inasmuch as God summoned them to judgment, though they were the elect people, and the holy seed, and the redeemed nation. These are the main points.
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.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Amo 3:1 Hear this word that the LORD hath…
Amo 3:1 Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,
Ver. 1. Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken, &c.] Here beginneth the second sermon, tending to confirm what had been affirmed in the former, and evincing the equity of the judgments there threatened for their hateful ingratitude and other horrible offences, condemned and cried out upon by the very heathens.
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Hear this word] Verbum hoc decretorium, this notable word. There are three articles in the original; and there is not the least tittle in the text upon which there hangeth not a mountain of sense, said the Rabbis; this next verse ( את δψαψ ηζδ; so Mat 22:21; τα του Yεου τω Yεω).
That the Lord hath spoken] And shall he not do it? Who ever waxed fierce against God and prospered? Job 9:4.
Against you, O children of Israel] By his word Christ many times secretly smites the earth, Isa 11:4, that is, the consciences of carnal men, glued to the earth: He sets a continual edge upon the word, and consumes them by his rebukes, till he have wearied them with his secret buffets and terrors; and then in the end casts them into a reprobate sense, as he did the Pharisees, who were toties puncti et repuncti, minime tamen ad resipiscentiam compuncti.
Against the whole family] The Dodecaphylon, all the twelve tribes, the whole house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, Isa 48:1; God stands not upon multitudes, Psa 9:17, nor matters whether it be against a nation that he speaketh and acteth, or against a man only, Job 34:29.
Which I brought up from the land of Egypt] This they often hear of by way of exprobation, as Amo 2:10. God seeming to repent him for their detestable unthankfulness, as David did of the kindness he had shown unworthy Nabal, in safe guarding his substance, 1Sa 25:7; and to complain, as Frederick III, Emperor of Germany did, that of those courtiers whom he had advanced he found scarcely any that proved faithful to him, but the worse for his courtesy; or as Queen Elizabeth, that in trust she had found treason.
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 Hear, with ear and mind, consider it well, for…
Hear, with ear and mind, consider it well, for this is to hear indeed.
This word, which is spoken, and the thing decreed too, of God.
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The Lord hath spoken; the Lord, who did show you greatest kindness, and whom you have repaid with greatest ingratitude, the everlasting God, who changeth not, hath determined and declared his determinate purpose; against you; or to, or concerning; for if menaces are words against them, yet advice, exhortations, and promises are to, and concerning, those to whom they are spoken.
O children of Israel; subjects of Jeroboam the Second, now king of the ten tribes.
Against the whole family: and let the two tribes consider too how far they are concerned in the prophet’s reproving for sin, calling to repent of sin, and threatening it they do not repent.
Brought up from the land of Egypt: see Amo 2:10.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain The scope of these verses is to convince the…
The scope of these verses is to convince the people of Israel that God had a controversy with them. That which the prophet has to say to them is to let them know that the Lord has something to say against them, Amo 3:1. They were his peculiar people above others, knew his name, and were called by it; nevertheless he had something against them, and they were called to hear what it was, that they might consider what answer they should make, as the prisoner at the bar is told to hearken to his indictment. The children of Israel would not regard the words of counsel and comfort that God had many a time spoken to them, and now they shall be made to hear the word of reproof and threatening that the Lord has spoken against them; for he will act as he has spoken.
I. Let them know that the gracious cognizance God has taken of them, and the favours he has bestowed upon them, should not exempt them from the punishment due to them for their sins. Israel is a family that God brought up out of the land of Egypt, (Amo 3:1), and it was no more than a family when it went down thither; thence God delivered it; thence he fetched it to be a family to himself. It is not only the ten tribes, the kingdom of Israel, that must take notice of this, but that of Judah also, for it is spoken against the whole family that God brought up out of Egypt. It is a family that God has bestowed distinguishing favours upon, has owned in a peculiar manner. You only have I known of all the families of the earth. Note, God's church in the world is a family dignified above all the families of the earth. Those that know God are known of him. In Judah is God known, and therefore Judah is more than any people known of God. God has known them, that is, he has chosen them, covenanted with them, and conversed with them as his acquaintance. Now, one would think, it should follow, "Therefore I will spare you, will connive at your faults, and excuse you." No: Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Note, The distinguishing favours of God to us, if they do not serve to restrain us from sin, shall not serve to exempt us from punishment; nay, the nearer any are to God in profession, and the kinder notice he has taken of them, the more surely, the more quickly, and the more severely will he reckon with them, if they by a course of wilful sin profane their character, disgrace their relation to him, violate their engagements, and put a slight upon the favours and honours with which they have been distinguished. Therefore they shall be punished, because their sins dishonour him, affront him, and grieve him, more than the sins of others, and because it is necessary that God should vindicate his own honour by making it appear that he hates sin and hates it most in those that are nearest to him; if they be but as bad as others, they shall be punished worse than others, because it is justly expected that they should be so much better than others. Judgment begins at the house of God, begins at the sanctuary; for God will be sanctified either by or upon those that come nigh unto him, Lev 10:3.
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II. Let them know that they could not expect any comfortable communion with God unless they first made their peace with him (Amo 3:3): Can two walk together except they be agreed? No; how should they? Where there is not friendship there can be no fellowship; if two persons be at variance, they must first accommodate the matters in difference between them before there can be any interchanging of good offices. Israel has affronted God, had broken their covenant with him, and ill-requited his favours to them; and yet they expected that he should continue to walk with them, should take their part, act for them, and give them assurances of his presence with them, though they took no care by repentance and reformation to agree with their adversary and to turn away his wrath. "But how can that be?" says God. "While you continue to walk contrary to God you can look for no other than that he should walk contrary to you," Lev 26:23, Lev 26:24. Note, We cannot expect that God should be present with us, or act for us, unless we be reconciled to him. God and man cannot walk together except they be agreed. Unless we agree with God in our end, which is his glory, we cannot walk with him by the way.
III. Let them know that the warnings God gave them of judgments approaching were not causeless and groundless, merely to amuse them, but certain declarations of the wrath of God against them, which (if they did not speedily repent) they would infallibly feel the effects of (Amo 3:4): "Will a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey in view? No: he roars upon his prey. Nor will a young lion cry out of his den if the old lion have taken nothing to bring home to him; nor would God thus give you warning both by the threatenings of his word, and by less judgments, if you had not by your sins made yourselves a prey to his wrath, nor if he were not really about to fall upon you with desolating destroying judgments." Note, The threatenings of the word and providence of God are not bugbears, to frighten children and fools, but are certain inferences from the sin of man and certain presages of the judgments of God.
IV. Let them know that, as their own wickedness was the procuring cause of these judgments, so they shall not be removed till they have done their work, Amo 3:5. When God has come forth to contend with a sinful people it is necessary that they should understand, 1. That it is their own sin that has entangled them; for can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no gin is for him? No, nature does not lay snares for the creatures, but the art of men; a bird is not taken in a snare by chance, but with the fowler's design; so the providence of God prepares trouble for sinners, and it is in the work of their own hands that they are snared. Affliction does not spring out of the dust, but it is God's justice, and our own wickedness, that correct us. 2. It is nothing but their own repentance that can disentangle them; for shall one take up a snare from the earth, which he laid with design, except he have taken something as he designed? So neither will God remove the affliction he has sent till it have done its work and accomplished that for which he sent it. If our hearts be duly humbled, and we are brought by our afflictions to confess and forsake our sins, then the snare has taken something, then the point is gained, the end is answered, and then, and not till then, the snare is broken, is taken up from the earth, and we are delivered in love and mercy.
V. Let them know that all their troubles came from the hand of God's providence and from the counsel of his will (Amo 3:6): Shall there be evil in a city, in a family, in a nation, and the Lord has not done it, appointed it, and performed what he appointed? The evil of sin is from ourselves; it is our own doing. But the evil of trouble, personal or public, is from God, and is his doing; whoever are the instruments, God is the principal agent. Out of his mouth both evil and good proceed. This consideration, that, whatever evil is in the city, the Lord has done it, should engage us patiently to bear our share in public calamities and to study to answer God's intention in them.
VI. Let them know that their prophets, who give them warning of judgments approaching, deliver nothing to them but what they have received from the Lord to be delivered to his people. 1. God makes it known beforehand to the prophets (Amo 3:7): Surely the Lord Jehovah will do nothing, none of that evil in the city spoken of (Amo 3:6), but he reveals it to his servants the prophets, though to others it is a secret. Therefore those know not what they do who make light of the warnings which the prophets give them, in God's name. Observe, God's prophets are his servants, whom he employs to go on his errands to the children of men. The secret of God is with them; it is in some sense with all the righteous (Pro 3:32), with all that fear God (Psa 25:14), but in a peculiar manner with the prophets, to whom the Spirit of prophecy is a Spirit of revelation. It would have put honour enough upon prophets if it had been only said that sometimes God is pleased to reveal to his prophets what he designs to do, but it speaks something very great to say that he does nothing but what he reveals to them, as if they were the men of his counsel. Shall I hide from Abraham, who is a prophet, the thing which I do? Gen 18:17. God will therefore be sure to reckon with those that put contempt on the prophets, whom he puts this honour upon. 2. The prophets cannot but make that known to the people which God has made known to them (Amo 3:8): The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy? His prophets, to whom he has spoken in secret by dreams and visions, cannot but speak in public to the people what they have heard from God. They are so full of those things themselves, so well assured concerning them, and so much affected with them, that they cannot but speak of them; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak. I believed; therefore have I spoken, Act 4:20. Nay, and besides the prophetic impulse which went along with the inspiration, and made the word like a fire in their bones (Jer 20:9), they received a command from God to deliver what they had been charged with; and they would have been false to their trust if they had not done it. Necessity was laid upon them, as upon the preachers of the gospel, Co1 9:16.
VII. Let them know that they ought to tremble before God upon the fair warning he had given them, as they would, 1. Upon the sounding of a trumpet, to give notice of the approach of the enemy, that all may stand upon their guard and stand to their arms: Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people be not afraid, or run together? so some read it, Amo 3:6. Will they not immediately come together in a fright, to consider what is best to be done for the common safety? Yet when God by his prophets gives them notice of their danger, and summons them to come and enlist themselves under his banner, it makes no impression; they will sooner give credit to a watchman on their walls than to a prophet sent of God, will sooner obey the summons of the governor of their city than the orders given them by the Governor of the world. God says, Hearken to the voice of the trumpet; but they will not hearken, nay, and they tell him plainly that they will not, Jer 6:17. 2. Upon the roaring of a lion. God is sometimes as a lion, and a young lion, to the house of Judah, Hos 5:14. The lion roars before he tears; thus God warns before he wounds. If therefore the lion roars upon a poor traveller (as he did against Samson, Jdg 14:5), he cannot but be put into great consternation; yet the Lord roars out of Zion (Amo 1:2), and none are afraid, but they go on securely as if they were in no danger. Note, The fair warning given to a careless world, if it be not taken, will aggravate its condemnation another day. The lion roared, and they were not moved with fear to prepare an ark. O the amazing stupidity of an unbelieving world, that will not be wrought upon, no, not by the terrors of the Lord!
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against…
Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel,.... The prophecy against Israel begins in the preceding chapter, where notice is taken of their sins, at least some of them, and of their aggravated circumstances, and sure destruction; and here they are called upon to hearken and listen to what the Lord by his prophet had spoken, and was about to speak unto them; and to "receive" this word, as the Targum; to receive it as the word of God, and not men, and with all humility and reverence; and to take it, and apply it to themselves, to whom it justly belonged; and to make a proper use and improvement of it by humiliation and reformation. A word this was,
against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt; it was but a family that went down into Egypt, and, though it greatly increased there, it was no more when it was brought up from thence: a family under the peculiar care of Jehovah, as the bringing them out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, when greatly distressed there, abundantly shows; and which was a wonderful blessing and favour; and therefore often mentioned, and led on to many other blessings and mercies: a family which was the Lord's own, and therefore he had a right to chastise and correct them for their sins. It seems by this phrase, "the whole family", as if the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin were included: though the prophecy seems chiefly intended against the ten tribes, which went by the name of Israel, ever since the breach in Rehoboam's time, as distinct from Judah;
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saying; as follows:
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Judgments denounced against Israel, ver. 1-8. Which cannot be…
Judgments denounced against Israel, ver. 1-8. Which cannot be prevented, unless they repent, ver. 9-15.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain This chapter begins with reproving the twelve tribes in
CHAPTER III
This chapter begins with reproving the twelve tribes in
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general, 1, 2;
and then particularly the kingdom of Israel, whose capital was
Samaria. Thee prophet assures them that, while they were at
variance with God, it would be unreasonable in them to expect
his presence or favour, 3-8.
Other neighbouring nations are then called upon to take warning
from the judgments about to be inflicted upon the house of
Israel, which would be so general that only a small remnant
should escape them, 9-15.
The image used by the prophet on this occasion, (see Am 3:12,)
and borrowed from his former calling, is very natural and
significant, and not a little dignified by the inspired
writer's lofty air and manner.
NOTES ON CHAP. III
Verse 1. Against the whole family] That is, all, both the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. In this all the twelve tribes are included.
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 3:1-2. Hear this word against the whole family,…
Amo 3:1-2. Hear this word against the whole family, &c. — All that family of which Jacob, or Israel, was the head. The word family is equivalent to people here and in the following verse. You only have I known — Acknowledged, by revealing myself to you, protecting you, and conferring on you peculiar privileges. Therefore will I punish you — Your sins, therefore, shall be punished, and that in an exemplary manner; because you have sinned against greater light and higher obligations than other nations are or have been favoured with; and you have manifested an ungrateful, as well as a disobedient spirit. For the same reason the angel is commanded to begin his execution at the sanctuary, Eze 9:6; and St. Peter observes, that judgment must begin at the house of God, 1Pe 4:17: see also the margin.
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 Amos, like Hosea, rebukes Israel directly, Judah indirectly. He…
Amos, like Hosea, rebukes Israel directly, Judah indirectly. He had warned each nation separately. Now, ere he concentrates himself on Israel, he sums up what he had before said to Judah and in the Person of God. “Ye have been alike in My gifts to you, alike in your waste of them and your sins; alike ye shall be in your punishment.” What was said to Israel was said also to Judah: what was directed first to the former people, belongs to us, the later. What Jesus said to the Apostles, He said also to the Church, and to single souls, “What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch” Mar 13:37.
Hear ye this word - With that solemn threefold call, so frequent in the Old Testament, he summons them thrice Amo 3:1; Amo 4:1; Amo 5:1, as in the Name of the Holy Trinity, to hear God’s words. : “The prophet, at the outset of the chapter, rouses the hearers to anxious consideration. For the words of the most High God are to be heard, not with a superficial, unawed, wandering mind, but with reverence, fear, and love.”
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That the Lord hath spoken against - (and upon) you, (coming down from heaven Heb 12:25, both “upon” and “against” them) the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt To Abraham God had said, “in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” Gen 12:3. So now, in withdrawing that blessing from them. He takes it away from them, family by family Zec 12:12. He includes them, one and all, and Judah also, since all had been “brought out of Egypt.”
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 Family, including all the posterity of Jacob. (Worthington) ---…
Family, including all the posterity of Jacob. (Worthington) --- He afterwards addresses the ten tribes in particular. (St. Jerome) (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).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain II. To the Kingdom of Israel, especially to its…
CHAPTERS 3–6
II. To the Kingdom of Israel, especially to its Great Men, the Divine Judgment is announced upon the Prevailing Sins, unless Men seek the Lord.
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Amos 3
1. As surely as the Prophet bears the Divine Commission, will God punish Israel.
1 Hear this word,
Which Jehovah speaks concerning you, ye sons of Israel,
Concerning the whole family
Which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,
2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth;
Therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities.
3 Do two walk together
Unless they have agreed1
4 Does the lion roar in the forest
When he has no prey?
Does the young lion utter his cry out of his den
Unless he has taken something?
5 Does a bird fall into a trap2 on the ground
When there is no snare for him?
Does the trap rise up from the earth
Without catching anything at all?
6 Or is a trumpet blown in a city,
And the people are not alarmed?
Or does misfortune occur in a city,
And Jehovah has not caused it?
7 [No;] for3 the Lord Jehovah does nothing
Without having revealed his secret to his servants, the prophets.
8 The lion roars,
Who does not fear?
The Lord Jehovah speaks,
Who must not prophesy?
9 Make it heard over the palaces in Ashdod,
And over the palaces in the land of Egypt,
And say, assemble upon the mountains of Samaria,
And see the great confusions in the midst thereof,4
And the oppressed in the heart thereof.
10 And they know not to do right, saith Jehovah,
They who store up violence and devastation in their palaces.
11 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah,
An enemy, and that round about the land!5
And he shall bring down thy strength6 from thee,
And thy palaces shall be plundered.
12 Thus saith Jehovah,
As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion
Two legs or an ear-lappet,
So shall the sons of Israel deliver themselves;
They who sit in Samaria
On the corner of the couch and on the damask of the bed.7
13 Hear ye and testify to the house of Jacob,
Saith the Lord Jehovah, the God of Hosts:
14 That in the day when I visit Israel’s transgressions upon him,
I will visit the altars of Bethel,
And the horns of the altar8 shall be cut off and fall to the ground.
15 And I will smite the winter-house with the summer-house,
And the houses of ivory shall perish,9
And many10 houses shall disappear.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Amo_3:1-2. Hear this word which Jehovah, etc. “Hear this word.” This phrase is repeated at the beginning of chaps, 5. and 6. It therefore shows this chapter to contain one address complete in itself. See the Introduction. Upon the whole family. Although afterwards destruction is threatened only against the ten tribes, yet here the entire race is included. The people as a whole were known and chosen of God, and therefore the punishment of sin is set forth in universal terms. Just so far as sin extends, punishment will and must come. Certainly this occurred first in the case of the ten tribes, but how little Judah could count upon being spared, has already been seen in Amo_5:4, etc.
Amo_3:2. Only you have I known. This is equivalent to “I have chosen,” since the knowing expresses a relation of sympathy and love, as “the motive and the result of the election.”
2. Amo_3:3-8. Do two walk together, etc. The general announcement of a punitive judgment is followed—without any apparent connection with the foregoing—by a series of propositions illustrated by examples from daily life. Plainly, these perhaps proverbial phrases are here introduced only by way of comparison. They illustrate the principle that every effect has its cause.
Amo_3:4. When he has no prey, refers, as Keil justly states, not to the actual seizing of the prey by the lion, but to his having it before him so that it cannot escape. In like manner, the phrase in the second clause, “unless he has taken something,” is to be explained. The lion makes his capture not merely when he has seized and is rending the prey, but when it is so near that escape is impossible. [The lion, as a rule, roars most terribly when it has the prey in sight, upon which it immediately springs. Bochart.]
Amo_3:5. Does the trap rise up? because lifted up by the bird flying away. Without catching, i. e. the bird.
Amo_3:6. In the first member the usual order of these propositions is reversed, and the cause is mentioned first,—the blowing of the trumpet,—and the result follows. In the second, the other order is restored. In this last, similes are abandoned, and the discourse states directly what had been implied in numerous comparisons. As little as two can walk together without, etc., etc.; so little can misfortune occur in a city without the Lord’s hand; or rather, as in all these eases, one thing is the result of the other as its cause, so is it here. “Misfortune” in the city is the result, the “Lord” is the cause. Even this is to be considered as a kind of proverbial speech, but it explains the subject treated of in this passage. The prophet has threatened the whole people in Amo_3:2, with a visitation from God. Against this the consciousness of Israel revolts, especially because the visitation is to come from God, their own God, Jehovah. Therefore the prophet proves the correctness of his declaration by these examples, in which he traces with the certainty of the strictest logic every effect to a cause, and so every misfortune in the city to Jehovah as its., author (and to his punitive righteousness as the cause). If this be so, every objection is obviated. Whatever misfortune exists must be traced back to Jehovah. This however is not proved, but only illustrated, by the examples cited, which show simply that as every event has its cause, so also must misfortune; so that the question remains, Is this result to be attributed to Jehovah’s activity? The answer to this is found in Amo_3:7-8, which must be taken together, since it is only thus that they furnish the desired proof.
Amo_3:7. For presupposes the answer No, to the foregoing questions, especially the last. No, misfortune does not occur without Jehovah’s hand, for, etc. The proof in the first instance is this: Jehovah does nothing without having disclosed his “secret,” i.e. his secret counsel, to his servants, the prophets. The latter is certainly not the cause, but it is the indispensable condition of Jehovah’s activity, so that between the two there is a necessary connection. But this very revelation to the prophets has as an inevitable result (Amo_3:8), their prophesying, which again is illustrated by an example drawn from experience, the lion roars, etc. so that this prophesying is not an accidental or capricious thing, but proceeds from a causa sufficiens, which lies in Jehovah himself. Therefore the meaning is: when the prophet speaks or predicts, Jehovah has revealed it to him, and the former is the result of the latter. But if Jehovah has made a revelation to him, then what he predicts, namely, misfortune, is really impending from Jehovah. The Lord will let it come. He will not indeed in the absence of such a revelation; but wherever this occurs, it is a token that He will bring it to pass. Therefore a prophecy, a foretelling of calamity by a prophet, is a voucher—כִי—that the calamity is from the Lord, that a causal connection exists between the two as certain as that between the things mentioned in Amo_3:3-6. Otherwise, the prophet could not announce such a calamity, since he announces only what Jehovah reveals to him, but must announce that. The divine origin of his prophecy is to the prophet, therefore, the basis on which he proceeds as on a certain reality, and from this he argues and proves the divine authorship of the fact which he predicts, namely, a punitive judgment. Thus is sustained the truth of the saying, that Jehovah would visit Israel.—Only in this way do we understand the כִי in Amo_3:7. It is therefore a reversal of the order of thought when most interpreters say that from Amo_3:3 the prophet is proving the divine origin of his prophecy against the objection that he spoke only from subjective influences, i.e., “as little can a prophet speak without a divine impulse as any other effect can be produced without a cause” (B. Baur). No, the prophet does not justify himself or his calling, he is sure of that; he only seeks to convince his hearers or readers that they are really to expect the judgment which he announces, and to this end he uses the fact that prophecy comes from God.—Concerning the examples in Amo_3:3 ff. Baur correctly remarks, “There is no occasion to regard them as anything more than mere analogies representing the general relation of cause and effect, or to assign to each case a special reference to the prophet’s thought, e. g., the two as a figure of God and the people, the lion as representing Jehovah, and the prey and the bird, the wicked, etc.” Such a method leads to constrained refinements, as may be seen in Keil, in loc. The illustration of one principle by so many examples may seem somewhat tedious, but to understand it, one must consider the partiality of the Orientals for figurative and proverbial speeches, which leads them to express in these concrete forms even such an abstract truth as the relation of cause and effect. There is nothing strange, therefore, in finding such a representation coming from the herdman of Tekoa.
3. Amo_3:9-15. Here the Lord’s purpose respecting the sinful people is openly declared.
(a.) Amo_3:9-10. The sins.Make it heard, etc. Not only are the sins to be punished set forth, but the heathen are summoned as witnesses. This turn in the address indicates that the sinfulness is very great, enough even to surprise the heathen, and thus puts Israel to shame.
Amo_3:9. Publish ye. Jehovah is the speaker, and we must regard the command as addressed to the people in these heathen lands. The palaces, i. e., those who dwell there, are to be informed, because the question concerns what is done in the palaces of Samaria. Ashdod, as part for the whole, is put for the Philistines, who were regarded by Israel as godless heathen. Egypt, “whose unrighteousness and ungodliness Israel had once abundantly experienced” (Keil).—On the mountains of Samaria, i. e. around Samaria, whence they could look into the city.
Amo_3:10. They know not to do right. They do not understand it, so accustomed are they to unrighteousness. They who store up violence, etc.; evil treasures which, so far from helping, destroy them.
(b.) Amo_3:11-15. Therefore thus saith, etc., עַר may be abstract or concrete. The latter is more probable, especially as in that case it is naturally connected with the verb והו̇רִיד which otherwise would require Jehovah to be understood as its subject. The clause is an emphatic assertion in the form of an exclamation.
Amo_3:12. In this plundering of Samaria, the great men will be able to save their lives only to the smallest extent and with the greatest difficulty Both points are suggested in the comparison. (“A pair of shin-bones and a piece, i. e. a lappet, of the ear.” Keil.)
Amo_3:13. Renews the threatening and raises it still higher. There will be an utter destruction Hear ye, etc., is addressed to the Israelites, as in Amo_3:1, since among even these God has those who will testify what He is going to do. They shall, when summoned as witnesses of wrong doing, announce also the punishment of Israel. House of Jacob means all Israel, i. e., the twelve tribes; even Judah should hear it so as to learn a lesson. The Divine names are accumulated for emphasis; the threat of such a God ought to make a deep impression. The visitation of Israel will begin with the destruction of the altars in Bethel, i. e., of idolatry, the religious source of the moral corruption. This is more closely defined by the cutting off of the horns, which destroys the significance of the altar.
Amo_3:15. Winter houses and summer houses are primarily those of the royal family, but perhaps also those of the noblemen.—The threatened judgment, therefore, is the overthrow of Samaria, especially its palaces, with the complete extermination of the inhabitants (Amo_3:12).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL.
1. “Israel stands to us as a constant example both of the unsearchable riches of grace which God bestows and of the inconceivable judgments He sends upon those who receive his grace in vain.” (Rieger.) Here again the bringing out of Egypt appears as the fundamental act of God’s grace. It is mentioned alone, because by it as the condition of its outer and inner existence was Israel constituted the people of God. This bringing out, however, includes the guidance, through the wilderness and the giving of the law. This people alone did God “know;” to them alone He stood in a relation of nearness and confidence; all others were aliens. Therefore so much the greater their guilt, and the move certain their punishment.
2. The sin of Israel, especially of the ten tribes, is apostasy, at least in the calf-worship (comp. Amo_3:14, chaps, Amo_4:4, Amo_5:5). But that which particularly provokes rebuke and menace is, as appears by chap. 2. and the following chapters, the extreme moral corruption, which naturally is regarded as the violation of the divine commands, covetousness and luxury, and in connection therewith, the shameless disregard of the elementary duties due to our neighbors, violent oppression of the poor. This last is continually the subject of sharp censure (cf. 2, 6, 7, and subsequently Amo_4:1, Amo_5:6; Amo_5:11-12, Amo_6:12, Amo_8:5-6). The poor always stand under the especial protection of the divine law, a peculiar feature of which is its compassion for the lowly, as the Mosaic institute shows in many of its provisions. How fully the prophet was in sympathy with this trait, is shown by the fact that upon no point is he so zealous as upon the oppression of the poor. This was doubtless because such instances frequently occurred; still it is significant that instead of merely touching them and then passing on, he brings them forward and brands them with an especial stigma. “To pervert the way of the poor,” as it was before expressed in chap. 1. Amo_3:7, is, as it were, the unpardonable sin. For this reason the prophet’s rebuke is addressed mainly to the great, the higher classes; but certainly not because these alone were corrupt while the lower classes needed no particular censure, although at bottom this was the fact. Are we then to recognize a democratic feature in the circumstance, and observe how a man of the people, a herdman, feels himself called chiefly to scourge the sins of the nobles and especially those by which the humble suffered? If it is correct to assert that God called and employed him to chastise such sins, we may admit this. Only let us not ascribe to Amos that modern democratic view which reviles the higher classes because it condemns all distinctions of ranks. Rather the reverse is true of Amos. He inveighs against the sins of the great, just because their position is so important, because he knows that upon their conduct depends the weal or the woe of the community, for if corruption prevails in their circles, the foundations of the national prosperity are undermined and shaken. With equal or even greater propriety may one ascribe an aristocratic leaning to our prophet, but after a proper manner, i. e., he considers the position of the higher classes very important, but for that very reason very responsible, and holds that their rights and privileges impose corresponding duties. They have much ability, but much is also expected from them, “to whom much is given,” etc. And if they mistake and abuse their position, so much the heavier is their guilt and the greater the harm they work. Their degeneracy at last brings destruction upon the whole. If then a prophet were silent, or censured only the lowly and not the high, he would be justly chargeable with servility and fear of men, which would ill agree with his call to be a witness of divine truth (cf. chap, 4. Doctrinal and Ethical, 2).
3. Misfortune as a punishment comes only from Jehovah. It comes not of itself nor is casual, but has a definite cause and author, who is Jehovah He who chose and blessed his people, the same punishes them. Men may struggle against this truth, but still it remains incontestable. And when a doubt of the divine authorship intrudes, there comes a voucher in the words of the prophets. Before God executes anything, He reveals it to his servants, and these cannot but declare what is thus revealed. A calamity announced by them is a punishment proceeding from God.
4. The lofty significance of prophecy is strongly expressed in Amo_3:7-8. The prophets are not only “God’s servants” in general, but are also entrusted with “his secret,” his “counsel,” i. e., what He proposes respecting his people. Yes, he does nothing until He has revealed it to the prophets. Thus He, as it were, binds himself to them. Is it asked, Why? The answer is, The aim of the revelation is to secure its announcement, as it is expressly said (Amo_3:8), the speaking of God to his servants necessarily leads them to prophesy. The object of their utterances is simple and single, to set plainly before men the severity of God against sin, the truth of his punitive righteousness. If this is done, so to speak, in the interest of God, naturally it is still more in the interest of men. These are to learn how the matter stands with them and what threatens them, so as to take warning while there is time. And if men do take warning—for this is the implied thought,—then “God does nothing,” i. e., does not carry out his secret counsel. Therefore He, as it were, puts prophecy between his “secret” and its execution, and so prophecy is justly reckoned among Israel’s peculiar privileges (comp. Amo_2:11 and the remarks there). Well remarks Rieger in reference to the present times: “Those to whom God has intrusted the duty of bearing witness to his truth in the world now, cannot put themselves on a level with his ancient prophets, nor should they indulge any natural passion herein. Yet it is very significant that the Lord Jesus addressed to the overseers of the churches of Asia the precious testimony of his revelation, and therein the secret counsel by which God’s wrath is fulfilled, and thus indicated for all time the participation of the teacher’s office in the judgments of God, partly in foreseeing them, partly in foretelling them, and partly, moreover, in influencing them for good by prayer and watchfulness.”
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Amo_3:1. Hear the word which Jehovah speaks to you. Here we learn that God’s Word should be preached in such way that its hearers should recognize that it is intended for and applies to them. For when it is declared only in general terms, especially as respects God’s wrath against sin, the people commonly sit and think it does not concern them but only folks in far-off lands. It should be said, Hear what the Lord says to you who sit here under the pulpit.
Amo_3:2. You only, etc.—therefore I will, etc. This is a wonderful inference. We should rather expect; therefore will I spare you. But we see that the Lord is accustomed to punish those who have received much at his hands more severely than others not so favored. For his kindness is not intended to encourage us in sin, but to render j us through gratitude more devoted to Him. He has chosen us in Christ that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love (Ephesians 1.), but where this result does not follow, God’s goodness ceases, and his punishments fall the heavier.—(W. S.)
Amo_3:3 ff. The comparisons here may be practically explained as (1) teaching us what just grounds God has for his punishments. If two walk together, they must agree, but you, He says, do not agree with me, but are my foes, by your evil works, and therefore I cannot walk with you in complacency. (2) As a lion does not roar unless the prey is just before him, so my threatenings are not uttered unless I see men just ready to fall, as it were, a prey to my wrath. Of this, however, they think lightly, and deem any calamity that befalls them an accident. But (3) just as little as a bird falls into the net without a fowler, or a fowler lifts the snare without having caught something, so little does misfortune occur without God’s mind and will, who does not give up his purpose but carries it out unless withheld by a true repentance. As every one fears when the trumpet announces the enemy near at hand, so should my people when my prophets announce to them judgment for their sins. These similes remind us of the divine providence in punishments. They do not fall promiscuously, but in the righteous retribution of God, who determines beforehand who shall suffer and who escape.
[Amo_3:6. Does misfortune occur, etc. Evil which is sin, the Lord hath not done; evil which is punishment for sin, the Lord bringeth. (Augustine.)
Amo_3:7. The Lord Jehovah does nothing, etc. God has ever warned the world of coming judgments in order that it may not incur them. As Chrysostom says, He has revealed to us hell in order that we may escape hell. He warned Noah of the coming deluge. He told Abram and Lot of the future judgment of the cities of the plain. He revealed to Joseph the seven years of famine, and to Moses the ten plagues, and to Jonah the destruction of Nineveh; and by Christ He foretold the fall of Jerusalem; and Christ has warned all of his own future coming to judge the world. God does this that men may repent; and that if they obstinately continue in sin, He may be justified in executing punishment upon them. (Wordsworth.)
Amo_3:8. Who does not fear? There is cause for you to fear when God roars from Zion, but if ye fear not, the prophets dare not but fear. So Paul says, “Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel.” So Peter and John, “We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard.” Moses was not excused, though slow of speech; nor Isaiah, though of polluted lips; nor Jeremiah, because he was a child. And Ezekiel was bidden, Be not rebellious like that rebellious house. (Pusey.)
Amo_3:9. Publish in the palaces, etc. “Since ye disbelieve, I will manifest to Ashdodites and Egyptians the transgressions of which ye are guilty.” (Theodoret.) Shame towards man survives shame towards God. What men are not ashamed to do, they are ashamed to confess that they have done. Nay, to avoid a little passing shame, they rush upon everlasting shame. So God employs all inferior motives, shame, fear, hope of things present, if by any means He can win men not to offend Him. (Ibid.)
Amo_3:10. They know not, etc. It is a part of the miserable blindness of sin, that while the soul acquires a quick insight into evil, it becomes at last not only paralyzed to do good, but unable to perceive it. Store up violence. They stored up, as they deemed, the gains and fruits; but it was in truth the sins themselves, as a treasure of wrath against the day of wrath. (Ibid.)
Amo_3:11. Therefore thus saith, etc. There was no human redress. The oppressor was mighty, but mightier the avenger of the poor. Man would not help, therefore God would. Thy palaces shall be spoiled. Those palaces in which they had heaped up the spoils of the oppressed. Men’s sins are in God’s providence the means of their punishment. Their spoiling should invite the spoiler, their oppressions should attract the oppressor. (Ibid.)
Amo_3:12. As the shepherd rescues, etc. Amos as well as Joel (Joel 2:32) preaches the same solemn sentence, so repeated through the prophets, “a remnant only shall be saved.” So it was in the captivity of the ten tribes. So it was in Judah. In the Gospel, not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble were called, but God chose the poor of this world, and the Good Shepherd rescued from the mouth of the lion those whom man despised. (Ibid.)
Amo_3:13. Hear ye and testify. It is of little avail to testify, unless we first hear; nor can man bear witness to what he doth not know; nor will words make an impression, i. e., be stamped on men’s souls, unless the soul which utters them have first hearkened unto them. (Ibid.)
Amo_3:14. In the day when I visit, etc. Scripture speaks of “visiting offenses upon,” because in God’s providence, the sin returns upon a man’s own head. It is not only the cause of his punishment but a part of it. The memory of a man’s sins will be apart of his eternal suffering. (Ibid.)
Amo_3:14. The altars, etc. The vengeance of a just and holy God will one day certainly root out false worship.
Amo_3:15. The winter-house and, etc. What are the palaces and pleasure-houses of the wicked in the time of judgment, but a brand which kindles the wrath of the Lord.
Footnotes:
[1]Amo_3:3.—נוֹעָֽדוּ. To meet together at an appointed time and place.
[2]Amo_3:5.—פַח is the fowler’s net, מוֹקֵשׁ, the springe or snare which holds the bird fast. לָהּ belongs to צִפוֹר [In order to catch a bird in the net, a springe must be laid for it.]
[3]Amo_3:7.—כִּי. Not “surely,” as in E. T., a signification which it never has, but, “for,” in connection with a negative implied in its relation to what precedes. Cf. Mic_6:4, Job_31:18.]
[4]Amo_3:9.—מְהוּמוֹת, noise, disorder, denotes a state of confusion, resulting from a complete overturning of right, such as is expressed by עֲשׁוּקִים, probably to be taken as an abstract, “the oppression” (of the poor) or possibly concrete, “the oppressed.”
[5]Amo_3:11.—עֻזֵּךְ, thy strength, i.e., Samaria’s.
[6]Amo_3:11.—וּסְבִיב is explanatory, “and that round about the land,” i.e., will come and attack it on all sides.
[7]Amo_3:12.—פְּאַת מִטָּה, the corner of the divan. the most convenient for repose, דְמֶשֶׂק, damask, covered with a costly stuff. [Pusey and Wordsworth revert to the old view (Sept., Vulgate, Syriac, Targum), which is followed in the Authorized Version, and interpret, “and recline on Damascus as a couch,” but their reasons do not seem to have much weight.]
[8]Amo_3:14.—הַמִזְבחַ is the singular of species, and is equivalent to a plural.
[9]Amo_3:15.—I vory houses are such as have their apartments adorned with inlaid ivory (cf. 1Ki_22:39).
[10]Amo_3:15.—רַבִּים, not “large” as E T., but “many.”
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1, 2. Failure to recognize responsibilities brings judgment. If…
1, 2. Failure to recognize responsibilities brings judgment. If Amo_2:6-16, is called the thesis of the Book of Amos, Amo_3:1-2, may properly be called the thesis of Amos 3-6, for the four chapters are entirely given up to an expansion of the truth that the failure of Israel to recognize its obligations makes inevitable its doom.
Hear this word — A solemn summons to pay strictest attention to the words of the prophet, for he is about to utter a divinely given message.
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The whole family — Both Israel and Judah, though Amos deals chiefly with Israel. Family — nation (compare Amo_3:2; Mic_2:3). Brought up — See on Amo_2:10.
Have I known — And know still (G.-K., 106g). On the significance of know see on Hos_8:4; here the word is used in a favorable sense, including choice and continuous care (Hos_13:5; Isa_1:2; Isa_5:1-7; Jer_3:1). In a qualified sense Jehovah knew all the nations of the earth (Amo_9:7; compare Amo_1:3 to Amo_2:5). To this assertion of Amos the people would readily assent, but the inference drawn by the prophet would bring a surprise; they would have continued, “therefore he will always be on our side.” How different the prophet’s inference!
Therefore — Because I have chosen and blessed you (compare Amo_2:9 ff.).
Punish — “To whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. The greater the measure of grace, the greater also is the punishment, if it is neglected or despised” (compare Jer_7:3-15).
All — No excuses will be countenanced, no mercy shown.
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 1. the whole family] The expression used includes naturally…
1. the whole family] The expression used includes naturally Judah, though, as the context shews, Amos is practically thinking only of Israel. For family, used in the sense of a whole people, cf. Amo_3:2; Jer_8:3; Mic_2:3.
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 (1) Children of Israel rather than “house of Israel”…
(1) Children of Israel rather than “house of Israel” is a phrase not so usual in Amos. Hence in many MSS. the latter phrase is substituted. There is, however, significance in the former, as Amos addresses himself to both kingdoms in the phrase “the whole family.” Yet the kingdom of the Ten Tribes seems to be chiefly in the mind of the prophet.
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 Ver. 1-ch. Amo_4:1 Amo_5:1) begins with this solemn call.…
Ver. 1-ch. Amo_4:1 Amo_5:1) begins with this solemn call. O children of Israel. The summons is addressed to the twelve tribes, as the following words prove; but the succeeding denunciation is confined to Israel, Judah being only indirectly warned that she may expect a similar fate unless she turns in time. I brought up from the land of Egypt. This is mentioned as the crowning act of God"s favour. (Amo_2:10)
HOMILETICS.
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Vers. 1, 2.
The judgment of apostates a foregone conclusion.
This chapter, like ch. 5. and 6., opens with a call to attention. God is going to speak, and his voice is worth listening to. He is going to speak a word, moreover, the issues of which are capital. To attend to his communication is as vitally important as dutiful.
I GOD, WHO HAD ONLY SPOKEN ABOUT THE HEATHEN, SPEAKS TO ISRAEL. Syria and Edom and Tyre may never have heard of the doom to which they were going down. Their first intimation of the tempest of Divine wrath was likely the falling of the first drops. Their chance of repentance and escape was in this way minimized. Left in ignorance of the danger of advance, there was little likelihood of their turning hack of their own accord. But Israel hears from inspired lips that never lied the guilt of her sin, and its inevitable end. This putting of "prophecy between his secret and its execution" is a special favour on God"s side, and a corresponding advantage on her side, whilst, like all advantage, it involves a proportionate responsibility.
II GOD"S SPECIAL REGARD FOR ISRAEL HAD EXPRESSED ITSELF IN PECULIAR FAVOURS.
1. He had constituted them a family by themselves. Other nations in their rise had been left to circumstances and the play of natural affinities. Israel had been called out of the peoples, constituted a nation by itself, furnished with a national organization and policy, and set consciously to work out an exalted destiny. This was fitted to awake a lofty national aspiration, and give direction and dignity to the national life. The choosing of God"s people out of the world is the beginning of his favours.
2. He had brought them out of Egypt. This was an act of Divine power, an instance of Divine championship, an expression of Divine distinguishing favour, and a beginning of Divine help, which contained in it the promise of more to come. Conversion, following on election, (Act_13:48) is another privilege of God"s people, and another spur to grateful service.
3. He had taken them into intimate personal relations. "Known," etc. This is "practically equivalent to electing, including both the motive and result of election" (Keil). God took special notice of them, set them in a gracious relation to himself, acknowledged them to be his people, and brought to hear on them the influences that are over coming forth on those in covenant with him.
III JUDGMENT IS INEVITABLE WHERE MERCY HAS BEEN RECEIVED IN VAIN. "Therefore will I visit," etc. (ver. 2). Mercy extended is made here the ground of judgment denounced. Each gift bestowed in the past is a count in the present indictment.
1. It is inevitable as punishment. Sin by God"s professing people is specially heinous. It involves ingratitude to a special Benefactor, insensibility to his love, contempt of his gifts, and disregard of special claims on their allegiance. The guilt is in every aspect extreme, and so the punishment is sure.
2. It is inevitable as testimony. God"s honour is closely identified with his people"s conduct, which must therefore be closely looked after. Any sin in it must be rigidly punished if God would vindicate his purity and impartiality, hating sin as such, and wherever it appears. "It is necessary that God should vindicate his own honour by making it appear that he hates sin, and hates it most in those that are nearest him" (M. Henry).
3. It is inevitable as discipline. Judgments are corrective as well as putative, In this aspect they are sure, and will be severe in proportion to the love and mercy despised. Whom God leaves without correction he bastardizes, (Heb_12:8) but he expresses fatherly interest in the application of the rod. Judgment with Israel was just a change of corrective treatment. Mercy had failed, and now love would try another way, that nothing might be left undone to separate Israel from sin. This is why judgment begins at the house of God.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON Vers. 1, 2.
Sin against light and love.
This language of reproach and threatening was addressed to Israel and Judah. Yet all who occupy a parallel position of privilege, and who are guilty of similar insensibility, ingratitude, and apostasy, are subject to the condemnation and the penalty pronounced upon the favoured but sinful descendants of Israel.
I UNPARALLELED FAVOURS ARE RECOUNTED. As a matter of history, Israel had been treated in a singular manner, with unique favour. However we may explain the fact, a fact it is which is here recalled to the memory of the too oblivions Hebrews.
1. Israel had been treated as the family of God. The heavenly Father hadcared for, provided for, and protected his peculiar family, the children whom he had adopted.
2. Israel had been brought up from the land of Egypt. To the marvellousdeliverance and interposition recorded by Moses, to the equally marvellous guidance and guardianship experienced in the wilderness of wandering, the sacred writers frequently refer. This is not surprising; for never was a more signal instance of Divine compassion than that afforded in the earlier passages of the national life of the chosen people.
3. Israel had been the object of the Divine knowledge, By this weunderstand (for the language is accommodated to our human weakness) that God had regarded and selected Israel in his inscrutable wisdom for a certain purpose, viz. in order by Israel to make himself known to mankind at large. A peculiar honour was conferred upon the Hebrew nation, not, however, for any excellence or worthiness in them, but for reasons larger and higher than any which were generally apprehended.
II UNPARALLELED INIQUITIES ARE IMPUTED. Idolatry was charged upon those who had been distinguished as the recipients of the revelation of the Divine unity. Immorality of various kinds was rife amongst those who enjoyed the advantage of the purest moral code known amongst the nations of mankind. The just principle was applied, "To whom much is given of him will be much required." And the application of this principle made manifest the peculiar guilt of Israel. The Word of the Lord by his prophet was therefore righteously severe; other nations were guilty of equal enormities, but the privileges of Israel rendered their iniquities more reprehensible.
III UNPARALLELED CHASTISEMENT IS THREATENED. All the iniquities of Israel were to be visited by Divine correction. In the remainder of his prophecies Amos enlarges upon this theme. Whether we consider the captivities and humiliations undergone by the favoured nation in the period immediately succeeding, or the history of subsequent centuries, we see the truth of this prediction. Much more apparent is it when we look at the national life of Israel as a whole; and, connecting the earlier apostasies with the rejection of the Messiah, recognize in the present dispersion of. the tribes the fulfilment of a Divine purpose and the inculcation of a Divine lesson. 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 You only have I known of all the families…
Amo_3:1-8
You only have I known of all the families of the earth.
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Sin in the highly-favoured
This is shameful ingratitude. The honour and blessing conferred on the Israelites gave the stain of ingratitude to every act of transgression of which they were guilty. It is direct rebellion. You only have I known, so as to reveal to you My will. Iniquity in you is disobedience to express commands, revolt against My authority. It is a dishonour offered to God. The privilege of being called after the name of God brings with it the danger of profaning that name by transgression. The nearer in privilege, the nearer we are to judgment. Distinguished blessings are leading to distinguished reward, or to distinguished punishment.
1. We are taught here that the providence of God prepares good and evil for man. View what are called common mercies in their origin, and understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. Evil is also prepared for the sinner, in the sense of calamity, judgment.
2. We are taught by the prophets vindication of the doctrine of a special providence to be very earnest when affliction comes in, working together with God, that it may do us good. Remember that God intended that sorrow to come as it did come, and when it did come.
3. When the trumpet of Gods Word is sounded by His ministers, let us give heed to the note of warning or exhortation.
4. When there is evil in the land, let us with reverence acknowledge the hand of God.
5. The Lord revealeth His secret to His servants the prophets.
(1) He does this by giving them spiritual apprehension of the truths of His Holy Word, causes them to see terror in the threatenings thereof, sweetness in its promises, duty in its precepts.
(2) Nothing is coming upon man that has not been revealed.
(3) The Holy Spirit directs the thoughts and words of His ministering servants, so as best to suit the particular need of those whom they address. At all times the sincere preaching of the Word may be expected to give offence. See how dangerous is the conduct of those who despise, oppose, revile, and persecute men of God for telling them plain truth with faithfulness and honesty. See where the true strength of a faithful dispenser of Gods Word lies. The strength of the servant lies in his conviction that he is doing his Masters will. (Vincent W. Ryan, M. A.)
Elected for what?
Here was this desert prophet, with keen, prayer-washed eyes, piercing through the shows of things to the unclean realities behind. He disinterred the moral corruption that lurked behind their whited professions. What answer did the people make to this rude child of the desert? He stood there, rude in speech and in dress, despised by the official priest, a mere field-preacher, proclaiming to the grandees of the metropolis that the moral corruption of the people was eating away the vital elements of the national strength and that in galloping consumption they were hastening on to a terrible and fatal retribution. What answer did they make? They fell back upon their belief in God. Their reply to the herdman was found in their doctrine of providence. What was that doctrine? It was this: Their nation was the favourite of the Lord. They were hedged about with peculiar sanctities. We only are known unto the Lord. Only between us and the Lord is there the intercourse which implies security. Thy threats, O Amos, are as noisy nothings. They are meaningless and terrorless. Such was the refuge in which the people found their security. We are the children of privilege. Privilege implies favour. Favour guarantees security. Such was their doctrine of election, and I am not altogether sure that their doctrine is banished from the minds of all men to-day. Now let us mark the answer of the Lord through the mouth of His prophet. We have heard the false doctrine of election; now let us hear the true doctrine which is enshrined in the words of our text. You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore--note the swift, piercing logic--therefore I will punish you. The false doctrine ran thus--You only have I known: therefore I will indulge you. The true doctrine culminates in fire--You only have I known: therefore I will punish you. You only have I known--I marked you out for special office. I appointed you to discharge a special function. I elected you to special service. But the office has been prostituted. The function has been ignored. The service has been despised. Therefore I will punish you. I singled you out from among men, that all men through you might be blessed. But ye have defiled your mission, and, instead of being a centre of saving health, ye have become a noisome pestilence. That is the expression of a Divine method of government which prevails in all time. Election does not mean security. Security is dependent upon the discharge of the duty which election creates. There is an aristocracy of the election, a chosen few, and these are they who have fulfilled the obligations of their election, and are therefore qualified to enter into the peace and joy of their Lord. Election therefore does not, in the first place, create security. It creates responsibility, and my security or insecurity depends upon the manner in which that responsibility is regarded. There is nothing which can ensure the protecting presence of the Most High God except moral agreement. Can two walk together . . .? cries the prophet in the verse which follows my text. Can two walk together, except they be agreed? If there is to be helpful and intimate companionship between two people, there must be profound agreement, and if I am to enjoy the companionship of the great God, with all that that companionship means of consoling and sheltering grace, if God and I are to walk together, we must be agreed, and my part of the agreement must be faithful and unconditional obedience to all His revealed will. Election; the prophet declared that it could only be found in the fact of obedience. They had been elected to duty; not in the election, but in the duty would they find the defences which are as invulnerable ramparts against their foes. Election means selection to service. The Lords specialities are for the sake of generalities. An individual is elected that he may serve a nation. A nation is elected that she may serve a race. A call is not a self-securing privilege; it is the entrustment of an office. To evade my responsibility is to destroy my defences, and to bring down swift retribution from God. You only have I known: therefore I will punish you. Election, then, means selection for special service. This doctrine of election is here applied to nations. Certain nations are specially known by God. He whispers to them peculiar secrets, that they may proclaim them upon the house-tops to the nations of the world. Greece was specially known by God. The warm breath of the Lord came upon her people, and endowed her with that exquisite sense of the beautiful which has made her distinguished among all the nations of time. She revelled in the joy of perception, and exulted in the creation of lovely forms. God opened her eyes to the holiness of beauty, and gave her a mission to the race. And the Gentiles have come to her light. All the nations go to Greece to school. We go to the treasury of her graces for our own adornments. The Lord God elected her by special endowment, that by her election she might serve a race. Rome was specially known by God. She was His own handiwork. He fashioned her into special aptitude, giving her the endowment of a peculiar passion for order, a genius for polity, government, and empire. He breathed into her life the instinct of law, and by the speciality of her election He determined the speciality of her mission. And the Gentiles have come to her light. The foundations of modern jurisprudence are laid in ancient Rome. She has been the schoolmistress to all the nations. Israel was specially known by God. He breathed into her life a special genius for religion, a rare instinct for the Unseen and Eternal. To her He whispered the sublime truth of the unity of God and the august verities of the moral law. And the Gentiles have come to her light. Just as beauty is of the Greeks, and law of the Romans, so salvation is of the Jews! Israel was exalted, as a city set upon a hill, that the light of revelation might shine out upon the nation, yea, even upon them that were afar off. May it not be that the Lord has held secret communion with every nation, and whispered to her some peculiar message which makes her life distinctive and unique? It is along this line that I can travel with the least trembling when I contemplate the appalling divisions which distract the race. I gain some assurance from a broad application of this doctrine of election. Each nation has been specially elected. All nations are dependent upon each; each is dependent upon all. Because of the Divine distribution of gifts absolute severance is impossible. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee: nor, again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Each nation is specially known of God, specially elected to unique and individual service. In this doctrine of the election of nations, which is an election to mutual service, and which entails mutual dependence, I base my hope of the ultimate practical comity of nations, and the realised brotherhood of the race. But now let us apply the prophets doctrine to the life of the individual, as we have applied it to the life of the nation. The prophets doctrine is this--election is not election to security, except through the discharge of obligation. Election is election to the service of o hers. How many of us, then, have been elected? Are there any exempt from the election? We are all known, all elected, all called--for the election is a call to individual faithfulness, and our response will determine whether the election shall issue in sunshine or in fire. Each life has its own peculiar mission. God appoints for each a special and individual task. My mission is my election. I may not know what my mission is. That matters not. God knows. My part is to discharge the duty that lies nearest, and then the next, and the next, and the next, and God will guide and control the connected purpose and mission. How can I turn the election into a glad consciousness of protecting providence and eternal security? By a spirit of obedience. By faithfulness in that which is least. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)
Humiliation under Gods chastisement
We enjoy great and peculiar privileges as a people. Religious light; civil liberty; public credit; individual exertions; private wealth; national power; commercial prosperity. Let us not forget that privilege involves responsibility. The very adoption of sons carries with it the certainty of fatherly correction; for what son is there whom the father chasteneth not? We must be prepared to expect that, as there are occasions where a fathers love is manifested in the correction of his child, and the affection that he feels is expressed by the chastisement he applies, so there are times when the same necessity may compel God to adopt a different mode of treatment from that which He generally employs, and to prove the love that He feels for His children by the judgments that He brings upon them. Nothing seems more natural, nothing more probable, than that a period of great scientific advancement, and of great commercial prosperity, should be a season of great forgetfulness of God. There are multitudes who habitually forget their dependence on God; who form their plans, pursue their inquiries, calculate their gains, without reference to Him. If punishment is to begin, where can it begin so appropriately as in noticing that forgetfulness of God which seems to be the sin that doth most, easily beset us; and in teaching us the humbling but unwelcome truth of our entire dependence on God? In time of national distress, let us pray, as Elijah prayed; and as his prayers prevailed for the people, when the people had avowed their allegiance to God, so let us hope that the prayer of faith shall still maintain its character, and that to an humbled, penitent, and believing people the blessing will never be refused. (Henry Raikes, M. A.)
Gods alarm to Great Britain
In this chapter we have a denunciation of judgments against Israel, together with the grounds and reasons of it. Notice--
1. The special regard God had to His people. It is as if He should say, My heart has been set upon you, My thoughts of kindness have been peculiarly towards and concerning you.
2. The awful visitation which even Gods regard to them engaged Him to bring upon them. Therefore I will punish you. As to Israelites indeed, though God visits their iniquities with temporal judgments, it is with a design of love and of advantage to their souls. 3: The ground and reason of this, and that was their iniquities. I will punish you for all your iniquities.
I. What have been Great Britains eminent mercies?
1. Our temporal mercies, which purely relate to the things of this life.
2. Our mercies with regard to religious concerns, and to spiritual and eternal blessings.
II. What have been our abuses of these eminent mercies? How have we rioted upon the bounties of providence! Has not our plenty been turned into means and occasions of feeding our pride and ambition, our intemperance, luxury, and debauchery? How unfruitful have we been under the means of grace. Has not the Holy Spirit, been grieved and provoked to withdraw from our solemn assemblies? And when we speak of religion, have we much more than the name?
III. What reason we have to fear that God will visit us with judgments for all these iniquities and abuses of his mercies.
1. Our provocations are exceeding great.
2. The honour of God, as the great Governor of the world, is concerned to show His righteous resentment against a professing people that are guilty of such exceeding high provocations.
3. The threatenings of Gods Word give us reason to fear His bringing judgments upon us.
4. The examples God has made of other communities, and particularly of His professing people, for their iniquities, may justly raise our fears of His doing the same by us.
5. God has already taken up a controversy with us.
IV. What course is to be taken for preventing such awful visitations? Public national sins must be followed with public national breaking them off by repentance and returning to the Lord. When dangers lie at the door of kingdoms and nations, the only method of preventing them, according to Gods ordinary rule of procedure in His government of this world, is national humiliation, fasting, and repentance for and departure from the provoking evils that have incensed His wrath against us, with earnest supplication and prayer for national forgiveness of national sins. (J. Guyse, D. D.)
National privileges
A nations guilt and punishment are graduated according to the scale of its privileges.
I. Our privileges. Knowledge, as it relates to God, signifies approval, love. Israel had been unto the Lord a peculiar treasure above all people. Is there not a remarkable parallel between our own position and that of ancient Israel? When we pass in review our own national history we may well stand amazed at Gods marvellous dealings with us. To us, pre eminently and emphatically, beyond all nations of the earth, has the kingdom of God, taken from the Jews for their unworthiness, been given. Truly our privileges are as incomparable as they are priceless.
II. Our penalties. Whether as a Church or a nation, we should be on our guard against unfaithfulness. We have the Word of the living God in our keeping. But are we as faithful to this trust as we ought to be? Do we not sometimes give a very halting and restricted testimony to the truth? (R. W. Forrest, M. A.)
Privilege and punishment
I. The privilege. So surpassing had been the tenderness of God, so intimate the relationship in which He had stood to them, that it appeared as if He had ignored all other nations to magnify His mercy to them. They alone had had the presence of God in their midst, with a Divinely appointed priesthood, and a law given by the mouth of God. Other nations were as worthy as they. It was only the mercy of God which had chosen them. God exalts His people now to the highest privilege. He reveals His truth and makes known His character to them.
II. The punishment. This was a necessary result of their trangression.
1. Because theirs was no common sin. The clearest light, the richest mercy, the strongest warnings, the most awful threatenings failed to deter them from wandering into forbidden paths. Punishment is proportioned to privilege. Can we wonder, then, that Divine indignation should be kindled against those who multiplied trangressions?
2. It was necessary that God should vindicate His own character. He had taught them by warning and example how deeply He hated sin. The story of Achan, the history of the spies, the fate of the whole congregation of Israel showed that the wrath of God was revealed from heaven against all ungodliness of men.
3. To a certain extent the punishment was remedial. God hoped to awaken the people from the stupor into which sin had thrown them. (J. Telford, B. A.)
A specially blest people
Now it is a fact that some men are far more highly favoured by heaven than others. Some have more health, some more riches, some more intellect, some more friendships, some more means of spiritual improve ment.
I. They are oftentimes the greatest sinners. Who of all the people on the face of the earth were greater sinners than the Israelites? Yet they were specially favoured of heaven. England is a specially favoured land, but where is there more moral corruption? It is true that civilisation has so decorated it that its loathsomeness is to some extent concealed; but here it is. The corpse is painted, but it is still a putrid mass.
II. They are exposed to special punishment. Therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities. It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, etc. Therefore I will punish you. I who know all your sins, I who abhor all your sins, I who have power to punish you.
III. They should, like all people, place them selves in harmony with God. Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
1. Agreement with God is essential to the well-being of all intelligent existences. No spirit in the universe can be happy without thorough harmony with the will and mind of God.
2. The condition of all sinners is that of hostility to the will of God. (Homilist.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain CRITICAL NOTES.] Hear] Cf. beginning of chaps. 5 &…
CRITICAL NOTES.] Hear] Cf. beginning of chaps. 5 & 6, indicating this chap. to be one whole address. Whole] Though the ten tribes threatened, yet all Israel are concerned and warned.
Amo_3:2. Known] Not only love and care, but gracious fellowship and treatment (Exo_19:5; Deu_4:20); “including both the motive and result of election.”
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HOMILETICS
GOD’S CHASTISEMENT OF A COVENANT PEOPLE.—Amo_3:1-2
Before the end of chastisement can be answered its nature must be discerned. In itself it may seem of no moment, but when viewed as the expression of God’s purpose it is significant. Israel therefore should hear, for God Himself speaks and will punish. Thrice does Amos address the same solemn call to a nation whose former favours do not exempt from impending ruin—“Hear this word.”
I. The grounds for chastisement. God always deals wisely, and often gives reasons for certain proceedings against us. The grounds of Israel’s punishment are specified.
1. Peculiar relationship abused.
(1) Individually abused—“children of Israel.” Each member of the tribes, every person in the nation, was owned and cared for by God.
(2) Socially abused—“the whole family.” God separated them from others, and united them into one family. This was a natural protest against selfishness, a merciful design to secure obedience to the Supreme Lawgiver, and a method of Divine mercy to mankind. “At that time will I be the God of all the families of Israel.” But Israel cherished not the disposition of children and disowned their relation to God. “If I be your father where is mine honour?”
2. Distinguished privileges neglected. “Which I brought up from the land of Egypt.” They were redeemed from bondage and brought up, led to Canaan. This redemption was like a second creation, and a special ground for gratitude. But God’s goodness to the nation was forgotten, and his gifts despised. Remarkable deliverances are remembered by God, and should be improved by us.
3. Special obligations denied. God blessed and loved them like no other people. “You only have I known of all the families of the earth.” Others were aliens; they were children. They were distinguished by rank and favour, “made a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.” But they dishonoured their character, and violated their obligations to God. Iniquity in some is disobedience to express commands, revolt against Divine authority, and the addition of ingratitude to sin. “Forget not all his benefits.”
II. The design of chastisement. The nearer to God the greater the fall from him. Professors can either praise or profane the name of God. Their sins are more provoking than those of other men. They are against greater light, a higher principle of life, and more exalted relationship. God will not wink at sin in his most favoured children. “Therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities.”
1. Punishment to purify moral character. God will have all his children to be like him. Bastards may escape, but sons must be chastised. Luther cried, “Strike on, Lord, strike on, for now I know that I am thy child.” “As a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee.”
2. Punishment to fit for greater service. Afflictions remind us of forgotten duty, give discipline for future life, and fit us for a world of sin and sorrow. They make us more fervent and holy, stronger with God and more pitiful to men.
“More skilful in self-knowledge, ever more pure
As tempted more; more able to endure
As more exposed to suffering and distress;
Thence also more alive to tenderness” [Wordsworth].
3. Punishment to warn others of danger. “Against the whole family “was the judgment denounced. They were the elect and beloved of God, but their sins only deepened their guilt and made them a warning to others. The lessons imparted to one people are for the benefit of another. There is unity and aim in the moral life of all nations. Exalted privileges everywhere bring heavier responsibility, and shameful abuse severer punishment. Hear this word of the Lord. For “the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Amo_3:1-2. Special favours. Men are not to be envied simply because they are endowed with special favours. Those very endowments, unless they are faithfully used, only augment responsibility, deepen guilt, and ensure a more terrible retribution. Where much has been given much will be required. It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, &c. [Dr Thomas].
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain The words of our text are in themselves so…
Amo 3:3
The words of our text are in themselves so general, that they might very well stand alone as a proverbial truth, capable of a vast variety of applications. They would furnish an ample theme for many important lessons of practical prudence. It must be understood that the "walking together" signifies co-operation, a working together for some common end. And then we see at once how impossible this is, without some previous agreement.
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I. It is recorded of Enoch and of Noah that each of them walked with God. With regard to other holy men, it is said of some, that they walked before God—as Abraham was charged to do by the Lord Himself: "Walk before Me, and be thou perfect"—of others, that they walked "after God." The various forms of expression may be considered as amounting to nearly the same thing, as denoting an extraordinary degree of piety and holiness in the persons so described.
II. Israel’s walking with God in the ordinances of His house, could, in the case of individual members of the Church, be no proof of their agreement with Him. The difference between the form and the substance, and the utter worthlessness of the form when separated from the substance, was never overlooked; and it was one of the themes on which the prophets dwelt most frequently in strains of the most solemn warning. If the agreement did not previously exist, the most exact observance of the legal ceremonies not only was quite powerless to produce it, but had the effect of widening the breach.
III. In the worship of the Church on earth there is, and always must be, an admixture of elements foreign to its real nature, but needed for the supply of our temporal wants. Still this worship may and should be, whatever it may be beside, the highest expression, the culmination and efflorescence, of the Christian life. If the flower, which witnesses to the healthy life and growth of the plant, is severed from the stalk, it soon fades and withers, loses its colours and its fragrance, and is only fit to be swept away as worthless refuse. So it is with our worship; though its words should be suited to the lips of seraphs, and its forms worthy of the court of heaven, if it is to us a mere outward thing, having no root or ground in our inner life.
bishop Thirlwall, Good Words, 1876, p. 125.
Applying the text to God’s law and man’s conscience, the first question is, How they fell out; and the second, How they fell in again. Sin is the cause of the quarrel, and righteousness by faith is the way to peace.
I. The Disagreement. Notice separately the fact and its consequences. (i) The fact that there is an alienation. God’s law is His manifested will for the government of His creatures. It is the reflection cast down on earth of His own holiness. His moral law, ruling spirits, is as inexorable as His physical law, ruling matter. It knows of no yielding, no compunction. The conscience of man is that part of his wonderful frame that comes into closest contact with God’s law—the part of the man that lies next to the fiery law, and feels its burning. When first the conscience is informed and awaked, it discovers itself guilty, and the law angry. There is not peace between the two, and by the constitution of both, they are neighbours. They touch at all points, as the air touches the earth or the sea; neither the one nor the other can avoid the contact. There is need of peace in so close a union; but there is not peace. The law’s enmity against a guilty moral being is intense and total. (ii) The consequence of this disagreement between the two is, they cannot walk together. Enmity tends to produce distance. Distance is disobedience. To walk with the law, is to live righteously; not to walk with the law, is to live in sin. Where love is the fulfilling of the law, hate and distance must be the highest disobedience.
II. The Reconciliation. (1) The nature of the reconciliation and the means of attaining it. The agreement between the law and the conscience is a part of the great reconciliation between God and man, which is effected in and by Jesus Christ. He is our peace. Peace of conscience follows in the train of justification. (2) The effect of the agreement is obedience to the law—that is, the whole Word of God. When there is a quarrel between friends, and a mutual distrust, there is no walking together; but when the enmity is removed and friendship restored, you may soon see the friends by each other’s side again; so also is it with the law and the conscience. It ceases to accuse, and you cease to keep it at a distance.
W. Arnot, Roots and Fruits of the Christian Life, p. 314.
"Can two walk together except they be agreed?" is the first of a long string of questions forming an animated and striking passage, but not very easy to interpret. The general idea seems to be that every effect has a cause, and every cause an effect. If the question of the text belongs, as it appears to do, to the same subject with the rest, it seems to say that if two persons take a journey, or so much as a walk in each other’s company, that very fact implies a foregoing cause, which is, in this case, the mutual consent or agreement of the two persons concerned.
We have here before us two thoughts.
I. Life is a Divine-human companionship. It is a walk, a little circuit from the door to the door, a circumscribed round for health and for business, of which home is alike the place left and the place returned to—the door of crossing in the morning, the door of re-entrance at evening. You will say this gives the idea of monotony and uneventfulness; it seems to exclude any possibilities of great change or high ambition. Be it so; it is the more like most lives, the average existences, not of the great and noble, but of the bulk and multitude of our fellow-creatures. To walk with God is a different figure from that of travelling or voyaging under God’s charge or supervision; to walk with God is to take the daily round of common being in God’s company, with God for your companion. To walk with God is to have God with you, consciously, and by choice, in the everyday occupation and the everyday society. To walk with God is to lead a godly and a Christian life.
II. The condition of that companionship is a Divine-human agreement. The text says that there must be a consenting will, there must be a harmony of feeling on the two sides to make the Divine-human companionship possible, otherwise it will degenerate into an empty profession, a heartless form, a riven bond, a broken vow.
C. J. Vaughan, Family Churchman, Oct. 6th, 1886.
I. Religion is, essentially, a social thing. The tendency of all sin is towards solitude. It is to division, to a narrow and a narrowing division. For the most part, as a man becomes wicked, he becomes solitary. The object of the grace of God is always union, union of every kind. It makes one Christ in two hearts and that makes two hearts one: it makes two hearts like Christ, and the resemblance leads them to draw together. They walk together because they are agreed.
II. If you look at man as a social being you may conceive him in three relations. There is his relation to his fellow-man; there is his relation to angels; there is his relation to God. With these three different beings man has to walk. And in each case God lays down one rule, that before there can be harmony in action there must be agreement in principle. To take the metaphor of a walk: they must be agreed as to where they are going, and by what path they are travelling. They need not always exactly place step with step. But the end must be the same end, and the means must be generally the same.
III. What is God’s end? Always and invariably His own glory. And what is the path which leads to it? Only one—holiness. The path of holiness, to the glory of God. That walk may be rough, but you walk with God.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 2nd series, p. 242.
References: Amo 3:3.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x., No. 597; J. Cook, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 181; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 164. Amo 3:3-6.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 705. Amo 3:6.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 295; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 426; F. Hastings, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxii., p. 346. Amo 3:7, Amo 3:8.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 73. Amo 3:11-15.—Ibid., p. 74. Amo 4:1-3.—Ibid., p. 139. Amo 4:2.—E. D. Solomon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 101. Amo 4:4, Amo 4:5.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 140. Amo 4:6, Amo 4:11.—Ibid., p. 198.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain The First Address
The First Address
1-8. A call to attention.
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9, 10. The oppressions practised by the powerful.
11-15. The disasters which should overtake them, their sanctuary and their palaces.
1. 'Race' would be a more correct word than family. Judah is included in the appeal, but immediately drops out of sight again.
2. In the Bible to know frequently means to care for, to be deeply interested in (Gen_18:19; Hos_13:5; Nah_1:7; Job_22:13; Psa_1:6; Psa_73:11; Pro_2:10; Gal_4:9): at Jer_1:5 and here it has the allied sense 'to choose.' Jehovah chose Israel alone to be His people. And they argued as Dr. Arnold did when he was a child: 'I could not make out how, if my mother loved me more than strange children, she should find fault with me and not with them.'
3. Be agreed] RV 'have agreed,' have made an appointment. If two people were seen walking together in the desolate regions with which Amos was familiar it might be assumed that they had not met by chance. Nothing happens by chance. There is a reason and cause for Israel's calamities.
4. 'Thicket' is preferable to forest: wild and broken country is in view. Amos intimates that a prophet's threats are not idle sound, any more than a lion's roar is.
5. Shall one take up a snare from the earth? etc.] RV 'Shall a snare spring up from the ground?' etc. The snare is the bird-trap as a whole: the gin (the word is a contraction of 'engine') is the mechanism by which the trap acts. But the trap does not go off till the bird starts it. The thought is that when the time of misfortune arrives Israel will be caught in it as the bird in the trap.
6. Israel cannot plead lack of warning (Eze_33:4-5). All things are ordered by God, and therefore His prophets are able to give such warning. Evil here means disaster.
7. His secret is the purpose He has formed: cp. Gen_18:17.
8. Luther said, at the Diet of Worms: 'Here I stand: I can do no other.'
9. In the palaces] RM 'upon'; the proclamation is made from the flat roof: cp. Luk_12:3. Those who dwell in palaces are to be judged by their peers. Possibly Amos wrote, 'Asshur and Egypt,' the two great nations, Assyria and Egypt, the hammer and anvil, between which Israel lay. The mountain of Samaria (the capital of Israel) is surrounded by loftier ones, on which the spectators are supposed to stand. The oppressed] RV 'oppressions.'
10. They have lost the power to do equity. Their eyes gloat over treasures of gold and silver in their palaces: a prophet's eye sees only stores of violence and robbery (Rom_2:5; Jam_5:1-4).
12. Even the wealthiest will escape with nothing but bare life. 'They sit in Samaria in the corner of a couch, and on the silken cushions of a bed' (RV). These cushions formed the divan, which is often the sole article of furniture in an Oriental reception room: the corner seat is the place of honour. The shepherd prophet loathed these modern luxuries.
14. Beth-el had been a sanctuary prior to the Israelite occupation of the land. In the days of Amos it was the undisputed religious capital of the northern kingdom (Amo_7:13), whose subjects gathered there for seasons of special worship (Amo_4:1). No doubt the sacred pillar and post which we read of so often in connexion with the high places stood near the altar. The idol to which devotion was paid as the representative of Jehovah was the golden calf set up by Jeroboam I (1Ki_12:29). Burnt offerings, thank offerings and meal offerings were presented on the altars (Amo_5:22), and the service was made more attractive by singing and the music of the viol. But all this was vitiated by two faults. First, the god whom the worshippers adored was not the Holy One who alone is worthy, but a mere nature-god, dispenser of corn and wine and oil, of water, flax and wool (Hos_2:5; Hos_9:1). And, secondly, the worship was not of a kind to make men better, it was closely associated with immorality and with luxurious eating and drinking (Amo_2:7-8); it did not promote either justice or generosity to others (Amo_2:8; Amo_5:24). The horns were the most sacred part of the altar: to cut them off was to desecrate it thoroughly.
15. Winter and summer house were in some cases distinct buildings, but in others were parts of the same structure differently situated (Jdg_3:20; Jer_3:22). The houses of ivory remind us of Nero's 'Golden House' at Rome: 'The interior was decorated in the most lavish way, with gold, precious stones and ivory... The supper rooms had panelled ceilings, overlaid with ivory.' It was a valuable commodity. Sennacherib, on one of the inscriptions which have come down to us, states that Hezekiah gave him 'a couch of ivory, thrones of ivory, an elephant's tusk.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain whole family
whole family
The language here, and the expression "house of Jacob," Amo 3:13 evidently gives the prophecy a wider application than to "Israel," the ten-tribe northern kingdom, though the judgment was, in the event, executed first upon the northern kingdom. 2Ki 17:18-23.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain
II. THE PROPHETIC MESSAGES UNCOVERING
THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE
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CHAPTER 3
The First Discourse
1. There is cause for judgment (Amo 3:1-8)
2. The coming judgment visitation (Amo 3:9-15)
Amo 3:1-8. “Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You have I only known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities.” This is the solemn beginning of the special messages addressed to the nation by the humble herdman of Tekoa. The Lord had singled them out from the other nations. He had separated them unto Himself. With His mighty power and outstretched arm He had delivered them from the house of bondage and brought them to the land promised unto their fathers. He had revealed Himself and made known His will to them exclusively. He had entered with them into covenant and called them to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation Exo 19:6. Hence their responsibility was very great, for the degree of relationship is always the degree of responsibility. The divine election of the twelve tribes does not insure against punishment, but that intimate relationship into which the Lord had entered with Israel broken and violated by sin, demanded a correspondingly great punishment. To whomsoever much is given of him shall much be required. Our Lord expressed the same truth in Mat 11:1-30 when he denounced the cities in which great miracles had been done and they believed not and declared that it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for them.
To demonstrate the rightful cause of judgment Amos speaks now in a number of brief similes. There are six of them in the form of questions. “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” Fellowship is only possible on the ground of separation; a holy God demands a holy people. In their state of licentious idolatry and gross injustice the Lord could not own them. Then follow brief questions indicating that which would happen to them. Like a roaring lion, or a young lion, the Lord would come upon them. They will be caught in a snare and a trap. The blowing of the trumpet denotes that evil was to come upon them. “Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD has not done it?” It is hard to believe that certain men have taken this statement and teach on account of it that God is the author of moral evil--of sin. The context shows that this is not in view here at all. A holy God who cannot be tempted with evil, who is light and in whom there is no darkness at all, does not put moral evil in the world. The evil is of a punitive character such as invasion by hostile forces, the sword, the famine and the pestilence.
And the Lord Jehovah will do nothing, but He revealeth His secrets unto His servants, the prophets. These secrets are made known to us in the prophetic Word and not, as some claim, in special visions. The Spirit of God, the author of the Word, shows to God’s people in His Word things to come Joh 15:15; 1Co 2:10-16. The result of such knowledge of the secrets of the Lord concerning the future is stated in 2Pe 3:17, “Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.” (See also 2Pe 3:14.
Amo 3:9-15. This paragraph begins with a striking call. The speaker is the Lord and He addresses the prophets and commands them to cry in the palaces of Ashdod (Philistia) and in Egypt so that they may see and know the wicked acts of Samaria, and thus bear witness against Israel. Thus the Lord exposed them to their enemies. Then the coming adversary is announced who would encircle the land and humiliate the proud nation, so that her palaces would be spoiled. Then the herd man speaks in a parable familiar to him from his life as a shepherd. When the beast of prey devours a sheep the shepherd must bring proof of it, so he is anxious to recover a part of the slain animal and tries to snatch away from the devouring lion either the legs of the sheep, or even a small piece of the ear, so as to show the rest was eaten by the lion. Such would be the case with the people in their luxurious living, and only a small remnant is to escape the coming slaughter by the lion, the Gentile world power. The transgressions of Israel will be visited; the idol altars of Bethel will be overthrown in that visitation and all their prosperity and luxury would then end and instead of living in winter and summer houses, they would become homeless.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Lord Ready to Punish
The Lord Ready to Punish
v. 1. Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, all the descendants of Jacob being here addressed, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, by the mighty deliverance which resulted in their becoming His covenant people, saying,
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v. 2. You only have I known of all the families of the earth, acknowledging them and choosing them on the basis of His peculiar favor toward them; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities; for the greater the privileges granted, the heavier is the punishment for the abuse of them, as the transgression is made worse by ingratitude.
v. 3. Can two walk together except they be agreed? This and the following propositions, bringing out illustrations from daily life, are intended to substantiate the prophet’s right to speak to the people in this manner, even if they were inclined to resent his sharp words. Jehovah and His prophet are in perfect agreement, as the sequel was bound to show.
v. 4. Will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey? Jehovah is the lion, and His roaring is that of satisfaction over the certainty that His prey cannot escape, that is, that Israel, in its present state of mind, will surely be punished. Will a young lion cry out of his den, with a satisfied roaring, if he have taken nothing? In the same way Jehovah already has the guilty people in His power and is ready to carry out His judgment upon them.
v. 5. Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, a trap placed on the ground, where no gin is for him? That is: Could destruction come upon Israel if his own sin-fullness did not draw him into it?. Shall one take up a snare from the earth and have taken nothing at all? literally, "Does the trap rise from the ground if a snared bird does not cause it to do so?" that Isaiah Did Israel, knowing his own corruptness, hope to escape destruction, which was bound to take hold of him?
v. 6. Shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? As the signal of the trumpet was intended to arouse the people out of their security, so the message of the prophet was intended to awaken the people of Israel to the peril of their position. Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it? The destruction which would strike Israel on account of the iniquities of the people was indeed planned by Jehovah, who in this sense is the Author of the calamities which come upon men on account of their sins.
v. 7. Surely the Lord God will do nothing but He revealeth His secret unto His servants, the prophets, that is, Jehovah does not send His judgments without warning, but gives the people knowledge of His counsel and opportunity to turn from their evil ways.
v. 8. The lion hath roared, in sounding the warning of his approach, who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy? Amos was simply carrying out the work of his calling in announcing to his people the impending judgment of Jehovah. Even so the servants of God are bound to make known His holy will, regardless of the manner in which their hearers react to the truth.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Hear this word
Hear this word
"Hear this message" or "Listen to this message"
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that Yahweh has spoken against you ... against the whole family
"this word that Yahweh has spoken about you ... about the whole family" or "Yahweh's message about you ... about the whole family"
you, people of Israel ... the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt
These two phrases refer to the same group of people. The people God is speaking to are the descendants of those he had taken out of Egypt.
the whole family
Here "the whole family" represents to the whole nation. The people of Israel were all descendants of Jacob. AT: "the whole nation" or "the whole clan" (See: Metonymy)
I have chosen only you from all the families of the earth
This implies that they should have obeyed him. This can be stated clearly. AT: "I have chosen only you from all the families of the earth, so you should have obeyed me" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
all the families of the earth
Here "families" represents nations or people groups. AT: "all the nations of the earth" or "all the clans on the earth" (See: Metonymy)
Therefore I will punish you for all your sins
It can be stated clearly that they did not obey God. AT: "But you did not obey me. Therefore I will punish you for all your sins" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
word
Yahweh
Israel
family
Egypt
chosen one
punish
sin
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 3:1–5:17 Amos directs the three prophetic messages in this…
3:1–5:17 Amos directs the three prophetic messages in this section against Israel, indicting them for a false understanding of their status as God’s chosen people. The messages show a progression toward judgment.
3:1-2 The first message from the Lord warns Israel that its status as God’s elect will not excuse them from God’s judgment. Instead, they will be held to a higher standard than the surrounding nations.
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3:1 Amos begins with a reference to God’s goodness to Israel when he rescued them from Egypt (see 2:10).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.