Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see what unrest is in her, and what oppression is among them.”
Parallel Translations
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Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see what unrest is in her, and what oppression is among them.”
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Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof.
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Proclaim it upon the palaces at Ashdod, and upon the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say: 'Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great confusions therein, and the oppressions in the midst thereof.'
Cross-references (15)
Passages linked to Amos 3:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Amos 4:1 Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their husbands, “Bring us drinks!”
- Amos 6:1 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come!
- Amos 1:8 I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon; and I will turn my hand against Ekron; and the remnant of the Philistines will perish,” says the Lord Yahweh.
- 1 Samuel 5:1 Now the Philistines had taken God’s ark, and they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
- Jeremiah 22:8-9 “Many nations will pass by this city, and they will each ask his neighbor, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this great city?’ Then they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh their God, worshiped other gods, and served them.’ ”
- Jeremiah 31:5 Again you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. The planters will plant, and will enjoy its fruit.
- Jeremiah 50:2 “Declare among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and don’t conceal: say, ‘Babylon has been taken, Bel is disappointed, Merodach is dismayed! Her images are disappointed. Her idols are dismayed.’
- Amos 8:6 that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals, and sell the sweepings with the wheat?’ ”
- Deuteronomy 29:24-28 Even all the nations will say, “Why has Yahweh done this to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?” Then men will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they didn’t know and that he had not given to them. Therefore Yahweh’s anger burned against this land, to bring on it all the curses that are written in this book. Yahweh rooted them out of their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and thrust them into another land, as it is today.”
- 2 Samuel 1:20 Don’t tell it in Gath. Don’t publish it in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.
- Jeremiah 2:10-11 For pass over to the islands of Kittim, and see. Send to Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there has been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which doesn’t profit.
- Jeremiah 31:7-9 For Yahweh says, “Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations. Publish, praise, and say, ‘Yahweh, save your people, the remnant of Israel!’ Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, along with the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together. They will return as a great company. They will come with weeping. I will lead them with petitions. I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they won’t stumble; for I am a father to Israel. Ephraim is my firstborn.
- Jeremiah 46:14 “Declare in Egypt, publish in Migdol, and publish in Memphis and in Tahpanhes: say, ‘Stand up, and prepare; for the sword has devoured around you.’
- Ezekiel 36:8 “ ‘ “But you, mountains of Israel, you shall shoot out your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel; for they are at hand to come.
- Ezekiel 37:22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. One king will be king to them all. They will no longer be two nations. They won’t be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain Amos begins here to set judges over the Israelites;…
Amos begins here to set judges over the Israelites; for they would not patiently submit to God’s judgment: and he constitutes and sets over them as judges the Egyptians and Idumeans. This prophecy no doubt increasingly exasperated the minds of the people, who were already very refractory and rebellious; but yet this was necessary. God, indeed, had cited them to his tribunal, as long as a hope of reconciliation remained: when they became angry on account of God’s threatening, clamored against his servants, yea, and obstinately disputed, as though they were guilty of no fault, what remained, but that God should constitute judges over them, whom the Prophet names, even the Egyptians and Idumeans? “Ye cannot bear my judgment; unbelievers, who are already condemned, shall pronounce sentence upon you. I am indeed your legitimate judge; but as ye have repudiated me, I will prove to you how true my judgment is; I will be silent, the Egyptians shall speak.” And who were these Egyptians? Even those who were equally guilty with the Israelites, and labored under the same charges, or were at least not far from deserving a similar punishment; and yet God would compel the Israelites to hear the sentence that was to be pronounced on them by the Egyptians and Idumeans. We know how proudly the Israelites gloried in their primogeniture; but the Lord here exposes to scorn this arrogance, because they made such bad use of his benefits. We now then perceive the Prophet’s intention.
Publish, he says, in the palaces of Ashdod, in the palaces of the land of Egypt, and say — what? “Assemble on the mountains of Samaria.” He would have the Egyptians and the Idumeans to meet together, and the mountains of Samaria to be as it were the theater, though the idea of a tribunal is more suitable to the similitude that is used. It was then, as though the Egyptians and Idumeans were to be seated on an elevated place; and God were to set before them the oppressions, the robberies and iniquitous pillages, which prevailed in the kingdom of Israel. Assemble then on the mountains of Samaria. The Prophet alludes to the situation of the country: for though Samaria was situated on a plain, there were yet mountains around it; and they thought themselves hid there, and were as wine settled on its lees. God says now, “Let the Egyptians and Idumeans meet and view the scene; I will allot them a place, from which they can see how greatly all kinds of iniquity prevail in the kingdom of Israel. They indeed dwell in their plain, and think themselves sufficiently defended by the mountains around; but from these mountains even the very blind will be able to see how abominable and shameful is their condition.”
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Let them come and see, he says, the oppressions in the midst of her. The word he uses is מהומת, meumet, tumults; but he means oppressions, committed without any regard to reason or justice, when all things are done with glamour and violence. “Let them see then the oppressions, let them see the distresses.” He speaks of their deeds; he afterwards mentions the persons; but the Prophet means the same thing, though he uses different forms of expression, that is, that the kingdom of Israel was filled with many crimes; for plunder of every kind prevailed there and men kept within no bounds of moderation, but by tumult and clamor pillaged the poor and the miserable. It now follows —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain He calleth the strangers, as the Philistines and Egyptians,…
He calleth the strangers, as the Philistines and Egyptians, to be witness of God’s judgments against the Israelites for their cruelty and oppression.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Amo 3:9 Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and…
Amo 3:9 Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof.
Ver. 9. Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, &c.] That is, in the courts of the Philistine princes, and of the Egyptian kings, who are here attested and invited, to judge between God and his vineyard, to pass an impartial sentence, and to say whether Israel’s sins deserved not all the judgments that God by his prophets had denounced, yea, and greater too. Holy Ezra acknowledgeth as much, Ezr 9:13. But because that many were ready to say, as those in Jeremiah, "Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee (saith the Lord), because thou sayest, I have not sinned," Jer 2:35. Yea, thy sworn enemies shall give true evidence against thee, and judge of the justice of my proceedings with thee, that I may be justified, and every mouth stopped.
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Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria] That therehence ye may be eyewitnesses, and have a full prospect of their lewdness; which will be to you a pleasant spectacle; that out of their tragedies you may frame comedies. Samaria was a city set upon a hill; and as itself, so its wickedness, could not be hidden. Carnal people are very inquisitive into the miscarriages of professors; and ready to search more narrowly thereinto than Laban did into Jacob’s stuff. What a jeer made Ammianus Marcellinus of the pride and luxury of some of the primitive bishops! Averroes, of the Papists’ breaden god! the Turks, of the Papists’ Asinus palmaris! the Jews, of their clipping the crucifix, and weeping over it in the pulpit! as also the swearing that is so common among Protestants, together with that mad conceit of some, that he that cannot swear with a grace, wanteth his tropes and figures befitting a gentleman! This and such like unchristian practices made learned Lineker, when he read Christ’s Sermon in the Mount, cry out, Certainly, either this is not Gospel, or we are but bad gospellers ( Profecto aut hoc non est Evangelium; aut nos non sumus Evangelici). It is a lamentable thing, that it should be commonly reported that there be such abominations found in the Church as are hardly heard of among the heathens, 1Co 5:1.
“ pudet haec opprobria nobis,
Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli. ”
Why should it be told in Gath, or published in the palaces of Ashdod? 2Sa 1:20; why should Egyptians condemn Israelites, as the Scythians once did the Greeks, and the heathen Indians now do the beastly Spaniards that tyrannize over them? Why should there be any successors to those heretics mentioned by Bellarmine, and called Christianocategori, accusers of Christians; because by their unchristian conversation they delivered up Christ and his people to be buffeted and spat on by their enemies? {See Trapp on "Hos 7:16"} "This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt."
And behold the great tumults] Or the humming noises, the garboils, the violent irruptions upon the poor oppressed, causing them to cry out, as those that are crushed or broken in pieces.
And the oppressed in the midst thereof] Whether by force or fraud oppressed; whether it were επιβολη or επιβουλη, "The Lord is the avenger of all such," 1Th 4:6. This the heathen shall take special notice of, and say, with Calocerius the consul, Vere magnus est Deus Christianorum, The Christian’s God is a righteous God indeed.
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 Publish; you prophets whom I have sent to threaten…
Publish; you prophets whom I have sent to threaten the sins of my people Israel, now invite strangers to come and observe what just cause I have to do what I threaten.
In the palaces at Ashdod; one of the principal cities of the Philistines, Amo 1:8; Zep 2:4; let those that are in the court at Ashdod, and have a mind to travel a while out of their own land, let them know what strange sights they may see in their neighbour land.
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And in the palaces in the land of Egypt; let the young noblemen of Egypt come too, yea, let as many as will come.
Assemble yourselves; by an appointment (if it may be) let them meet together, and make their observations, and then judge between their doings and their sufferings, my judgments and the causes of them.
Upon the mountains of Samaria; either the whole kingdom of Samaria or the ten tribes, or else it may denote the great men and cities of Samaria; let Egyptians and Philistines in their travels up and down over the kingdom of Israel associate themselves with the great men, and converse in the cities.
Behold; take an exact view of all done by them and in them.
The great tumults; the seditious counsels and rebellious conspiracies, begun amongst them on the death of Jeroboam the Second, and continued one after another for many years, like madmen, bent on ruining one another, to the undoing of all: besides all former violences of Baasha, Zimri, Omri, and Jehu, who took the kingdom out of the hands of their masters; those of Shallum, Menahem, Pekah, and Hoshea, acted in the times Amos pointeth at.
The oppressed; multitudes of oppressed ones in those times, when the usurpers took it to be their interest to crush all they feared or suspected.
In the midst thereof; Samaria, the chief city of the kingdom, and in other cities; yea, rather through the whole kingdom of Samaria.
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 Israelites are here again convicted and condemned, and…
The Israelites are here again convicted and condemned, and particular notice given of the crimes they are convicted of and the punishment they are condemned to.
1. Notice is given of it to their neighbours. The prophet is ordered to publish it in the palaces of Ashdod, one of the chief cities of the Philistines; nay, the summons must go further, even to the palaces in the land of Egypt. "The great men of both those nations, that dwell in the palaces, that are inquisitive concerning the affairs of the neighboring nations, and are conversant with the public intelligence, let them assemble themselves upon the mountains of Samaria," Amo 3:9. There, upon a throne high and lifted up, the judgment is set. Samaria is the criminal that is to be tried; let them be present at the trial, for it shall be (as other trials are) public, in the face of the country; let them make an appointment to meet there from all parts, to judge between God and his vineyard. God appeals to all impartial righteous men, Eze 23:45. They will all subscribe to the equity of his proceedings when they see how the case stands. Note, God's controversies with sinners do not fear a scrutiny; even Philistines and Egyptians will be made to see, and say, that the ways of the Lord are equal, but our ways are unequal. They are likewise summoned to attend, not only that they may justify God and be witness for him that he deals fairly, but that they may themselves take warning; for, if judgment begin at the house of God, as they see it does, what shall be the end of those that are strangers to him? Pe1 4:17. If this be done in a green tree, what shall be done in a dry? Or this intimates that the sin of Israel had been so notorious that the neighboring nations could come in witnesses against them, and therefore it was fit that their punishment should be so. "If it could have been concealed, we would have said, Tell it not in Gath; publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon;" but why should their friends consult their reputation, when they themselves do not consult it? If they have grown impudent in sin, let them bear the shame: "Publish it in Ashdod, in Egypt."
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1. Let them see how black the charge is, and how well proved. Let them observe the behaviour of the inhabitants of Samaria; let them look off from the adjacent hills, and they may see how rude and boisterous they are, and hear how loud they cry of their sin is, as was that of Sodom. (1.) Look into their streets and you will see nothing but riot and disorder, great tumults in the midst thereof; reason and justice are upon all occasions run down by the noise and fury of an outrageous mob, the dominion of which is the sin and shame of any people, and is likely to be their ruin. (2.) Look into their prisons, and you will see them filled with injured innocents: The oppressed are in the midst thereof, thrown down and crushed by their oppressors, overpowered and overwhelmed, and they had no comforter, Ecc 4:1. (3.) Look into their courts of justice, and you will see that those who preside in those courts know not to do right, because they have always been accustomed to do wrong; they act as if they had no notion at all of the thing called justice, are in no care to do justice themselves nor to see that others do justice. (4.) Look into their treasures and stores, and you will see them replenished with violence and robbery, with that which was unjustly got and is still unjustly kept. Thus they have heaped treasures together for the last days, but it will prove a treasure of wrath against the day of wrath. It may well be said, Those know not to do right who think to enrich themselves by doing wrong.
2. Let them see how heavy the doom is, and how well executed, Amo 3:11, Amo 3:12.
(1.) Their country shall be invaded and ruined; and observe how the punishment answers to the sin. [1.] Great tumults are in the midst of the land, and therefore an adversary shall be even round about the land; the Assyrian forces shall surround it and break in upon it on every side. Note, When sin is harboured and indulged in the midst of a people they can expect no other than that adversaries should be round about them, so that, go which way they will, they go into the mouth of danger, Luk 19:43. [2.] They strengthened themselves in their wickedness, but the enemy shall bring down their strength from them, that strength which they abused in oppressing the poor, and doing violence to all about them. Note, That power which is made an instrument of unrighteousness will justly be brought down and broken. [3.] They stored up robbery in their palaces, and therefore their palaces shall be spoiled; for what is got and kept wrongfully will not be kept long. Even palaces will be no protection to fraud and oppression; but the greatest of men, if they have spoiled others, shall themselves be spoiled, for the Lord is the avenger of all such.
(2.) Their countrymen shall not escape, Amo 3:12. They shall be in the hands of the enemy, as a lamb in the mouth of a lion, all devoured and eaten up, and they shall be utterly unable to make an resistance; and if any do make their escape, so as neither to fall by the sword or go into captivity, yet they shall be very few, and those of the meanest and least considerable, like two legs, or shanks, of a lamb, or, it may be, a piece of an ear, which the lion drops, or the shepherd takes from him, when he has eaten the whole body; so, perhaps, here and there one may escape from Samaria and from Damascus, when the king of Assyria shall fall upon them both, but none to make any account of; and those that do escape shall do so with the utmost difficult and hazard, by hiding themselves in the corner of a bed or under the bed's feet, which intimates that their spirits shall sneak shamefully in the time of danger. They shall not hide themselves in dens and caves, but in the corner of a bed, or the piece of a bed, such as poor people must be content with. They shall very narrowly escape, as it is foretold concerning the last destruction of Jerusalem that there shall be two in a bed together, one taken and the other left. Note, When God's judgments come forth against a people with commission it will be in vain to think of escaping them. Some make their dwelling in the corner of a bed, and in a couch, to denote their present security and sensuality; they are at ease, as in a bed, or on a couch, but, when God comes to contend with them, he shall make them uneasy, shall take them away out of the bed of their sloth and slumber. Those that stretch themselves lazily upon their couches when God's judgments are abroad shall go captive with the first that go captive.
II. Notice is given of it to themselves, Amo 3:13. Let this be testified, and heard, in the house of Jacob, among all the seed of Israel, for it is spoken by the Lord God, the God of hosts, who has authority to pass this sentence and ability to execute it; let them know from him that the day is at hand when God will visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, when he will enquire into them and reckon for them: there will come a day of visitation, a day of punishment, and in that day all those things they are proud of, and put confidence in, shall fail them, and so they shall smart for the sins they have been guilty of about them. 1. Woe to their altars, for God will visit them. He will enquire into the sins they have been guilty of at their altars, and bring into the account all their superstition and idolatry, all their expenses on their false gods, and all their expectations from them; and he will lay the altars themselves under the marks of his displeasure, for the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground, and with them the altar itself demolished and broken to pieces. We find the altar at Bethel prophesied against (Kg1 13:2), and immediately rent (Amo 3:3), and that prophecy fulfilled with Josiah burnt men's bones upon it, Kg2 23:15, Kg2 23:16. This seconds that prophecy, and seems to point at the same event. Note, If men will not destroy idolatrous altars, God will, and those with them that had them in veneration. Some make the horns of the altar to signify all those things which they flee to for refuge, and trust in, and which they make their sanctuary: they shall all be cut off, so that they shall have nothing to take hold of. 2. Woe to their houses, for God will visit them too. He will enquire into the sins they have been guilty of in their houses, the robbery that have stored up in their houses, and the luxury in which they lived: and I will smite the winter-house with the summer-house, Amo 3:15. Their nobility, and gentry, and rich merchants, had their winter-houses in the city and their summer-houses in the country, so nice were they in guarding against the inconveniences of the winter when the country was thought too cold, and of the summer when the city was thought too hot, though the climate of that good land was so temperate, like that of ours, that neither the cold nor heat was ever in extremity. They indulged a foolish affectation of change and variety; but God will, either by war or by the earthquake, smite both the winter-house and the summer-house; neither shall serve to shelter them from his judgments. The houses of ivory (so called because the ceiling, or wainscot, or some of the ornaments of them, were edged or inlaid with ivory) shall perish, shall be burnt or pulled down; and the great houses shall have an end; the most splendid and spacious houses, the houses of their great men, shall no longer be, or at least be no longer theirs. Note, The pomp or pleasantness of men's houses will be so far from fortifying them against God's judgments that it will make them the more grievous and vexatious, as their extravagance about them will be put to the score of their sins and follies.
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 For they know not to do right, saith the…
For they know not to do right, saith the Lord,.... What is just and fight between man and man, no, not in one single instance; they did not regard it, or advert to it; they were under no concern about it; and were so much under the power of their lusts, that they knew not how to do it; and had used themselves so long to such wicked and unjust ways, that they had lost at least the practical knowledge of doing justice; they knew what was right in the theory, but not in the practice; bribes blinded their eyes; for this seems to design judges, civil magistrates, such who had the administration of justice and the execution Of the laws in their hands. The Targum is,
"they know not to execute the law;''
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see Jer 4:22;
who store up violence and robbery in their palaces; treasured up riches in their palaces, gotten in a violent way, by oppression and injustice; and which was no other, nor better, than robbery. This shows that persons in power and authority, that lived in palaces, in great splendour and grandeur, are here meant.
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 Publish - Ye prophets invite strangers to come and…
Publish - Ye prophets invite strangers to come and observe what cause I have to do what I threaten. Tumults - The seditious counsels, and rebellious conspiracies among them. The oppressed - Multitudes of oppressed ones, as the usurpers took it to be their interest to crush all they feared or suspected. In the midst - Yea, throughout the whole kingdom of Samaria.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 9. Publish in the palaces] The housetops or…
Verse 9. Publish in the palaces] The housetops or flat roofs were the places from which public declarations were made. See on Isa 21:1, and on Mt 10:27. See whether in those places there be not tumults, oppressions, and rapine sufficient to excite my wrath against them.
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 3:9-11. Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, &c.…
Amo 3:9-11. Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, &c. — God here orders the prophet to invite the Philistines and Egyptians, the inveterate enemies of God’s Israel, to come and behold what great wickedness was among them, and what cause he had to execute what he had threatened, and to mark the calamities coming upon them, as the punishment of that wickedness, that these heathen might hereby take warning. Say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria — That is, in the kingdom of the ten tribes, whose capital city was Samaria, built upon a hill of the same name. Or, the mountains of Samaria may be equivalent to the mountains of Israel, mentioned Eze 36:8; Eze 37:22; Samaria being often taken for the whole kingdom of Israel. Behold the great tumults in the midst thereof — The seditious councils and rebellious conspiracies among them. And the oppressed in the midst thereof — The multitude of oppressed ones throughout the whole kingdom; for the usurpers took it to be their interest to crush all they feared or suspected. For they know not to do right — That is, they will not know nor learn to do their duty. Who store up violence, &c. — Who store up in their houses riches gotten by violence and injustice. Therefore, An adversary shall be even round about the land — Shalmaneser the king of Assyria shall invade the land on every side, shall dismantle its fortresses, and plunder its wealthy palaces.
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 Publish - “ye,” they are the words of God,…
Publish - “ye,” they are the words of God, commissioning His prophets
In (on) the palaces of Ashdod - , that is, on the flat roofs of their high buidings, from where all can hear
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And in (on) the palaces in the land of Egypt - Theodoret: “Since ye disbelieve, I will manifest to Ashdodites and Egyptians the transgressions of which ye are guilty.” Amos had already pronounced God’s sentence on “the palaces of Ashdod” and all Philistia, for their sins against Himself in His people (see the notes at Amo 1:6-8). Israel now, or a little later, courted Egypt Hos 7:11; Hos 12:1. To friend then and to foe, to those whom they dreaded and those whom they courted, God would lay open their sins. Contempt and contumely from an enemy aggravate suffering: man does not help whom he despiseth. “They were all ashamed of a people who could not profit them,” saith Isaiah Isa 30:5 subsequently, of Egypt in regard to Judah. From those palaces, already doomed to destruction for their sins, the summons was to go, to visit Samaria, and see her sins, amid grace which those people had not. As our Lord says, “It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment, than for that city” Mat 10:15. Shame toward man survives shame toward God. What people are not ashamed to do, they are, apart from any consequences, 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 people, not to offend Him.
Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria - that is, those surrounding it. Samaria was chosen with much human wisdom for the strong capital of a small people. Imbedded in mountains, and out of any of the usual routes , it lay, a mountain-fastness in a rich valley. Armies might surge to and fro in the valley of Jezreel, and be unconscious of its existence. The way from that great valley to Samaria lay, every way, through deep and often narrowing valleys , down which the armies of Samaria might readily pour, but which, like Thermopylae, might be held by a handful of men against a large host.
The broad vale near the hill of Dothan , along which the blinded Syrian army followed Elisha to Samaria, contracts into “a narrow valley” , before it reaches Samaria. The author of the book of Judith, who knew well the country, speaks of “the passages of the hill-country” near Dothaim, “by” which “there was an entrance into Judaea, and it was easy to stop them that would come up, because the passage was strait for two men at the most” . : “A series of long winding ravines open from the mountains to the plain; these were the passes so often defended by the ‘horns of Joseph, the ten thousands of Ephraim, and the thousands of Manasseh’ against the invaders from the north.”
Within these lay “the wide rocky rampart” which fenced in Samaria from the north . “The fine round swelling hill of Samaria, now cultivated to the top, (about 1,100 feet above the sea , and 300 from its own valley ,) stands alone in the midst of a great basin of some two hours (or 5 miles) in diameter surrounded by higher mountains on every side.” : “The view from its summit presents a splendid panorama of the fertile basin and the mountains around, teeming with large villages, and includes not less than 25 degrees of the Mediterranean.” Such a place, out of reach, in those days, from the neighboring heights, was well-near impregnable, except by famine. But its inhabitants must have had handed down to them the memory, how those heights had once been populated, while their valleys were thronged with “all the hosts” 2Ki 6:24 of Benhadad, his chariots and his horsemen; and the mountains, in which they had trusted to shut out the enemy, were the prison-walls of their famished people.
From those heights , “the Syrians could plainly distinguish the famishing inhabitants of the city. The adjacent circle of hills were so densely occupied, that not a man could push through to bring provisions to the beleaguered city.” The city, being built on the summit and terraced sides of the hill, unfenced and unconcealed by walls which, except at its base, were unneeded, lay open, unsheltered in every part from the gaze of the besiegers. The surrounding hills were one large amphitheater, from where to behold the tragedy of Israel , and enemies were invited to be the spectators. They could see its faminestricken inhabitants totter along those open terraces. Sin had brought this chastisement upon them. God had forgiven them then. When God who had, by His prophet, foretold their relief then 2Ki 7:1-2, now by His prophet called anew those enemies of Samaria to those same heights to behold her sins, what could this mean but that He summoned them to avenge what He summoned them to behold?
It was no figure of speech. God avenges, as He comforts, not in word, but in deed. The triumph of those enemies David had especially deprecated, “Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumised triumph” 2Sa 1:20. To these Israel was to be a gazingstock. They were like “the woman set in the midst Joh 8:3, amid one encircling sea of accusing insulting faces, with none to pity, none to intercede, none to show mercy to them who “had shewed no mercy.” Faint image of the shame of that Day, when not people’s deeds only, but “the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed” Rom 2:16, and “they shall begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, Cover us” Luk 23:30; and of that “shame” there will be no end, for it is “everlasting” Dan 12:2.
And behold the great tumults - I. e, the alarms, restlessness, disorders and confusion of a people intent on gain; turning all law upside down, the tumultuous noise of the oppressors and oppressed. It is the word which Solomon uses , “Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure and tumult therewith,” the tumults and restlessness of continual gaining. “And the oppressed,” or better (as in the English margin) the oppressions , the manifold ever-repeated acts by which people were crushed and trampled on.
In the midst thereof - Admitted within her, domiciled, reigning there in her very center, and never departing out of her, as the Psalmist says, “Wickedness is in the midst thereof; deciet and guile depart not from her streets” Psa 55:11. Aforetime, God spared His people, that “His Name Eze 20:9 should not be polluted before the pagan, among whom they were, in whose sight I made Myself known unto them in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.” Now He summons those same pagan as witnesses that Israel was justly condemned. These sins, being sins against the moral law, the pagan would condemn. People condemn in others, what they do themselves. But so they would see that God hated sin, for which He spared not His own people, and could the less triumph over God, when they saw the people whom God had established and protected, given up to the king of Assyria.
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 Azotus. Septuagint, "Assyrians." --- Follies. Septuagint, "wonders." Let you…
Azotus. Septuagint, "Assyrians." --- Follies. Septuagint, "wonders." Let you greatest enemies know what crimes you commit against yourselves (Haydock) and others.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Publish in . . . palaces--as being places of…
Publish in . . . palaces--as being places of greatest resort (compare Mat 10:27); and also as it is the sin of princes that he arraigns, he calls on princes (the occupants of the "palaces") to be the witnesses.
Ashdod--put for all Philistia. Convene the Philistine and the Egyptian magnates, from whom I have on various occasions rescued Israel. (The opposite formula to "Tell it not in Gath," namely, lest the heathen should glory over Israel). Even these idolaters, in looking on your enormities, will condemn you; how much more will the holy God?
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upon the mountains of Samaria--on the hills surrounding and commanding the view of Samaria, the metropolis of the ten tribes, which was on a lower hill (Amo 4:1; Kg1 16:24). The mountains are to be the tribunal on which the Philistines and Egyptians are to sit aloft to have a view of your crimes, so as to testify to the justice of your punishment (Amo 3:13).
tumults--caused by the violence of the princes of Israel in "oppressions" of the poor (Job 35:9; Ecc 4:1).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 9, 10. Summons of the surrounding nations. Amo_3:9 connects…
9, 10. Summons of the surrounding nations. Amo_3:9 connects with Amo_3:2. The prophet, having presented his credentials, continues his message of denunciation and judgment. The iniquities for which judgment is to be executed (Amo_3:2) are so heinous that they startle even the heathen nations. These the prophet summons to testify against Israel. “Even the inhabitants of the great cities of Philistia and Egypt,” says Wellhausen, “who were by no means timid and could endure a great deal, would be amazed on seeing the mad confusion and injustice in Samaria.”
Publish — The speaker is Jehovah, or the prophet in his name. No one in particular is addressed; the imperative is equivalent to “Let it be published,” by anyone in a position to do so.
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In the palaces — Literally, upon or over the palaces. Either from the high palaces, so that everyone may hear, or let the proclamation be spread over the palaces of the nobles. Since the condemnation fell chiefly upon the nobles of Samaria (Amo_3:11-15) it would seem fitting that the sentence should be announced in the presence of their equals.
Ashdod — LXX., “Assyria.” Hosea frequently mentions Assyria and Egypt together, Amos never. Ashdod represents Philistia. Why he mentions Philistia and Egypt rather than other neighboring nations is not clear; perhaps because they, as long-time enemies of Israel, would rejoice most over the downfall of the latter.
Mountains of Samaria — LXX., “mountain,” that is, the mountain upon which Samaria was built (Amo_4:1; Amo_6:1), and this is considered by many to be the original, but the present Hebrew text gives good sense. Samaria was situated upon a hill, which was surrounded on all sides by higher hills. From these outer elevations the witnesses were to behold the outrages in Samaria.
Samaria — Founded as the capital of the northern kingdom by Omri (1Ki_16:24), it remained the capital until the end of the kingdom in 722-721. It continued to exist even after that catastrophe, and Herod the Great, who practically rebuilt the city, called it Sebaste. Its site is identified with the modern es-Sebustieh, a village and ruin on a hill about six miles northwest of Shechem, in the center of Palestine.
Great tumults — Confusions and disorders resulting from the violence of the ruling classes.
Oppressed — Better, R.V., “oppressions” (Job_35:9); great is to be supplied (compare Amo_2:6-7). 9b may be rendered more forcibly, “And, behold! confusions manifold in the midst of her! oppressions to her very core!”
They know not to do right — Literally, straight. Their sinful conduct has continued so long that their consciences have become seared and all sense of right has been lost; wrongdoing has become their second nature.
Violence and robbery — That which is secured through violence and robbery.
In their palaces — From now on it becomes clear whom Amos addresses, the nobles who are robbing their weaker fellow citizens.
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 9–10. The heathen themselves are invited to bear witness…
9–10. The heathen themselves are invited to bear witness whether the sins of Samaria do not deserve judgement.
Publish &c.] proclaim it (lit. make it to be heard) over the palaces in Ashdod, &c., i.e. on their flat roofs, whence all can hear (cf. Mat_10:27): the nobles of Ashdod (Amo_1:8) and Egypt are to be invited to come and judge for themselves of the moral condition of Samaria. The persons addressed may be the prophets; or, more probably, those, whoever they might be, capable of bearing the message; cf. Isa_40:1; Isa_57:14; Isa_62:11; Jer_5:1; Jer_5:10; Jer_5:20, &c.
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the mountains of Samaria] i.e. surrounding Samaria. Samaria, the hill which Omri fortified and made his capital (1Ki_16:24), and which, in the days of its prosperity, must have presented to the eye an imposing ‘crown’ (Isa_28:1) of battlements, is a fine rounded eminence, standing in the centre of a magnificent amphitheatre of mountains, with the Mediterranean visible through a gap in the distance. Upon these mountains the prophet pictures the inhabitants of the palaces of Ashdod and Egypt assembled, for the purpose of looking down into the Israelite capital and observing the malpractices rampant within her.
the great tumults] or confusions, disorders, the result of a state in which might rules over right. Cf. Eze_22:5 (of Jerusalem).
the oppressed] rather, oppression, as Job_35:9. Cf. Jer_6:6; Eze_22:7; Eze_22:12; Eze_22:29.
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 (9) In the palaces.—Rather, on the palaces, i.e., on…
(9) In the palaces.—Rather, on the palaces, i.e., on their roofs in such conspicuous places that the population, high and low, would hear the summons.
Mountains of Samaria.—In the high ground around the city, from which can be observed all that is passing in the metropolis. Foreign people, even Philistines and Egyptians, are gathered to witness the evils of the doomed realm. The marginal rendering “oppressions” should be adopted. This is shown by the parallelism.
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 Vers. 9-15. Having vindicated his own commission, Amos proclaims…
Vers. 9-15. Having vindicated his own commission, Amos proclaims what God purposes to do unto Israel. He is bidden to summon the heathen Ashdod and Egypt to bear witness to the iniquities of Samaria, which should bring about the overthrow of the kingdom, the destruction of the city with its altars and palaces, and the exile of the people.
Ashdod. (Amo_1:8) God bids the prophets (publish ye) summon the inhabitants of the palaces of Philistia (of which Ashdod is the representative) and Egypt, because they had been the chief enemies of his people, and in their sight had mighty works been wrought for Israel; thus they could appreciate her iniquity and ingratitude. Some, translating al "upon," say that the prophets are bidden publish their message upon the flat roofs of the palaces, that it may be heard far and near. (comp. 2Sa_16:22; Mat_10:27) Keil thinks that not all the inhabitants of the town are summoned, but only those who live in the palaces, who alone "could pronounce a correct sentence as to the mode of life commonly adopted in the palaces of Samaria." But this seems an unnecessary refinement. The Septuagint reads, jAnaggeilate cwraiv ejn jAsourioiv, "Proclaim ye to the regions among the Assryians," doubtless by some mistake of copyists. Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria. The city of Samaria was built on a hill which stands alone in the valley or basin, but it is surrounded by higher mountains, from whence, though at some distance, spectators could look down into its streets, and, as from the seats in an amphitheatre, behold the iniquities transacted there. Their implacable enemies, the Philistines, and those they were then courting, the Egyptians, (Heb_7:11 Heb_12:1) are alike called to witness this spectacle. Tumult; the disorder, where might makes right. LXX, qaumasta polla, "many marvels," as if the sight were a surprise even to the heathen. The oppressed (ashuqim); better, the oppressions, i.e. of the weak at the hands of the powerful. (comp. Amo_2:6 Amo_4:1) It was to the eternal disgrace of Israel that there were doings in her cities which the very heathen would condemn.
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Vers. 9-12.
The prophet gets his heavy commission.
It is Jehovah that speaks. He addresses the prophets (Keil), or the heathen (Lange), or the heathen through the prophets. The passage is a summons to the nations to appear as witnesses of Israel"s flagrant sin, and her dreadful punishment. There are many articles in her predicted woe. Not least of these is condemnation by the heathen, who for less heinous sins were to be themselves destroyed. When a professed follower of God apostatizes in such a fashion that even God"s enemies cry shame, and endures a corresponding punishment in their sight, the cup of his iniquity and of his retribution are both full.
I THE CRIME CHANCED. There are many counts in this grave indictment.
1. The confusion of sordid money seeking. "See the great confusions in the midst thereof." The restlessness of greed, the fever of speculation, the wrangling of barter, and the tumult of audacious extortion are all included here. The mingling of excitement, disorder, and noise in a struggle for money, suggest a scene in which little is left to fancy with one who has been "on "Change.
2. The oppression of power without principle. "And the oppressed in the heart thereof." From fraud to oppression is but a single step, and a short one. It is simply a question of power. The swindler would steal if he could. The thief would rob with violence if he dare. When dishonesty, moreover, prevails in private life, a system of public plunder is only a question of opportunity.
1. Wrong doing till the way to do right had been forgotten. "They know not to do right." "In the nature of things every sin against light draws blood on the spiritual retina" (Joseph Cook). Men are both hardened and blinded by a course of sin. Evil actions repeated become habits, and evil habits indulged in work themselves into the very texture of the soul. The wrong of ill-doing soon ceases to be felt, which naturally leads to its ceasing to be (Jer_4:22; cf. Rom_16:19) When we can sin without conscience, we are very near to sinning without consciousness, The way to preserve a good conscience, a conscience that knows evil and condemns it, is to respect its least dictate. "Sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character; sew a character, and you reap a destiny.
2. Putting by plunder in More. "Who store up violence and devastation in their palaces." Plunder has not even the poor excuse of need. It is practised gratuitously, as without limit. The poor were fleeced and impoverished, that the sordid rich might heap up enormous and superfluous stores. And by the terms there was stored up not only the spoil of violence, but violence itself, Pari passu, with the accumulation of ill-gotten gain was the heaping up of the sin of their unrighteous getting, whilst in heaping up sin they were necessarily treasuring up wrath. (Rom_2:5)
II THE WITNESSES SUMMONED. "Assemble upon the mountains," etc. A reference to the topography of Samaria brings out the graphic fitness of the language here. The city was built on a hill, surrounded and overlooked by mountains higher than itself, and from the tops of which the nations could look down into the very streets, and observe the daily doings of the inhabitants. As regards these we notice:
1. Abandonment in sin is a sight for a mans worst enemy to see. The certainty, severity, and nearness of avenging judgment makes sin, from even the low utilitarian standpoint, the greatest possible evil. The enemy, who rejoices in our ill, can find no such occasion of malignant joy as our giving ourselves up to sin. After the fact that it offends God, the strongest argument against sin is the fact, the obverse of the other, that it pleases the devil and wicked men.
2. When men lose the sense of sin, God appeals to their sense of shame. It is strange that the sense of shame should survive the sense of sin, but so it is. We fear men more than God. We are not ashamed to do what we would be very much ashamed to acknowledge. The poet"s sarcasm is just, that in the matter of sin our care is "not to leave undone, but keep unknown." The bitterness of punishment is greatly aggravated by its being inflicted in the presence of an exulting enemy. Philistia and Egypt were, moreover, the enemies whose cognizance of their way and end Israel would most feel and. (2Sa_1:20) To this last shred of feeling on which a motive could lay hold Jehovah here appeals. They would be a gazing stock to their bitterest enemies. "Like the woman set in the midst amid one encircling sea of accusing, insulting faces, with none to pity, none to intercede, none to show mercy to them who had showed no mercy. Faint image of the shame of that day when not men"s deeds only, but the secrets of all hearts, shall be revealed, and they shall begin "to say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, Cover us (Pusey).
3. The pupil in the art of ill-doing often outdoes the master. It is assumed that even Egypt and Philistia would be shocked at the sight of the wrong doing of apostate Israel, and so become witnesses against them. Yet Egypt had taught them "oppression," and Philistia had given them many a lesson in "violence and devastation." The art of wrong doing advances with rapid strides as it is handed on. The son of the "smart" trader is a swindler, the son of the swindler is the burglar, the son of the burglar is the robber assassin. The pupil of the religious liberal is the rationalist, and the pupil of the rationalist is the atheist. Begin by imitating wicked men, and you will end by outstripping them in sin.
III THE SENTENCE PRONOUNCED. This is at once heavy in its nature and explicit in its details. We see here that:
1. When Gods judgments come against a man they surround him. (Ver. 11, "An enemy, and that round about the land.") The impossibility of escaping when God attacks is axiomatic. Punishment is in such a way interwoven with sin that they cannot be dissociated. When we sin against God we sin against the nature of things. Physical, mental, and social law jump each with moral law, are broken in the breach of it, and so are each of them a channel to guide to us the full flood of retribution. "Though hand join in hand, yet shall not the wicked go unpunished.
2. When God strikes a sinner he strikes him on the seat of his sin. "And he shall bring down," etc. (ver. 11); "That dwell in Samaria," etc. (ver. 12). The strong had oppressed and pillaged the weak, and God"s hand would fall on their strength. In the palaces the spoil of violence had been heaped up, and the palaces should be the special prey of the plunderer. The beds and couches which had ministered to their sinful indulgence would be carried away to the last stick. It is so always. The punishment of drunkenness, uncleanness, pride, theft, lying, comes in many ways, but in every case pre-eminently through the lust or appetite involved. This is according to natural laws, but is none the less the arrangement of God. He lure put latent in every power a mystic spark, which, if the power be abused, becomes a retributive fire to burn the breaker of his Law.
3. When sin is adequately punished the sinners well being is practically destroyed. "Delivers out of the mouth of the lion two shin bones and an ear lappet," etc. (ver. 12). These are paltry leavings, not worth the rescue. And such, and so insignificant, would be the surviving good of Israel, when God"s controversy was settled. Where the scythe of God"s judgment has passed there is little left for the gleaner. The detected thief, the broken down sensualist, the besotted drunkard, what is each but a human wreck? The kernel of life is wasted, and only a husk remains. No wallflower of good can ever grow to cover these wrecks of time.
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 They know not to do right.
Amo_3:9-15
They know not to do right.
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Safety in righteousness
1. The real security of wealth is justice in its acquisition and liberality in its use. Where there is much wealth, unjustly gotten, or unmercifully stored up, there an object for Divine punishment exists. Such wealth will be spoiled by enemies from within or from without.
2. This part of the prophecy supplies a most powerful motive to quicken our zeal for true religion. The history of the world has been a history of the rise and fall of many false religions, and of the rise and progress of the true religion. One false system after another has reared its head, exerted its power, destroyed its victims, and been smitten and brought to ruin. The Christian religion, small in its beginnings, has been developed in its principles, and expanded in its dominion, from the time when the germ of all its blessings was planted in the mind and heart of man in the promise, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpents head. With patient, cheerful zeal, therefore, should we labour in the cause of true religion. It supplies a living link between us and the first true believers in God. Its principles never die.
3. We learn to be earnest in securing our interest in that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Every earthly house shall fall. The strong castle, the spacious mansion, the elegant abode of refinement and taste, the luxurious retreat from toil, sheltered from the heat or protected against the cold--all must one day come to ruin. Let us realise this in our thoughts, and receive admonition therefrom. (Vincent W. Ryan, M. A.)
Ignorance hinders religion
Ignorance of the price of pearls makes the idiot slight them. Ignorance of the worth of diamonds makes the fool choose a pebble before them. Ignorance of the satisfaction learning affords--that makes the peasant despise and laugh at it; and we very ordinarily see how men tread and trample on those plants which are the greatest restoratives, because they know not the virtue of them: and the same may justly be affirmed of religion,--the reason why men meddle no more with it is because they are not acquainted with the pleasantness of it. (Anthony Horneck.)
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 Amo_3:9. Publish] upon (the floor of) the palaces, some;…
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Amo_3:9. Publish] upon (the floor of) the palaces, some; others, over them, to call the princes and inhabitants to hear and see the acts of violence, and testify against Israel. “Ashdod, one of the Philistian capitals, is mentioned by way of example, as a chief city of the uncircumcised, who were regarded by Israel as godless heathen; and Egypt is mentioned along with it as the nation whose unrighteousness and ungodliness had once been experienced by Israel to satiety. If therefore such heathen as these are called to behold the unrighteous and dissolute conduct to be seen in the palaces, it must have been great indeed” [Keil]. Tumults] Heb. denotes a state of confusion and noise in which order and justice are overthrown by open violence.
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Amo_3:10. Regard not] Not merely ignorant, but cherish a state of mind hostile to knowledge. Moral corruption blinded the power of discernment, so that the magnates of Samaria had no regard for right.
Amo_3:11.] Whatever was boasted of would be removed.
Amo_3:12.] By an appropriate and pastoral image the prophet declares that if a scanty remnant escape it will only be by miracle, like fragments of sheep left by the lion. Grandees who sit on costly divans and rest in ease will escape with great difficulty (ch. Amo_6:1-4).
HOMILETICS
NATIONAL CALAMITIES.—Amo_3:9-12
The sins of Israel are to be punished, and heathen nations are summoned to witness. This turn in the address indicates the exceeding sinfulness of the sins, such as to surprise the heathen and put Israel to shame.
I. National guilt. Sin brings shame. From the heights around the injustice of Israel is beheld.
1. Moral sensibility impaired. “They know not to do right.” God has planted a sense of right in the breast of every one. This should be cultivated and strengthened. Indulgence in sin blunts this moral sensibility, and men at length become unable to do and perceive good. The love of evil blinds the power of discernment, and brings moral corruption (Jer_4:22). “I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.”
2. Public justice perverted. Courts of law were the scenes of injustice, and the rights of the people were neither known nor cared for. The poor were oppressed. God and his law were set at nought, violence and robbery prevailed, and evil customs reigned supreme.
3. Shameless fraud committed. “Who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.” One sin leads to another. Riches gained by fraud will never be used as means of benevolence and justice. All oppression is cruel; but to defraud the poor to increase unrighteous wealth is aggravation most insulting to God (Psa_11:5; Psa_12:5). Men may store up their treasures, and fill their palaces, to crush the poor and cheapen their luxuries. But “sin pays its servants very bad wages,” says a quaint author; “for it gives the very reverse of what it promised. While the sin of oppression promises mountains of gold, it brings them poverty and ruin. Injuries done to the poor are sorely resented by the God of mercy, who is the poor man’s friend, and will break in pieces his oppressor.” “The robbery of the wicked shall destroy them, because they refuse to do judgment.”
II. National disorder. “Behold the great tumults in the midst thereof.” Injustice and cruelty in the upper will ever bring alarm and confusion in the lower classes. A people intent on gain, turning law upside down, will create great tumults. National honour has been stained, and a reign of terror introduced by national disorders. Tumults have darkened the pages in the history of Greece, lost some of the noblest sons of Rome, and been terrible punishments to France. Let England remember that licentiousness and cruelty, fraud and oppression, will create confusion in the people; that wealth unlawfully gained, and unjustly stored; that mammon and pleasure habitually worshipped, will only “treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
III. National disgrace. It is a shame to any person to have his guilt and punishment revealed to others. “Every nation,” says Ryan, “is ashamed when its disgrace is proclaimed to other nations, and especially if those nations are remarkable for their hostility to it. Of all nations that have ever existed, the Israelites were most vulnerable in this respect. The position which they were taught to maintain, the exclusiveness of that system which was given to them of God, made them conspicuous objects of attention to other people, and exposed them most completely to the language of reproach and scorn in the day of their humiliation.” But God puts men to shame now, to keep them from everlasting shame and contempt.
IV. National invasion. Civil discord would be followed by the ravages of an invading enemy. “An adversary” would hem them in on all sides, encircle the land and assault their habitations.
1. Power which they abused shall be taken away. “He shall bring down thy strength from thee.” They would be bereft of all strength and resources on which they depended (Pro_10:15). When God is angry strength will prove weakness, and wealth end in poverty.
2. Palaces which they stored shall be destroyed. “Thy palaces shall be destroyed.” Palaces are no defence to fraud and oppression.
3. There would be a general and complete overthrow of the kingdom, with only a remnant of escape. The rulers had been guilty of oppression and robbery; disregarded these evils in others, notwithstanding the tumults and disorders they created; and filled their palaces with the fruits of robbery. But as an appropriate punishment their violence should be broken, and their wealth stolen from them. “The spoilers must themselves be spoiled.”
“To wrong-doers the revolution of time brings retribution” [Shakespeare].
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Amo_3:9-10. God’s assessors in judgment. The character assigned to the inhabitants of Philistia and Egypt is virtually that of assessors, who not only take cognizance of, but concur in the judgment executed (cf. Amo_3:13, lit. “Hear ye and testify against the house of Jacob”). From this we learn that in the execution of his righteous judgments God desires to obtain a verdict in the impartial human conscience. What is here figuratively represented by the neighbouring nations taking their stand on the mountains of Samaria takes place inwardly and silently in the minds of men. It is analogous to what in modern times is termed the verdict of public opinion. No institution is in danger until a sentence has been recorded against it in the tribunal of conscience and right reason. And the like may be said of the general stability and independence of nations. In such a case as the present two important ends are served.
1. The witnesses or jurors give a human attestation to the righteousness of the Divine procedure, and thus justify the ways of God. That they are themselves guilty and sinful makes their verdict all the more emphatic.
2. They thus obtain a truer and deeper acquaintance with God and his ways, and what they have seen in others becomes a warning to themselves [The Preacher’s Lantern, vol. 4].
“Heaven gives the needful but neglected call.
What day, what hour, but knocks at human hearts,
To wake the soul to a sense of future scenes?” [Young.]
Amo_3:10-11. Righteous requital.
1. Requital from God. “Thus saith the Lord God.” “There was no human redress. The oppressor was mighty, but mightier the avenger of the poor. Man would not help, therefore God would. An adversary there shall be even round about the land; lit. an enemy, and around the land” [Pusey].
2. Requital by means of their own sons. “Man’s sins are in God’s providence the means of his punishment. Their spoiling should invite the spoiler, their oppressions should attract the oppressor; and they, with all which they held to be their strength, should go forth into captivity” [Pusey].
“The cries of orphans and the oppressor’s rage
Doth reach the stars” [Dryden].
3. Requital justified by human testimony. “Publish in the palaces of Ashdod.” The transgressions of which Israel were guilty were to be manifest to others, and attested by the human conscience. “The Lord will be justified in his sayings and in his works, when he executeth judgment on us, and shall be cleared, even by the most unjust judges, when he is judged.”
Amo_3:12. The miserable remnant.
1. A remnant robbed of glory. Bereft of the national glory which once belonged to them, yet just enough to show that they had once been a part of it.
2. A remnant saved. After God’s righteous vengeance had accomplished its end, a remnant only shall be saved (Joe_2:32). “Taken out for the good of others, not their own.”
3. A remnant, injured by violence, rescued from danger, like a sheep almost devoured by the lion; taken at the last extremity, a monument of God’s mercy, and a proof of exposure to violence and risk.
As shepherds, ministers of God have to defend the flock against wild beasts and robbers. Carelessness should not permit one to be lost or injured. The Good Shepherd seeks to rescue all. Let none sit in ease and carnal security, lest they be destroyed by the lion going about seeking whom he may devour.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Amo_3:9. Samaria. The metropolis of the kingdom of Israel was built on a round hill, near the middle of a large valley, surrounded by mountains on every side, by which it was completely overlooked. From these elevations persons might distinctly see what was done in the city [Elzaz].
Amo_3:10-11. They might seem to be secure and at ease in Samaria and Damascus, but vain would every such remedy against fear and sorrow prove. From the strong city, from the soft couch, they would be dragged to misery and destruction. In about 40 years after the time of this prophecy we read (2Ki_17:3) of a siege of Samaria which lasted three years, at the end of which the city was taken; and after the horrors of war, the spoiling of their palaces and their wealth, the remnant was dragged into a distant land, to endure the miseries of captivity and exile [Ryan].
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.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Lord Declaring his Purpose
The Lord Declaring his Purpose
v. 9. Publish in the palaces of Ashdod, in the land of the Philistines, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, two of the neighboring heathen countries being summoned as witnesses, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, those near the city, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, caused by the fact that the mighty ones of the nations were oppressing the poor, and the oppressed in the midst thereof, right and order being overthrown by open violence on the part of those in authority.
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v. 10. For they know not to do right, saith the Lord, having so thoroughly become accustomed to unrighteousness, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces, like evil treasures stored up for purposes of destruction.
v. 11. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, An adversary there shall be even round about the land, literally, "and that, too, from every side of the land," attacking Israel, and particularly Samaria, from all sides; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, dashing it down to the ground, and thy palaces, heaped with the treasures of unrighteousness, shall be spoiled.
v. 12. Thus saith the Lord, As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, insignificant, useless remnants, so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, occupying the most comfortable part of the divan, sitting in carefree idleness, and in Damascus in a couch, rather, "on the damask of the bed. " The powerful men of Samaria, living a life of luxury and ease, would save their lives only with the greatest difficulty.
v. 13. Hear ye and testify in the house of Jacob, the heathen bearing witness against the iniquities of Israel, saith the Lord God, the God of hosts,
v. 14. that in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, with an adequate punishment, I will also visit the altars of Bethel, the center of idolatrous worship in Israel; and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground, thus demolishing the altars themselves. Cf Exo 27:2.
v. 15. And I will smite their winter-house with the summer-house, for not only the kings, but the noble and the rich as well had at least two establishments; and the houses of ivory, whose walls were decorated with inlaid ivory, Cf 1Ki 22:39, shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord. All extravagance of luxury is displeasing to the Lord, especially if it is connected in any manner with denial of the Lord’s 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 Assemble yourselves
Assemble yourselves
This command is to Israel's enemies in Ashdod and Egypt.
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this is Yahweh's declaration
"this is what Yahweh has declared" or "this is what Yahweh has solemnly said." This phrase expresses the certainty of everything else in the message.
see what great confusion is in her
The word "her" refers to the city of Samaria. Cities were often spoken of as if they were women. (See: Personification)
what great confusion is in her
Here "great confusion is in her" refers to people's fear because of the fighting and rioting there. The word "confusion" can be translated with a verbal phrase to make this meaning explicit. AT: "how the people in Samaria riot" or "how the people in Samaria fight against one another" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Abstract Nouns)
what oppression is in her
Here "oppression is in her" refers to leaders in Samaria oppressing the people. The abstract noun "oppress" can be stated as "oppress" or "cause to suffer." AT: "how the leaders oppress people" or "and how they cause people to suffer" (See: Abstract Nouns)
For they do not know how to do right
The word "they" refers to the people of Samaria.
They store up violence and destruction
Here "violence and destruction" represent things they have taken by being violent and destructive. AT: "They store up things that they have violently stolen from others" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
preach
stronghold
Ashdod
Egypt
Samaria
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 3:9 The prophet now turns to two of Israel’s…
3:9 The prophet now turns to two of Israel’s enemies, Philistia (Hebrew Ashdod, one of the key cities of Philistia) and Egypt. He invites them to surround Samaria (the capital of the kingdom of Israel) to see its chaos and oppression. Israel appeared strong from the outside, but it was rotten within, rife with class struggles. The enemies would take advantage of Israel’s internal weakness (see 3:11).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.