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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Amos 2:13

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Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed [that is] full of sheaves.

13. Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed &c.] The intransitive sense of the Hifil conjugation (properly, to shew pressure, or constraint), though just possible, cannot be said to be probable; and Behold (with the ptcp.) strongly supports the view that the verse introduces the description of the punishment. Better, therefore, with R.V., and many ancient and modern expositors (Targ., Ibn Ezra, Kimchi; Ges., Ew., Keil, &c.): “Behold, I will press (you) in your place, as a cart presseth that is full of sheaves” [in Hebrew beneath a person is said idiomatically for in his place, where he stands: see e.g. Jdg 7:21; Isa 25:10; Job 40:12 ]: Jehovah will press them where they stand, like a cart laden with sheaves, so that they will be held fast and unable to escape. The verb is, however, an Aramaic rather than a Hebrew one; nor does it occur elsewhere in the O.T. (only two derivatives in Psa 55:4; Psa 66:11): it is properly the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebr. to constrain, distress (Jdg 14:17; Jer 19:9; Isa 29:2; Isa 51:13); and is used for it in the Targum of the three passages last quoted. It is doubtful, therefore, whether the text is correct. A plausible emendation is that of Wellh. (adopted with slight modification from Hitzig), for , and for : “Behold, I will make it totter beneath you, as a cart tottereth that is full of sheaves”; the ground will totter or give way under their feet, the symbol of an approaching ruin.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13 16. The retribution.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Behold, I am pressed under you – God bore His people, as the wain bears the sheaves. Ye yourselves have seen, He said to them by Moses, how I bare you on eagles wings, and brought you unto Myself Exo 19:4. Thou hast seen how the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place Deu 1:31. And by Isaiah, He bare them and carried them all the days of old Isa 63:9; and, which are born by Me from the belly, which are carried from the womb Isa 46:3. Now, He speaks of Himself as wearied by them, as by Isaiah, thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities Isa 43:24; and by Malachi, ye have wearied the Lord: yet ye say, where with have we wearied Him? Mal 2:17. His long-suffering was, as it were, worn out by them. He was straitened under them, as the wain groans under the sheaves with which it is over-full. The words are literally, Behold I, I (emphatic I, your God, of whom it would seem impossible) straiten myself (that is, of My own Will allow Myself to be straitenedunder you ,

As the wain full for itself, that is, as full as ever it can contain, is straitened, groans, as we say. God says, (the word in Hebrew is half active) that He allows Himself to be straitened, as in Isaiah, He says, I am weary to bear, literally, I let Myself be wearied. We are simply passive under weariness or oppressiveness: God endures us, out of His own free condescension in enduring us. But it follows, that when He shall cease to endure our many and grievous sins, He will cast them and the sinner forth from Him.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Amo 2:13

Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.

–We go to-day to the gate of the harvest-field, to see the waggon piled up aloft with many sheaves come creaking forth, making ruts along the field. What a picture is a waggon loaded with corn of you and of me, as loaded with Gods mercies! Alas! that such a sign should be capable of another reading. That while God loadeth us with mercy, we should load Him withsin. The text is only a figure, since God cannot actually be oppressed by man. God speaks to us as a great father may talk to his little child. Just as a cart has the axles bent, and as the wheels creak under the excessive load, so the Lord says that under the load of human guilt He is pressed down, until He crieth out, because He can bear no longer the iniquity of those that offend against Him.

I. Sin is very grievous and burdensome to God. There is no suggestion anywhere that the whole burden of creation is any weight to the Most High. The heathen picture Atlas stooping beneath the globe; but the eternal God, who beareth up the pillars of the universe, fainteth not, neither is weary. Nor does providence fatigue the Lord. His incessant working has not diminished His strength, nor is there any failing, or thought of failing, with Him. But sin burdens God, though the world cannot; and iniquity presses the Most High, though the whole weight of providence is as the small dust of the balance.

1. Sin is the great spoiler of all Gods works. Sin looked on Eden, and withered all its flowers. Nothing tarnishes beauty so much as sin, for it mars Gods imago and erases His superscription.

2. Sin makes Gods creatures unhappy. Shall not, therefore, the Lord abhor it?

3. Sin attacks God in all His attributes. It assails Him on His throne, and stabs at His existence. What is sin? Is it not an insult to Gods wisdom? Does it not abuse Gods mercy?

4. Sin is an onslaught upon God Himself. For sin is atheism of heart. Surely sin is exceedingly sinful; so it must be grievous and burdensome to God.

II. Some sins are more especially grievous to God. There is no such thing as a little sin, and yet there are degrees of guilt. There are sins which especially provoke God.

1. Licentiousness.

2. Oppression.

3. Idolatry.

4. Blasphemy.

Many men are especially obnoxious to God, because of their length in sin God takes special note, and feeleth an especial weariness of sin that is mixed with obstinacy. And ingratitude is intensely burdensome to God. While it is true that sin is grievous to the Lord, it magnifies His mercy when we see that He bears the load. As the cart is not said to break, but is pressed only, so is He pressed, and yet He bears. If you or I were in Gods place, should we have borne it?

III. God, in the person of his son, did bear and take away sin. Here stood the great problem. God must punish sin, yet He desired to have mercy. Jesus comes to be the substitute for all who trust Him.

IV. If not in Christ, that same load will crush us for ever. After judgment, for a soul out of Christ, what awaits? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Gods grief

(compare Hos 8:10; Hos 11:8):–These three passages give us an intimation, a glimpse of the burden and grief of the Infinite. What is this burden that presses on the heart of the Divine? What are the thorns under the golden crown of universal dominion? Can we know what they are? Yes, the burden of the King of princes is the sin of His creatures, and to clear it from the world is the one great problem of the Divine. If sin were committed by any who were independent of God–were it possible for such to exist–it might cause Him no such sorrow. But all are dependent on Him, closely united by creation. Sin is evidently a matter of greatest cost to God, and something much more awful than we can comprehend. Sin meets God in His world at every turn. Sin now rears its serpent head amid the glories of Gods creation, and is now working terrible damage in the fair world of our Father. It may seem a trifling thing to many; but it is a real burden and annoyance to God. It is not necessary that a man should have a sharp stone in his eye in order to feel a smart. A speck of dust, a grain of sand, will be sufficient to blot out to us for a season the glories of the most beautiful landscape. As to the presence of such a slight foreign substance, the eye is most sensitive, so is the nature of God to the presence of sin in His creature. To a Being of such great love it must be a great burden to see such multitudes of His creatures rushing on in the misery of sin. In proportion to the infinite tenderness of the Divine nature, so is the burden increased. God knows the far-reaching effects of mans sin. It is a very common thing to represent God as existing only in unalloyed happiness. It is only like Him to take up our burdens, to know our sorrows. He Is most like God when love leads to an infinite self-sacrifice in bearing mans burdens, and sympathising in human sorrow. We should not believe in Gods sympathy and love so much apart from this bearing some burden. We should not go to Him so readily. There was not, let us remember, in Christ, who manifested God, the appearance of submission to suffering. It was real suffering, because there was a real burden and sympathy. If the Divine Being sympathises with man, He also shows us that He wishes to have from us sympathy and love in return. We are to sorrow a little for the burden of the King of princes. And the measure of our power to enter into sympathy with the Divine is the measure of the strength of our spiritual character. (F. Hastings.)

Gods sin-burden

This verse, as it is by some translated, is a part of the sentence or threatening, showing that God would press their place or land, and fill it with heaps of judgments and enemies, as a cart is pressed and filled with sheaves in harvest. But as it is here translated, it is a general conclusion introductory to the sentence; wherein the Lord declareth, that the multitude and variety of these their sins did so provoke His justice and patience, that He might justly complain of them as insupportable and intolerable, as a cart groans under burdens; and therefore He would punish, as is declared in the following verses. Doctrine.

1. It is the way of secure sinners to lay over the weight of all their sins on God, and on His mercy, as if He were but a cart to lie under the burden of them all, that so they may sleep the sounder and sin the faster.

2. The Lord, even toward secure sinners, will take on this burden so far, as to suffer their manners long, before He cast it off, albeit He be provoked by every sin, and doth not allow their presumptuous casting off their iniquities upon Him, yet He doth not complain nor strike, till He be pressed, as a cart that is full of sheaves.

3. Gods patience and long-suffering will at last weary to endure the provocations of sinners, as becoming insupportable.

4. When the cup of mens iniquities is full, and God is about to bear them no longer, yet they may be so stupid as to need up-stirring to consider it. (George Hutcheson.)

Ill-treatment of God

Consider, then, for a moment, how bad human nature must be, if we think how ill it has treated its God. I remember William Huntington says, in his Autobiography, that one of the sharpest sensations of pain that he felt after he had been quickened by Divine grace was this: He felt such pity for God. I do not know that I ever met with the expression elsewhere, but it is a very expressive one, although I might prefer to say sympathy with God and grief that He should be so evil entreated. Ah, there are many men that are forgotten, that are despised, and that are trampled on by their fellows; but there never was a man who was so despised as the everlasting God has been. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 13. Behold, I am pressed under you] The marginal reading is better: “Behold, I will press your place, as a cart full of sheaves presseth.” I will bring over you the wheel of destruction; and it shall grind your place – your city and temple, as the wheel of a cart laden with sheaves presses down the ground, gravel, and stones over which it rolls.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Hitherto the Lord by the prophet had declared the sins of the kingdom of the ten tribes, now he is about to pronounce judgment against them; he calls for their attention, and diligent weighing what he is about to speak.

I, the Lord, who have so multiplied mercies to this people,

am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves: some read this passage actively, and make this the sense, I will lead you with these judgments as a cart is loaded, and you shall cry and groan under these judgments, as a cart heavy loaded makes a noise in its motion under such pressures. Perhaps sheaves, the loading of a harvest season, are mentioned, to intimate the ripeness of their sins, and Gods reaping them or cutting them down by his judgments, and carrying them together to be thrashed by further judgments.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

13. I am pressed under yousoCALVIN (Compare Isa1:14). The Margin translates actively, “I willdepress your place,” that is, “I will make it narrow,”a metaphor for afflicting a people; the opposite of enlarging,that is, relieving (Psa 4:1;Pro 4:12). MAURERtranslates, “I will press you down” (not as Margin,“your place”; so the Hebrew, Job40:12; or Am 2:7 in Hebrewtext). Amos, as a shepherd, appropriately draws his similes fromrustic scenes.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Behold, I are pressed under you,…. With the weight of their sins, with which they had made him to serve, and had wearied him; his patience was quite wore out, he could bear them no longer:

as a cart is pressed [that is] full of sheaves; as a cart in harvest time, in which the sheaves of corn are carried home; when one sheaf is laid upon another, till they can lay no more, and the cart is loaded and overloaded with them, and ready to break, or be pressed into the earth with them: thus. Jehovah represents himself as loaded and burdened with the sins of these people, and therefore would visit for them, and inflict deserved punishment. Some render it actively, “behold, I press” z, or “am about to press your place, as a cart full of sheaves presseth” a; the horse or horses which draw it, especially the last; or the ground it goes upon; or as a cart stuck with iron spikes, and loaded with stones, being drawn over a corn floor, presses the full sheaves, and beats out the grain, which was their way of pressing it: so the Lord signifies he would afflict and distress this people, bring them into strait circumstances, by a close siege, and other judgments, which should ruin and destroy them; and which was first begun by Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and finished by Shalmaneser, who carried away the ten tribes captive. So the Targum,

“behold, I bring distress upon you, and it shall straiten you in your place, as a cart is straitened which is loaded with sheaves.”

z “angustabo”, Vatablus; “coarctans”, Montanus; “arcto”, Mercerus; “premo, coarctabo, angustiis afficiam”, Drusius; “pressurus sum”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Tarnovius “arctaturus sum”, Liveleus. a “coarctares”, Montanus; “premit”, Junius Tremellius Piscator, Tarnovius.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

This base contempt of their covenant mercies the Lord would visit with a severe punishment. Amo 2:13. “Behold, I will press you down, as the cart presses that is filled with sheaves. Amo 2:14. And the flight will be lost to the swift, and the strong one will not fortify his strength, and the hero will not deliver his soul. Amo 2:15. And the carrier of the bow will not stand, and the swift-footed will not deliver, and the rider of the horse will not save his soul. Amo 2:16. And the courageous one among the heroes will flee away naked in that day, is the saying of Jehovah.” The Lord threatens as a punishment a severe oppression, which no one will be able to escape. The allusion is to the force of war, under which even the bravest and most able heroes will succumb. , from , Aramaean for , to press, construed with tachath , in the sense of , downwards, to press down upon a person, i.e., to press him down (Winer, Ges., Ewald). This meaning is established by in Psa 55:4, and by in Psa 66:11; so that there is no necessity to resort to the Arabic, as Hitzig does, or to alterations of the text, or to follow Baur, who gives the word the meaning, “to feel one’s self pressed under another,” for which there is no foundation in the language, and which does not even yield a suitable sense. The comparison instituted here to the pressure of a cart filled with sheaves, does not warrant the conclusion that Jehovah must answer to the cart; the simile is not to be carried out to this extent. The object to is wanting, but may easily be supplied from the thought, namely, the ground over which the cart is driven. The attached to belongs to the latitude allowed in ordinary speech, and gives to the reflective meaning, which is full in itself, has quite filled itself (cf. Ewald, 315, a). In Amo 2:14-16 the effects of this pressure are individualized. No one will escape from it. , flight is lost to the swift, i.e., the swift will not find time enough to flee. The allusion to heroes and bearers of the bow shows that the pressure is caused by war. belong together: “He who is light in his feet.” The swift-footed will no more save his life than the rider upon a horse. .esroh in Amo 2:15 belongs to both clauses. , the strong in his heart, i.e., the hearty, courageous. , naked, i.e., so as to leave behind him his garment, by which the enemy seizes him, like the young man in Mar 14:52. This threat, which implies that the kingdom will be destroyed, is carried out still further in the prophet’s following addresses.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

The verb עיק, oik, in Hebrew is often transitive, and it is also a neuter. This place then may admit of two interpretations. The first is, that God was pressed under the Israelites, as a wagon groans under too much weight; and so God expostulates by Isaiah, that he was weighed down by the Israelites, ‘Ye constrain me,’ he says, ‘to labor under your sins’ (Isa 1:14) The sense then, that God was pressed down under them, may be viewed as not unsuitable: and yet the more received interpretation is this, “Behold, I will bind you fast as a wagon is bound.” I am, however, more inclined to take the first meaning, — that God here reprehends the Israelites, because he had been pressed down by them: for תחתיכם, tacheticam, properly signifies, “Under you,” which some render, but strainedly, “Is your place:” for when the verb is transitive, they say, that תחתיכם, tacheticam, must be rendered “In your place:” but this is frigid and forced; and the whole passage will run better, if we say, “I am bound fast under you, as though ye were a wagon full of sheaves; (21) ” that is, “Ye are to me intolerable.” For God carried that people on his shoulders; and when they loaded him with the burden of iniquities, it is no wonder that he said that they were like a wagon — a wagon filled with many sheaves: “Ye are light as wind, but ye are also to me very burdensome, and I am forced at length to shake you off:” and this he afterwards shows.

(21) This verse has caused great labor to commentators; and many have been the views given. The first difficulty is in the words rendered in our version, “under you.” תחת and with the Iod commonly added when there is a suffix, often occurs, and means on doubt, an place, a spot, a standing, as in the following passages: Exo 10:23; 1Sa 14:9; Hab 3:16; and this seems to be its meaning here. Then the second difficulty is about “the cart” or wagon. Some consider it to be the vehicle to carry corn; and others, the machine to thresh it as Newcome and others do: but this view is not consistent with the other expressions used in this clause.

A critic, quoted by Poole, evidently gives the meaning in these words, Sensus est, q.d. Ego vos in eas angustas adducam, unde vos ipsos mimime expedire valeatis — “The sense is, as though he said, I will bring you to those straits, from which ye will by no means be able to deliver yourselves.” I would then translate the verse thus: —

Behold, I will confine you in your place, As a wagon confines its load — the sheaves; or word for word, As a wagon confines the filling of it — the sheaf.

The rendering of the last line by Newcome is certainly not what the original will bear; his translation of the whole verse is this: —

Therefore, behold I will press your place, As a loaded corn-wain presseth its sheaves.

It is not pressing or crushing that corresponds with the contents of the following verses, but confining and reducing to straits from which they could not escape. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

PUNISHMENT PROMISED, THE COVENANT NATIONSISRAEL

TEXT: Amo. 2:13-16

Behold, I will press you in your place, as a cart presseth that is full of sheaves.

And flight shall perish from the swift; and the strong shall not strengthen his force; neither shall the mighty deliver himself;

neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself; neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself;

and he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith Jehovah.

QUERIES

How will God press them in their place, like a cart . . . full of sheaves?

What is the prophet telling the nation in Amo. 2:14-16?

PARAPHRASE

Look, I am going to stop you in your tracks like a cart that is loaded too full of grain sheaves to move. The fastest runners will not have time to escape; the strength of the strong men will not avail; the great and influential will not escape; the long line of bowmen will give way; even the warriors mounted on horses shall be overcome! The bravest of the brave will only be able to make an ignominious escape by shedding his clothing by which the enemy might seize him!

SUMMARY

Israel will be paralyzed! None shall escape the judgment that is about to come.

COMMENT

Amo. 2:13 . . . PRESS YOU IN YOUR PLACE, AS A CART PRESSETH . . . FULL OF SHEAVES. Conjecture as to how this verse is to be interpreted is varied. Pusey says, God bore His people, as the wain (cart) bears the sheaves . . . His longsuffering was, as it were, worn out by them . . . He was straitened under them, as the wain groans under the sheaves with which it is over-full. Laetsch says, The threshing cart consisted of three or more rollers set in a heavy wooden frame surmounted by the drivers seat. These rollers were attached to wheels on the outside of the framework, and if either the wheels or the rollers were clogged by the sheaves of grain over which the sledge was drawn by oxen, the sledge was stopped from further progress until the obstructing sheaves had been removed. Lange says, A more appropriate comparison is found in the pressure by which a threshing cart threshes the sheaves. K & D, say, The comparison instituted here to the pressure of a cart filled with sheaves . . . the object of press is wanting, but may easily be supplied from the thought, namely, the ground over which the cart is driven. We have chosen our own interpretation which we feel is warranted from the context. It would seem as if Amos is using the figure of a cart stopped in its tracks by being too full to pictorialize how God is going to stop Israel in its tracks. Israels military machinery, running smoothly under Jeroboam II (permitted by God), rolling on to victory, would suddenly be stopped by the Lord. Her facade of prosperity would be ripped from her. Disorder, confusion, panic, defeat, ruin, disaster was coming ever closer! Now she is flying highsoon she will be plunged into destruction!

Amo. 2:14-16 AND FLIGHT SHALL PERISH FROM THE SWIFT; . . . AND HE THAT IS COURAGEOUS AMONG THE MIGHTY SHALL FLEE AWAY NAKED IN THAT DAY . . . Now the prophet individualizes this national paralysis. The swiftest, strongest, bravest, ablest warriors will not be able to stand against Gods judgment. The most courageous among the mighty will throw off his armor and his clothing and run for his life like a coward.

Tiglath-pileser III (745727 B.C.), one of the greatest monarchs of antiquity, after capturing Samaria (capital of Israel), put on the throne as his vassal Hoshea, who had slain Pekah, king of Israel. With the death of Tiglath-pileser III, Hoshea decided to strike a blow for independence. Help was promised by the king of Egypt, but it did not come. Hoshea was made a prisoner, and the capital doomed to destruction, as the prophets foretold (Hos. 10:7-8; Isa. 28:1; Mic. 1:5-6). It was, however, only after a three years siege that the city was captured. Before it fell, Shalmaneser had abdicated or died, and Sargon, who succeeded him, completed the conquest of the city and deported the inhabitants to Assyria (cf. 2 Kings 17-18). Not all of the inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom were taken into captivity. The very poor, who would cause no trouble in the future, were left (2Ki. 25:12). Intermarriage with the imported peoples resulted in the hybrid stock later known as the Samaritans. The Ten Tribes taken into captivity, sometimes called the Lost Tribes of Israel, must not be thought of as being absorbed by the peoples among whom they settled. Some undoubtedly were, but many others retained their Israelitish religion and traditions. Some became part of the Jewish dispersion, and others very likely returned with the exiles of Judah in 536 B.C. who were previously carried off into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar in 606586 B.C.

Israel, as a distinct nation, ceased to be, just as Amos and his prophet-successors warned. Any nation, no matter how blessed and privileged in the past, who contemptuously defies the laws of God and shakes its fist at the throne of heaven must suffer the same annihilation! Let all the nations of the earth take heed!

QUIZ

What does Amos intend Israel to see in the cart pressed down?

Would there not be some who would escape?

When did Israels captivity come? Whom did God use to accomplish it? (cf. Isa. 10:5-19)

Is there a lesson to be learned by nations today from Israel?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(13) I am pressed.Baur, Pusey, and Speakers Commentary support this rendering of the Heb. mq, the corresponding form in the next clause also being taken in the intransitive (i.e., passive sense). But it is unlikely that God, in this passage, should declare Himself crushed under the weight of Israels sin, for in the context it is Israel, and not God, who is described as the victim, Moreover, grammatical usage is against the rendering of mq as passive; nor does it favour Ewalds, as well as Keils, interpretation press you down Translate (see margin) Behold, I am pressing down beneath you (literally, your place), just as the waggon, filled up with sheaves, presses down. Jehovah, in the awful judgment which He inflicts, is symbolised by the heavily-laden waggon. The expression beneath you suggests that the evil is not confined to the present. Israel, the nation weighted with the doom of past iniquities, bequeathes a yet more crushing load to future generations. If the text is sound, this appears the only satisfactory rendering of a difficult passage.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

13-16. The punishment. Righteous retribution will overtake the sinful nation. Amo 2:13 is rendered more acceptably in the R.V., “Behold, I will press you in your place, as a cart presseth that is full of sheaves.”

Behold I will The Hebrew construction implies the imminence of the judgment; better, “Behold, I am about to” (G.-K., 116p).

Press you in your place The meaning of the verb, which occurs only here in the Old Testament, is doubtful. The cognate verb in Arabic means “to hinder,” “to cause to stop”; hence, “I will cause a stop under you.” If this meaning is accepted, the form of the second verb demands the translation “as a cart causes a stop.” This is strange, since we would expect “as a cart is caused to stop.” Others so R.V. connect the verb with the Aramaic and read, “I will press you in your place”; literally, I will press under you, which is thought to mean that he will hold them fast in their place, so that they cannot escape. This also is not without difficulties. (1) “I will press you in your place” would be quite satisfactory, but “I will press under you,” the literal rendering, is not so intelligible; and in the second clause, “as a cart is pressed,” would give good sense, not so “as a cart presseth.” (2) The presence of an Aramaic word in Hebrew at the time of Amos is peculiar. (3) Amo 2:14 implies flight, though the fugitives will be overtaken; nothing is said there about inability to move. For these reasons most commentators accept the emendation of Hitzig, who reads Amo 2:13, “Behold, I am about to cause it to totter under you, even as a wagon totters that is full of sheaves”; that is, the ground will totter under them a figure of approaching ruin.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The Certainty of His Judgment On Israel. It Will Be Such That It Will Be Inescapable ( Amo 2:13-16 ).

Israel’s judgment is now described in terms of being run over by a heavy cart, fully loaded, and it will be something from which there will be no escape. They will find themselves face to face with YHWH’s steamroller. As a result they will find themselves fading in strength, and discover that neither their armaments nor their speed of foot nor their horses will save them. Even the most courageous warrior, will flee in panic in that day.

Amo 2:13

“Behold, I will press you in your place, as a cart presses that is full of sheaves.”

In the day of His judgment they will be squashed under the wheels of YHWH’s anger, in the same way as a cart that is full of sheaves, and therefore very heavy, squashes anything that gets in its way, or tears up the ill-prepared road. Alternately the idea may be that they will get bogged down, as a cart that is full of sheaves gets bogged down on the ill-made road.

Amo 2:14

“And flight will perish from the swift, and the strong will not strengthen his force, nor will the mighty deliver himself,”

Nor will any natural advantage be of any use in that day, for the judgment will be inevitable on all. The swift runners will discover that they are too weak to run, those who are strong will be unable to call on their strength and make it work for them, and even the mighty warrior, or those mighty enough to employ powerful bodyguards, will be unable to deliver themselves, because of YHWH’s displeasure at them. Note the contrast with Isa 41:28-29 for those with whom YHWH is pleased.

Amo 2:15

“Nor will he stand who handles the bow, and he who is swift of foot will not deliver himself, nor will he who rides the horse deliver himself,”

The bowman will discover in that day that his bow is of little use to him when he is on the run. The swift of foot will discover that they are not speedy enough to avoid YHWH’s judgment. Those who have horses to flee on will discover that it will not avail them. They will be unable to deliver themselves. Once YHWH moves in to punish them, all their protective methods in which they have trusted will prove in vain.

Amo 2:16

“And he who is courageous among the mighty will flee away naked in that day, says YHWH.”

And even the bravest among the mighty warriors will flee in that day, flinging their armour and robes from them so that they can flee faster. But they will flee in vain (Amo 2:15). And it is a day that is certain for it is confirmed by the word of YHWH.

In fact on the death of Jeroboam II things would rapidly come to a head, and it would not be many years (another forty years or so) before Samaria would be in ruins, and the cream of the people would be transported to Assyria and Media (2Ki 17:6; 2Ki 15:29). The people no doubt thought that Amos was exaggerating. But they would soon discover that his words were only too true.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Amo 2:13. Behold, I am pressed under you Behold, I will make a pressure under you, as a cart loaded with sheaves makes a pressure;ver. 14. And flight shall, &c.

REFLECTIONS.1st, God’s controversy still proceeds:

1. With Moab. Their multiplied transgressions called for vengeance, and one peculiarly heinous is noted: Because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime, probably in revenge for the distress to which the king of Edom had reduced him, 2Ki 3:26-27.; sometime after which, he seized the person of the king of Edom, and burnt him alive; or, having ravaged the country, dug up his bones out of his grave, and burnt them to lime; for which inhumanity God threatens to punish him with an invading foe, who with all the horrid din of war should seize his cities and palaces, put to death the inhabitants, and cut off all the princes and judges of Moab; which was done by Nebuchadnezzar a few years after the destruction of Jerusalem.

2. Judah is brought to the bar, alike in sin with heathen nations, and therefore alike in punishment. Many were her transgressions; but the root of all, and the most criminal, is her revolt from God, that God which the nations around her never knew: they despised God’s law, and kept not his commandments, rejecting his worship, and disobedient to his holy will; and their lies caused them to err, their idols, their false prophets, the lying vanities on which they trusted, and the lying visions in which they believed, as their fathers had done before them, the measure of whose iniquities they filled up. Justly, therefore, is the fire of wrath kindled, and ready to devour the palaces of Jerusalem, Jer 52:13. Note; If other sinners must perish, apostates surely will fall under double vengeance.

3. Israel brings up the rear; last in judgment, not least in punishment. The crimes of this people were peculiarly aggravated by their relation to God, and therefore are more particularly insisted upon.
[1.] Their perversion of justice: before their corrupt judges, the bribe, not the truth, carried the cause; and the meanest gratifications influenced their decisions.

[2.] Their oppression of the poor: the very pittance that they possessed, their rulers, as greedy cormorants, panted after; or they wanted to drag them through the dust, to gratify their pride and cruelty; and because they were meek and patient, the more insolently they trampled upon or plundered them, which was a great aggravation of their wickedness.

[3.] Their abominable impurities, even incest itself; for where the reins are once cast upon the neck of lawless appetite, men are hurried into excesses which at first they would have started at with horror: and such wickedness in God’s professing people, could not but greatly profane his holy name, and give abundant cause to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.

[4.] Their impiety and idolatry. They lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge, by every altar, which, according to the law, should have been restored before sunset, Exo 22:26 but they carried them into their idol-temples, and either slept there on them all night in honour of their deities, or regaled themselves there on the sacrifices they had offered; while the poor were pining in want and nakedness; and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God, as if their idolatry could atone for their injustice, and the price of blood would be an acceptable offering. For such transgressions, no wonder God threatens, I will not turn away the punishment thereof.

2nd, The base ingratitude of Israel was among their blackest crimes.
1. God reminds them of what he had done for them. He had destroyed the Amorites before them, though so warlike and mighty a people; had cut them off root and branch, and given them their land for a possession. He had brought them marvellously from the iron bondage in Egypt, had led and fed them in the wilderness by continual miracles. He had honoured them with peculiar marks of favour, raising up their sins for prophets, from Moses to that time, and their young men for Nazarites, as Samuel and others, whose holy abstinence and self-denial should have taught them to imitate such gracious examples. Is it not thus, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord? The facts were notorious beyond contradiction. Note; (1.) Faithful ministers are the greatest blessings to a nation; and not to have profited by their labours, will one day bring a heavy reckoning. (2.) When in the heat of youth the power of divine grace is seen effectually restraining the corrupt appetite, and purifying the heart, such examples are peculiarly striking.

2. He upbraids them with what they had done against him. They gave the Nazarites wine to drink, enticing or threatening them into a compliance, and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not; while the people turned a deaf ear to them, the rulers and priests persecuted and endeavoured to silence them, chap. 7:

12, 13. These and the like abominations were as a heavy burden which the Lord was weary to bear. I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves; though some read this as a threatening, I will press you or your place as a cart full of sheaves presseth, intimating the distress which should be brought upon them in the siege of Samaria. Note; (1.) The devil and his agents are very busy to draw off the minds of young men from divine things; and they triumph if they can succeed in the debauch of a Nazarite. (2.) They who hate the truth, and exert their power to suppress it, shall shortly answer for it at their peril. (3.) Though God’s patience bears long with sinners, he will not bear always; the day of recompence will come, when he will ease him of his adversaries, Isa 1:24.

3. Judgment is pronounced upon them for their sins. He will load them with his wrath, who have burdened him with their iniquities. The Assyrian, the rod of his anger, shall come, and flight or resistance will be alike in vain: the mighty shall fall, and the swift be overtaken by their swifter pursuers. The most courageous warriors shall flee naked, casting away their armour, and consulting only how they may escape; and this is confirmed by Thus saith the Lord, whose denunciations shall have a sure accomplishment. Note; The sinner in the day of God will find his case desperate, unable to endure or escape from the wrath that he has provoked.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

DISCOURSE: 1185
GODS COMPLAINT AGAINST US

Amo 2:13. Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.

THE effect of long-continued provocations is to weary out our patience. Some few occasional offences we can easily forgive: but when they are repeated from time to time, they gall the mind, and produce considerable irritation, and stir us up, either by word or deed, to avenge ourselves. Something of this kind is represented as passing in the mind of God. We must not indeed conceive of him as if he had the same passions with ourselves; but yet he will so suit his dispensations to our conduct, that they shall bear the stamp of retributive justice, and accord, in a measure, with what is produced in the world by human passions. Hence he speaks of himself after the manner of men, in order to accommodate himself to our weak and carnal apprehensions: and, having told his people how greatly their transgressions had been multiplied against him, he declares, as one whose patience was quite exhausted, that he was pressed under them, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.
Let us consider,

What reason God has for this complaint against us

We need not enter minutely into the particular accusations brought against the Israelites of old: in a general view, they may be reduced to three; which may with equal justice be laid to our charge:

Our disregard of his laws

[God had given his people laws, which they violated without remorse [Note: Compare ver. 68. with 2Ch 19:6-7. 1Ki 21:3-4. Lev 18:8; Lev 18:15. Exo 22:26.]. And has he not prescribed the moral law as the rule of our conduct? and is it not in all respects holy, and just, and good? Yet how have we obeyed it? Have we studied it with a view to find out the will of God? Have we been restrained and regulated by it as far as we knew it? Have we not, on the contrary, transgressed it in ten thousand instances? Have we not been swayed by the considerations of our worldly honour and interest, more than by a regard to Gods authority? Where our own will has stood in competition with Gods, have we not been ready to say, like Pharaoh, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?

Do we then suppose, that the Governor of the universe is indifferent about the observance of his laws? Or, if he be not, must he not be fretted [Note: Eze 16:43.], grieved [Note: Psa 78:40.], and vexed [Note: Isa 63:10.], with our rebellions, and even broken with our whorish heart [Note: Eze 6:9.]? Lot vexed his righteous soul from day to day, on account of what he saw and heard in Sodom [Note: 2Pe 2:8.]: and must not He who is infinitely holy, and who sees all the iniquity in the world at one view, be overwhelmed, as it were, with grief and vexation at our iniquities? Surely the comparison in the text rather falls short of, than exceeds, the truth: for we have drawn out iniquity as a cart rope [Note: Isa 5:18. with Bishop Lowths note upon it.], continually adding fresh materials, and protracting it, without intermission, to an unknown length; and therefore well may God complain, that we have wearied him with our iniquities [Note: Isa 43:24.], and that he is pressed under us as an overloaded cart.]

Our mindfulness of his mercies

[God particularly specifies the mercies he had vouchsafed to Israel, which had only served to aggravate their guilt [Note: ver. 911.]. And what innumerable mercies has he conferred on us! How has he formed us in the womb, and made us perfect in all our members; when we might have been hideous monsters, that could not endure the light of day! How has he furnished us with rational faculties, when many of our fellow-creatures are idiots, yea, less rational than the beasts! Above all, how has he endued us with an immortal soul, capable of knowing, serving, and enjoying God to all eternity! How has he kept us through the helpless years of infancy, and brought us in safety to the present hour; while thousands have never lived to receive instruction, or been cut off in the midst of their iniquities! Yet in what manner have we requited him for all his mercies? Have we blessed and adored and magnified him for all his love? Have we endeavoured to improve our time and faculties in his service? Have not rather the multitude and continuance of his gifts been the occasion of our entirely forgetting the Donor?

Make this your own case. If you had a servant whom you were daily loading with benefits, and yet could never prevail upon him to testify the smallest sense of his obligations to you, would you not be wearied at last, and think it right to discard such a worthless person from your service? And do you imagine that your heavenly Benefactor is not grieved at your ingratitude? Hear how he complains of it; and judge for yourselves: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me: the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his masters crib; but Israel doth not know; my people do not consider [Note: Isa 1:2-3.]. What could have been done more for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes [Note: Isa 5:4.]? Do these complaints argue no weariness on the part of God? Do they not manifest that he is pressed under us beyond measure, and scarcely able to sustain any farther load? May we not soon expect him to say, I am grieved with that generation; and swear in my wrath, that they shall never enter into my rest [Note: Psa 95:10-11.]?]

Our contempt of his blessed Gospel

[The summit of Israels wickedness was that they said to the prophets, Prophesy not [Note: ver. 12.]. Now God has sent his prophets to us, to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation through a crucified Redeemer, and to declare that all who believed in that Saviour should receive the Holy Spirit, as their Teacher, their Sanctifier, their Comforter [Note: Act 2:38-39.]. But how have we received their message? Have we cordially embraced the Saviour? Are we seeking yet daily and hourly the influences of the Holy Spirit? Are not many of us rather ready to despise the Gospel, and to dispute against its truths as over-righteous fancies and enthusiastic dreams? Do not even those who profess to embrace the Gospel, shew by their lives how little they regard it in their hearts? And do not the very services which they present to God, provoke him to say, Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them [Note: Isa 1:14.]? Is not such a contempt of his Gospel most painful to him, and most destructive to us [Note: Mat 21:37-41. Heb 2:3; Heb 10:28-29.]?

See then the grounds of complaint which God has against us; and say whether the assiduity of harvestmen in loading their carts with the sheaves does not too much resemble us, who are thus incessantly loading God with our iniquities, till he can bear no more? Yea, we help and encourage each other in the work, as if we were afraid that we could not otherwise heap up upon him a sufficient load.]
The manner in which this complaint is made, calls us especially to consider,

II.

What reason we have to be deeply concerned about our state

Wherever we see in Scripture the word, Behold, we may be sure that there is something worthy of our most solemn attention. And well may that word be prefixed to the declaration in the text, since an accumulating of such a load of guilt is a treasuring up of a proportionable weight of wrath [Note: Rom 2:5.]. Let three things then be considered by all who are thus offending God:

God is able to vindicate the honour of his injured majesty

[Survey the universe, and ask, Whether he who formed it out of nothing, be not able to avenge himself on such worms as we are? If that be not sufficient, cast an eye into the bottomless abyss of hell, and ask, Who formed it? and, On what occasion? and, Who are the inhabitants of those dreary mansions? Or, if you choose rather to see what notices of his power and wrath you can find on earth, ask of the antediluvians, and they shall tell thee; or of the cities of the plain, and they shall warn thee; or of the Jews, who are scattered over the face of the whole earth, as living monuments of his indignation. As God said to his people of old, Go to my place, which was in Shiloh, and see what I did to it, for the wickedness of my people Israel [Note: Jer 7:12.]; so would I refer you to all these instances, that you may know what a God you have to do with; and that him who walketh in pride he is able to abase [Note: Dan 4:37.]. If any doubt yet remain upon your mind, go and provide an answer to that question which Job put to his contentious friends; God is wise in heart, and mighty in strength; who hath hardened himself against him, and prospered [Note: Job 9:4.].]

As he is able, so is he determined, to avenge himself

[God has warned us plainly, that the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God [Note: Psa 9:17.]. But this is not all. He is like a man bearing with indignities for a time, under a pleasing expectation, that the vengeance which he shall shortly execute upon his enemy shall be signal and complete. See with what firm determination he prepares himself for his vindictive work, whetting his sword, bending his bow, and making ready the instruments of death [Note: Psa 7:11-13.]; and swearing most solemnly by his own life and perfections, that as soon as he has whet his sword, he will render vengeance to his enemies, making his arrows drunk with their blood, and causing his sword to devour their flesh [Note: Deu 32:40-42.]. See with what pleasure he looks forward to that period, when, like a man who has thoroughly avenged himself, his wrath shall be pacified by the entire destruction of his foe! I have set the point of my sword against them, that their heart may faint, and their ruins be multiplied: Ah! it is made bright, it is wrapt up for the slaughter [Note: Eze 21:15-17.]. Mine anger shall soon be accomplished on them, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted [Note: Eze 5:13.]: So will I make my fury towards them to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from them, and I will be quiet, and be no more angry [Note: Eze 16:42.]. Farther, see what delight he expresses when the time for vengeance is arrived! Ah! I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies [Note: Isa 1:24.]: I will see what their end shall be; for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith [Note: Deu 32:20.].

Should not such declarations as these appal us? Should they not convince us what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God?]

The time for retribution is fast approaching

[When the cart is already overladen with corn, the heaping of sheaves upon it must quickly cease. And when our God is already pressed under us, so that he can scarcely sustain any further weight, we may be sure that the measure of our iniquities is nearly full, and that the hour of vengeance draws nigh. Methinks, God is at this moment saying, in reference to us, My Spirit shall not strive with them any more [Note: Gen 6:3.]. To me belongeth vengeance and recompence: their foot shall slide in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste [Note: Deu 32:35.]. What a mercy is it that there is yet an hours respite allowed us! How should we redeem the time! How should we avail ourselves of the present moment, to flee from the wrath to come! How should we tremble, lest the order should be already given, not to take us to the granary of heaven, but to cast us into the flames of hell!

Behold then, brethren! behold, what a God you are offending, and in what danger you stand! One more sheaf perhaps may complete the load: and will you proceed to lay it on? O cease from your fatal work, and cry to your long-suffering God for mercy ere it be too late!]

Infer
1.

What a burthen ought sin to be to us!

[You have heard what a burthen it is to God; that he even groans under it, and is weary to bear it. And ought it not to be a burthen to us who have committed it? Ought not we to be weary and heavy-laden with a sense of it [Note: Mat 11:28.]? Ought we not to feel it as an insupportable burthen; to be troubled for it; to be bowed down greatly, and to roar for the disquietness of our hearts [Note: Psa 38:4-8.]? Turn then to God, ye people; be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy into heaviness: humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God [Note: Jam 4:9-10.]; and put your mouths in the dust, if so be there may be hope [Note: Lam 3:29.].]

What obligations do we owe to Jesus Christ!

[Jesus has borne the burthen of our sins, not only as our Creator and Governor, but as our Redeemer. Even in the former view, he has been grieved at the hardness of our hearts [Note: Mar 3:5.], and has groaned over us [Note: Joh 11:38.], and found his burthen almost insupportable [Note: Mar 9:19.]. But, in the latter view, O what has he sustained? the guilt of all the human race! the wrath of an avenging God! Go, listen to his cries and agonies in the garden of Gethsemane! See the blood issuing from every pore of his body! Trace him to Golgotha, and behold him expiring on the cross: Ask, What was the cause? and you will find that he was sinking under the weight of your iniquities, and if He was thus overwhelmed with the load, what must become of us, if we, after all, should have to bear the curse due to our sins? Let every eye be fixed on him with humble, grateful adoration. Let every one look to his vicarious sacrifice for pardon and peace. And, as he has thus graciously borne our sins in his own body on the tree, let us trust in him. Let us go to him weary and heavy-laden, and we shall find eternal rest to our souls.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

Amo 2:13 Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed [that is] full of sheaves.

Ver. 13. Behold I am pressed under you, &c. ] A country comparison (such as this prophet is full of), plain, but pithy; to show how God is pressed and oppressed with people’s sins, wearied as it were, Isa 43:24 , and his patience even worn out; so that he can forbear them no longer, Isa 42:14 , but like a travailing woman, that bites in her pain as long as she is able, at length cries out: so here, God hath much ado to forbear killing men in their sins; as he was ready to have a blow at Moses, when he met him in the inn, and could hardly hold his hands; he even groans under the pressure as a cart seems to do under an extraordinary load laid on it, till it creak and crack again; he seems to screech out to sinners, as Jer 44:4 , “Oh, do not this abominable thing!” And (when he cannot be heard) to sigh out, “Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity,” &c., Isa 1:4 , as Fasciculus temporum, A.D. 884, bitterly bewailing the iniquities of those times, cries out, Heu heu, Domino Deus, &c. That ninth age is much complained of by many writers. God hath as much, nay, more, cause to complain of ours, considering his pains with us, and patience towards us, to so little purpose and profit. See Trapp on “ Mal 1:1 “ Many interpreters make these words not a complaint, but a communication; rendering it thus, I will press or straiten your place as a cart full of sheaves presseth, &c.; either the ground whereon it goeth, or the corn which it thresheth out of the husk, Isa 28:27-28 ; or as the creature that lieth under the wheels of it is crushed in pieces. It was a memorable saying of Mr Bradford, martyr, He that will not tremble in threatening shall be crushed in pieces in feeling. These perverse Israelites would not be warned by any threatening, therefore they were pressed to some purpose in that sore famine and strait siege of Samaria. Obsidione vos premam, Press hard your seige, saith the Chaldee here; I will so beleaguer your city that there shall be no escaping. Look how a laden cart, onustum sibi, so laden that another sheaf can hardly be laid on, so gets stuck in narrow places, that it can neither go forward nor backward; so will I bring you into those distresses, that you shall not know how to avoid or abide them, . confer Psa 4:2 Pro 4:12 2Co 4:8 I will distress my distressers, and press with such piercing afflictions as shall make you sigh and screech out another while, Oh it is an evil thing and a bitter to forsake the Lord, &c., Jer 2:19 . Oh, he is worse than mad that would buy the sweetest sin at so dear a rate.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

as a cart = according as[a full] cart.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Amo 2:13-16

PUNISHMENT PROMISED,

THE COVENANT NATIONS-ISRAEL

TEXT: Amo 2:13-16

Israel will be paralyzed! None shall escape the judgment that is about to come.

Amo 2:13 . . . PRESS YOU IN YOUR PLACE, AS A CART PRESSETH . . . FULL OF SHEAVES. Conjecture as to how this verse is to be interpreted is varied. Pusey says, God bore His people, as the wain (cart) bears the sheaves . . . His longsuffering was, as it were, worn out by them . . . He was straitened under them, as the wain groans under the sheaves with which it is over-full. Laetsch says, The threshing cart consisted of three or more rollers set in a heavy wooden frame surmounted by the drivers seat. These rollers were attached to wheels on the outside of the framework, and if either the wheels or the rollers were clogged by the sheaves of grain over which the sledge was drawn by oxen, the sledge was stopped from further progress until the obstructing sheaves had been removed. Lange says, A more appropriate comparison is found in the pressure by which a threshing cart threshes the sheaves. K & D, say, The comparison instituted here to the pressure of a cart filled with sheaves . . . the object of press is wanting, but may easily be supplied from the thought, namely, the ground over which the cart is driven. We have chosen our own interpretation which we feel is warranted from the context. It would seem as if Amos is using the figure of a cart stopped in its tracks by being too full to pictorialize how God is going to stop Israel in its tracks. Israels military machinery, running smoothly under Jeroboam II (permitted by God), rolling on to victory, would suddenly be stopped by the Lord. Her facade of prosperity would be ripped from her. Disorder, confusion, panic, defeat, ruin, disaster was coming ever closer! Now she is flying high-soon she will be plunged into destruction!

Zerr: Amo 2:13. We cannot think of God as being pressed in ihe sense of being burdened by a load that would feel heavy to Him. The marginal reading is, “I will press your place as a cart full of sheaves presseth, and also the American Standard Version words the passage in the same way. Such a rendering also is in keeping with the general thought, for the Lord is threatening to hear down upon these leaders of Israel so heavily that they will not be able to travel.

Amo 2:14-16 AND FLIGHT SHALL PERISH FROM THE SWIFT; . . . AND HE THAT IS COURAGEOUS AMONG THE MIGHTY SHALL FLEE AWAY NAKED IN THAT DAY . . . Now the prophet individualizes this national paralysis. The swiftest, strongest, bravest, ablest warriors will not be able to stand against Gods judgment. The most courageous among the mighty will throw off his armor and his clothing and run for his life like a coward.

Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 B.C.), one of the greatest monarchs of antiquity, after capturing Samaria (capital of Israel), put on the throne as his vassal Hoshea, who had slain Pekah, king of Israel. With the death of Tiglath-pileser III, Hoshea decided to strike a blow for independence. Help was promised by the king of Egypt, but it did not come. Hoshea was made a prisoner, and the capital doomed to destruction, as the prophets foretold (Hos 10:7-8; Isa 28:1; Mic 1:5-6). It was, however, only after a three years siege that the city was captured. Before it fell, Shalmaneser had abdicated or died, and Sargon, who succeeded him, completed the conquest of the city and deported the inhabitants to Assyria (cf. 2 Kings 17-18). Not all of the inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom were taken into captivity. The very poor, who would cause no trouble in the future, were left (2Ki 25:12). Intermarriage with the imported peoples resulted in the hybrid stock later known as the Samaritans. The Ten Tribes taken into captivity, sometimes called the Lost Tribes of Israel, must not be thought of as being absorbed by the peoples among whom they settled. Some undoubtedly were, but many others retained their Israelitish religion and traditions. Some became part of the Jewish dispersion, and others very likely returned with the exiles of Judah in 536 B.C. who were previously carried off into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar in 606-586 B.C.

Zerr: Amo 2:14, The reasoning in this verse justifies the conclusion expressed as to the proper rendering of the preceding one. Because of the pressure the Lord was to put on the shoulders of the unfaithful men of Israel, they would not be able to make any progress In traveling. Being unable to travel as satisfactorily as desired, they would not be able to deliver themselves from the condition that He had in mind to bring upon Israel, namely, the Assyrian captivity. Amo 2:15, The bow and the horse were used in warfare, either offensive or defensive. Hence when the Assyrians make their invasion into the realm of Israel they will overcome them because of their insufficient ability either for fighting or fleeing. Amo 2:16. Naked is defined by Strong as Naked, either partially or totally. The idea is that they would strip themselves of part of their wearing articles so that they might be the more able to flee.

Questions

1. What does Amos intend Israel to see in the cart pressed down?

2. Would there not be some who would escape?

3. When did Israels captivity come? Whom did God use to accomplish it? (cf. Isa 10:5-19)

4. Is there a lesson to be learned by nations today from Israel?

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Behold: Psa 78:40, Isa 1:14, Isa 7:13, Isa 43:24, Eze 6:9, Eze 16:43, Mal 2:17

I am pressed: etc. or, I will press your place, as a cart full of sheaves presseth

Reciprocal: Job 39:12 – he Jer 44:22 – could

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Amo 2:13. We cannot think of God as being pressed in ihe sense of being burdened by a load that would feel heavy to Him. The marginal reading is, “I will press your place as a cart full of sheaves presseth, and also the American Standard Version words the passage in ihe same way. Such a rendering also is in keeping with the general thought, tor the Lord is threatening to hear down upon these leaders of Israel so heavily that they will not be able to travel.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Amo 2:13-16. Behold I am pressed under you Your sins have quite tired out my patience, and I am weary with bearing them: compare Isa 43:24; Mal 2:17. In this sense the clause is understood by the LXX. and Vulgate. The marginal reading, however, is preferred by many commentators. Archbishop Newcome renders the verse, Behold, I will press your place as a loaded corn-wain presseth its sheaves; and Secker observes, The next verse being joined to this by the connective particle (and) makes it more natural that this should begin to express their punishment. Therefore flight shall perish from the swift Even flight shall not secure the swift, for their enemies shall be swifter than they. The strong shall not strengthen his force Their natural strength of body shall not deliver them. And he that is courageous shall flee away naked Having cast away his armour, or upper garments, for greater expedition.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

2:13 Behold, I am {k} pressed under you, as a cart is pressed [that is] full of sheaves.

(k) You have wearied me with your sins; Isa 1:14 .

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Israel’s consequent punishment 2:13-16

In the previous oracles, Amos consistently likened God’s judgment to fire (Amo 1:4; Amo 1:7; Amo 1:10; Amo 1:12; Amo 1:14; Amo 2:2; Amo 2:5). In this one he did not use that figure but described the judgment coming on Israel with other images, especially images of panic in battle.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The Lord said He felt burdened by the sinfulness of His people, as heavy as a wagon filled to its capacity with grain. [Note: Andersen and Freedman, p. 334.] Another interpretation understands Amos picturing Israel being crushed like an object under the wheels of a heavily loaded cart. [Note: Sunukjian, p. 1432; McComiskey, p. 295; Smith, p. 68.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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