Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Amos 5:8
[Seek him] that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD [is] his name:
8 9. Two verses, intended (like Amo 4:13) to remind the disobedient Israelites of the power and majesty of Him, whose will they defy, and whose judgements they provoke, the Creator and Ruler of the world. The verses are introduced abruptly, and interrupt somewhat violently the connexion between Amo 5:7 and Amo 5:10: if the text be sound, we must suppose the participle with which they open to be in apposition with ‘Jehovah,’ implicit in the prophet’s thought (cf. Isa 40:22). According to some (see p. 117) the two verses did not form part of the original text of Amos: according to Ewald they should precede Amo 5:7, which, especially if it be assumed to have once begun with Ah! (as Amo 5:18, Amo 6:1), would then open very suitably a new paragraph. (The Hebrew of Amo 5:7 ; Amo 5:10 will admit equally of the renderings ‘(Ye) who turn , who hate , and abhor,’ and “[Ah!] they that turn , that hate ,” &c.).
the seven stars ] an old English name of the Pleiades: see e.g. Shakespeare, 1 Henry IV. i. 2, 6 “We that take purses go by the moon and the seven stars ” (W. A. Wright, Bible Word-Book, 1884, p. 533). In Job 9:9; Job 38:31 the same Hebrew word is rendered the Pleiades.
Orion ] also named Job 9:9; Job 38:31, and in the plural (= constellations), Isa 13:10. The Heb. is ks l, which also signifies ‘fool.’ It is not improbable that the name preserves an allusion to some ancient mythological idea, according to which the brilliant and conspicuous constellation was originally some fool-hardy, heaven-daring rebel, who was chained to the sky for his impiety. In Job 9:9; Job 38:31 f. the Pleiades and Orion (with the Bear) are referred to, as here, as evidence of the creative might of God. They attracted notice at an early period among the Greeks also, partly perhaps, on account of their brilliancy, and partly because their risings and settings with the Sun marked the seasons. Comp. Hom. Il. xviii. 486 9: , , , (see also xxii. 26 31; Od. v. 272 275).
turneth blackest darkness into morning ] i.e. causes morning to follow night.
shadow of death ] (i.e. of the abode of death, Sheol; cf. Job 10:21-22; Job 38:17) is the traditional rendering (found already in LXX.), but it is rejected by most modern scholars (e.g. Kirkpatrick on Psa 23:4) on the ground (chiefly) that ‘shadow’ is not in the O.T. a figure for gloom, though it has the weighty support of Nldeke ( Z.A.T.W [158] 1897, p. 183 ff.), who points out that the rival explanation darkness (from the Arabic) is also not free from objection. Whatever, however, be the etymology of the term, there is no dispute that deepest, thickest darkness is what it denotes.
[158] .A.T.W. Zeitschrift fr die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft.
maketh the day dark with night ] darkeneth the day into night, brings the day to an end in night. The two clauses describe Jehovah as author of the regular alternation of day and night.
that calleth for the waters of the sea, &c.] repeated Amo 9:6. Cf. Job 12:15 b. The reference is either to the extraordinary inundation of low-lying districts, caused, for instance, by high winds (perhaps with an allusion to the Deluge of Noah), or to violent and long-continued rains if (“ poureth them out”), which another poet also seems to speak of as drawn up originally from the sea (Job 36:27-28; Job 36:30, R.V. marg.).
calleth ] a fine figure; the waters hear His voice, and immediately obey it: cf. Isa 48:13; Job 38:34.
Jehovah is his name ] So Amo 9:6; Jer 33:2. Cf. the similar close to the enumeration of Jehovah’s powers in Amo 4:13.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Seek Him that maketh the seven stars – Misbelief effaces the thought of God as He Is. It retains the name God, but means something quite different from the One True God. So people spoke of the Deity, as a sort of First Cause of all things, and did not perceive that they only meant to own that this fair harmony of things created was not (at least as it now exists,) self-existent, and that they had lost sight of the Personal God who had made known to them His Will, whom they were to believe in, obey, fear, love. The Deity was no object of fear or love. It was but a bold confession that they did not mean to be Atheists, or that they meant intellectually to admire the creation. Such confessions, even when not consciously atheistic, become at least the parents of Atheism or Panotheism, and slide insensibly into either. For a First Cause, who is conceived of as no more, is an abstraction, not God. God is the Cause of all causes.
All things are, and have their relations to each other, as cause and effect, because He so created them. A Great First Cause, who is only thought of as a Cause, is a mere fiction of a mans imagining, an attempt to appear to account for the mysteries of being, without owning that, since our being is from God, we are responsible creatures whom He created for Himself, and who are to yield to Him an account of the use of our being which He gave us. In like way, Israel had probably so mixed up the thought of God with Nature, that it had lost sight of God, as distinct from the creation. And so Amos, after appealing to their consciences, sets forth God to them as the Creator, Disposer of all things, and the Just God, who redresseth mans violence and injustice. The seven stars, literally, the heap, are the striking cluster of stars, called by Greeks and Latins the Pleiades, , which consist of seven larger stars, and in all of above forty.
Orion, a constellation in one line with the Pleiades, was conceived by the Arabs and Syrians also, as a gigantic figure. The Chaldee also renders, the violent or the rebel. The Hebrew title Keciyl, fool, adds the idea of an irreligious man, which is also the meaning of Nimrod, rebel, literally, let us rebel. Job, in that he speaks of the bands of Orion Job 38:31, pictures him as bound, the belt being the band. This falls in with the later tradition, that Nimrod, who, as the founder of Babel, was the first rebel against God , was represented by the easterns in their grouping of the stars, as a giant chained , the same constellation which we call Orion.
And turneth the shadow of death into the morning – This is no mere alternation of night and day, no kindling of each day out of night. The shadow of death is strictly the darkness of death, or of the grave Job 3:5; Job 10:21-22; Job 34:22; Job 38:17; Psa 23:4; Jer 13:16. It is used of darkness intense as the darkness of the grave Job 28:3, of gloom Job 24:17, or moral benightening (Isa 9:2, (1 Hebrew)) which seems to cast the shadow of death over the soul, of distress which is as the forerunner of death Job 16:16; Psa 44:19; Psa 107:10, Psa 107:14; Jer 2:6; Jer 13:16, or of things, hidden as the grave, which God alone can bring to light Job 12:22. The word is united with darkness, physical, moral, mental, but always as intensifying it, beyond any mere darkness. Amos first sets forth the power of God, then His goodness. Out of every extremity of ill, God can, will, does, deliver. He who said, let there be light and there was light, at once changeth any depth of darkness into light, the death-darkness of sin into the dawn of grace, the hopeless night of ignorance into the day-star from on high, the night of the grave into the eternal morn of the Resurrection which knoweth no setting. But then on impenitence the contrary follows;
And maketh the day dark with night – Literally, and darkeneth day into night. As God withdraws the shadow of death, so that there should be no trace of it left, but all is filled with His light, so, again, when His light is abused or neglected, He so withdraws it, as at times, to leave no trace or gleam of it. Conscience becomes benighted, so as to sin undoubtingly: faith is darkened, so that the soul no more even suspects the truth. Hell has no light.
That calleth for the waters of the sea – This can be no other than a memory of the flood, when the waters prevailed over the earth Gen 7:24. The prophet speaks of nothing partial. He speaks of sea and earth, each, as a whole, standing against the other. God calleth the waters of the sea and poureth them over the face of the earth. They seem ever threatening the land, but for Him which hath placed the sand for the bound of the sea, that it cannot pass it Jer 5:22. Now God calls them, and pours them over the face, that is, the whole surface. The flood, He promised, should not again be. But it is the image of that universal destruction, which shall end mans thousands of years of rebellion against God. The words then of Amos, in their simplest sense, speak of a future universal judgment of the inhabitants of the earth, like, in extent, to that former judgment, when God brought in the flood upon the world of the ungodly 2Pe 2:5.
The words have been thought also to describe that daily marvel of Gods Providence, how, from the salt briny sea, which could bring but barrenness, He, by the heat of the Sun, draws up the moisture, and discharges it anew in life-giving showers on the surface of the earth. Gods daily care of us, in the workings of His creatures is a witness Act 14:17 of His relation to us as our Father; it is an earnest also of our relation, and so of our accountableness, to Him.
The Lord is His name – He, the One Self-existent Unchangeable God, who revealed Himself to their forefathers, and forbade them to worship Him under any form of their own device.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Amo 5:8
Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion.
Creation, and the Creators name
The text brings the works of God and the name of God into one focus, and makes use of both as an argument with man to raise himself from the low and unworthy pretences of religion, such as are represented by the calf-worship of Bethel, to Him who sits high above the magnificence of all material forms, yet deigns to listen to the whisper of a kneeling child.
I. Seek Him because He is immutable. This is declared by the seven stars and Orion, and by all the constellations among which the Pleiades are set. It is a wonderful thought, that when we look up to the mighty heavens, we see precisly what Adam and Eve saw. They beheld the Pleiades, that group of stars so beautifully likened to a knot of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid. They beheld those shining orbs in which we detect the appearance of an armed warrior, and call Orion. Through all the changes of human history, those celestial bodies have shone with like brilliancy, and moved with like pomp in the great spaces overhead. The Chaldeans from their astronomical towers, the Phoenicians from their bold sea-tracks, the Egyptian sages from their mystic temples, the Idumean shepherds from their broad pastures, the Jewish kings from their palace roofs, beheld those august revelations of Almighty power and wisdom; and they are as superb, as radiant, now as then. And the heavens are the works of Thine hands. They shall perish;. . . and they all shall wax old, as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shad be changed. But Thou art the same, and Thy years shad have no end. And now look at man. As for man, his days arc as grass: as a flower of the field so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. Thus frail, and in the midst of frailty, what is to become of us? Where is the arm on which we can lean? What is the hope to which we can cling? The reply to these inquiries comes not from the oracles of human wisdom, but from Amos, the herdsman of Tekoa. Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion. Let us seek Him as He bids us in His Word; and when the Pleiades are bereft of their sweet influence, and when the bands of Orion are loosed, his zone of mighty worlds unclasped, and his flaming sword sheathed in eternal darkness, we shall shine with light which can never fade, and be glad with a gladness which can never die.
II. Seek Him because He is all-powerful. This also is declared by the seven stars and Orion. Many have looked on the Pleiades as but an insignificant group in the heavens; but that constellation has depths of glory which the unaided eye cannot reach. We count seven stars, but the telescope announces fourteen magnificent sun-like bodies clustered comparatively near to one of the seven. This, however, is not the special peculiarity of the Pleiades. For some time it was suspected that there is one great central sun, round which our planetary system, and many, if not all, other suns and systems are revolving in measured and majestic movement; and at length an eminent continental astronomer decided that a bright star in the Pleiades is the sublime centre of this sublime march. Here, then, is a thought of almost appalling grandeur. Myriads of orbs keeping their own relative position, and sweeping round and round in the path of their own revolutions; yet the vast host–suns compared with which ours is but a speck of fire–worlds of such magnitude as to dwarf ours into a mere grain of sand–all rolling through space as if doing homage to the influence of what to us is but a point of light in the blue immensity. According to this theory, those thousands of bodies are speeding along with amazing velocity; yet such is the long curve on which they travel, that it will take more than eighteen millions of years for even some of the less remote to complete one circuit round that great luminary. Now glance at Orion, as he gleams aloft in more than imperial pomp and blazonry. We may well look on this constellation with awe and wonder when we take into account the following statement in reference to it. In what is Called the sword of Orion there is a hazy glimmer, which has been thought by some to be only a kind of nebulous fluid; but Lord Rosse, having scanned it with his powerful telescope, ascertained that it is another gorgeous universe, so far away, that to an ordinary glass it only appears as a dim streak, yet having heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadths, of creative power and diversity surpassing all that we behold in the whole canopy of the starry heavens. But even if this daring assertion should be proved to be incorrect, and all those worlds to be no more than a conjecture, we should scarcely be conscious that aught had been subtracted from our idea of the magnitude and multiplicity of Jehovahs works; for there are other streaks and misty appearances on the sky which are known by indubitable evidence to be gatherings of stars, huge in bulk and veiled in dazzling splendour. And here is another great motive to seek the Lord. The power evinced in the seven stars and Orion, and the other orbs they represent, is power wielded for the advantage of those who respond to the Divine command, Seek ye My face. And when terrors shake our souls, when our heart and flesh fail, what consolation we shall have in the thought that the Hand which measured out the heavens is over us, and around us, to keep us from ill. Will He plead against me with His great power? No; but He would, put strength in me.
III. Seek Him because of His beneficent activities. And turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waves of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth. How beautiful is morning, as it comes with golden sandals and rosy veil through the gates of the east! Beautiful on the silent peaks of the Himalayan mountains, beautiful on the green heights of Ceylon, beautiful on the icy pinnacles of the Alps, beautiful on the broad mass of the Grampians, beautiful on the isles of the Caribbean Sea. How it is welcomed as the apparition of a smiling friend; welcomed by the Arab as it gleams on his tent; by the mariner as it turns his sails to cloth of gold; by the sentinel as it gleams on the steel of his weapons. How beautiful is night! How soft and soothing the shadows with which it enwraps the earth! What images of peace it suggests to the mind! The bird spreading its wings over its nestlings, the sheep gathered in the fold, the child in its cot, and wearied labour calmly renewing its energies for another day. That calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the earth. How beautiful the silent processes by which the rain is distilled on the thirsty ground! Think of the oceans–those mighty reservoirs of the Most High. Think of the clouds drawn from them–now white as the snows which crown a mountains forehead; now gorgeous, as if woven of a thousand rainbows; now black as a funeral pall. Think of the rain, how it falls; not in a sudden and overpowering splash; not in a flood, tearing the leaves from the trees and the young shoots from the soil, but in a succession of gentle drops. Is not this,, gracious. Being, whose hand is in the pleasing changes of day and night, and in ram from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness, One with whom it is desirable to live in filial relationship?
IV. Seek Him because of His name. The Lord is His name. Now we come to the teachings of the written Word in reference to the Supreme Being. Glance at some of those ideas which the ancient saints attached to the Divine name. Jehovah-jireh–the Lord will provide. Jehovah-nissi–Jehovah my banner. This was the name which Moses gave to the altar he built as a memorial of Israels victory over Amalek. What a banner! A Divine perfection for every fold, radiant with the heraldry of eternal truth, and bearing a name bright as if every syllable had been wrought out in a constellation of suns. This banner is for us if we seek the Lord. Jehovah shalom–the Lord is my peace. The angel said to awestricken, affrighted Gideon, Peace be unto thee. Jehovah-Tsidkenu–the Lord our righteousness. This title is specially connected with the manifestation of God in Christ Jesus. And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. In one part of the heavens there is a constellation known as the Southern Cross; and when Humboldt was in South America, he often heard the guides who con ducted him over the savannahs of Venezuela cry out, as they looked up to that constellation, Midnight is past–the cross begins to bend. Thank God the cross bends over us, and our midnight is past–the midnight of our fear, the mid-night of our bondage. (J. Marrat.)
The Pleiades and Orion
There are some things which make me think that it may not have been all superstition which connected the movements and appearance of the heavenly bodies with great moral events on earth. Astrology may have been something more than a brilliant heathenism.
1. Amos saw that tile God who made the Pleiades and Orion must be the God of order. It was not so much a star here and there that impressed the inspired herdsman, but seven in one group and seven in the other group. For ages they have observed the order established for their coming and going. If God can take care of the seven worlds of the Pleiades, He can probably take care of the one world we inhabit.
2. The God who made these two groups of the text was the God of light.
3. That the God who made these two archipelagos of stars must be an unchanging God.
4. That the God who made these two beacons of the Oriental night-sky must be a God of love and kindly warning. The Pleiades, rising in midsky, said to all the herdsmen and shepherds and husbandmen, Come out and enjoy the mild weather, and cultivate your gardens and fields. And Orion, coming in winter, warned them to prepare for tempest. The sermon that I now preach believes in a God of loving, kindly warning, the God of spring and winter, the God of the Pleiades and Orion. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
God and nature
The prophet first draws the attention of Israel to the living God who stands behind nature, determining all its movements. The atheist is rebuked by this view of things. The thought of the prophet is full of God; nature does not deny God–it demonstrates Him. God is. Those who identify God with nature until they confound the personal Cod with tile laws and forces of the world, are also rebuked by the text. Nature is not God. He maketh the seven stars and Orion. And the view that nature is independent of God is equally repudiated. On the contrary, the teaching of Amos is that God acts through nature. The people of Israel are summoned to look up and to behold the supreme, self-existent God, standing before and above the world, acting upon it, acting through it, with sovereign sway. He maketh the seven stars and Orion, etc. But the argument of Amos goes farther than this; he argues that God rules in the midst of the nations just as He rules in the midst of nature, and we must see His hand in human affairs as we see it in the rising and setting of stars, in tile ebbing and flowing of seas. He setteth up kings and captains, and casteth them down; He smites the splendour of nations into desolation; and again He restores their greatness and joy. The argument of the prophet proceeds on the assumption that a Divine purpose, a vast design, runs through all the evolutions of nature and all the movements of history. And in this point of view, let us say, these primitive thinkers have been confirmed by the vast majority of the philosophers who succeeded them. A few erratic philosophers have failed to discern any direction or tendency in the career of the universe; they could not detect any coherency among events, or admit that such events were working together toward any assignable result whatever. From their point of view, things and events drifted and eddied about in an utterly blind and irrational manner; temporary combinations might accidentally assume a rational appearance, but it was only accidental. Worlds, they concluded, have no definite beginning, no connection or sequence, no dramatic consistency, no definite end; all is unrelated, arbitrary, accidental, purposeless. But this interpretation has found little acceptance. Aristotle, who lived some centuries later than Amos, wrote: In the unity of nature there is nothing unconnected or out of place, as in a bad tragedy. And nearly all philosophy since then has in different ways confirmed this view of the universe set forth by the prophet of Israel and the philosopher of Greece. But the prophets of Israel not only recognised a distinct design running through nature and history; they saw, and this was the special merit of their mission and message, they saw that that design was spiritual and moral. Many thinkers see design and orderly progress in the world who recognise design and progress as purely intellectual. They see in nature and history nothing more than a play dramatically conducted; a story artistically developed; a picture exquisitely balanced and harmonious; an organism complete in all its parts and functions; but they miss the real heart of the thing, that the universe is the intellectual working out of the purpose of the holy God. This was the point of view of the prophets. The design they discovered in the universe did not merely satisfy their logical sense, their aesthetic sense, or their scientific sense, but their moral sense. They wished to teach that God rules the universe with a view to reveal His righteous character; His government is wholly moral; and the end of all His rule in heaven and earth is to instruct His children in righteousness, and to discipline them into holiness until they are perfect, even as their Father who is in heaven is perfect. The religious and moral idea is subtly interwoven with the universal fabric, but it is only spiritually discerned, only the devout soul follows the golden thread that runs through nature and the long, mysterious story of the race. We are nothing but the playthings of Fate, says the pagan mind; but we refuse the verdict of dismal atheism. He that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night; He who kindles the stars, and who darkens them in eclipse; He who causes His sun to rise upon the earth, and to set in night; He who makes the firmament a magnificent theatre of majestic and unfailing order, will not permit caprice and chaos in the far higher world of human history–souls are more than stars, and when a great nation is lifted up and cast down, great reasons and great ends must be assumed. If you look through this prophecy of Amos you must be struck by its intense and persistent moral tone. The fifth chapter is full of it. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth, seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion. Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. Seek good, and not, evil, that ye may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate. And it is thus throughout the whole prophecy–the destiny of the nation turns on righteousness, on matters of definite, practical honesty, clemency, humanity, justice, chastity, and temperance. The shepherd Amos, like David, like Job, was familiar with the constellations, and he felt how offensive the unjust and the unclean must be to Him whose faultless government is declared in the inviolable laws which govern the chaste and solemn stars. And God is still of Coo pure eyes to behold iniquity, and, according to their works does He deal with the mightiest nations. He calls us back to Himself, to His moral government and righteous laws. God has often made the day dark to us, and again He has turned the shadow of death into the morning. We live with the consciousness of these impending possibilities. Any day, any hour may witness the mighty change. These changes, so extreme and searching, are to remind us that life does not exist either for pleasure or pain, but for the perfecting of the soul in love and nobleness. He who makes the seven stars and Orion, who turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night for the education of a nation in righteousness, does the same with and for the individual. And every change is good that unsettles us in the world to settle us in God, every variation of fortune is blessed that drives us to the central reality, and makes us richer in spiritual feeling and moral fruit. In some parts of South America all seasons are singularly blended within a year; in the same locality there are many returns of spring and winter, temporary calms and temporary snows rapidly and unceasingly succeed each other, but in such places plants bloom with the greatest vigour, and are remarkable for their beauty. So, if we seek Him who maketh the seven stars and Orion, and who orders so strangely the days and nights, the summers and winters of human life, these bewildering changes shall only discipline us into more perfect strength, and make us rich in the fruits of righteousness and peace. (W. L. Watkinson.)
The glory of religion
I. The connection God has with his universe.
1. That of a Creator.
2. That of a Governor.
3. That of a Redeemer.
II. The connection which man should have with God. Seek Him. The pursuit implies–
1. Faith in Gods personal existence.
2. A consciousness of moral distance from God.
3. A felt necessity of friendly connection with God.
4. An assurance that such a connection can be obtained.
What a grand thing is religion! It is not a thing of mere doctrine, or ritual, or sect, or party. It is a moral pursuit of Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, etc. (Homilist.)
The true object of worship
I. As the creating God. Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion. This suggests–
1. His unlimited power. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
2. His manifold wisdom. The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath He established the heavens.
3. His boundless benevolence. The sun rules the day, the moon and stars the night. Gods bounty is lavished on the world night and day.
II. As the providing God. That calleth the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the earth. This implies–
1. Gods government over the world. At His bidding the waters of the sea hasten to the clouds, and again fall in rain upon the face of the earth.
2. Mans dependence upon God. Rain is a universal blessing, and is essential for growth, fertility, and happiness. The earth must be irrigated, and none can command the clouds to pour out their contents but God.
III. As the redeeming God. And turneth the shadow of death into the morning, This indicates–
1. Gods dominion over death.
2. His gracious presence with His people in the greatest emergency. His smiling countenance turns the shadow and darkness of death into a happy and refreshing day. They hope in death. They die in faith.
3. His faithfulness to His word unto the last. He will realise His promises to them in life, in death, and in eternity. Seek the Lord, the Creator, the Preserver, and the only Saviour. Seek Him who is mighty to save. (Joseph Jenkins.)
And turneth the shadow of death into the morning . . . the Lord is His name.
The shadow of death
I. The shadow of death falls upon the pathway of life. It is the shadow of Gods wrath, which fell upon the sunshine of His love, when man, a free agent, marred His work. No man knows when or how he will die.
II. It is best that we do not know the time or manner of our death. If we knew the time was near we might be overcome by terror or despair. If we knew the time was distant, we might presume. As it is uncertain, we need to be always ready.
III. We make that which was intended for our souls health only an occasion of falling. The uncertainty of life is a subject commonly on our lips, very seldom in our serious thoughts. All men think all men mortal but themselves.
IV. You admit the argument, do you apply it personally? There can be no greater ignorance than to ignore the inevitable. Yet Cyprian says, We will not know that which we cannot but know.
V. What is death? To the generality of the Gentiles death was dreadful, and they spoke of it as terrible, cruel, black, and blind. One of the great Italian painters, Luino, the favourite pupil of Leonardo de Vinci, has represented these departures into the unseen world by a design which, though it is but an imagination, appeals forcibly to our hopes and fears. In a grand picture of the Crucifixion, which is in the Church at Lugarno he has represented the soul of the forgiven thief coming from his lips at the moment of his death in a miniature figure of himself, robed in white, in an attitude of prayer, and welcomed by a smiling angel sent to escort him to paradise. From the mouth of the reprobate who died reviling Christ, there issues a figure struggling in agony with a cruel demon.
VI. How shall we prepare for death? We must learn to overcome our natural reluctance to think, earnestly and constantly, about our own death. The way to overcome our fear is not to evade it, but to meet and master it.
VII. Our meditations on death should be inseparably united with prayer. Of this we have scriptural examples, as in Psa 39:1-13; Psa 90:1-17.
VIII. All that we think, or say, or do, has this one great purpose, that we may seek and find Him, who turneth the shadow of death into the morning.
1. He manifests Himself to the faith which worketh by love.
2. He blesses especially with His assured presence.
3. At the altar, most nearly, dearly, we realise His presence. (S. Reynolds Hole.)
Turneth the shadow of death into the morni
ng:–The Romans had thirty epithets for death; and all of them were full of the deepest dejection. The iron slumber, the eternal night, the mower with his scythe, the hunter with his snares, the demon bearing a cup of poison, the merciless destroying angel, the inexorable jailor with keys, the king of terrors treading down empires–some of them were these, the bitterness of which is indescribable. The revelation which the New Testament furnishes breaks like beautiful sunshine through the unutterable gloom. Our Lord Jesus came to bring life and immortality to light in the Gospel.
The immortal life
In the last days of a good mans life the fear of death is usually destroyed. I am not about to assert that death has no solemnity, nor would I in any way lessen your sense of its importance. But many of our common conceptions concerning death are false and unreal. We have mistaken figures of speech for facts represented by them. Of death as a physical evil little need be said. Not seldom it appears sadly painful. Death is viewed as essentially evil, because it is assumed to be the direct result of sin. It is a penal infliction–the shame and curse of life, the outcome of our guilty rebellion. Thinking thus concerning it, many Christians are as much in fear of death as the heathen. But this theory cannot be true. It is contrary to the laws of reason and the conclusions of science, and it is opposed to the very spirit of our religion. Scripture, rightly interpreted, gives it no support. Death, instead of beings retribution, is a relenting; instead of a curse, a blessing. Whatever of death Adam by his wrong-doing introduced, Christ by His work has thrust out. The physical change called death is not the result of sin. Instead of being a dread shadow hanging over life, it is a beneficent arrangement in the constitution of nature by the infinite mercy of God. It is recorded that, among the half pagan legends which floated about Ireland during the Middle Ages, there was one in which two islands were mentioned, and named respectively Life and Death. Upon the one its inhabitants could never die. Yet all the ills of human life came to its people. At length these did their work. The cruel immortality became a curse which consumed the joy and love of life, and the people learned to regard the opposite island as a haven of repose. Then soon, with all eagerness, their launched their boats upon the gloomy waters of the lake; they reached the isle of death, leaped upon its shore, and were at rest. Death is a change from a known to an unknown state of existence. It is simply one of those changes ordained in the constitution of things through which we must pass. The eternal life is ours now, and in this world. We are within the sweep of the eternal. There is no break in the continuity of a life. Present and future are but sections of the one immortal state. This earth-side is but a small part of life. From the lower to the higher is the law of growth. Life and progress never cease. Death will check neither. Is there not sublimity in the thought that death will but free the spirit from the clogs of flesh, and usher it into a world that gives play to all its powers? Then the death of the body is nothing to be feared. It is but the laying down present powers to take up others. By it the soul becomes conscious of its relations with a new world and a new order of beings. To every Christian heart this happy revelation should come with regenerating power. He alone need fear death who is abusing life. What we are now determines what we shall be then. (George Bainton.)
The shadow of death turned into morning
I. To those who have truly sought God grim death is but a shadow. To the Christian death is but the semblance of a foe.
II. The shadow of death ushers in the eternal morning. No sooner does the shadow of death fall than the light of heaven begins to dawn. Heavens morning is without clouds. No cloud intercepts the intellect of the glorified. No moral mists are known there.
III. The shadow of death is often the precursor of brighter days on earth. Death of one has been followed by the conversion of others. The fortitude of departing saints often dispels the fear of death from the living. (W. Williams.)
The shadow turned
I. Every sorrow is a shadow of death. Our deepest sorrows are not always to be measured by events themselves, but by thoughts and emotions which lie at the heart of them. When we see and feel how griefs and tribulations are used by God, for softening, purifying, and elevating character, we see even here how the shadows of death are turned into the morning.
II. National or personal judgment is the shadow of death. Perhaps this is the direct reference of these words. Israel may live again.
III. Declining strength is a shadow of death. There comes the time when irremediable and irresistible disease does its steady work.
IV. Unbelief is a shadow of death. Unbelief regarded as distrust of God as a Father and Redeemer; and distrust of ourselves as destined for the glorious immortality opened to us, and prepared for us by the death and resurrection of our blessed Lord.
V. Bereavement is the shadow of death. We realise nothing till it creates vacancy with us. Some losses we can bear. After bereavement there gradually comes a morning of humble submission and rest in God. (W. M. Statham.)
The shadow of death turned into morning
The Tekoan herdsman had often seen daybreak.
1. How mightily,
2. How silently,
3. How mysteriously,
4. How mercifully God brought in the brightness of day after the gloom of night.
Is not this an illustration of what God is always doing?
I. He turneth winter to spring. How, when the wild flowers perfume the glen, and the foliage buds in the hedgerows, and birds carol under brightening skies, the shadow of death, that winter so often seems to be, is turned into morning.
II. He turneth adversity into prosperity. Thus was it with Job. Thus need it be with many in this season of commercial depression.
III. He turneth sickness to health. As with Hezekiah, He healeth our diseases.
IV. He turneth death to immortality. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. That maketh the seven stars and Orion] Or, Hyades and Arcturus, Kimah and Kesil. See Clarke on Job 9:9; “Job 38:32“, where the subject of this verse is largely considered.
Turneth the shadow of death into the morning] Who makes day and night, light and darkness.
Calleth for the waters of the sea] Raising them up by evaporation, and collecting them into clouds.
And poureth them out] Causing them to drop down in showers upon the face of the earth. Who has done this? JEHOVAH is his name.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Seek him; though this be not in the Hebrew, it is well supplied by our interpreters.
That maketh the seven stars; a famous constellation, and whose rising about September was usually accompanied with rains and sweet showers, which, as Amo 4:7, had been withholden, whence want of water and bread; now the prophet adviseth to seek the Lord, who can give them rain and corn by the kindly influences of that watery constellation, which as he made, so he guides and manageth. This I take to be the most natural meaning of the place.
Orion; which rising about November brings usually cold rains and frosts, intermixed with much uncertainty, but very seasonable for the earth, to make it fruitful; this mentioned to persuade these people to repent, who were afflicted with such barrenness and unfruitfulness as brought famine with it.
Turneth the shadow of death into the morning; proverbially, that turneth greatest adversity, which is here called the
shadow of death, into as great prosperity, here called the morning, Psa 23:4.
Maketh the day dark with night; metaphorically this expresseth a change of prosperity into adversity. Ye house of Israel, think well of it, you are in a dangerous state; be advised to seek him who can turn your morning into night, or your night into morning; who can on a sudden remove all evil from you, and bring all good upon you; seek him therefore, and seek not idols.
Calleth for the waters of the sea; either to raise them to terrible swellings and rage, or rather calls up waters out of the sea, by commanding the vapour to ascend, which he turneth into rain;
and poureth them out upon the face of the earth; and then poureth out from the clouds to make the earth fruitful.
The Lord is his name; he only is God and the Lord. Who doth thus seek him?
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. the seven starsliterally,the heap or cluster of seven larger stars and otherssmaller (Job 9:9; Job 38:31).The former whole passage seems to have been in Amos’ mind. He namesthe stars well known to shepherds (to which class Amos belonged),Orion as the precursor of the tempests which are here threatened, andthe Pleiades as ushering in spring.
shadow of deathHebraismfor the densest darkness.
calleth for the waters of theseaboth to send deluges in judgment, and the ordinaryrain in mercy (1Ki 18:44).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[Seek him] that maketh the seven stars,…. Which some connect with the preceding words, without a supplement, “they leave righteousness on the ground, who maketh the seven stars”; understanding it of Christ, the Lord our righteousness, who is made unto us righteousness, whom the Jews rejected and despised, though the Maker of the heavens and the constellations in them. Some continue, and supply the words thus, and remember not him “that maketh the seven stars”, as Kimchi; or forget him, as Japhet in Aben Ezra. The Targum is,
“they cease to fear him that maketh, c.”
they have no regard unto him, no awe and reverence of him, or they would not act so unjustly as they do. There is but one word for the “seven stars” in the original text, which signifies that constellation called the Pleiades, and so the same word is rendered, Job 9:9 and the Vergiliae, because they appear in the spring of the year, when they yield their sweet influences, which the Scripture ascribes to them, and are desirable; hence they have their name in Hebrew from a word which signifies desire:
and Orion; another constellation; for Aben Ezra says, it is not one star, but many; and as he, with the ancients he mentions, takes the former to be the tail of Aries, and the head of Taurus; so this to be the heart of Scorpio. This constellation appears in winter, and is a sign of bad weather. Virgil calls it Nimbosus Orion; and it has its name in Hebrew from unsettledness and inconstancy, the weather being then very variable. Amos, being a herdsman, had observed the appearances and effects of these constellations, and adored the Maker of them, whom others neglected:
and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: maketh the constant revolution of day and night, and the days longer in the summer, and shorter in winter, as Kimchi interprets it; and also the various changes of prosperity and adversity, turning the one into the other when he pleases:
that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth; as in the time of the universal deluge, to which some Jewish writers apply this, as Jarchi observes; or rather draws up by the heat of the sun the waters of the sea into the air, and forms them into clouds, where they lose their saltness, and become sweet; and then lets them down in plentiful and gentle showers, to water, refresh, and fructify the earth; which is an instance of divine power, wisdom, and goodness. The Targum is,
“who commands many armies to be gathered like the waters of the sea, and scatters them upon the face of the earth.”
Some, who understand these words of Christ our righteousness, interpret the whole mystically of his raising up the twelve apostles, comparable to stars; and of his turning the Gentiles, who were darkness itself, to the light of the Gospel; and of his giving up the Jews, who were formerly light, to judicial blindness and darkness; and of his watering the earth with large showers of the divine word;
the Lord [is] his name; he is the true Jehovah, that can and does do all this.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Some interpreters connect this verse with the former, and think that what the Prophet had said before is here explained; but they are greatly mistaken, and misrepresent the meaning of the Prophet. We have indeed said, that the Prophet shows in that verse that the Israelites were not only perfidious and covenant-breakers with regard to God, having fallen away from his pure worship, but that they also acted iniquitously and dishonestly towards men: but these interpreters think that God is, by a metaphor, called righteousness and that religion is called judgment. This is in no way the mind of the Prophet; nay, it is, as I have already said, wholly different.
What, then, does the Prophet mean? I take this verse by itself; but yet we must see why the Prophet proclaims to us, in such sublime terms, the power of God. We know how heedlessly hypocrites trifle with Gods as though they had to do with a child: for they imagine a god according to their own fancy; yea, they transform him whenever they please, and think him to be delighted with frivolous trifles. Hence it is, that the way of pacifying God is with them so easy. When in various ways they provoke God’s wrath, there is in readiness some little expiation, and they think that it is a satisfaction to God. As then hypocrites imagine that God is similar to a dead idol, this is the reason why the Prophet, in order to banish these delusions, shows that the nature of God is far different. “What sort of being,” he says, “do you think God to be? for ye bring your worthless and frivolous expiations as though God would be satisfied with these trifles, as though he were a child or some silly woman: but God is He who makes the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into morning, who changes day into night, who pours forth on the earth the waters of the sea (31) Go to now, and set forth your play-things, as though access to God were open to you, when ye labor to pacify him with your trifles.” We now perceive the Prophet’s object: we see how this verse ought to be taken separately, and yet to be connected with the main discourse of the Prophet; for after having inveighed against the gross vices of the people, seeing he had to contend with the headstrong, yea, with the mockers of God, he grows angry and sharply exclaims, “What do ye think or feign God to be?” Then the Prophet sets forth the character of God as being far different from what hypocrites imagine him to be in their own fancies. “What are your notions of him?” he says. “You indeed make God to be like a child; but he made the Pleiades and Orion.”
Some translate כימה, kime, Arcturus. There is no need of laboring much about such names; for the Jews, ignorant of the liberal sciences, cannot at this day certainly determine what stars are meant; and they show also their complete ignorance as to herbs. They are indeed bold enough; they define what every word means; but yet they betray, as I have said, their own want of knowledge. And our Prophet was a shepherd, and had never learnt astronomy in his youth, or in his manhood. He therefore speaks of the stars according to the common notions of his age: but he, no doubt, selected two stars of an opposite influence. The Pleiades (which are also called the seven Stars) are, we know, mild; for when they rise, they moderate the rigor of the cold, and also bring with them the vernal rain. But Orion is a fiercer star, and ever excites grievous and turbulent commotions both at its rising and setting. (32) This being the case, the Prophet names here those stars most commonly known. He says “Since the Lord changes the seasons, so that the mildness of the spring follows the rigor of winter, and since days succeed nights, and darkness comes after the light, and since it is God who renders a serene heaven suddenly cloudy by raising vapors from the veins of the earth, or from the sea, since all these changes manifest to us the wonderful power of God, how is it that men so presumptuously trifle with him? Whence is this so great a stupidity, unless they wholly overlook the works of God, and leave him a name only, and see not what is before their eyes?” We hence see how beautifully and how strikingly the Prophet does here set forth the power of God, and how opportunely he speaks of it. He then maketh the Pleiades and Orion
And he adds, He changeth darkness into the morning, he maketh the day to grow dark into night Here he brings before us the various changes of times. The night turns not into day by chance, nor does darkness come over the earth by chance when the sun has ceased to shine. Since then this variety ought to awaken even the unwilling, and to constrain them to adore God, how is it that his majesty is treated by men with such mockery, that they bring their frivolous expiations, and think him to be no more angry with them when they present to him what is worthless and childish, as when a nurse by a pleasing sound soothes an infant? I say again, whence is this so great a stupor, except that men willfully close their eyes to so bright a display, by which God shows himself to us, that he might constrain us all to adore his name? We now see why the Prophet describes the various changes which daily take place.
He speaks also of the waters of the sea, Who calleth, he says, the waters of the sea, and poureth them on the surface of the earth Some explain this of fountains; for they think that all waters proceed from the sea, and that fountains are nothing else but as it were the eyes of the sea: but this passage ought rather to be viewed as referring to rains; for the power of God is not so conspicuous in the waters which come from the earth, as when he suddenly darkens the heavens with vapors. For whence is it, that the heavens, a while ago clear, is now cloudy? We see clouds rising, — but at whose command? Philosophers indeed assign some natural causes; they say that vapors are drawn up both from the earth and the sea by the heat of the sun: but why is this done to-day rather than yesterday? Whence is this diversity, except that God shows that the element of water is under his control, and also the air itself, as veil as the vapors, which are formed as it were out of nothing? For what is vapor but gross air, or air condensed? and yet vapors arise from the hollow places of the earth as well as from the sea. Certainly the water could not of itself produce a new element: it is ponderous, and vapors rise up on high: how is it that water thus loses its own nature? But vapors are in a middle state between air and water, and yet they ascend above the air, and arise from the earth to the heavens. The Prophet therefore does not without reason say, that waters are called, that is, that these vapors are called, from the sea, and are afterwards poured on the surface of the earth. This may be understood of the clouds as well as of rain; for clouds extend over the earth and surround us; and rain is poured on the earth. This is doubtless the wonderful work of God.
Hence the Prophet concludes, Jehovah is his name It is not the idol which you have devised for yourselves; for your expiations might indeed draw a smile from a child but they cannot satisfy the judgment of God. Then think that you have to do with God himself, and let these fallacious delusions deceive you no longer.” It follows —
(31) The verse, as evidently understood by Calvin, is to be thus rendered —
“
He who made the Pleiades and Orion, Who turns darkness into morning, And darkens the day to night, Who calls the waters of the sea, And pours them on the face of the earth, — Jehovah is his name.”
This is the rendering of the Septuagint. It is not consonant with the character of Hebrew to borrow a word, as it is done in our version, from a preceding verse. Newcome has prefixed the words, “That have forsaken;” on what authority it does not appear. The obvious construction of the passage given above. — Ed.
(32) Commentators are not agreed as to the meaning of the words rendered here, Pleiades and Orion, כימה, and כסיל. They are found only in two other places, Job 9:9, and Job 38:31; and in the first of these in conjunction with עש, in our version, Arcturus, and also in the second with מזרות, Mazzaroth. Most think that all these were names given by the Hebrews to certain stars or constellations. It is evident, that with the exception of the last, Mazzaroth, the words, Pleiades, etc., are names borrowed from the Greek poets, and first introduced by the translators of the Septuagint: but they observe no consistency; for in Job 9:9, they render כימה, Αρκτουρος, and in Job 38:31; πλειας and in Amos the sentence is paraphrased and the word is left out. Again, כסיל is rendered ἕσπερος, the evening star, in Job 9:9 and Ωρίωνος in Job 38:31 while עש is translated ἕσπερος, and in Job 9:9, πλειας. This confusion proves that the translators exercised no discrimination. The Vulgate exhibits a similar inconsistency.
Parkhurst’s view is the most satisfactory, and corresponds with the terms used in connection with the words in Job 38:31, and with the context here. The genial heat, according to him, is כימה, and the cold is כסיל. The passage in Job is, “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, כימה, or loose the bands of Orion? כסיל;” which influences מעדנות, the delights, the pleasures, the delicacies) of the genial heat, ,כימה or open contradictions of the cold? כסיל In the present passage what things God is continually doing are referred to, and not his past works, which would be the case where the constellations intended. Then the first line would run this: —
He who makes the genial heat and the cold.
Thus the whole passage would agree well together, as relating the various acts of God as the supreme agent in the material world. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) Connected by E.V. with Amo. 5:6 through the verb seek ye, so that it may thus be linked to Amo. 5:7. To regard it as a solemn assertion There is one who maketh, &c., is not satisfactory. We prefer to render, As for him who made the Pleiades . . . Jehovah is his name, i.e., The God of the Hebrews is the supreme universal Lord (comp. Amo. 4:13). This is profoundly impressive, since the prophets were surrounded by the pompous nature-worship of the East.
The Heb. word for the Pleiades (seven stars) means properly heap or cluster, and that for Orion signifies stout, strong one. The appearance of the Pleiades indicated the sweet influences of spring, that of Orion the winter solstice. Observe that Amos the herdsman, and Job the Arabian Emir, accustomed to the naked sky of the desert, make these special references to astronomical facts. The death-shadow suggests the darkest experiences of human life. Jehovah pours His light upon the deepest gloom of our lot. He, too, can make the day dark with night, covering the noonday sky with funereal pall, as at the Crucifixion. God is also made the perennial source of the rain, that river of God which is full of water, and which is ever rising at His command from the great sea.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. The seven stars R.V., “Pleiades”; literally, a cluster, that is, of stars.
Orion Hebrew, literally, a fool, a name that may embody an ancient mythological notion, namely, that this star is some fool who dared to rebel against the majesty of the deity, and who in punishment was chained in the sky. The two constellations attracted notice also among the early Greeks, partly on account of their brilliancy and partly “because their risings and settings with the sun marked the seasons.” The two represent the whole host of stars as a striking manifestation of Jehovah’s creative power (Job 9:9; Job 38:31).
Turneth the shadow of death R.V. margin, “deep darkness.” The etymology of the word is not quite certain. If it is a compound word it is literally “shadow of death”; if it is derived from a root found in Arabic and Assyrian, but not otherwise in Hebrew, it means simply “darkness” so LXX. Whatever the etymology, the darkness is the darkness of night, which Jehovah turns into day. With equal ease he turns the day into night.
Calleth for the waters of the sea A poetic description of the giving of rain (Amo 9:6); the waters hear the divine voice and immediately they respond. The natural phenomena enumerated are all evidences of the supreme power of Jehovah. It is less natural to see in the expressions references to extraordinary phenomena, such as eclipses of the sun or the flood.
Jehovah is his name With a similar statement close the doxologies in Amo 4:13, and Amo 9:6; here it should stand at the close of Amo 5:9. Is its presence at the close of Amo 5:8 another evidence of a possible disarrangement of the verses, or is Amo 5:9 a later addition either by Amos or by some one else? From the manifestation of the divine power in nature the prophet passes, in Amo 5:9, to their manifestation in God’s dealings with men.
That strengtheneth the spoiled Better, R.V., “that bringeth sudden destruction”; margin, more literally, “that causeth destruction to flash forth.”
Against the strong Who are able to withstand ordinary foes.
The spoiled shall come Better, R.V., “destruction cometh”; as a result of the divine manifestation.
Against the fortress The defenses in which the strong put their trust, and which in time of ordinary danger serve as a place of refuge. LXX., “he bringeth destruction” instead of “destruction cometh,” which is preferable.
Amo 5:10 continues the accusation of Amo 5:7, presenting other evidences of the corruption which impels the prophet to exhort so earnestly. They persecute those who take a stand for the right.
Rebuketh R.V., “reproveth.”
In the gate The principal public place in an ancient Oriental town, where court was held and justice administered (Amo 5:12; Amo 5:15; Deu 25:7; 1Ki 22:10). The rebuke is that uttered in connection with the administration of justice, chiefly by the judge, who condemns unjust practices and silences false accusers, but also by anyone who rises in defense of the right (Isa 29:21).
Speaketh uprightly In defense of those accused unjustly.
Abhor A stronger word than hate.
A Call To Consider YHWH’s Glory And Power ( Amo 5:8-9 ).
Amos’s view was that it was time that they considered with Whom they were dealing. He has already made it clear in Amo 4:13, and the description here follows a similar pattern while dealing with different aspects of creation.
Amo 5:8-9
“(Seek him) who makes the Pleiades and Orion,
And turns the shadow of death into the morning,
And makes the day dark with night,
Who calls for the waters of the sea,
And pours them out on the face of the earth,
YHWH is his name.
Who brings sudden destruction on the strong,
So that destruction comes on the fortress.”
The initial verb is read in on the basis of the emphasis in the passage (Amo 5:4; Amo 5:6; Amo 5:14). And his purpose is to remind them that they are dealing with the God Who made the heavens, not as gods but as stars (Gen 1:16). Both the prominent star clusters (Pleiades and Orion, or similar constellations, there are differing opinions, as to which star clusters are in mind both here and in Job 9:9; Job 38:31 as the old versions reveal) were created by Him, for He is the Creator of all. It is He Who brings morning once the night has finished its time, and Who closes the day by once again introducing night. Thus He has command of night and day, but with the added thought that He can turn the day into darkness at will. Furthermore He controls the waters of the sea, summoning them and pouring them out on the earth, both as rain, and in catastrophes similar to the Flood (see Psalms 29). To Israelites the controlling of the sea was one sure and certain evidence of YHWH’s power, for they feared the sea (e.g. Psa 65:7; Psa 78:16; Psa 89:9; Psa 93:4; Job 38:10-11). So this is revealed as none other than YHWH, Who alone controls all the most important aspects of creation. And in the same way He can bring sudden destruction on the strong, so that even the strong fortress is destroyed. Thus His power is ultimate.
DISCOURSE: 1190 Amo 5:8-9. The Lord is his name; that strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
IN our public addresses, we feel peculiar satisfaction in entering upon subjects which admit of no dispute, and on which all considerate persons are agreed. That we ought to seek after God, is universally admitted: and as that is the one duty inculcated in the passage before us, the whole scope of our present discourse will be to recommend the performance of it. In the preceding context, Jehovah, speaking to the whole house of Israel says, Seek ye me, and ye shall live. Immediately afterwards, the prophet himself enforces the exhortation, and adds, Seek ye the Lord, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it..Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion..the Lord of Hosts is his name; that strengthened the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress: that is, Seek Him, who, being the Creator and Governor of all things, possesseth all power to avenge himself upon you for your neglect of him, or to give success to your feeble endeavours.
To enforce yet further the prophets admonition, I will set before you,
I.
The character of Jehovah, as here portrayed
Let us notice,
1.
His condescension
[There is no person so low or so despised among men, but God will condescend to look upon him with tender compassion. Human beings can scarcely be conceived in a more degraded situation than the Hebrews in Egypt were: yet of them God says, I have seen their affliction; I have heard their cry; I know their sorrows [Note: Exo 3:7.]. And at a subsequent period, when they were reduced to the utmost distress by the Ammonites, we are told, His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel [Note: Jdg 10:16.]. The same compassion does he exercise towards his oppressed people in every age. So afflicted is he in all their afflictions [Note: Isa 63:9.], that the touching of them is like touching the apple of his eye [Note: Zec 2:8.]; and he will interpose for them, however low they be: he will raise up the poor out of the dust, and lift up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit a throne of glory [Note: 1Sa 2:8.]. Notwithstanding he is the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, and humbleth himself when he beholds the things that are in heaven; yet will he look upon him that is poor and of a contrite spirit [Note: Gen 17:1.], yea, and dwell with him too, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
But that which we are more particularly to notice, is,]
2.
His power
[As he is Almighty in himself, so is he the strength of his people [Note: Psa 29:11.]; even the saving strength of his anointed [Note: Psa 28:8.]. He is a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall [Note: Isa 25:4.]: nor does he ever interpose for his people with greater pleasure than when he sees them reduced to the lowest possible state of want and misery [Note: Deu 32:36.].
Perhaps the particular occurrence referred to by the prophet may be that of the victories granted to Joash over the triumphant and oppressive Syrians. Hazael, king of Syria had so reduced the power of Israel, that he had left to king Jehoahaz only fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen. To Joash, the son and successor of Jehoahaz, God promised deliverance from Syria: and if Joash had expressed that zeal in his countrys cause, and that confidence in God, which became him, his victories over Syria would have been complete. As it was, we are told that he took out of the hand of Benhadad, the son of Hazael, the cities which Hazael had taken from Jehoahaz by war; that three times did he beat Benhadad, and recovered the cities of Israel [Note: 2Ki 13:7; 2Ki 13:17-19; 2Ki 13:25.]. To this event, I say, the prophet is supposed more particularly to allude. But, in the history of Israel, such instances were without number. The deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the destruction of Jericho by the sound of rams horns, and of Midian by the lamps and pitchers of Gideon, clearly shew, that God can save equally by many or by few, and that those who trust in him shall never be confounded.
If, on the other hand, we suppose this exercise of Gods power to be mentioned with a view to awe the Israelites into submission, it may well be interpreted in that view. The whole nation, both of Israel and Judah, placed an undue reliance on their relation to God, and could not conceive that their enemies should ever be suffered finally to prevail against them. A remarkable instance of this occurred in the days of Zedekiah, king of Judah. The Chaldeans besieged him in Jerusalem: but, on Pharaohs coming from Egypt to succour him, the Chaldeans raised the siege. This departure of the Chaldean army raised the confidence of Zedekiah, that he had no just ground for fear. But Jeremiah was commanded to tell him, that the Egyptian army should soon return to their own land; that the Chaldeans should immediately resume the siege; and that, though he had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans, so that there remained none but wounded men amongst them, yet should they, the wounded soldiers, rise up every man in his tent, and burn Jerusalem with fire [Note: Jer 37:5-10.].
This latter interpretation of the words seems countenanced by the menace which has been before mentioned; where the prophet says, Seek ye the Lord, lest he break forth like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el.] II.
The ends for which it is adduced
And,
1.
As a warning to those who seek him not
[To every creature under heaven must we declare, that God is very greatly to be feared: Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord: thou art great, and thy name is great in might: who would not fear thee, O God of nations [Note: Jer 10:6-7.]? If he is able to save, he is able also to destroy. In whatever fortresses any be entrenched, their refuges of lies shall be swept away, and the flood of Divine vengeanee shall overflow their hiding-place [Note: Isa 28:15; Isa 28:17.]. They may in their own conceit make a covenant with death and hell; but their covenant with death shall be disannulled, and their agreement with hell shall not stand: when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, they shall be trodden down by it [Note: Isa 28:18.]. What is said in relation to Moab may be spoken in reference to all who cast off the fear of God; they shall be trodden down by him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill: and he shall spread forth his hands, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim; and he shall bring down their pride, together with the spoils of their hands: and the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust [Note: The image of a swimmer advancing himself, whilst with his hands he irresistibly sweeps away the waters, beautifully illustrates Gods advancing his own glory in the destruction of all his enemies.].
To those, then, who are living without God in the world, I would suggest this awful consideration: God is of great power and of terrible majesty; and when he riseth up, who then can resist him [Note: Job 31:14.]? or who can stand in his sight when he is angry [Note: Deu 4:24.]? Verily, He is a consuming fire [Note: Psa 76:7.]. Who then would set briers and thorns against him in battle? He would go through them, and burn them up together. Seek ye, then, his face: seek him as he is revealed to you in the Gospel of his Son: seek him as reconciled to you by the blood of the cross: seek him also speedily, and with your whole hearts: for I must declare to you, that there is no escape to those who neglect his great salvation [Note: Heb 2:3.]; and that, though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished [Note: Pro 11:21.].]
2.
As an encouragement to those who desire his favour
[Many are ready to despond on account of their own weakness, and of the power of their enemies. But if God be our strength and our salvation, whom need we fear? If he be for us, who, with any prospect of success, can be against us? Hear how he chides the indulgence of a desponding thought: Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding? He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint [Note: Isa 40:27-31.]. Let not any one then shrink back from the contest, how weak soever he himself may be, or however potent his enemies. Aided by God, a worm shall thresh the mountains [Note: Isa 41:14-15.]: and the weakest creature in the universe may say with Paul, I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me [Note: Php 4:13.]. In truth, a sense of weakness, so far from being any ground of discouragement, is rather a ground of hope; because God will perfect his own strength in our weakness. We are told that God bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust. But whom does he employ in this work? The strong and mighty? No: it is added, The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy [Note: Isa 26:5-6.]. Whoever then ye be, go forward. Though seas of difficulty be before you, I say to you, as God did to Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? Say unto the children of Israel, that they go forward [Note: Exo 14:15.]. Do you doubt whether success shall attend your efforts? Look at the example of David: see his triumphs, and his acknowledgments [Note: 2Sa 22:2-20. This whole passage should be cited. See also ver. 3041.] and doubt not, but that if you seek God, and confide in him as David did, like him you shall be more than conquerors, through Him that loveth you.]
Amo 5:8 [Seek him] that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD [is] his name:
Ver. 8. Seek him that maketh the seven stars ] Once again, “Seek him”; that is, Return to him by true repentance; and by faith take hold of his strength, that ye may make peace, and ye shall make peace with him, Isa 27:5 . To stand out it boots not; since it is he that made Bootes and Orion, &c., that is, of infinite power; and doeth whatsoever he will in heaven and earth, “who only doeth wondrous things,” Psa 72:18 . See Amo 4:12-13 . Chimah and Chesil, that is, Pleiades and Orion, are twice mentioned together in Job. Noted stars they are, and known to shepherds and such like. Amos, likely, was but such an astronomer as herdsmen use to be. Those who write of these stars tell us, that Chimah comes of Chamah, to love ardently; because of the fellowship and working together that appears in them. They be seven stars that have all one name; because they all help one another in their work, which is to bring the spring; and like seven sisters or lovers, so are they joined together in one constellation, and in one company. We see (saith one) that God will have the sweetest works in nature to be performed by mutual help. The best time of the year cometh with these seven stars (hence we read of their sweet influence, Job 38:31 ), and the best time of our life cometh when we enter into true love and fellowship. As for Orion, it is the star (saith the same author) that brings winter; and his bonds cannot be loosed. It binds the earth with frost and cold, that the fruits thereof might be seasoned and made kindly against the spring: neither can the spring come till Orion have prepared the way. God will have us suffer before we reign. The word Chesil here used signifies, in the Chaldee, to perfect; because by suffering and offering violence to ourselves we enter into perfection, Luk 13:32 . If we would have a pleasant spring of graces in our hearts, we must first have a nipping winter: the spirit of mortification must be like the cold star Orion, to nip our quick motions in the head, and to bind all our unclean desires and burning lusts, that they stir not in us; and unless we do thus, the seven stars of comfort shall never appear to us.
And turneth the shadow of death,
into the morning “ Flebile principium melior fortuna sequetur. ”
That calleth for the waters of the sea
The waters of the sea “ Humorem magno tollunt ex aequore ponti
Nubes, qui in tote terrarum spargitur orbe,
Cum pluit in terris ” (Lucret. lib. 6).
The naturalists observe that it snows not in the sea, because it sends up hot vapours, which presently dissolve the snow.
The Lord is his name NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Amo 5:8-9
8He who made the Pleiades and Orion
And changes deep darkness into morning,
Who also darkens day into night,
Who calls for the waters of the sea
And pours them out on the surface of the earth,
The LORD is His name.
9It is He who flashes forth with destruction upon the strong,
So that destruction comes upon the fortress.
Amo 5:8-9 This is a poetic doxology to God as Creator and Judge. There are three of these doxologies in Amos (cf. Amo 4:4; Amo 5:8-9; Amo 9:5-6).
Amo 5:8 the Pleiades This is literally heap or herd (BDB 465, cf. Job 9:9; Job 38:31). This was one of the brightest of the star clusters (Hesiod calls it the seven sisters) in the constellation Taurus. The UBS, Translator’s Handbook, pp. 105, 242, asserts that in Palestine its setting below the horizon introduces winter. This then makes the poetic lines refer to God not as creator only, but active present controller (Providence) of the natural order.
Orion This is literally fool (BDB 493) in the sense of aggressive. It is used to refer to a rebel. The ancients identified this constellation with Nimrod (the warrior, cf. Gen 10:8-9). It was visible in the summer. God controls the seasons (i.e., the order and regularity of the natural world)! Apparently, God’s creation and control of the stars (cf. Gen 1:14-19) was a necessary theological statement in the light of astral worship (cf. Amo 5:26).
changes deep darkness into morning In context this speaks of God’s control of the heavenly bodies (cf. Ps. 19:24). This phrase may be parallel in concept to Amo 4:13 c.
Who calls for the waters of the sea There are several theories as to the meaning of this phrase: (1) it refers to the boundaries of the oceans (cf. Gen 1:9-10); (2) it refers to God, not Ba’al, as the source of rain (i.e., a blessing to support growth); or (3) it is possibly an allusion to the flood (a judgment motif, cf. Genesis 6). God controls the waters of creation as He does the stars. Water is the only thing in Genesis 1 that is not said to have been spoken into existence by God (cf. Gen 1:2).
The LORD is His name The name in Hebrew was very significant in describing the character of an individual. God’s name YHWH is from Exo 3:14, from the Hebrew VERB to be. See Special Topic: NAMES FOR DEITY .
Amo 5:9
NASBHe who flashes forth
NKJVHe rains
NRSVflash out
TEV, NJBbrings
The Hebrew term’s (BDB 114, KB 132, Hiphil PARTICIPLE) meaning is in doubt. Its use in Job and the Psalms implies a cheerfulness or joy (meaning of the Arabic root). However, that meaning does not fit Amos at all unless Amos is speaking sarcastically of YHWH smiling at the destruction of idolatrous Israel and her military fortifications. The NASB takes its translation from the possible meaning of the Hiphil, let something flare up (cf. NIDOTTE, vol. 1, p. 660).
the strong This may refer to the economically and politically powerful (cf. Amo 5:10-13; Amo 2:14). The opposite of the poor, the very ones who take advantage of them! However, because of the parallel to fortresses, it may refer to the Israeli military.
the seven stars. Hebrew. kimah = cluster. Modern name, the Pleiades. See notes on Job 9:9; Job 38:31, Job 38:32. Compare Isa 13:10; and see App-12.
Orion. Hebrew. kesel = rigidity, strength; from kesalim = loins (Job 15:27): hence, “confidence” derived from strength (Job 8:14; Job 31:24, where the Septuagint has ichun = strength. Psa 78:7. Pro 3:26). In the Denderah Zodiac his name is oar, from the Hebrew root ‘Or = light: hence the glorious One. See App-12. Compare Job 9:9; Job 38:31.
the shadow of death. Hebrew. tzalmaveth. Not “a late word”. We find it ten times in Job; four times in Psalms. Isa 9:2. Jer 2:6; Jer 13:16.
Maketh the day, &c. Compare Psa 104:20.
That = [Seek Him] That.
calleth, &c. Compare Amo 9:6. Job 38:34. Isa 48:13.
is = it[is].
maketh: Job 9:9, Job 38:31, Job 38:32
and turneth: Job 12:22, Job 38:12, Job 38:13, Psa 107:10-14, Mat 4:16, Luk 1:79
maketh: Amo 4:13, Amo 8:9, Exo 10:21-23, Exo 14:24-28, Psa 104:20, Psa 105:28, Isa 59:10
that calleth: Amo 9:6, Gen 7:11-20, 1Ki 18:44, 1Ki 18:45, Job 37:13, Job 38:34
The Lord: Amo 4:13
Reciprocal: Gen 1:14 – and let Job 3:5 – the shadow Job 12:15 – he sendeth Job 38:17 – the shadow Psa 147:8 – prepareth Isa 9:2 – in the land Jer 16:21 – and they Jer 33:2 – the Lord Hos 10:12 – time Joe 2:10 – the sun Nah 1:4 – rebuketh Hag 1:11 – I called
THE REVELATION OF GOD
Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: the Lord is His name.
Amo 5:8
Seek the Lord, and ye shall live. But who and what is the Lord, when and by whom is He to be found? Seek not Bethel, with its dumb and powerless idol calf, seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, etc.
I. Where is God revealed?(1) God is revealed in the heavens. Amos was a shepherd, and many a brilliant starry sky had he seen when pursuing his nightly occupation of watching by the sheep-cotes under the cloudless Eastern heavens. Pleiades and Orion are mentioned in the Bible in the Book of Job, and in this passage only. Modern science has demonstrated that Alcyone, the brightest star of the Pleiades, is actually the centre of gravity of the solar system round which our universe revolves. This gives new meaning to the words of the text. (2) God is revealed in the lights and shades of human life. This expression shadow of death cannot, by the usage of the words in the Hebrew, be applied to the mere alternation of day and night. It refers to the darkness of sorrow, trouble, death, and the grave, and to the darkness of sin. This is a picture of human history, whether of nations or men. God turns (a) the darkness of trouble into the light of joy; (b) the darkness of sin into the light of grace; (c) the darkness of death into the morn of the resurrection. (3) God is revealed in His judgments. That calleth for the waters of the sea, etc. The most probable reference is to the flood of Noah. (4) God is revealed in His name. Spell out the name of God from the Bible: Jehovah is His name.
II. To whom is God revealed?God is revealed to the true seeker. Seek Him(1) humbly, (2) prayerfully, (3) believingly. Then the astronomer finds Him in the heavens; the geologist in the rocks; the historian in the long roll of history; the theological student in the Bible. But without purity of intention and humility of spirit, one and all may return from the quest and say, I have not found God in any of these.
Illustration
Amos first call to Israel is but the echo of Gods to men, always and everywhere. All circumstances, all inward experiences, joy and sorrow, prosperity and disaster, our longings and our fears, they all cry aloud to us to seek His face. That loving invitation is ever sounding in our ears. And the promise which Amos gave, though it may have meant on his lips the continuance of national life only, yet had, even on his lips, a deeper meaning, which we now cannot but hear in it. For, just as to seek the Lord means more to us than it did to Israel, so the consequent life has greatened, widened, deepened into life eternal. But Amos narrower, more external promise is true still, and there is no surer way of promoting true well-being than seeking God. With Thee is the fountain of life, in all senses of the word, from the lowest purely physical to the highest, and it is only they who go thither to draw that will carry away their pitchers full of the sparkling blessing. The fundamental principle of Amos teaching is an eternal truth, that to seek God is to find Him, and to find Him is life.
Amo 5:8. Seven stars is the same as Pleiades In Job 9:9. the cluster of stars that is popularly called the seven sisters,” and Orion is defined by Strong, “Any notable constellation.” Instead of being interested in the gods of the heathen, Israel is exhorted to seek the Maker of these heavenly bodies. He is the one who can rule day and night and turn one into the other at will; who can control the mighty waters of the sea and use them in whatsoever manner He pleases.
5:8 [Seek him] that {e} maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD [is] his name:
(e) He describes the power of God; Job 9:9 .
A portrayal of sovereign Yahweh 5:8-9
Since Yahweh made the Pleiades and Orion, constellations of stars, He could bring His will to pass on earth too. The rising of the Pleiades before daybreak heralded the arrival of spring, and the rising of Orion after sunset signaled the onset of winter. [Note: Sunukjian, p. 1439.] Since Yahweh brings light out of darkness in the morning and darkens the day at night, He could change the fate of Israel from prosperity to adversity. Since He calls the waters of the sea to form clouds and then empties them on the land, He can pour out judgment on the land as well. Yahweh is the name of this God, the covenant God of Israel. Israel’s pagan neighbors attributed all these activities to their idols, and many of the Israelites worshipped them, but Yahweh was the only God who could do these things. The one who would flash forth like lightning from heaven, striking the strong oppressors with destruction and bringing an end to their fortresses on earth, was Yahweh.
COMMON SENSE AND THE REIGN OF LAW
Amo 3:3-8; Amo 4:6-13; Amo 5:8-9; Amo 6:12; Amo 8:8; Amo 9:5; Amo 8:4-6
FOOLS, when they face facts, which is seldom, face them one by one, and, as a consequence, either in ignorant contempt or in panic. With this inordinate folly Amos charged the religion of his day. The superstitious people, careful of every point of ritual and very greedy of omens, would not ponder real facts nor set cause-to effect. Amos recalled them to common life. “Does a bird fall upon a snare, except there be a loop on her? Does the trap itself rise from the ground, except it be catching something”-something alive in it that struggles, and so lifts the trap? “Shall the alarum be blown in a city, and the people not tremble?” Daily life is impossible without putting two and two together. But this is just what Israel will not do with the sacred events of their time. To religion they will not add common-sense.
For Amos himself, all things which happen are in sequence and in sympathy. He has seen this in the simple life of the desert; he is sure of it throughout the tangle and hubbub of history. One thing explains another; one makes another inevitable. When he has illustrated the truth in common life, Amos claims it for especially four of the great facts of the time. The sins of society, of which society is careless; the physical calamities, which they survive and forget; the approach of Assyria, which they ignore; the word of the prophet, which they silence, -all these belong to each other. Drought, Pestilence, Earthquake, Invasion conspire-and the Prophet holds their secret.
Now it is true that for the most part Amos describes this sequence of events as the personal action of Jehovah. “Shall evil befall, and Jehovah not have done it? I have smitten you. I will raise up against you a Nation Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel!” {Amo 3:6; Amo 4:9; Amo 6:14; Amo 4:12} Yet even where the personal impulse of the Deity is thus emphasized, we feel equal stress laid upon the order and the inevitable certainty of the process Amos nowhere uses Isaiahs great phrase: “a God of Mishpat,” a “God of Order” or “Law.” But he means almost the same thing: God works by methods which irresistibly fulfill themselves. Nay more. Sometimes this sequence sweeps upon the prophets mind with such force as to overwhelm all his sense of the Personal within it. The Will and the Word of the God who causes the thing are crushed out by the “Must Be” of the thing itself. Take even the descriptions of those historical crises, which the prophet most explicitly proclaims as the visitations of the Almighty. In some of the verses all thought of God Himself is lost in the roar and foam with which that tide of necessity bursts up through Chem. The fountains of the great deep break loose, and while the universe trembles to the shock, it seems that even the voice of the Deity is overwhelmed. In one passage, immediately after describing Israels ruin as due to Jehovahs word, Amos asks how could it “have happened otherwise”:-
“Shall horses run up a cliff, or oxen plough the sea? that ye turn justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.” {Amo 6:12} A moral order exists, which it is as impossible to break without disaster as it would be to break the natural order by driving horses upon a precipice. There is an inherent necessity in the sinners doom. Again, he says of Israels sin: “Shall not the Land tremble for this? Yea, it shall rise up together like the Nile, and heave and sink like the Nile of Egypt.” {Amo 8:8} The crimes of Israel are so intolerable, that in its own might the natural frame of things revolts against them. In these great crises, therefore, as in the simple instances adduced from everyday life, Amos had a sense of what we call law, distinct from, and for moments even overwhelming, that sense of the personal purpose of God, admission to the secrets of which had marked his call to be a prophet.
These instincts we must not exaggerate into a system. There is no philosophy in Amos, nor need we wish there were. Far more instructive is what we do find-a virgin sense of the sympathy of all things, the thrill rather than the theory of a universe. And this faith, which is not a philosophy, is especially instructive on these two points: that it springs from the moral sense; and that it embraces, not history only, but nature.
It springs from the moral sense. Other races have arrived at a conception of the universe along other lines: some by the observation of physical laws valid to the recesses of space; some by logic and the unity of Reason. But Israel found the universe through the conscience. It is a historical fact that the Unity of God, the Unity of History, and the Unity of the World, did, in this order, break upon Israel, through conviction and experience of the universal sovereignty of righteousness. We see the beginnings of the process in Amos. To him the sequences which work themselves out through history and across nature are moral. Righteousness is the hinge on which the world hangs; loosen it, and history and nature feel the shock. History punishes the sinful nation. But nature, too, groans beneath the guilt of man; and in the Drought, the Pestilence, and the Earthquake provides his scourges. It is a belief which has stamped itself upon the language of mankind. What else is “plague” than “blow” or “Scourge?”
This brings us to the second point-our prophets treatment of Nature.
Apart from the disputed passages (which we shall take afterwards by themselves) we have in the Book of Amos few glimpses of nature, and these always under a moral light. There is not in any chapter a landscape visible in its own beauty. Like all desert-dwellers, who when they would praise the works of God lift their eyes to the heavens, Amos gives us but the outlines of the earth-a mountain range, {Amo 1:2; Amo 3:9; Amo 9:3} or the crest of a forest, {Amo 2:9} or the bare back of the land, bent from sea to sea. {Amo 8:12} Nearly all, his figures are drawn from the desert-the torrent, the wild beasts, the wormwood (Amo 5:24; Amo 5:19-20; etc.; Amo 7:12). If he visits the meadows of the shepherds, it is with the terror of the peoples doom; {Amo 1:2} if the vineyards or orchards, it is with the mildew and the locust; {Amo 4:9 ff.} if the towns, it is with drought, eclipse, and earthquake. {Amo 4:6-11; Amo 6:11; Amo 8:8 ff.} To him, unlike his fellows, unlike especially Hosea, the whole land is one theatre of judgment; but it is a theatre trembling to its foundations with the drama enacted upon it. Nay, land and nature are themselves actors in the drama. Physical forces are inspired with moral purpose, and become the ministers of righteousness. This is the converse of Elijahs vision. To the older prophet the message came that God was not in the fire nor in the earthquake nor in the tempest, but only in the still small voice. But to Amos the fire, the earthquake, and the tempest are all in alliance with the Voice, and execute the doom which it utters. The difference will be appreciated by us, if we remember the respective problems set to prophecy in those two periods. To Elijah, prophet of the elements, wild worker by fire and water, by life and death, the spiritual had to be asserted and enforced by itself. Ecstatic as he was, Elijah had to learn that the Word is more Divine than all physical violence and terror. But Amos understood that for his age the question was very different. Not only was the God of Israel dissociated from the powers of nature, which were assigned by the popular mind to the various Baalim of the land, so that there was a divorce between His government of the people and the influences that fed the peoples life; but morality itself was conceived as provincial. It was narrowed to the national interests; it was summed up in mere rules of police, and these were looked upon as not so important as the observances of the ritual. Therefore Amos was driven to show that nature and morality are one. Morality is not a set of conventions. “Morality is the order of things.” Righteousness is on the scale of the universe. All things tremble to the shock of sin; all things work together for good to them that fear God.
With this sense of law, of moral necessity, in Amos we must not fail to connect that absence of all appeal to miracle, which is also conspicuous in his book.
We come now to the three disputed passages:-
Amo 4:13 :-“For, lo! He Who formed the hills, and createth the wind, and declareth to man what His mind is; Who maketh the dawn into darkness, and marcheth on the heights of the land-Jehovah, God of Hosts, is His Name.”
Amo 5:8-9 :-“Maker of the Pleiades and Orion, turning to morning the murk, and day into night He darkeneth; Who calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them forth on the face of the earth-Jehovah His Name; Who flasheth ruin on the strong, and destruction cometh down on the fortress.”
Amo 9:5-6 :-“And the Lord Jehovah of the Hosts, Who toucheth the earth and it rocketh, and all mourn that dwell on it, and it riseth like the Nile together, and sinketh like the Nile of Egypt; Who hath builded in the heavens His ascents, and founded His vault upon the earth; Who calleth to the waters of the sea, and poureth them on the face of the earth-Jehovah His Name.”
These sublime passages it is natural to take as the triple climax of the doctrine we have traced through the Book of Amos. Are they not the natural leap of the soul to the stars? The same shepherds eye which has marked sequence and effect unfailing on the desert soil, does it not now sweep the clear heavens above the desert, and find there also all things ordered and arrayed? The same mind which traced the Divine processes down history, which foresaw the hosts of Assyria marshaled for Israels punishment, which felt the overthrow of justice shock the nation to their ruin, and read the disasters of the husbandmans year as the vindication of a law higher than the physical-does it not now naturally rise beyond such instances of the Divine order, round which the dust of history rolls, to the lofty, undimmed outlines of the Universe as a Whole, and, in consummation of its message, declare that “all is Law,” and Law intelligible to man? But in the way of so attractive a conclusion the literary criticism of the book has interposed. It is maintained that, while none of these sublime verses are indispensable to the argument of Amos, some of them actually interrupt it, so that when they are removed it becomes consistent; that such ejaculations in praise of Jehovahs creative power are not elsewhere met with in Hebrew prophecy before the time of the Exile; that they sound very like echoes of the Book of Job; and that in the Septuagint version of Hosea we actually find a similar doxology, wedged into the middle of an authentic verse of the prophet. {Hos 13:4} To these arguments against the genuineness of the three famous passages, other critics, not less able and not less free, like Robertson Smith and Kuenen, have replied that such ejaculations at critical points of the prophets discourse “are not surprising under the general conditions of prophetic oratory”; and that, while one of the doxologies does appear to break the argument {Amo 5:8-9} of the context, they are all of them thoroughly in the spirit and the style of Amos. To this point the discussion has been carried; it seems to need a closer examination. We may at once dismiss the argument which has been drawn from that obvious intrusion into the Greek of Hos 13:4. Not only is this verse not so suited to the doctrine of Hosea as the doxologies are to the doctrine of Amos; but while they are definite and sublime, it is formal and flat-“Who made firm the heavens and founded the earth, Whose hands founded all the host of heaven, and He did not display them that thou shouldest walk after them.” The passages in Amos are vision; this is a piece of catechism crumbling into homily. Again-an argument in favor of the authenticity, of these passages may be drawn from the character of their subjects. We have seen the part which the desert played in shaping the temper and the style of Amos. But the works of the Creator, to which these passages lift their praise, are just those most fondly dwelt upon by all the poetry, of the desert. The Arabian nomad, when he magnifies the power of God, finds his subjects not on the bare earth about him, but in the brilliant heavens and the heavenly processes.
Again, the critic who affirms that the passages in Amos “in every case sensibly disturb the connection,” exaggerates. In the case of the first of Amo 4:13, the disturbance is not at all “sensible”: though it must be admitted that the oracle closes impressively enough without it. The last of them, Amo 9:5-6 -which repeats a clause already found in the book {Cf. Amo 8:8} -is as much in sympathy with its context as most of the oracles in the somewhat scattered discourse of that last section of the book. The real difficulty is the second doxology, Amo 5:8-9, which does break the connection, and in a sudden and violent way. Remove it, and the argument is consistent. We cannot read chapter 5 without feeling that, whether Amos wrote these verses or not, they did not originally stand where they stand at present. Now, taken with this dispensableness of two of the passages and this obvious intrusion of one of them, the following additional fact becomes ominous. “Jehovah is His Name” (which occurs in two of the passages), or “Jehovah of Hosts is His Name” (Which occurs at least in one), is a construction which does not happen elsewhere in the book, except in a verse where it is awkward and where we have already seen reason to doubt its genuineness. But still more, the phrase does not occur in any other prophet, till we come down to the oracles which compose Isa 40:1-31; Isa 41:1-29; Isa 42:1-25; Isa 43:1-28; Isa 44:1-28; Isa 45:1-25; Isa 46:1-13; Isa 47:1-15; Isa 48:1-22; Isa 49:1-26; Isa 50:1-11; Isa 51:1-23; Isa 52:1-15; Isa 53:1-12; Isa 54:1-17; Isa 55:1-13; Isa 56:1-12. Here it happens thrice-twice in passages dating from the Exile, {Isa 47:4 and Isa 54:5} and once in a passage suspected by some to be of still later date. In the Book of Jeremiah the phrase is found eight times; but either in passages already on other grounds judged by many critics to be later than Jeremiah, or where by itself it is probably an intrusion into the text. Now is it a mere coincidence that a phrase, which, outside the Book of Amos, occurs only in writing of the time of the Exile and in passages considered for other reasons to be post-exilic insertions-is it a mere coincidence that within the Book of Amos it should again be found only in suspected verses? There appears to be in this more than a coincidence; and the present writer cannot but feel a very strong case against the traditional belief that these doxologies are original and integral portions of the Book of Amos. At the same time a case which has failed to convince critics like Robertson Smith and Kuenen cannot be considered conclusive, and we are so ignorant of many of the conditions of prophetic oratory at this period that dogmatism is impossible. For instance, the use by Amos of the Divine titles is a matter over which uncertainty still lingers; and any further argument on the subject must include a fuller discussion than space here allows of the remarkable distribution of those titles throughout the various sections of the book.
But if it be not given to us to prove this kind of authenticity-a question whose data are so obscure, yet whose answer frequently is of so little significance-let us gladly welcome that greater Authenticity whose undeniable proofs these verses so splendidly exhibit. No one questions their right to the place which some great spirit gave them in this book-their suitableness to its grand and ordered theme, their pure vision and their eternal truth. That common-sense, and that conscience, which, moving among the events of earth and all the tangled processes of history, find everywhere reason and righteousness at work, in these verses claim the Universe for the same powers, and see in stars and clouds and the procession of day and night the One Eternal God Who “declareth to man what His mind is.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
GODS CONDESCENSION AND GRACE
According to this twofold view of the character of Jehovah, we must state,
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary