Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Amos 6:1
Woe to them [that are] at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, [which are] named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!
1. Woe to them that, &c.] Ah! they that. and that, &c., as Amo 5:18. are at ease ] Cf. Isa 32:9 (“rise up, ye women that are at ease ”), Isa 32:11. The word (though it may be used in a good sense, ib. Isa 32:18; Isa 32:20) denotes, in such a context as die present, those who are recklessly at ease, and live on in tranquillity and contentment, insensible to real danger.
in Zion ] For the allusion to Judah, cf. Amo 2:4-5.
trust ] are secure (R.V.), viz. without sufficient ground: in parallelism with ‘at ease,’ just as in Isa 32:9; Isa 32:11 (A.V., R.V., careless).
the men of mark of the first of the nations ] i.e. the nobles of Samaria, who are described as the cream of a nation, which was itself (partly by its prosperity, partly by its theocratic privileges: cf. Jer 3:19; Eze 20:6; Eze 20:15) the first of the nations. But the expression first of the nations may be used in irony, to reflect Israel’s own opinion of itself: so Wellh. and G. A. Smith. Men of mark (R.V. notable men) is lit. marked, marked out: elsewhere the same verb is rendered expressed (sc. by name, opposed to the unnamed crowd); cf. Num 1:17, 1Ch 12:31 ; 1Ch 16:41, 2Ch 28:15 (in all “expressed by name”).
to whom the house of Israel come ] viz. for judgement (Exo 18:16; 2Sa 15:4). They hold a position of responsibility, they are raised above their fellow-citizens, and have to administer justice to them, and yet they are heedless of the interests entrusted to them and live only for themselves ( Amo 6:3 ff.).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Woe to them that are at ease – The word always means such as are recklessly at their ease, the careless ones, such as those whom Isaiah bids Isa 32:9-11, rise up, tremble, be troubled, for many days and years shall ye be troubled. It is that luxury and ease, which sensualize the soul, and make it dull, stupid, hard-hearted. By one earnest, passing word, the prophet warns his own land, that present sinful ease ends in future woe. Woe unto them that laugh now: for they shall mourn and weep Luk 6:25. Rup.: He foretells the destruction and captivity of both Judah and Israel at once; and not only that captivity at Babylon, but that whereby they are dispersed unto this day. Luxury and deepest sins of the flesh were rife in that generation (see Joh 8:9; Rom 2:21-24; Luk 11:39, Luk 11:42; Mat 23:14, Mat 23:23, Mat 23:26), which killed Him who for our sakes became poor.
And trust in the mountain of Samaria – Not in God. Samaria was strong (see the note above at Amo 3:9), resisted for three years, and was the last city of Israel which was taken. The king of Assyria came up throughout all the land and went up to Samaria, and besieged it 2Ki 17:5. Benhadad, in that former siege, when God delivered them 2Ki 7:6, attempted no assault, but famine only.
Which are named the chief of the nations – Literally, the named of the chief of the nations, that is, those who, in Israel, which by the distinguishing favor of God were chief of the nations, were themselves, marked, distinguished, named. The prophet, by one word, refers them back to those first princes of the congregation, of whom Moses used that same word Num 1:17. They were heads of the houses of their fathers Num 1:4, renowned of the congregation, heads of thousands in Israel Num 1:16. As, if anyone were to call the Peers, Barons of England, he would carry us back to the days of Magna Charta, although six centuries and a half ago, so this word, occurring at that time , here only in any Scripture since Moses, carried back the thoughts of the degenerate aristocracy of Israel to the faith and zeal of their forefathers, what they ought to have been, and what they were. As Amalek of old was first of the nations Num 24:20 in its enmity against the people of God , having, first of all, shown that implacable hatred, which Ammon, Moab, Edom, evinced afterward, so was Israel first of nations, as by God. It became, in an evil way, first of nations, that is, distinguished above the heat by rejecting Him.
To whom the house of Israel came, or have come – They were, like those princes of old, raised above others. Israel came to them for judgment; and they, regardless of duty, lived only for self-indulgence, effeminacy, and pride. Jerome renders in the same sense, that enter pompously the house of Israel, literally, enter for themselves, as if they were lords of it, and it was made for them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Amo 6:1
Woe to them that are at ease in Zion.
The secure alarmed
There is something very agreeable and desirable in ease. Yet, strange as the declaration may appear, this tranquillity is too common; and to disturb it should be our design. For your peace may be a false peace. Before an earthquake the air is uncommonly serene. Ascertain precisely the characters whose delusions we wish to destroy.
I. Some are at ease in Zion from selfish insensibility. Such there were in the days of Amos. In a similar way to Amos, Isaiah upbraids the Jews. There are still many whose attention to their own indulgences regulates all their actions. Our dispositions ought always to correspond with the providence of God, and the purposes for which He placed us in the world. For the unfeeling wretch conscience has no kind office to perform. For him no orphan prays, no widow sings. For him the evil day comes on charged with every horror. He has no asylum in the feelings of the community, the happiness of whose members he never sought.
II. Some from infidel presumption. If there be any truth in the Scriptures, the dispositions of the generality of mankind are very unsuitable to their state and their destiny. What is this ease which flows from infidel persuasion?
1. It is obtained with difficulty.
2. It is partial, and liable to interruption.
3. The less liable it is to be disturbed, the more awful; for it is penal.
4. This ease is fatal. Its duration is momentary; it must end, and end in anguish and despair.
III. Some from vain confidence; relying on the goodness of their present state, and on the certainty of their future happiness. There is such a thing as spiritual self-flattery; there is such a thing as a delusive dependence on religion.
1. This confidence keeps them from looking after salvation. They are too good to be saved.
2. This course will terminate in woeful surprise and disappointment.
IV. Some prom practical indifference. You would much offend persons of this class, were you to inquire whether they believed the Scripture. These persons are not to be charged sentimentally with anti-nomianism or any other error. They know the Gospel in theory; but they are strangers to its Divine efficacy. Of all the various characters we have to deal with in our ministry, these are the most unlikely to insure success. We preach; you acknowledge, and admire,–but you discover no more concern to obtain the one thing needful we propose, than if you were persuaded we called you to follow a cunningly devised fable. Your life is a perpetual contradiction to your creed: you are not happy, and contrive not to be miserable. Inferences.
1. They are highly criminal, who countenance and promote a state of carnal ease.
2. Let none be troubled when they find their connections distressed and alarmed with a sense of their sin and danger.
3. Nothing is so much to be dreaded as false security in religion.
4. There is consolation for those who are distressed. We do not applaud all their doubts and dejections, but these painful scruples are easily accounted for, and they lie on the safe side. (William Jay.)
Carnal security
I. The state of mind that is reproved in this passage.
1. It includes carnal security (Amo 6:1).
2. It includes presumptuous unbelief (Amo 6:2-3).
3. It includes sensual indulgence (Amo 6:4-6, first clause).
4. It includes selfish indifference (Amo 6:6, last clause).
II. The justice of the woe denounced against it.
1. Such a state of mind indicates a lurking enmity against God.
2. Indicates insensibility to the claims of Jesus.
3. Indicates a deep-seated unbelief of coming judgments. (G. Brooks.)
The danger of indifference to spiritual things
I. The state condemned. Gods threatenings had been declared against the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, but the people confided in their fortifications and external advantages, or in their profession of being the people of God; thus they carelessly indulged themselves, and were heedless about consequences, though destruction impended over them. The application of the passage to the conduct of many under the means of grace is natural and easy. The state of mind condemned is–
1. Expressive of careless indifference.
2. It is expressive of false security.
The persons warned in the text were regarding themselves as secure on false and uncertain grounds. So many are now found perverting the doctrines of the Gospel, and promising to themselves security in such per version. Or they pretend that they arc waiting for Gods time, when He will afford them necessary help. They make their moral inability, or in other words, their unwillingness to receive Christ and His Gospel an excuse for their continued disobedience, and attribute their rebellion and unbelief to the want of Gods help, rather than to the state of their own hearts, to the love of sin, and to their unwillingness to yield submission to the Saviours authority. Others make their moral conduct a ground of hope. Their honesty, their kindness to their neighbours, and the propriety of their general deportment are substituted for faith in Christ, and a cordial reception of His Gospel.
3. It is expressive of a state of sloth. Many professors are thus at ease. Once they were anxious, inquiring, full of apparent desire after the favour of God and the blessings of salvation, and of activity in the Saviours cause. But their zeal, activity, and ardour have passed away. They are slumbering and sleeping.
II. Mark the place where this state of mind is exercised. If slothfulness and indifference are unseemly in other spheres, are they less so in Zion, in the house, in the Church of God? If they are injurious to our temporal concerns . . . are they less so to our spiritual and eternal interests? Restricting the term in Zion to the place where God is worshipped, to His sanctuary, we remark–
1. That in Zion the law of God is declared. Its purity, its justice, its spiritual character and extensive requirements are set forth. In Zion we are shown the harmony of the law with the Gospel, while it becomes the means of preparing us to receive salvation.
2. In Zion the Gospel is proclaimed. Here the most constant theme is salvation through the Saviour s blood. Here Jesus is evidently set forth as crucified among us. Can you be at ease in Zion, cold and insensible, with the Cross in view, and indifferent to the Saviours voice addressing us therefrom?
3. Zion is the special residence of Christ. Jesus is now represented as King in Zion, as the Ruler and Head of His Church.
III. The danger to which this state of mind exposes.
1. How opposed to all spiritual improvement.
2. How expressive of contempt for spiritual blessings.
3. How ruinous to our eternal interests. (Essex Remembrancer.)
Sinners in Zion described and doomed
I. Consider the persons here mentioned. They are described as being at ease in Zion. The temple was called Zion. The name was gradually extended to the worshippers, so that it came to embrace all who profess to know and worship God. To be in Zion means to be in a land where the true God is known and worshipped, where religious privileges, similar to those of the Jews, are enjoyed. Taking the word in a more limited sense, to be in Zion is to be among those who statedly meet for the purpose of religious worship. Or it may include only those who have made a public profession of religion. The ease here intended is ease not of body, but of mind; ease relating not to our temporal but to our religious or spiritual concerns. Persons are at ease when they feel neither sorrow nor alarm on account of their sins; when they are seldom troubled by the admonitions of conscience; when they arc not engaged in working out their salvation with fear and trembling, but feel quiet and secure. This unconcern respecting themselves is usually accompanied by at least equal unconcern respecting the salvation of others. Such persons are described as not grieved for the affliction of Joseph; that is, for the evils and calamities that afflict the Church. This body may be divided into several classes, corresponding with the various causes to which their ease is ascribed.
1. Those who deny that any punishment will be inflicted on sinners. This includes infidels of every description; those who deny Gods government of the world; those who contemn God; and the scoffers. In this class must also be placed those who believe that all men will be saved. False prophets who cry peace, peace, when there is no peace.
2. Those who allow that sinners will be punished, but who deny, or do not appear to believe, that they are sinners. They find, or fancy that they find none better than themselves, few so good, and very many worse. Hence they conclude that they arc in no danger, that they have nothing to fear, and of course feel easy and secure. Such persons are without the law. They know nothing of its spirituality, strictness, and extent. They have never tried themselves by this rule. They are like a man buried in sleep, totally unconscious of their true character and situation, insensible of their sins, and of the danger to which their sins expose them.
3. Those who acknowledge that they are sinners, and that sinners will be punished; and yet they are at ease, for they contrive in various ways to persuade themselves that though other sinners will be punished, they shall themselves escape. Such persons, though habitually, are not always at ease. They have times of anxiety and alarm. It is their way by promises and resolutions to put off the evil day. They trust to a future convenient season. There is perhaps no class of sinners whose situation is more dangerous. This class also includes all who entertain a false and groundless persuasion that they have already become pious, obtained the pardon of their sins, and secured the favour of God. The reasons why persons feel such a persuasion are various.
II. The woe which is denounced against them in our text. The doom is expressed in general terms; in terms which may include curses and threatenings of every kind. Why are such characters thought worthy of a punishment so severe?
1. Because the ease which they feel proves that they belong to the number of the wicked. All who are habitually at ease in Zion know nothing of true religion. They are either careless sinners or self-deluded hypocrites.
2. They are not only sinners, but sinners of no common stamp, sinners whose guilt and sinfulness are peculiarly aggravated, and whose punishment will therefore be peculiarly severe. He who is at ease in Zion must be deaf to Gods voice, blind to Gods glories, insensible to every spiritual object; he sins against light and against love.
3. There is little reason to hope that they will ever repent. On what grounds can we hope for the salvation of those who are at ease? If they cannot be roused, if their false peace cannot be disturbed, they must inevitably perish; and to rouse them, humanly speaking, seems impossible. (E. Payson, D. D.)
The Church warned against supineness
While Amos unveils the transgressions of Israel, he does not spare the sins of Judah.
I. The persons here referred to. Those who are in Zion. The class of persons spoken of are the members of the visible Church, the professing people of God. Regard the professing Church–
1. As solemnly devoted to holiness and God.
(1) They are so by the immediate and express purpose of God Himself. He has created them anew in Christ Jesus. And He has done this for His own glory.
(2) They are so by the intention of their Divine Redeemer. He has done and suffered much for them. To redeem and raise up a holy Church is the object which is the solace of all the Redeemers labours, the mead of all His sufferings.
(3) They are devoted to holiness in baptism. The ordinance of baptism is the expressive type and sign of the sprinkling of the efficacious blood.
(4) They are thus devoted by voluntary covenant. Every Christian is such by his free choice.
2. As the appointed instrument in the evangelisation of the world. The Church of Christ is designed to be a benevolent institution. They are appointed witnesses for God to an unbelieving and perishing world.
(1) They are eminently fitted for this. They are themselves awakened and alive to the dangerous condition of every unconverted man. They know too the way of deliverance. And
(2) they have the command.
3. As a mediator with God on behalf of a perishing world.
(1) The renovation of the moral world depends upon the agency and operation of the Holy Ghost. The Word of God itself con tains no inherent or independent efficacy to convert mankind.
(2) The bestow meat of the Spirit is frequently and distinctly promised, but always in answer to prayer.
(3) Hence prayer is made the Christians primary duty. Jesus both by precept and by example urged it upon His followers.
II. The sin charged upon them. They are at ease. Consider–
1. Their spiritual condition. They are devoted to holiness; are they holy? The spiritual state of Christians generally is not such as to warrant their being at ease. Every scriptural view of their character and duty involves the obligation of strenuous exertion.
2. The state of the world. The Gospel has now been preached over eighteen hundred years, and what is the result? Look at your own family and domestic circle. Look at the inhabitants of your town and neighbourhood. To how small a proportion of our race have even the tidings of the Gospel yet been conveyed.
3. Another reason for uneasiness is that the success of the Word must always arise from the agency of the Holy Spirit.
III. The judgment denounced. Under stand–
1. In the sense of a simple prophecy, as the prediction of a calamity likely and even certain to ensue.
2. It is the language of righteous retribution. That there is an equitable correspondence between sin and its consequences is testified by all experience.
3. It is the language of Divine denunciation. God is a just God, and a terrible. The sceptre of His mercy may become the rod of His wrath. If by our supineness, our unfaithfulness, our inconsistency, our sin, we have caused to be shed the blood of souls, shall we escape, think you, the just judgment of God? (John G. Avery.)
At ease in Zion
The text practically applies to all nominal and professing Christians.
I. What is meant by those who are at ease in Zion? Lazy Christians. Christianity is more than profession, it is even something more than faith. It is carrying into practice the truths we profess. The soul that is at ease sits down very contentedly on his mere profession, and mistakes earth for heaven.
II. What is the cause of being at ease in Zion?
1. There is ignorance of the nature of Christian life. Christianity is not ease, but labour. It is a daily struggle against unbelief and sin. The man at ease does his religion by deputy, or trusts entirely to the mercy of God, or relies on outward service and participation in form and ceremonies.
2. There is a dislike of the duties to be undertaken. Self-denial is not congenial to the natural heart. Labour is hateful, conflict repulsive, and therefore men sit down and dream away their opportunities.
3. Self-confidence. Disaster seems so unlikely. We fancy we are so secure that nothing can move us. Our prosperity, our privileges, our apparent tranquillity deceive the heart and lure the soul to sleep.
III. The result of being at ease in Zion.
1. It generates sin.
2. It merits the displeasure of God.
3. It will end in entire destruction. (G. Wood, M. A.)
The policy of drift easy
Unless you make for the great things of your life, for I am not talking about the little things of life, many of which are best deter mined by circumstances–unless you make for the great things of life, the deliberate choice of the better part, you have in effect made the disastrous choice of the worst. The policy of drift always ends in ruin for a nation, for an army, for an individual. And it is plain enough that it is so, because, to the superficial observer, it is a great deal easier, and a great deal pleasanter, to take the low levels than to climb; and there are far more, and very clamant voices calling to us from out of worldly things to eat, and drink, and take our ease and be merry, and let ideals alone, than there are summoning us to the loftier, harder, more heroic, Christlike course of life. It is hard work taking a great junk up the Yang tse-Kiang. Hundreds of trackers have to strain every nerve and muscle as they go stumbling over the rocks on the bank, with great cables on their shoulders, and slow progress is made. It would take a week to get as far up as they can travel coming downwards in a day, without any trouble. Ay, and what is that that the idle crew begin to hear, as they lie half somnolent on the deck, enjoy ing the repose? A groaning sound, the roar of the rapids. To go down stream is easy, but there is a Niagara at the far end. You choose the worse when you do not deliberately choose the better. That is true all round. If you do not coerce, by a deliberate act, your will, or your inclination, the baser sort of them will get the upper hand of you. Take away the police, and the mob will loot and riot. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The inner life of a nation determines its destiny
It is not the increase of the outer man and his surroundings and possessions, but the renewal of the inner life and spirit which makes the net profit and abiding wealth. It is the inner life of a nation that determines all things, not the visible, but the more or less invisible, not what can be arrayed in figures and statistics, but what no figures can express–not the show and splendour of prosperous times, the glare of wealth, the blaze of knowledge, the surfeit of luxuries, the pomp of pride, the flaunting of power, but the hidden qualities of patience, faith, self-mastery, courage, righteousness, and purity which lie underneath all this external display. It is the soul of a nation that makes a nation, not its body. If the soul is not sound, the body soon becomes a mass of weakness and decay. France is wealthier than it ever was before. It has more splendid cities, larger armies, greater intellectual resources and material resources than ever before; the outward man was never so fair and strong as now. What of all that if the heart has ceased to beat with honest purpose, if its ideals are lost, if the inner life has become diseased, defiled, corrupt? The outward show slowly rots away, when the inspiring force within degenerates and disappears. It is the continued renewal of the inner man that saves all. (J. G. Greenhough, M. A.)
Degrading moral transitions
The phases of transition in the moral temper of the falling Venetians, during their fall, were from pride to infidelity, and from infidelity to the unscrupulous pursuit of pleasure. During the last years of the existence of the State, the minds both of the nobility and the people seem to have been set simply upon the attainment of the means of self-indulgence. There was not strength enough in them to be proud, nor forethought enough to be ambitious. One by one the possessions of the State were abandoned to its enemies; one by one the channels of its trade were forsaken by its own languor, or occupied and closed against it by its more energetic rivals; and the time, the resources, and the thoughts of the nation were exclusively occupied in the invention of such fantastic and costly pleasures as might best amuse their apathy, lull their remorse, or disguise their ruin. It is as needless, as it is painful, to trace the steps of her final ruin. That ancient curse was upon her, the curse of the cities of the plain, Pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness. By the inner burning of her own passions, as fatal as the fiery rain of Gomorrah, she was consumed from her place among the nations; and her ashes are choking the channels of the dead salt sea. (John Ruskin.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER VI
The prophet reproves his people for indulging themselves in
luxurious ease, and forming alliances with their powerful
idolatrous neighbours, 1.
He asks if their lands or their lot be better than their
own, 2,
that they should choose to worship the gods of the heathen,
and forsake Jehovah. Then follows an amplification of the sin
which the prophet reproves, 3-6;
to which he annexes very awful threatenings, confirmed by the
oath of Jehovah, 7, 8.
He next particularly specifies the punishment of their sins by
pestilence, 9-11;
by famine, or a drought that should harden the earth so that it
could not be tilled, 12;
and by the sword of the Assyrians, 14.
NOTES ON CHAP. VI
Verse 1. Wo to them that are at ease in Zion] For hashshaanannim, “who dwell at ease,” it has been proposed to read hashshaanannim, “who confidently lean,” the two words differing only in one letter, an ain for an aleph. They leaned confidently on Zion; supposing that, notwithstanding their iniquities they should be saved for Zion’s sake. Thus the former clause will agree better with the latter, “leaning upon Zion,” and “trusting in the mountain of Samaria.” Those that are at ease may mean those who have no concern about the threatened judgments, and who have no deep concern for the salvation of their own souls. Houbigant would read, “Wo to them who despise Zion, and trust in Samaria.” So the Septuagint, reading soneim, hating, instead of shaanannim, being at rest, tranquil. Calmet first proposed this conjecture; Houbigant follows him.
Are named chief] Newcome renders, “That are named after the chief of the nations;” and observes, that the Hebrew word nekubey is an allusion to marking a name or character by punctures. See on Isa 44:5. They call themselves not after their ancestors, but after the chief of the idolatrous nations with whom they intermarry contrary to the law.
Perhaps the words here rather refer to the mountains and their temples, than to the people. The mountain of Zion, and the mountain of Samaria, were considered the chief or most celebrated among the nations, as the two kingdoms to which they belonged were the most distinguished on the earth.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Woe! this compriseth many and great sorrows, all that God intends against these sinners.
To them that are at ease; who live in abundance, eat, drink, sleep, and are secure, that think to-morrow shall be as this day, and neither fear nor believe the threatened judgments of God. Zion, by a synecdoche put for the kingdom of the two tribes, and principally the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Zion; the ten tribes were hitherto threatened, now the prophet warns the two tribes.
And trust in the mountain of Samaria; woe to them also who rely upon the strength, wealth, and policy of the king, princes, cities, and kingdom of Samaria or Israel!
Which, which two cities, Zion and Samaria, are named chief of the nations; accounted chief cities among the known cities of that part of the world. Others refer this passage to the nobles, wise men, and great men of each place, men that were heads among their own people.
To whom the house of Israel came; to which places all Israel had recourse; so the two tribes went up to Zion, the ten tribes went to Samaria: or, to whom, i.e. to which nobles and rulers, the people of each kingdom did go on all occasions for judgment, counsel, or refuge.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. named chief of the nationsthatis, you nobles, so eminent in influence, that your names arecelebrated among the chief nations [LUDOVICUSDE DIEU].Hebrew, “Men designated by name among the first-fruits ofthe nations,” that is, men of note in Israel, the people chosenby God as first of the nations (Ex19:5; compare Nu 24:20)[PISCATOR].
to whom . . . Israelcamethat is, the princes to whom the Israelites used to repairfor the decision of controversies, recognizing their authority[MAURER]. I prefer torefer “which” to the antecedent “Zion” and”Samaria”; these were esteemed “chief”strongholds among the heathen nations “to whom . . . Israelcame” when it entered Canaan; Am6:2 accords with this.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Woe to them [that are] at ease in Zion,…. Or “secure” c there; which was a strong hold, the city of David, the seat of the kings of Judah; where their court was kept, and the princes and chief men resided and thought themselves safe, the place being well fortified with walls, towers, and bulwarks: or “at ease”; that is, in easy, prosperous, comfortable circumstances of life; as Job was before his troubles, and others he mentions, Job 16:12; though to be in such a state is not criminal, but a blessing of Providential goodness, for which men should be thankful, and make use of it aright: but “woe to the rich in Zion” d, as the Vulgate Latin Version renders it, when they have nothing else but temporal riches; this is all their portion, and the whole of their consolation, Lu 6:24; when they trust in these uncertain riches, and consume them on their lusts, as described in the following verses; are unconcerned at the troubles of others, and give them no relief, but despise them, Job 12:5; and even are thoughtless about their own future state, and put away the evil day far from them, Lu 12:19; and such are they who like Moab are at ease from their youth as to their spiritual state, Jer 48:11; never had any true sight of sin, or sense of danger; never complain of a body of sin, or are concerned about sins of omission or commission; nor troubled with the temptations of Satan, and have no fears and doubts about their happiness; and such there be who yet are in Zion, or in a church state, which Zion often signifies; and being there, trust in it, and in the privileges of it, and so are secure, and at ease; such are the foolish virgins and hypocrites, who place their confidence in a profession of religion, in being church members, and in their submission to external ordinances, and so cry Peace, peace, to themselves, when, destruction is at hand: and are moreover at ease, and wholly unconcerned about the affairs of Zion, both temporal and spiritual, and especially the latter; they do not trouble themselves about the doctrines they hear, whether truth or error; and about the success of them, whether they are made useful for conversion and edification; and about the continuance of a Gospel ministry, and a succession in it; and about the discipline of the church of God, and the walk of professors; or about what trials and afflictions are like to come upon the churches; or about the judgments of God in the earth; and therefore such carnal secure persons are either called upon to awake out of their sleep, and come off of their beds of ease, and shake off their vain confidence and carnal security; for the word may be rendered “ho” e, as a note of calling, as in Isa 55:1; or a threatening of calamity is denounced upon them, that the day of the Lord should come upon them as a thief in the night, or as a snare upon them that dwell on earth, and they be surprised with the midnight cry, and with the terrors of devouring flames, as the foolish virgins and hypocrite’s in Zion will, Mt 25:6. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it, “who despise Zion”, or “neglect” her; and the word is sometimes used of insolent persons, and to express their insolence; see Isa 37:29; and so may be understood, not of the Jews in Jerusalem, but of the ten tribes, as the following clause; who despised Zion, the city of solemnities, the temple; and, the worship of God there, and set up the calves at Dan and Bethel, and worshipped them; and therefore a woe is denounced upon them;
and trust in the mountain of Samaria; in the city of Samaria, built on a mountain, a strong fortified city, where they thought themselves safe; the royal city of the kings of Israel, the head of Ephraim, and the metropolis of the ten tribes, who here are intended: though the words may be rendered, and the sense given a little different from this, as woe to the “confident” ones that ate in Samaria f; not that put their trust in Samaria, but dwell there; but, however, are confident in their own strength, wealth, and might. The Targum is,
“that trust in the fortress of Samaria;”
see 1Ki 16:24;
[which are] named the chief of the nations; the persons at ease in Zion, and trusted in Samaria, were the principal men of both nations, Judah and Israel; or these cities of Zion and Samaria were the chief of the said nations: Zion, Which was near Jerusalem, and includes it, was the metropolis of Judea; as Samaria was the head city of Ephraim, or the ten tribes. The Targum is, that
“put the name of their children, as the name of the children of the nations;”
as the Jews did in later times, giving their children the names of Alexander, Antipater, c.
to whom the house of Israel came meaning not to the seven nations, of which the two named cities were chief, into which Israel entered, and took possession of, and dwelt in; for Samaria never belonged to them, but was built by Omri king of Israel, long after the entrance of the Israelites into the land of Canaan, 1Ki 16:24; but the cities of Zion and, Samaria, into which the whole house of Israel came, or had recourse unto, at certain times: the ten tribes came to Samaria, where their kings resided, the court was kept, and the seats of judgment were; and the two tribes came to Zion, to Jerusalem, to the temple there, to worship the Lord.
c “secure sedentibus”, Munster; “securos”, Mercerus, Castalio, Burkius. d “Opulentis”, Tigurine version. e “heus”, Piscator, Tarnovius, Burkius. f “confidentibus qui habitant in monte Samariae”, Liveleus; “securis qui habitant in monte”, Samariae, Drusius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The prophet utters the second woe over the careless heads of the nation, who were content with the existing state of things, who believed in no divine judgment, and who revelled in their riches (Amo 6:1-6). To these he announces destruction and the general overthrow of the kingdom (Amo 6:7-11), because they act perversely, and trust in their own power (Amo 6:12-14). Amo 6:1. “Woe to the secure upon Zion, and to the careless upon the mountain of Samaria, to the chief men of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel comes! Amo 6:2. Go over to Calneh, and see; and proceed thence to Hamath, the great one: and go down to Gath of the Philistines: are they indeed better than these kingdoms? or is their territory greater than your territory? Amo 6:3. Ye who keep the day of calamity far off, and bring the seat of violence near.” This woe applies to the great men in Zion and Samaria, that is to say, to the chiefs of the whole of the covenant nation, because they were all sunk in the same godless security; though special allusion is made to the corrupt leaders of the kingdom of the ten tribes, whose debauchery is still further depicted in what follows. These great men are designated in the words , as the heads of the chosen people, who are known by name. As is taken from Num 24:20, so is taken from Num 1:17, where the heads of the tribes who were chosen as princes of the congregation to preside over the numbering of the people are described as men , who were defined with names, i.e., distinguished by names, that is to say, well-known men; and it is used here in the same sense. Observe, however, with reference to , that in Num 24:20 we have not , but simply . Amalek is so called there, as being the first heathen nation which rose up in hostility to Israel. On the other hand, is the firstling of the nations, i.e., the first or most exalted of all nations. Israel is so called, because Jehovah had chosen it out of all the nations of the earth to be the people of His possession (Exo 19:5; cf. 2Sa 7:23). In order to define with still greater precision the position of these princes in the congregation, Amos adds, “to whom the house of Israel cometh,” namely, to have its affairs regulated by them as its rulers. These epithets were intended to remind the princes of the people of both kingdoms, “that they were the descendants of those tribe-princes who had once been honoured to conduct the affairs of the chosen family, along with Moses and Aaron, and whose light shone forth from that better age as brilliant examples of what a truly theocratical character was” (Hengstenberg, Dissertations, i. p. 148). To give still greater prominence to the exalted calling of these princes, Amos shows in Amo 6:2 that Israel can justly be called the firstling of the nations, since it is not inferior either in prosperity or greatness to any of the powerful and prosperous heathen states. Amos names three great and flourishing capitals, because he is speaking to the great men of the capitals of the two kingdoms of Israel, and the condition of the whole kingdom is reflected in the circumstances of the capital. Calneh (= Calno, Isa 10:9) is the later Ctesiphon in the land of Shinar, or Babylonia, situated upon the Tigris opposite to Seleucia (see at Gen 10:10); hence the expression , because men were obliged to cross over the river (Euphrates) in order to get there. Hamath: the capital of the Syrian kingdom of that name, situated upon the Orontes (see at Gen 10:18 and Num 34:8). There was not another Hamath, as Hitzig supposes. The circumstance that Amos mentions Calneh first, whereas it was much farther to the east, so that Hamath was nearer to Palestine than Calneh was, may be explained very simply, from the fact that the enumeration commences with the most distant place and passes from the north-east to the south-west, which was in the immediate neighbourhood of Israel. Gath: one of the five capitals of Philistia, and in David’s time the capital of all Philistia (see at Jos 13:3; 2Sa 8:1). The view still defended by Baur – namely, that Amos mentions here three cities that had either lost their former grandeur, or had fallen altogether, for the purpose of showing the self-secure princes of Israel that the same fate awaited Zion and Samaria – is groundless and erroneous; for although Calneh is spoken of in Isa 10:9 as a city that had been conquered by the Assyrians, it cannot be proved that this was the case as early as the time of Amos, but is a simple inference drawn from a false interpretation of the verse before us. Nor did Jeroboam II conquer the city of Hamath on the Orontes, and incorporate its territory with his own kingdom (see at 2Ki 14:25). And although the Philistian city Gath was conquered by Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:60, we cannot infer from 2Ch 26:6, or from the fact of Gath not being mentioned in Amo 1:6-8, that this occurred before the time of Amos (see at Amo 1:8). On the other hand, the fact that it is placed by the side of Hamath in the passage before us, is rather a proof that the conquest did not take place till afterwards.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Danger of False Security. | B. C. 790. |
1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! 2 Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border? 3 Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; 4 That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; 5 That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David; 6 That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. 7 Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.
The first words of the chapter are the contents of these verses; but they sound very strangely, and contrary to the sentiments of a vain world: Woe to those that are at ease! We are ready to say, Happy are those that are at ease, that neither feel any trouble nor fear any, that lie soft and warm, and lay nothing to heart; and wise we think are those that do so, that bathe themselves in the delights of sense and care not how the world goes. Those are looked upon as doing well for themselves that do well for their bodies and make much of them; but against them this woe is denounced, and we are here told what their ease is, and what the woe is.
I. Here is a description of their pride, security, and sensuality, for which God would reckon with them.
1. They were vainly conceited of their own dignities, and thought those would secure them from the judgments threatened and be their defence against the wrath both of God and man. (1.) Those that dwelt in Zion thought that was honour and protection enough for them, and they might there be quiet from all fear of evil, because it was a strong city, well fortified both by nature and art (we read of Zion’s strong-holds and her bulwarks), and because it was a royal city, where were set the thrones of the house of David (it was the head-city of Judah, and therefore truly great), and especially because it was the holy city, where the temple was, and the testimony of Israel; those that dwelt there doubted not but that God’s sanctuary would be a sanctuary to them and would shelter them from his judgments. The temple of the Lord are these, Jer. vii. 4. They are haughty because of the holy mountain, Zeph. iii. 11. Note, Many are puffed up with pride, and rocked asleep in carnal security, by their church-privileges, and the place they have in Zion. (2.) Those that dwelt in the mountain of Samaria, though it was not a holy hill, like that of Zion, yet they trusted in it, because it was the metropolis of a potent kingdom, and perhaps, in imitation of Jerusalem, was the head-quarters of its religion; and by lapse of time the hill of Shemer became with them in as good repute as the hill of Zion ever was. They hoped for salvation from these hills and mountains. (3.) Both these two kingdoms valued themselves upon their relation to Israel, that prince with God, which they looked upon as masking them the chief of the nations, more ancient and honourable than any of them; the first-fruits of the nations (so the word is), dedicated to God and sanctifying the whole harvest. The house of Israel came to them, that is, was divided into those kingdoms, of which Zion and Samaria were the mother cities. Those that were at ease were the princes and rulers, the great men, that were chief of the nations, chief of those two kingdoms, and to whom, having their residence in Zion and Samaria, the whole house of Israel applied for judgment. Note, It is hard to be great and not to be proud. Great nations and great men are apt to overvalue themselves, and to overlook their neighbours, because they think they a little overtop them. But, for a check to their pride and security, the prophet bids them take notice of those cities that were within the compass of their knowledge, that had been as illustrious in their time as ever Zion or Samaria was, and yet were destroyed, v. 2. “Go to Calneh (which was an ancient city built by Nimrod, Gen. x. 10), and see what has become of that, it is now in ruins; so is Hamath the great, one of the chief cities of Syria. Sennacherib boasts of destroying the gods of Hamath. Gath was likewise made desolate by Hazael, and not long ago, 2 Kings xii. 17. Now were they better than these kingdoms of Judah and Israel? Yes, they were, and their border greater than your border, so that they had more reason than you to be confident of their own safety; yet you see what has become of them, and dare you be secure? Art thou better than populous No?” Nah. iii. 8. Note, The examples of others’ ruin forbid us to be secure.
2. They persisted in their wicked courses upon a presumption that they should never be called to an account for them (v. 3): “You put far away the evil day, the day of reckoning, as a thing that shall never come, or you look upon it as at such a distance that it makes no impression at all upon you; you put it far away, and think you can still put it yet further, and adjourn it de die in diem–from day to day, and therefore you cause the seat of violence to draw near; you venture upon all acts of injustice and oppression, and have fellowship with the throne of iniquity, which frames mischief by a law, Ps. xciv. 20. You cause that to come near, as if that would be your protection from these judgments which really ripens you for them.” Note, Therefore men take sin to be near them, because they take judgment to be far off from them; but those deceive themselves who thus mock God.
3. They indulged themselves in all manner of sensual pleasures and delights, v. 4-6. These Israelites were perfect epicures and slaves to their appetites. Their dignities (in consideration of which they ought to have been examples of self-denial and mortification), they thought, would justify them in their sensuality; the gains of their oppression and violence, they thought, would bear the charge of it; and they put the evil day at a distance, that they might give them no disturbance in it. That which they are here charged with is not in itself sinful (these things might be soberly and moderately used), but they placed their happiness in the gratification of their carnal appetites; and though they were men in office, that had business to mind, they gave themselves up to their pleasures, spent their time in them, and threw away their thoughts, and cares, and estates upon them. They were in these enjoyments as in their element. Their hearts were upon them; they exceeded all bounds in them, and this at a time when God in his providence was calling them to weeping and mourning,Isa 22:12; Isa 22:13. When they were under guilt and wrath, and the judgments of God were ready to break in upon them, they called for wine and strong drink, presuming that to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant (Isa. lvi. 12), thus walking contrary to God and setting his justice at defiance. (1.) They were extravagant in their furniture. Nothing would serve them but beds of ivory to sleep upon, or to sit on at their meat, when sackcloth and ashes would have become them better. (2.) They were lazy, and humoured themselves in the love of ease. They did not only lie down, but stretched themselves upon their couches, when they should have stirred up themselves to their business; they were willingly slothful, and took a pride in doing nothing; they abound in superfluities (so the margin reads it), when many of their poor brethren wanted necessaries. (3.) They were nice and curious in their diet, must have every thing of the best and abundance of it: They ate the lambs out of the flock (lambs by wholesale) and the calves out of the midst of the stall, the fattest they could lay their hand on; and these perhaps not out of their own flock and their own stall, but taken by oppression from the poor. (4.) They were merry and jovial, and diverted themselves at their feasts with music and singing: They chant to the sound of the viol, sing and play in concert, and they invent new-fashioned instruments of music, striving herein, more than in any thing else, to excel their ancestors; they set their wits on work to contrive how to please their fancy. Some men never show their ingenuity but in their luxury; on that they bestow all their faculty of invention and contrivance. They invent instruments of music, like David, entertain themselves with that which formerly used to be the entertainment of kings only. Or it intimates their profaneness in their mirth; they mimicked the temple-music, and made a jest of that, because, it may be, it was old-fashioned, and they took a pride in bantering it as the Babylonians did when they urged the captives to sing to them the songs of Zion; such was Belshazzar’s profaneness when he drank wine in temple-bowls, and such is theirs that sing vain and loose songs in psalm-tunes, on purpose to ridicule a divine institution. (5.) They drank to excess, and never thought they could pour down enough: They drank wink in bowls, not in glasses, or cups (as Jer. xxxv. 5); they hate to be stinted, and must have large draughts, and therefore make use of vessels that they can steal a draught out of. (6.) They affected the strongest perfumes: They anoint themselves with the chief ointments, to please the smell, and to make them more in love with their own bodies, and to guard against those presages of putrefaction which they carry about with them while they live. No ordinary ointments would serve their turn; they must have the chief, such as were far-fetched and dear-bought, when cheaper would have served as well.
4. They had no concern at all for the interests of the church of God, and of the nation, that were sinking and going to decay: They are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph; the church of God, including both the kingdoms of Judah and Israel (which are called Joseph, Ps. lxxx. 1), was in distress, invaded, insulted, and broken in upon. As to their own kingdom which they were entrusted with the government of, the affairs of which they were directors of, the peace of which they were the conservators of, great breaches were made upon it, upon its peace and welfare; and they were so besotted that they were not aware of them, so indulgent of their pleasures that they never laid them to heart, and had such an aversion to the thing called business that they were in no care or concern to get them repaired. It is all one to them whether the nation sink or swim, so that they can but lie at ease and live in pleasure. Particular persons that belonged to Joseph were in affliction, and they took no cognizance of their case of the wrongs and hardships they sustained and the troubles they were in, nor took any care to relieve them, and right them, contrary to the temper of holy Job, who, when he was in prosperity, wept with him that was in misery and his soul was grieved for the poor, Job xxx. 25. Some think that, in calling the afflicted church Joseph, there is an allusion to the story of Pharaoh’s butler, who, when he preferred to give the cup again into his master’s hand, remembered not Joseph, but forgot him,Gen 40:21; Gen 40:23. Thus they drank wine in bowls, but were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Note, Those are commonly careless of the troubles of others who are set upon their own pleasures; and it is a great offence to God when his church is in affliction and we are not grieved for it, nor lay it to heart.
II. Here is the doom passed upon them (v. 7): Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and shall fall into all the miseries that attend captives; and the banquet of those that stretched themselves upon their couches shall be removed. Their plenty shall be taken from them, and they from it, because they made it the food and fuel of their lusts. 1. Those who lived in luxury shall lose even their liberty; and by being brought into servitude shall be justly punished for the abuse of their dignity and dominion. 2. Those who trusted in the delights and pleasures of their own land shall be carried away into a strange land, and so made ashamed of their pride and confidence; they shall go captive. 3. Those who placed their happiness in the pleasures of sense, and set their hearts upon them, shall be deprived of those pleasures; their banquet shall be removed, and they shall know what it is to fare hard. 4. Those who stretched themselves shall be made to contract themselves, and to come into a less compass. 5. Those who put the evil day far from them shall find it nearer to them than it is to others; those shall go captive with the first who flattered themselves with hopes that if trouble did come they should be the last who should be seized by it. Those are ripening apace for trouble themselves who lay not to heart the trouble of others and of the church of God. Those who give themselves to mirth, when God calls them to mourning, will find it a sin that shall not go unpunished, Isa. xxii. 14.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
AMOS – CHAPTER 6
BOTH JUDAH AND ISRAEL DENOUNCED
Verses 1-6:
For Lack Of Security—While Frivolity Covers The Land, v. 1-6
Verse 1 announces woe to those at ease in Zion, like fattened hogs, waiting for slaughter, Luk 6:24. These trusted in the mountains of Samaria in vain. Though they resisted Assyria for three years, from that fortress they were ingloriously conquered, 2Ki 17:5-6. Though once these men of Israel were held in esteem by other nations, that esteem had vanished like a vapor, because of their sins, as they had become idolatrous, and adulterous degenerates, Num 1:17; 1Ch 12:31; Psa 2:12.
Verse 2 calls upon Israel to look in three directions, east, north, and southwest, and upon three once mighty heathen cities, all of which have fallen under the Assyrians. They were Calneh, Hamath, and Gath, Isa 10:9; 2Ki 18:34. Their cities and borders had been taken and Israel had become more heathenish than these heathen gentile cities. They are no more worthy of mercy and as sure for judgment as these, Nah 3:8.
Verse 3 continues pronouncement of woe upon those who put “far away”, or assign to the distant future, the matters of captivity-judgment, declared by the prophet Amos, and others, to be at hand, or very near. The sinner’s notion, that judgment for. his sins is far away, has always been an incentive for their reckless and violent living, Eze 12:21-28; Psa 94:20; Ecc 8:12; Ecc 8:12; Mat 24:48.
Verse 4 further denounces the behavior of those leaders in Israel who “lived it up,” sleeping on ivory beds, pouring themselves out (carefree), unnerved and relaxed, on luxurious couches, Amo 3:15. They feasted on the choicest of lambs of the flocks, and stall-fed calves from the herds, the most delicious, in self-indulgent worldliness, loving it more than God, 1Jn 2:15-16.
Verses 5 describes their festive, sensual behavior as chanting to the sound or music of the viol, in which the rhythm was everything and the sense nothing. They “invent to themselves,” instruments of music, like David. While David made them not for “self-gratification,” but for praising the Lord, 1Ch 23:5; Neh 12:36. David used these instruments, adapted to temple worship, to praise the Lord therewith, but these degenerate Israelites lowered their use to their sensual satisfaction.
Verse 6 denounced them further for using large bowls, used for sprinkling blood of sacrifices, from which to drink wine. They seem to have stolen them from the idolatrous altars. They anoint themselves with luxurious ointments, the most costly, not for reasons of health or cleanliness, but for carnal pride. They have no pity or care for the afflictions of Israel’s poor, Isa 60:2; Eze 34:4; Gen 49:23.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
The Prophet now directs his discourse not only to the Israelites, to whom he was especially given as an instructor and teacher, but includes the Jews also: and yet he addresses not all indiscriminately, but only the chief men, who were intent on their pleasures, as though they were exempt from the common miseries: for he does not, as many suppose, reprove here luxury and pride only; but we must remember a fact connected with their case, — that they were not awakened by God’s judgments; when God severely punished the sins of the people, the chief men remained ever heedlessly in their own dregs. This security is now condemned by our Prophet.
And this is a very common evil, as we may see, in the present day. For when the Lord afflicts a country with war or with famine, the rich make great gain of such evils. They abuse the scourges of God; for we see merchants getting rich in the midst of wars, inasmuch as they scrape together a booty from every quarter. For they who carry on war are forced to borrow money, and also the peasants and mechanics, that they may pay taxes; and then, that they may live, they are obliged to make unjust conditions: thus the rich increase in wealth. They also who are in authority, and in favor at the court of princes, make more gain in wars, in famine, and in other calamities, than during times of peace and prosperity: for when peace nourishes, the state of things is then more equable; but when the poor are burdened, the rest grow fat. And this is the evil now noticed by the Prophet.
Hence he pronounces here a curse on the secure and those at ease; not that it is an evil thing, or in itself displeasing to God, when any one quietly enjoys his leisure; but, not to be moved, when the Lord openly shows himself to be displeased and angry, when his scourges are manifestly inflicted, but to indulge ourselves more in pleasures, — this is to provoke him, as it were, designedly. The secure, then, and the presumptuous the Prophet here condemns, for it became them to humble themselves when they saw that God was incensed against them. They were not indeed more just than the multitude; and when God treated the common people with such severity, ought not the chiefs to have looked to themselves, and have examined their own life? As they did not do this, but made themselves drunk with pleasures, and put far off every fear and thought that the scourges of God were nothing to them, — this was a contempt deservedly condemned by the Prophet. We see that God was in the same manner greatly displeased, as it is recorded in Isaiah: when he called them to mourning, they sang with the harp, and, according to their custom, feasted sumptuously and joyfully, (Isa 23:12) As then they thus persevered in their indulgences, the Lord became extremely angry; for it was, as though they avowedly despised him and scorned all his threatening.
We now observe the design of the Prophet, which interpreters have not sufficiently noticed. It behaves us indeed ever to keep in view these scourges of God, by which he began to visit the sins of the people. God can by no means endure, as I have said, such a contumacy as this, — that men should go on in the indulgence of their sins and never regard their judge and feel no guilt. Hence the Prophet says, Woe to you who are secure in Zion, who are confident, that is, who are without any fear, on the mount of Samaria (42) He names here the mount of Zion and the mount of Samaria; for these were the chief cities of the two kingdoms, as we all know. The whole country had been laid waste with various calamities; the citizens of Jerusalem and of Samaria were, at the same time, wealthy; and then trusting in their strongholds, they despised God and all his judgments. This then was the security, full of contumacy, which is condemned by the Prophet.
He then mentions their ingratitude: he says that these mountains had been celebrated from the beginning of the nations, and that the Israelites entered into them. God here upbraids both the Jews and Israelites with having come to a foreign possession: for they had got those cities, not by their own valour, but the Lord drove out before them the ancient inhabitants. Seeing then that they perceived not that a safe dwelling was given them there by the Lord, that they might purely worship him and submit to his government, their ingratitude was inexcusable. The Prophet then, after having inveighed against the gross and heedless security, with which the chiefs of both kingdoms were inebriated, now mentions their ingratitude: “Ye are not natives, but ye have come in, for God did go before you, for it was his will to give you this land as your possession: why then are you now so inflated with pride against him? For before your time these cities were certainly well known and celebrated; and yet this was of no avail to the natives themselves. Why then do ye not now fear the Lord’s judgment and repent, when he threatens you? Yea, when he shows his scourges to you?” We now perceive the Prophet’s meaning in this verse. It now follows —
(42)
“
Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, And to them that are secure in the mountain of Samaria.” —Dr. Henderson.
From not considering the main drift of what follows in this chapter, critics have proposed emendations in this verse. The careless and the secure, both at Jerusalem and Samaria, are evidently meant. Newcome renders the last line nearly the same with Henderson —
“
And that rest secure in the mountain of Samaria.”
So that the word “trust” in our version is not correct. The word used means often to be confident or secure, as well as to trust; but the law of parallelism requires it to be in the former sense here; as they were at ease in Zion, so they were confident or secure on the mount of Samaria. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE PRESENT WOE
Amo 6:1
THESE are the words of a Prophet to his own people, the people of God, to whom he had been sent. Doubtless it was difficult for him to speak them, and yet the proper filling of his office rendered escape from the utterance impossible. The Prophet is not his own monitor.
The pastor of a church dare not consult personal preference in his proclamations. His relationship to his people has in it the element of the generals relation to the army:he must keep up, at one and the same time, not only its morale, but also its essential discipline; it is that of the head physician to the hospital:he must counsel in the interest of health, and yet, at times, employ the knife to secure the same; it is that of the President of a School: he must impart needful instruction, and at the same time make exacting demands of his students; it is that of a father of a family:he must invite and cultivate their love, but at the same time insist upon regard for righteous domestic law.
To imagine that a pastor is merely a preacher is to miss the greater objectives of his office. The church has a morale that must be as surely kept up as that of any army, for Like a mighty army moves the Church of God.
It is like that of a hospital,the bringing of souls to a spiritual birth, and the care and comfort essential to the recovery of spiritual health, require both diagnosis and prescription.
The church is like a school,if its members be not educated along both theoretical and practical lines, it will fail to function for God.
It is like that of a household, for we are, by faith, members of one family, and as the home demands paternal administration, so the church must have pastoral oversight and instruction.
It is not difficult to see the direction in which a text like this looks. I am using it this morning in the interest of our spiritual morale; I am employing it with a view to quickened spiritual health; I have selected it because it gives opportunity for instruction; I am speaking to it because as a father is solicitous for his children to be alert when there are pressing duties waiting, so, as pastor, am I concerned for those who make up this family in the Faith.
My motive then in this text is not that of voicing personal pleasure, but that of accomplishing your spiritual profit. There are times when to be at ease is a sin; there are times when to sleep is a shame; and certainly this particular year of the Lord, 1932, is such a time, and this particular hour of Sunday morning, Dec. 11th., 11 A.M., is such an hour.
In a recent discourse from this same Book I promised to return to it again, and yet again, before counting our studies in Amos finished.
Tonight, therefore, I shall speak to you once more from Amos, and his sententious textPrepare to Meet Thy God.
For the consideration of this hour, then, let me say three things: God Pronounces a Woe against Indolence; that Same Woe Lies against Indifference, and also against Inaction.
WOE AGAINST INDOLENCE
Woe to them that are at ease in Zion.
Indolence ill-becomes Zionists. The age to which we belong, and the country of which we are citizens, is not a sleepy age nor an ease-loving country. I read a little poem a while ago that applies fairly well to the ways of the world:
Hurry the baby as fast as you can,Hurry him, worry him, make him a man.Off with his baby clothes, get him in pants,Feed him on brain foods and make him advance. Hustle him soon as he is able to walk,Into a grammar school; cram him with talk.Fill his poor head full of figures and facts,Keep on a jamming them in till it cracks.Once boys grew up at a rational rate.Now we develop a man while you wait.Bush him through college, compel him to grabOf every known subject a dip and a dab.Get him in business and after the cash,All by the time he can grow a mustache.Let him forget he was ever a boy.Make gold his god and its jingle his joy.Keep him a-hustling and clear out of breathUntil he wins nervous prostration and death.
It is a bit singular, therefore, that with such a world atmosphere around us, we should need to call men and women from spiritual slumber or soul-ease, and yet, such is the necessity!
It will be remembered that some months ago I gave you facts and figures on church membership to this effect:5% of the membership on church rolls cannot be found on the face of the earth; 10% more of them have not been heard from for years; 50% of them contribute nothing whatever in the form of either time or money to the church of which they are members; 90% of them seldom or never attend prayer meeting, and 95% of them never win a soul to Christ.
Such facts give pith and point to this textWoe to them that are at ease in Zion.
Spiritual indolence is altogether inexcusable. It reminds one of the parable of Jesus, a parable that to this good hour is finding daily illustrations among church-members.
But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.
He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.
And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.
Whether of them twain did the will of his father? (Mat 21:28-31).
This parable came to my thought this week as I went over the list of subscriptions to these great buildings. I found there names that represented three classes:
Those who said, Yes, I want these buildings, and I will give so much toward them, and who have paid up, or are now in the process of discharging that pledge.
Those who said, I will not pledge, but who afterward repented and paid.
Those who said, Yes, I will pledge, but whose pledges have been forgotten, and from the day when they made them, ten years ago, or repeated them five years since, have never had one single cent paid on them.
I go, sir: but they went not, and this company is not as small as one could wish, and the present economic pressure is not an adequate excuse for the conduct, for in the days when everybody had employment and salaries were high, they treated their promises with the same neglect as now.
Little wonder that we read it from the Word, Woe to them that are at ease in Zion.
The story is told that a young woman in England had a dream. She was in Heaven and an angel was showing her about. They came to a magnificent mansion and she asked, Whose is this? Your gardeners, was the reply. My gardeners! What could he want with such grandeur? He was very content with the cottage. Doubtless, said the angel, but he sent up this material and we used it; and this is the result.
Presently they stood again before a tiny and indifferent structure. And whose is this? she queried. Yours, was the answer. Strange! I live in a beautiful mansion below. Doubtless, answered the angel, but this is the best we could do with the little material that you provided.
Indolence is under the Divine ban. If there is one thing against which revelation speaks with no uncertain sound it is indolence, and it condemns it whether it be physical, mental, or spiritual. Solomon in the Book of the Proverbs says this,
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and he wise:
Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? (Amo 6:6-9).
I know at present two men who had no job the past summer who are occupying houses that require to be heated, and who let the entire summer, and beautiful autumn go by, without cutting one stick of wood, and now when the thermometer is below zero, are driven to a painful occupation which could have been cared for on beautiful days. It is as Solomon said,
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man (Pro 6:10-11).
Again the same wise man writes,
The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labor.
The New Testament teaching is after a kindred manner. Paul, writing to the Roman Christians says,
Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord (Rom 12:9-11).
And again to the Hebrews, the same Apostle says,
And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:
That ye be not slothful (Heb 6:11-12).
Dr. Way land Hoyt once said, Duty is a most weighty word. Spell it as it ought to be spelled and you can begin to see how heavy a word it is D-u-e-t-y. Duty is that which is due, that which I owe, that which I ought. Ought! How majestic! with mighty sanction what I ought is! God, then, is in duty. Treachery toward duty is terrible treachery.
WOE AGAINST INDIFFERENCE
I take it also that this text is Gods woe against indifference. There are men who are not indolent, but they are indifferent. They do not say as the slothful, I do not want to, but as the careless, I am not concerned.
All such, if they make any pretense of religion, are also of them that are at ease in Zion.
The souls value makes such indifference a shame. Such indifference forces the question, What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mar 8:36-37).
Some years ago I clipped from a newspaper an article dated at Vienna, and it said:
An extraordinary compact between a Hungarian tradesman and a Jew resulted in the admittance to the Rudolf hospital here of a man in whose case the doctors took great interest.
Some weeks ago the tradesman, named Weiss, was sitting with friends in a coffee house in Pressburg, when the conversation turned on religion and a future life. Weiss declared that there was no such thing as a future life or salvation, and added, I would sell my chance of salvation for 10s.
A Jew named Krauss accepted the offer on condition that the transaction was put in writing. A regular deed of sale conveying Weiss salvation in the next world to Krauss was thereupon drawn up, executed by Weiss, and duly witnessed. Krauss took the deed, and handed over the 10s. to Weiss.
A fortnight later Weiss lost his wife, who was killed in a carriage accident. He regarded this accident as a sign of the Divine anger with his impious bargain, and the idea so preyed on his mind that his reason gave way, and he was taken to the hospital.
Prof. Obermayer, who had charge of the case, on hearing this story from the mans relatives, decided to try the effects of counter-suggestion, and advised Weiss relatives to recover the deed of sale. Krauss, however, declared that since he had bought the other mans salvation, his own business had prospered exceedingly, and he refused to give it up under 40 pounds. Weiss was unable to pay this, but finally the chief rabbi of Pressburg, to whom the matter had been reported, induced Krauss to hand the deed back to the sick man on receipt of 20 pounds.
The effect was most marked. Weiss, reassured as to the fate of his soul, immediately improved. A new deed was drawn up in which Krauss solemnly reconveyed the other mans salvation to him. This was witnessed by two doctors and Weiss has now been discharged, cured.
And yet, the man who is indifferent to his soul is even more guilty than he who sells it for 10s; for such indifference sells it for nought!
Again,
Indifference to the spiritual interest of others is a sin. The New Testament, written by the pen of Inspiration, records for us instances intended as examples. If, therefore, the convert to Christ would learn what his course of conduct should be, let him read the record of Andrew, Christs first disciple. It is written in these words:
He, (Andrew) first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, winch is, being interpreted, the Christ.
And he brought him to Jesus (Joh 1:41-42).
Or the record of Philip. No sooner was he found of the Lord than
Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found Him, of whom Moses in the Law, and the Prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see? (Joh 1:45-46).
The most of you are fairly familiar with the work of David Brainerd among the Indians. It was in this very region that he rendered an immortal service, and the secret of his success is discoverable in his own statement,
I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through, so that I could but gain souls for Christ. While I was asleep I dreamed of these things, and when I awoke the first thing I thought of was this great work. All my desire was for their conversion, and all my hope was in God.
How such a statement rebukes them that are at ease in Zion, and reveals the blackness of their indifference!
Still further,
The interest of the Church condemns indifference. It is quite popular now to speak contemptuously of the Church; to denounce it as apostate; to declare that it is a signal failure, and to excuse oneself from fellowship therein! But the fact remains that while it falls as far short of the Divine ideal as did Israel of the Old Testament of Divine demands, it still remains Christs Body, and the indifferent member contributes to its paralysis, pulls down its morale, and gives additional occasion to the scoff of the world.
Have we forgotten what Paul wrote to the Corinthians,
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
For by one Spirit have we all been baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
For the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
Bui now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him.
And if they were all one member, where were the body?
But now are they many members, yet but one body.
And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary;
And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
For our comely parts have no need. But God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked,
That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
And God hath set some in the Church: first Apostles, secondly Prophets, thirdly Teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
Are all Apostles? are all Prophets? are all Teachers? are all workers of miracles?
Have all gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?
But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way (1Co 12:12-31).
I read, but yesterday, an illustration I had clipped and filed, of an elevator in a tall office building which fell one day from the eighth story to the basement. When the cables broke, and the elevator started on its wild plunge, the old man in charge of it glanced back and saw three passengers; one was a girl of eight years. He knew that such a drop would mean death, and quickly he caught up the little girl in his arms, and held her high above his head. The elevator struck; the shock broke his bones and those of the two adults that stood beside him; but the give in his body, as it went to pieces, proved the shock-absorber that saved the child.
I said, It is a horrible story, but it has a side of beauty. It is great to be faithful, even unto death, and to have ones last thought and last act a successful endeavor to save another!
Heroism is not dead! Yesterdays paper told the story of a thirteen-year-old lad who fought his way into a burning building and died in the flames, seeking to save his grandmother.
WOE AGAINST INACTION
There are people who are not indolent, and they are not altogether indifferent; but they are inactive. I know churchmen who seem to have a good degree of energy, and who really worry a bit about their poor spiritual condition, and yet who go on from day to day without doing other than fretting over the same.
Inaction is an iniquity! I have told you that fifty per cent of the church-members over the country never do aught or give aught to the churches of which they are members. Some of them are too lazy; others of them are too indifferent; but all of them are inactive.
Inaction is a symbol of spiritual death. A dead body is not supposed to move. My oldest brother passed away a month ago on his 78th birthday. He was a student in the Ohio medical when he was young. One night he went up to the dissecting room and found himself at work alone. The body-snatchers had brought in a corpse for student use, and laid the old fellow on a marble table. The weather outside was extremely cold and doubtless this body had frozen in the transition. The warm room thawed it out a bit, and being near the edge of the table it rolled off. Dr. said, My hair stood on end! For a moment I came near bolting through the door and leaving the scene behind; but recovering my courage, I timidly made my way back to where the dead lay, and he was motionlessas dead as ever.
As long as there is voluntary motion in the body, there is life in it; but when there is no voluntary motion in the soul it is suggestive of death.
It is a frightful thing if fifty per cent of church-members have missed the way, have not been regenerated, have not been made to live! It is a frightful thing that half the organized visible body of Christ is dead. You can see what a clog that is for the other half. The moment half of a mans body is paralyzed, the other half is hampered, weighted, obstructed.
This church, by way of comparison, has made marvelous progress in the last dozen years. Its fame has traveled around the world. To have erected these buildings, and to have made every payment due upon them with promptness that characterizes a people of comparative poverty, seems to our neighbors nothing short of marvelous. But for the dead half of it, inactive in service and sacrifice, we could have accomplished more than double what has been done. In addition to the contributions that the inactive half would have made, the living half, freed from the incubus of carrying the dead, could have undertaken and wrought even more. We have a prayer-meeting that numbers around 200. There are 800 people in this church that have the time and the means to attend the mid-week prayer-meeting, and with no adequate excuse whatever for their absences.
We have a Christian Endeavor that numbers 200 or 300, and witnesses an average attendance of about 100. There are 800 young people in this church who could be, and should be in that society every Sunday night.
We have a Choir of 125 Sunday morning and 150 Sunday night, and we experience some difficulty in keeping it up to that measure. There are easily 500 young people, members of this church, who are blessed with good voices, and who have no earthly reason for their failure to join us in this feature of service.
We have a Sunday School of nearly 2,000 enrollment, and an average attendance of 1200. Many of these 1200 are not members of the church. There are easily 1200 more church-members who could be in that school if they had the disposition.
Our Womens Societies see a weekly attendance of from 50 to 100. There are easily 400 women who are connected with this church, and who are so situated that they could be in the Ladies Aid and Missionary Circles if they so desired.
In this church we have an attendance of 1300 to 1500 Sunday morning, and 500 to 1500 Sunday night, with a Sunday night average perhaps of only 700 to 800, and half or two-thirds of these evening attendants are visitors. This room, aside from the two galleries that are curtained off, seats about 2200 people. If the disposition to serve God existed with our membership, it would be packed every Sunday night. What one of you business men would be satisfied if your enterprise was going along at below 50% efficiency; and, is it possible that money-making is so much more important than building the Church of God that we can afford to give ourselves 100% to the first and 30% to the second? Woe to them that are at ease in Zion!
For some years now life for me has been too full for extensive pastoral visitation, but when I do make it and get into the homes of those who seldom or never see the inside of the sanctuary to which they belong, it is little short of amusing to hear the excuses for absences, the chief one of which is, I have been so busy.
Mr. Gladstone must have had quite a little to do in his day, but we have the authenticated story from a street sweeper at the crossing taken by Mr. Gladstone daily. One day he was missing, and Gladstone inquired about him and found that he was sick. Immediately the Premier of all England took out his pencil and wrote down the address, and the next morning sat in that humble hut and read the Bible to the street-sweep and prayed for him! Where there is a will there is a way!
Finally, Inaction, if continuous, is death. The healthiest man that lives, if he ceases action, goes into decline and dies; and the soul that is inactive is dead.
Some years ago I was driving out to my home in Linden Hills, and as I came to the south end of Calhoun, I saw an excited crowd on the shore. Stopping my car, I got out and went over to see why the excitement. There lay, on the sandy beach, a very pretty young woman of some 30 years of age, over whom the firemen were working with the pulmotor.
She had stepped into one of the holes made by the big dredge which was then at work on Calhoun, and not being able to swim, she had drowned.
At the end of something like an hour of strenuous endeavor, the men stopped; and, turning to the white-faced young husband they said, She is gone! We cannot possibly get the heart to act. It is all over!
Putting his face to his hands, he cried, My God! Dead! Dead! Dead!
Those of us who stood about could not restrain our tears. We knew what that inaction of the heart meant to him, and we also knew what it meant to her, for, as he said, she was dead. There was no possible come-back!
But, grievous as was his experience, far more grievous is that of the father or mother, husband or wife, brother or sister, or Christian friend, who has to stand beside a loved body, out from which the breath has just gone, and feel and fear that the soul of such an one is dead!
InactionA sign of death.
As the drowning man cries for help, and clutches for any substantial float at hand, why should you not, like Peter, when he was sinking in the sea, lift your voice this morning and cry, Lord, save me! As yet it is not too late. Behold, now is the day of salvation; To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
Dont let the hour come when loved friends shall be compelled to say, My God! Dead! Dead! Dead!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
AMOSOR HEATHENISMANCIENT AND MODERN
Amo 1:1 to Amo 9:15
THE opening sentences of this Book give us briefly, and yet somewhat fully, the history of the Prophet whose name it wears. He belonged to the herdmen of Tekoa, and prophesied in the days when Uzziah was king of Judah, and Jeroboam, Son of Joash, sat upon the throne of Israel, and two years before the earthquake.
There are few Prophets the date of whose living is so definitely fixed. It is known that Uzziah and Jeroboam were contemporary kings in the period 809 to 784 B. C. It is certain, therefore, that sometime in these twenty-five seasons, Amos spoke. Some have thought to fix it accurately by referring to the history of this earthquake, which was one of the most terrible visitations the country had ever known of its kind. Josephus assigned, as the immediate occasion of this earthquake, the act of pride on the part of Uzziah in offering incense, for which God smote him with leprosy, and says, Meanwhile a great earthquake shook the ground and the Temple parting, a bright ray of the sun shone forth and fell upon the kings face, so that forthwith the leprosy came over him. And above the city, at the place called Eroge, the western half of a hill was broken off and rolled half a mile to the mountain Eastward, and there stayed, blocking up the ways, and the kings garden.
But it ought to be said, in all candor, that those people who swear by Josephus, but doubt the inspiration of the biblical writers, have poor occasion for their conduct. This ancient Jewish historian is so often writing down legend, tradition, and even his own imagination, for history, that one dare not receive his statement concerning this earthquake as authentic, and the very year of Amos writing remains undetermined.
The place of his residence is put past dispute, however. It was at Tekoa, a little village twelve to fourteen miles from Jerusalem, and six miles south of old Bethlehem, the very one whence Joab brought the wise woman to intercede for Absalom, and which the king Rehoboam made a fortified town.
His humble station was also affirmed; not even the owner of sheep, but a hireling, who as opportunity offered, followed the herds; and when there was no employment in that avocation, turned to the gathering and selling of sycamore fruit or figs.
The most of the Old Testament Prophets are the sons of honored fathers, descendants from famed families; but already God is beginning to manifest forth the fact, which finds so many illustrations in New Testament teachers, namely,
How that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
That no flesh should glory in His presence? (1Co 1:27-29).
But in keeping with the humble station of this man, and his equally humble estimate of self, he spent only a single verse upon his personal history,
as if the man were of little moment; while Gods message to the people was the subject of supreme concern.
With what a sentence did he smite the ears of his auditorsThe Lord will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.
It is not difficult to imagine him a successful street preacher, for these words were doubtless uttered in the alley-like avenues of Jerusalem. When he had finished that first sentence, every Jew within hearing of it would be riveted in attention, and ready to give eager ear to all that followed. It is interesting now to note, either the consummate genius of the speaker, or else Gods evident inspiration for both arrangement and expression of his thought.
It seems to me that this Book, upon close study, falls naturally into four parts and considered as a sermon or discourse, is ideal in its arrangement.
The first of these divisions has to do with
THE PROPHETS NEIGHBORS
Amo 1:3 to Amo 2:3
From Amo 1:3 to Amo 2:3 Amos speaks solely concerning the heathen round about. He denounces Damascus; he condemns Gaza; he excoriates Tyrus; he reproves Edom, he censures Ammon; and delivers sentence against Moab. What an introduction for a street discourse in Jerusalem! Every Jewish auditor would be delighted, for these were their hated enemies, and to have a man whose very mien and tongue told of his Divine appointment to the order of Prophet, utter such excoriations, would arouse the smouldering hatred which the Jews held against these into a flame of enthusiasm for the man speaking such words.
Now, before passing from this subject, let us see some essential truths suggested in these sentences.
First of all, The Prophets ministry is predetermined. His speech was no trick of the elocutionist to catch his auditors by condemning their enemies. Amos disclaims all originality and responsibility for these words, introducing his deliverance by the sentence, Thus saith the Lord. There are people who seem to entertain an impression that a prophet has no right to interfere in any affairs of another, and no occasion to condemn even the bad doings of his neighbors. It is not unusual to hear it said, You belong in the Church; and at the most your ministry should spend itself within the circle of her membership. You may have a right to instruct her youth, and even admonish her adults, but what have you to do with others? Those politicians who live and move in another realm; those science Professors who instruct Truth in skepticism, those liquor sellers who lure you to debauch, that realm of commerce, created for barter, not to speak of other confessedly unchristian circleswhat business have you with them?
They recognize no allegiance to your views, no obligation to your opinions; they regard your speech, concerning their conduct, a presumption. Why, therefore, persist in taking upon yourself a service which is despised by the very ones of whom you speak?
Amos answer to all of this is sufficient! Thus saith the Lord.
That is the answer of every true prophet. He is not spying out his neighbors sins, and speaking against them because the sermon brings him either pleasure or profit, but because God has said,
Preach the Word; he instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
* * But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
And they shall turn away their ears from the Truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry? (2Ti 4:2-5).
Only a few years ago some nominal Christians all over this country were voicing a certain amount of sympathy with the Boxer movement; and taking their cue from the cry of these murderers Down with the foreign devils, asked, What right have we to force our views upon these people when they do not want them?a question which can be answered in two sentences. Christians never force their views upon any, only preach them; and their warrant for doing that is in His Word. He who created China and has never signed a quitclaim to His right in that land and that people, namely, Jesus Himself, says, Go ye therefore, and teach ail nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Gods Prophets who call the Chinese to repentance, are there, commissioned of God Himself. Who will object to His conduct? Shall the creature take issue with the Creator?
The Prophets message also is God-given. When Amos uttered these words concerning Damascus, and Gaza, and Tyrus, and Edom, and Ammon, and Moab, he was not speaking of himself, But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael and I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, and I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus and I will send a fire upon Teman, etc., etc. Such would have been utterly meaningless had it originated at the mouth of the Prophet.
There are many people who object to Gods fire, kindled against His enemies, consuming the wicked. But let us not quarrel with Gods Prophet. This blaze was not born of his breath. When the minister reads from Revelation, The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death, dont quarrel with John for the speech. Like Amos of old, his authority for the utterance is in the sentence Thus saith the Lord.
When Hugh Latimer, one New Years day, went along with the bishop and nobles, who were carrying their presents to the king, with a Bible in his hand, and presented that as His gift, and the king opening it read, Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge he was angry with Latimer; and, Herrick says, It is a wonder that bluff and fiery King Hall did not take off Hughs head.
Possibly the reason is found in the fact that even that fiery king knew that these were not Latimers words, and whatever quarrel he had was with God. The man who delivers Gods message is not to be blamed; and the man who does not present it is not Gods Prophet! How shall they preach except they be sent?
When Moses was called to be a Prophet for God he poorly apprehended the Prophets part. His answer was O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And the Lord answered him, Who hath made mans mouth * * Go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. The man, who, like Amos, gets his message from God is Gods minister.
This Prophets judgment represents Divine justice. When he says For three transgressions, and for four, of Damascus, Gaza, Tyrus, Edom, Ammon, Moab, I will send a fire, there is absolute justice in the sentence declared. Damascus must suffer because they have Threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron; Gaza because they have carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom; Tyrus, for participating in the same, and forgetting the brotherly covenant; Edom because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever; Ammon because he ripped up the women with child * * that they might enlarge their border: and Moab because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Men did not object when houses, infected with the black plague, were burned. There are some infections that can only be consumed in the flame. And there are some sins which can never be removed away save by the fire of Divine judgment; and that judgment always represents Divine justice also.
Not a few people have spoken to me concerning a sermon once delivered by my colleague, Dr. Frost, expressing their gratitude in that he made it clear that the innocent were never punished on account of the guilty; and that the guilty never suffered above their deserts; and that judgment was always tempered with mercy.
I confess to surprise that these things should strike any as new truths; they are as old as Revelation itself. Aye, they are inseparable from the very character of God.
John Watson, in his Mind of the Master tells us that what has filled many honorable minds with resentment and rebellion is not the fact of separation, but the principle of execution; not the dislike of an assortment, but the fear that it will not be into good and bad. And he continues, But Jesus rested judgment on the firm foundation of what each man is in the sight of the Eternal. He anticipated no protest in His parables against the justice of this evidence; none has ever been made from any quarter. The wheat is gathered into the garner. What else could one do with wheat? The tares are burned in the fire. What else could one do with tares? When the net comes to the shore, the good fish are gathered into vessels; no one would throw them away. The bad are cast aside; no one would leave them to contaminate the good. The supercilious guests who did not value the great supper were left severely alone. If men do not care for Heaven, they will not be forced into it. The outcasts, who had never dared to dream of such a supper, were compelled to come. If men hunger for the best, the best shall be theirs.
That is the truth of Gods judgment everywhere. And when He consumed these nations with the besom of destruction it was only because to continue them would be to condone sin by reproducing sinners, and stain the earth, calling into question His own wisdom by letting iniquity go unpunished. Say what you will of these judgments, you must commend their justice. Who art thou that repliest against God?
But from the Prophets neighbors we turn to
THE PROPHETS NATIONS
Amo 2:4 to Amo 6:14
To be sure Amos belonged by birth to Judah, but both these nations were his, by kinship, and by Divine appointment of Prophet to them. He came out of Judah, but he spake to Judah and to Israel. What a change must have come over the audience when this man, with eloquent speech, flaming with the evident enthusiasm of a Divine commission, turned suddenly from his denouncement of neighbors, to a kindred condemnation of the favored nations.
For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the Law of the Lord, and have not kept His Commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked:
But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
Thus saith the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes (Amo 2:4-6).
Heathenism is not all with the heathen. You read the words of this Prophet from Amo 2:4 to Amo 6:14 and you will find the elect backsliders, and indulging in the abominations of their neighbors. It is a phrase employed too often, I fear, by those unwilling to go, or through their gold and silver to send, Why be interested in the heathen or foreign lands when there are so many heathen at home?
Such speak better than they desire. The heathen are at home; aye, the heathen, here, were the very company who called themselves saints. And this Prophets descriptions are not ancient; they are up to date!
No single discourse upon which my hand has fallen has been comparable in clearness of expression, and vigor of thought, to one, once delivered by my late loved friend, Dr. John O. Rust, on The New Heathenism, and printed in the Presbyterian Quarterly, October, 1902, and reprinted in pamphlet form by Whittet and Shepperson, of Richmond, Va. Rusts opening sentence is, We are prone to think that we have left heathenism far behind us in the centuries of the past; or that it is banished from our shores to hide its shame in the remote and darkened corners of the earth; and one is almost stung into a feeling of resentment when the charge is made that there is a lively revival of heathenism at our very doors, here in enlightened America, in this blessed day of grace.
Then Rust continues to show that commercialism has carried many a so-called Christian into heathen practices. The poet has written:
It is success that colors all in life;Success makes fools admired, makes villains honest;All the proud virtues of this vaunting world Fawns on success and power, howeer acquired.
Rust thinks stheticism also has been chosen as a term with which to clothe our cultured heathenism. He says, When the people get rich suddenly they wish to acquire culture quickly. The consequence is that elegant ladies and gentlemen, strong in the languor of luxury, lounge in dainty drawing-rooms, and cultivate an Attic difference to virtue, and a Roman contempt for enthusiasm of robust manhood.
Occultism has, within the last ten years, enjoyed a ridiculous revival. Teachers whose chief qualifications are long hair and soiled linen, profess an acquaintance with the mysteries of philosophy which would appall the real learning of the world. Hypnotists reveal the deep secrets of psychology on a months tuition which has been hidden from the wisdom of the world for ages. And the amazing thing about it is that thousands of people listen to the babble of these fellows who will not heed the oracles of God. A certain statistician has computed that there has been an increase of 300 per cent in fools in this country in the last fifty years, and one is half inclined to believe the estimate.
Socialism represents an extreme reaction against the proud, arrogant and esoteric tendencies, and by its very consciousness of wrong, it is attempting to get its rights by an attack upon all society.
Now I confess it was most interesting to me to take that address of Rusts, and compare his words with those of the Prophet Amos. Commercialism cursed Gods people in the times of Amos also, and they were called to judgment because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes.
stheticism found then the same sensual expression which it is receiving today, They [stretched] themselves upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar. They [drank] the wine of the condemned in the house of their god. By their increased riches, through the oppression of the poor, they bought unto themselves beds of ivory, and stretched themselves upon their couches, and ate the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall, and chanted to the sound of the viol, and invented to themselves instruments of music, defaming David, by saying they were the same as his; and setting aside the little glasses, emptied great bowls of wine.
And, by anointing themselves with the chief ointment imagined that they were a sweet incense to God, forgetting to grieve for the affliction of Joseph, until the drunkards of Ephraim came to be a byword in the streets of Jerusalem.
As to Occultism, they turned from the worship of the True God to such false shrines and sorcerers that a temple to Asherah was restored in Samaria; the gold and silver images to Baal were set up; the smoke of sacrifice to idols could be seen upon their mountain tops, and incense smelt in the shade of every grove until the word was Gilead was given to idols. They transgressed at Bethel, and multiplied transgressions at Gilgal.
And then the socialism that always attends oppression! Selfish and sensual living stirred in the breasts of the unsuccessful, and made it easy to bring against their divided forces nations that should afflict them from the entering of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness.
Beloved, what greater danger to the land in which we live than these same, before which the ancient people of God sadly fell? Is not the Church itself threatened by commercialism in which, as Rust puts it, The evangelist has become the finangelist? The denominations which twenty-five years ago existed on a creedal basis, today continue on a commercial basis. Are not our missionary treasuries pauper-stricken too often because even the people who wear the Name of God, have learned to love palatial residences, and expend upon person and pleasure the whole of their income. And, are not many being brought to the bar of judgment and condemned with the charge having been substantiated against them, by the Lord God Himself, In tithes and offerings ye have robbed Me?
Let us see another thing to be inferred from the language of the Prophet Amos. Sonship does not insure against chastisement. The true father may witness the most evil deeds upon the part of his neighbors child without speaking a word of correction, or claiming the right of chastisement. But not so when his own children go into sin. His very love of them compels their correction; while his past favors give him that paternal prerogative, God makes that the basis of Israels chastisement. He reminds the Children of Israel that He alone had brought them up from Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
It is an Old Testament illustration of the New Testament assertion, Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. For those who have been the recipients of Divine favor in our day, the poets sentences speak this same truth.
But if your ears refuse The language of His grace,Your hearts grow hard, like stubborn Jews,That unbelieving race.
The Lord with vengeance drest,Shall lift His hand and swear,You that despised My promised restShall have no portion there.
Beastly conduct necessitates bitter correction. Sometime when you have looked upon people whose moral filth and sensual living was such that your whole nature reacted from the sight, you have been tempted to adopt the language of the street and call them cattle. Perhaps you did not know that it was also the language of Scripture, and that it is possible for men to go so deeply into sin that God looks upon their condition as that of a beast in an unclean stall.
To these ancient Israelites He said,
Hear this Word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.
The Lord God hath sworn by His holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that He will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.
And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her; and ye shall cast them into the palace, saith the Lord (Amo 4:1-3).
These are rude words of the Prophet; but let us remember that they were not his words, but Gods instead. It is an awful thing for one to come to that moral condition where his conduct reminds God of the cattle of the field!
Such a condition cannot be covered over by feasts, offerings and ceremonies. It is in vain for such to come to Bethel, which means the House of God, and to Gilgal to bring sacrifice every morning, and tithes after three years, and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish a free offering. As Joseph Parker says, There is one thing wanting in all that elegant program, and for want of that one thing the whole arrangement dies in the air like a gilded bubble. What is omitted from this rehearsal? The sin offering, the trespass offering. They will come with sacrifices every morning as donor to God; they will come with service and sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven; they will throw money into the treasury, and announce the sum in plain figures. But where is penitence? Where is contrition? Where is heart-wringing? Where is the tearing conscience, the presence of tormenting agony in the innermost life? Most worship is partial; many will have a little partial religion. Some attention has to be paid to custom, to the habit, wont, and use of life; some mean coin must at least be thrown into the treasury, and thrown in with some ostentation; hymns must be sung, and fault must be found with the music, and judgment must be pronounced upon the rabbi, the priest, the teacher for the time being, and for a certain period there must be an odor of sanctity about what we say and do. All this trickery is possible; but it never reaches the Heaven of God. And God only answers it all by saying,
Seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba * *.
Seek the Lord, and ye shall live * *.
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 5:5-6; Amo 5:8).
But to pass on in our study of this Book, we come upon
THE PROPHETS OPPONENTS
Amo 7:1 to Amo 9:10
It would be a marvel indeed if such a man as this went on without opposition. They beheaded Paul; they killed James, the Just; they crucified Jesus, and Amos reveals no spirit of compromise. How then can he hope to pass on in peace?
The Prophet cannot escape the opponent. There is an Amaziah for every Amos. He will send to Jeroboam, the king, saying,
Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the House of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.
For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land (Amo 7:10-11).
It is not pleasant to be pricked by the truth; to be irritated by an inspired word; to feel the lash upon the conscience, quickened by Sacred Scripture; and men always have opposed it, and they always will.
Perhaps in modern times we have had no more faithful minister of the Gospel than was Charles Spurgeon. But he had to learn how to be slandered, he says, in order that he might be made useful to God. His statement is, Down on my knees I have often fallen, with the hot sweat rising from my brow, under some fresh slander poured upon me; in an agony of grief my heart has been well-nigh broken; till at last I learned the art of bearing all and caring for none. * * If to be made as the mire of the streets again, if to be the laughing-stock of fools and the song of the drunkard once more will make me more serviceable to my Master, and more useful to His cause, I will prefer it to all this multitude, or to all the applause that man could give.
That was exactly Amos answer when told to prophesy no more at Beth-el, since it was the kings chapel, and the kings court. He replied, confessing his humble estimate of himself,
I was no Prophet, neither was I a Prophets son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit:
And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord send unto me, Go, prophesy unto My people Israel.
Now therefore hear thou the Word of the Lord.
It is the only answer one needs to make to his opponent; and it is the only answer one can make that carries with it any assurance of success. Do you remember that when David, the lad, after being scoffed by his elder brother, and scorned by Goliath, the giant, said to that Philistine, Thou contest to me with a sword, and with a spear and with a shield: but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of Hosts. Oh, beloved, whoever our opponents are, and whatever our opposition, that is the only Name in which we can stand; and that Name is sufficient!
Speaking in that Name we cannot be silenced by secular powers. Amaziah, in his inability to meet Amos single-handed, tried the trick of the pious politician, namely, arraying the secular powers against this servant of the Lord. It is an old trick; it was done in the days of Elisha; and repeated in the days of the Son of Man. He was charged with opposition to Caesar; as were His Apostles with rebellion against the civil government. It is most amazing how patriotic some men become, once the preaching of the truth reveals their personal sins, and those which they have in common with so-called statesmen, at one and the same time.
They are not welcomed by the fallen, and sometimes are most bitterly opposed by men who have proclaimed themselves children of the King. Be it remembered, however, that the same Amaziahs who rise to charge Gods Prophets with treason will be compelled to listen, eventually, to the Divine sentence of the Lord,
Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the House of Isaac.
Therefore thus saith the Lord; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land (Amo 7:16-17).
And yetThe Christians courage will accord with the Divine commission. Amos only needs to answer, The Lord took me as I followed the flock, and * * said unto me, Go, prophesy unto My people Israel. When you have spoken in the language of Scripture, and are conscious that your purpose was to help and not hinder; to reform and not deform; to convert and not divert, then fear will flee away, and like Peter and the other Apostles of Jesus, you can answer the command of silence, We ought to obey God rather than man, and We are His witnesses of these things.
S. E. Herrick, speaking of Savonarola, in the times when all Florence was ablaze, having been basely betrayed by their ruler, says that Savonarola remained the one calm spirit, and assigns as the reason, He is the man who dwells unmoved in (The secret place of the Most High, and under the shadow of the Almighty
Every man ought to dwell there who is consciously seeking the glory of God, and faithfully presenting the Truth of God. Paul seems to have entertained that opinion of the whole Christian life, when he wrote the Ephesians,
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with Truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
And your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace;
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked (Eph 6:10-16).
This Book concludes with the
PROPHETS PREDICTION
Amo 9:11-15
I want to make that also the conclusion of this chapter. This prediction is brief, but how blessed!
In that day will I raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by My Name, saith the Lord that doeth this.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
And I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God (Amo 9:11-15).
Take the three points of this prediction and delight thyself in them.
The restitution of the House of David is pledged.
That day will I raise up the Tabernacle.
That promise is found in a hundred forms in this Old Testament, and was made the occasion of James appeal to missionary endeavor, when, at the council of Jerusalem, he stood before the people saying,
Men and brethren, hearken unto me:
Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His Name.
And to this agree the Words of the Prophets; as it is written,
After this I will return, and will build again the Tabernacle of David, which is fallen dawn.
Simeon did not see that Tabernacle rebuilt; James was not privileged to witness it; nor have we; and yet the Word of the Lord will not fail. The House of David is yet to be exalted in the earth.
Dr. Gordon tells us, There is a fragment of Jewish legend that has floated down to us, which represents two venerable rabbis as musing among the ruins of Jerusalem after its destruction. One is giving way to unrestrained lamentation, saying, Alas! alas! this is the end of all. Our beautiful city is no more; our Temple is laid waste, our brethren are driven away into captivity. The other, with greater cheerfulness, replies: True; but let us learn from the verity of Gods judgments, which we behold about us, the certainty of His mercies. He hath said, I will destroy Jerusalem, and we see that He hath done it. But hath He not also said, I will rebuild Jerusalem, and shall we not believe Him? The latter rabbi was right! The same God who, by His might, said to His people, I will sift the House of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve; and speedily fulfilled the threat, also declared of one day in the future, In that day will I raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen. He will fulfil His promise. And I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by My Name, saith the Lord that doeth this (Amo 9:11-12).
There is your pledge of the gathering out of the Gentiles. The heathen which are called by Gods Name. Isaiah had long ago said, The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Jesus once reminded the multitudes of the promises of God concerning His SonIn His Name shall the Gentiles trust. But more explicit still is that other statement of His concerning the destiny of JerusalemJerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Beloved, this is your age and mine; the period in which we who were aliens, by nature, are being grafted into the True Vine. Arthur T. Pierson has at some time expressed the thought that he never succeeds in winning a soul to the Saviour without entertaining the hope that this may be the last man needful to the filling up of the time of the Gentiles. But, oh, how such a suggestion ought to stir apprehension in the breasts of all Gentile-unbelievers, lest we approach the day of the Lord, and the time of our opportunity will be past!
Finally:The Prophet also predicts the return of the Jews to their own land.
I will bring again the captivity of My people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God (Amo 9:14-15).
My brethren sometimes ask whether I see what appears clear evidences of the signs of the times; and if I do, there is something marvelous in this Zionist movement. Only a short time ago a clipping from your own paper here says that in the city of Milwaukee alone thousands of Jews have given their most ardent support to this Zionist movement to buy back again their own land, and make it the place of refuge to their persecuted people. So the movement has enlisted the Jews of St. Paul and Minneapolis. They do not see the significance of such a barter, but who knows but God is already beginning to fulfil literally those promises of His Word,
Surely the isles shall wait for Me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far * *.
And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in My wrath I smote thee, but in My favour have I had mercy on thee (Isa 60:9-10).
And again,
I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion (Jer 3:14).
The first-fruits of that final restoration which is fully pledged, and made emphatic by a hundred repetitions, and when, according to Jeremiah, God will gather the remnant of His scattered flock out of all countries into which He has driven them, and bring them again into their fold. And they shall be fruitful and increase, for in those days He will raise up unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and justice in the earth (Jer 23:3; Jer 23:5).
O then that I
Might live, and see the olive bear
Her proper branches, which now lie
Scattered each where,
And without root and sap decay,
Cast by the husbandman away,
And sure it is not far!
For surely He
Who loved the world so as to give
His only Son to make us free,
Whose Spirit, too, doth mourn and grieve
To see man lost, will, for old love,
From your dark hearts this veil remove.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
HOMILETICS
CRITICAL NOTES.] Second woe denounced. Ease] Recklessly and carelessly. Mount.] not in God. Sam.] Strong, which resisted for 3 years, and was the last city of Israel taken (2Ki. 17:5-6). Chief] in influence and office, Heb. men designated (Num. 1:17; 1Ch. 12:31). Came] for decision and help. Israel was the chief of nations, and these princes the distinguished of Israel. Sadly degenerate now!
AT EASE IN ZION.Amo. 6:1
In the first part of this chapter woe is uttered against the careless chiefs of the nation, for profane security, contempt of Divine judgments, and heartless oppression. Special allusion is made to the leaders, but the whole nation had sunk into godless conduct and shameful debauchery.
I. At ease in eminent responsibility. At ease in Zion. Israel was exalted as a nation above others. Israels princes were men of rank and authority; renowned of the congregation, and consulted by the people. All were blessed with eminent privileges and great responsibility. But the honour was not recognized. The highest motive to action did not confirm them in fidelity to God. They carelessly indulged themselves and forgot their responsibilities. Where much is given, much will be required. To be at ease in Zion, in the midst of religious ordinances and gospel light, is especial danger. If we neglect or despise our eminent position, we aggravate our guilt, and increase the greatness of our downfallWoe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! &c.
II. At ease in carnal security. And trust in the mountain of Samaria. Zion, the centre of religion, and Samaria, the metropolis of a powerful kingdom, were the security of Israel. Our own strength and resources will prove a broken reed. Men may boast of the places in which they live, glory in their eminence, and secure themselves in ease; but vain confidence in the means of grace will awfully disappoint. We must trust to no great men, no high hills. Our help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
III. At ease in great pride. Connected with ease and carnal security was a haughty spirit. Israel prided themselves in their relation to God, and disdained other nations. The chief of the nations to whom the house of Israel came would think themselves, and expect others to call them, great men. Haughty because of my holy mountain. Many are puffed up with pride, and rock themselves to sleep in religious privileges. They cry The temple of the Lord are we (Jer. 7:4), and doubt not but Gods sanctuary will secure them from judgments to come. But pride never gives true rest, and those who delude themselves in superior holiness and distinguished titles shall be utterly forgotten (Psa. 109:13). The greater their glory, the more shameful their punishment. How much she hath glorified herself and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her.
IV. At ease in threatened judgments. Woe to them. When God is angry men have no reason to sleep. Reckless indifference, in business and religion, is a forerunner of certain ruin. Careless sinners, sleepers in Zion, are in danger of eternal destruction. When they rouse not at the call of the gospel, when deaf to the thunders of Divine judgments, they sleep where God will come first and be most severe; where the calls are loudest and the doom most hopeless. Wake up at the sound of Woe, before you feel its dreadful reality. What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise and call upon thy God.
SCOURGE FOR SLUMBERING SOULS
In itself considered it is no ill thing, but a great blessing, to be at ease in Zion, in a healthy sense of the word. But there is an ill sense in which it is used, Woe to them, &c: the ease of one grown callous, hardened, and sullen, a sleep which if not broken will bring to the bed of hell.
I. First, to rouse the many at ease in Zion, we will call out their nameswhich are found in the chapter before us. The name of the first sleeper in Zion is Presumptuous. His character is described in the first verse, They trust in the mountain, &c.boast of their morality and self-righteousness. I am rich and increased in good, &c. A second is Not-now, or Procrastination. Ye that put far away the evil day (Amo. 6:3). The third name is Evil-doer, or Sin-lover. They cause the seat of violence to come near. The next is Love-self. They lie upon beds of ivory, &c. Among those at ease was one called Careless, an individual who belongs to a large family. We may give him another name, giddy, light-hearted. That chant to the sound of the viol. The last name is Crossless. They are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. II. Now having mentioned their names we shed some light upon these sleepers eyes. A hopeless errand! for they sleep with the sun of heaven shining upon their eyelids. At ease in Zion. Not in Ethiopia, where they have never heard the gospel; not in Sheba or the ends of the earth, where no warning prophets had been sent. In the first place you are asleep, but you know your danger. You have frequent arousings. Everything in this place cries out against you. To be at ease when the House, the Gospel, and the Sabbath are crying out against us, is to be at ease while God is making ready his sword against us. III. The last point is, to sound the trumpet in the ears of the sleepers. My trumpet has but one note, Woe! woe! woe! Not a living man knows the full meaning of that word. Bring out the gentler parts of the note; and first, woe to you, for now is it at all likely that you ever will be saved? In the innumerable cases in this place of conversion the majority were persons who had not long heard the word. I think Christmas Evans used the simile of the blacksmiths dog, which was very frightened with the sparks at first, but at last got so accustomed to them that he went to sleep under the anvil. And so, said the good preacher, there be many that go to sleep under the gospel, with the sparks of damnation flying about their nostrils. Remember you are asleep in a place where Justice deals its heaviest blow. Do you tremble? You are saved the moment you believe in Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation, &c. [Spurgeon].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Amo. 6:1. Ease. This is carnal ease, a fleshly security; it is not the confidence of a man who is pardoned, but the ease of a hardened wretch who has learned to despise the gibbet. It is not the calm of a soul at peace with God, but the ease of a madman, who because he has hidden his sin from his own eyes, thinks he has concealed it from God [Spurgeon].
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
RIGHTEOUSNESS DEMANDS REPENTANCELUXURY LEADS TO INDOLENCE
TEXT: Amo. 6:1-8
1
Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and to them that are secure in the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come!
2
Pass ye unto Calnah, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines: are they better than these kingdoms? or is their border greater than your border?
3
ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;
4
that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall;
5
that sing idle songs to the sound of the viol; that invent for themselves instruments of music, like David;
6
that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief oils; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
7
Therefore shall they now go captive with the first that go captive; and the revelry of them that stretched themselves shall pass away.
8
The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by himself, saith Jehovah, the God of hosts: I abhor the excellence of Jacob, and hate his palaces; therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein.
QUERIES
a.
Why refer the covenant people to Calneh, Hamath and Gath?
b.
What is putting far away the evil day?
c.
Is the use of musical instruments contrary to Gods will?
PARAPHRASE
Alas, alas, for those who are lounging in luxury and false security in Jerusalem and Samaria; alas for those renowned leaders of the renowned nation of Israel, to whom all the people of Israel come for counsel. Go over to Calneh, Hamath and Gath and you will find that your land is just as prosperous and great as theirs. In spite of My blessing you and making you chief of the nations you have remained ungrateful and unmindful of My warnings. You insist that calamity will not come to you yet you bring the Day of Judgment nearer each day by your violent deeds! You sprawl yourselves luxuriantly upon expensive couches and take for your gluttonous feasts only the choicest lambs and calves; you sing frivolous, nonsensical and lustful songs to the accompaniment of the harps; and, as David invented musical instruments to worship his God, you invent musical instruments to worship your god, your belly; you drink wine from sacrificial bowls of silver in adoration of your god, and, instead of being grieved for the spiritual downfall of the nation, with unbridled rejoicing you anoint one another with the most expensive oils and perfumes. On account of this, these sensual leaders of the people shall be the first ones taken into captivity where they shall no longer lounge in luxury for that will cease. The Lord Jehovah has sworn an immutable oath upon His own immutable Name, saying, I despise the false pride and glory of Israel and hate its luxurious homes. I will give up this land into the hands of its enemies including all the people and everything else in it.
SUMMARY
A false sense of pride and position has drugged Israel into a false feeling of security which in turn has led her to luxury, gluttony, indolence and lethargy. God promises judgment and captivity.
COMMENT
Amo. 6:1 WOE TO THEM THAT ARE AT EASE IN ZION . . . AND . . . SECURE . . . IN . . . SAMARIA . . . Amos directs his warning from God to the whole nation. Especially to the notable menthe renowned leaders. These public leaders had allowed themselves to be lulled by luxury into a false ease and security. They, in turn, had counseled all the people who came to them that peace, prosperity and safety were the watchwords of the day (Jer. 6:14). They were confident that God would not allow anything bad to happen to the chief of nations (Jer. 7:4 ff), after all, had not God chosen this nation above all the others (Jer. 2:3; Exo. 19:5; 2Sa. 7:23 ff; Amo. 3:2). Prosperity is dangerous. It may be either blessing or curse, according to the way it is received by those to whom it may come. If the one who prospers receives it with thankfulness to God constantly aware of his dependence upon God and uses it to the glory of God it can be a wonderful blessing and a great source of joy. But if the one who prospers is ungrateful and makes his riches his whole aim in life he falls into a snare, into many hurtful lusts, and drowns in perdition (cf. 1Ti. 6:6-10; Deu. 4:9; Deu. 6:10-12; Deu. 8:11-20; Deu. 32:15; Psa. 9:17; Pro. 1:32; Pro. 30:9; Jer. 3:21; Dan. 4:30; Dan. 5:20; Hos. 10:13; Hos. 13:6; Luk. 12:16-19).
Amo. 6:2-3 PASS YE UNTO CALNEH, AND SEE . . . ARE THEY BETTER THAN THESE KINGDOMS? Calneh was a city in the land of Babylonia (Calno of Isa. 10:9) one of the four cities founded by Nimrod (cf. Gen. 10:10). Hamath is one of the most ancient surviving cities on this earth located in upper Syria on the Orontes river. The entrance of Hamath (Num. 34:8) was to be the northern limit of Israel, but God left some of the Hivites there to be a test to the faithfulness of Israel (Jdg. 3:3). Calneh and Hamath were two of the 19 city-states that rebelled against mighty King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria (745727 B.C.) and were subdued only after several campaigns and it is no wonder Amos calls it Hamath the great. Gath was one of the five royal cities of Philistia (Jos. 13:3; Jdg. 3:3; 1Sa. 4:4; 1Sa. 4:16; 1Sa. 4:18), destroyed by Uzziah (2Ch. 26:6) with a history of greatness and influence in the days of Amos. Amos has selected these three rich, powerful, influential cities to compare Israel, in her greatness, to, and thus emphasize Israels ingratitude! These three cities were powerful, yet none of them was better than Judah or Israel. In spite of Gods blessing the once insignificant Hebrew nomads until their prosperity exceeded that of these three rich metropolises, this generation of Hebrews remained an ungrateful people, unmindful of the Rock that begat them (Deu. 32:6-18).
Amo. 6:3YE THAT PUT FAR AWAY THE EVIL DAY, AND CAUSE THE SEAT OF VIOLENCE TO COME NEAR . . . These people were just like those of a 150 years later in the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel crying Peace, peace, when there is no peace, (cf. Jer. 6:14; Jer. 8:11; Jer. 14:13; Eze. 13:10; Eze. 13:16). How could Amos preach to them hard times, when all was wellpolitically and economically? They refused even to think of hard times, judgment, retribution of God for their sins. But by their very acts of impenitence and refusing to see anything wrong with their excesses and injustices they were hastening the day of Gods judgment upon them! They were ripening fast (as Amos later pictorializes with the basket of summer fruit). They were actually rotting. In just 40 years the northern kingdom would be overthrown completely by the Assyrians and as a nation it would disappear from the face of the earth.
Amo. 6:4-6 . . . THAT LIE UPON BEDS OF IVORY . . . EAT THE LAMBS OUT OF THE FLOCK . . . SING IDLE SONGS . . . INVENT . . . INSTRUMENTS OF MUSIC . . . DRINK WINE IN BOWLS . . . BUT ARE NOT GRIEVED FOR THE AFFLICTION OF JOSEPH. We wish to quote extensively here from, The Bible Commentary, The Minor Prophets, by T. Laetsch, pub., Concordia, pp. 170171:
. . . In the homes of the rich were found all the conveniences and luxuries of the day. There were beds, or divans, of ivory, richly decorated with ivory plaques and panels . . . on which Mr. Richman sprawled; luxuriant couches, on which the lady of the house stretched out her weary limbs after having returned from a stroll through the avenues of the city where she load exhibited her beauty, enhanced by many an artificial means (Isa. 3:18-23). The less fortunate sisters, the common rabble, the dames of the underworld, the flappers of 750 B.C., admired their richly attired sisters and ran to the next bazaar to buy some cheap bauble, some of the latest beauty helps, in order to look like their more favored sisters. In the elegant homes of the rich and in the temples of their idols (ch. Amo. 2:7-8) riotous feasts and banquets were held. Only the most dainty meats were served, lambs selected from carefully tended flocks, calves from the midst of the stall (cp. Mal. 4:2), kept in special stalls, fed with special feed. At these banquets men and women idled away their time by chanting crooning to the sound of the viol, the harp (Amo. 6:5). They also invented for themselves, not to Gods glory, instruments of music. The better such noisemakers suited the intention of their inventors, to affect the nerves, create excitement, stir up passions, the higher was the inventor honored. He was likened to David, who had introduced many musical instruments in the Temple service (1Ch. 23:5; 2Ch. 29:25-26) . . . Amos, of course, uses these words in bitter irony. Such crooning, accompanied by jazzy instrumental music, was regarded as the highest superart by the delighted audiences. The heads and bodies of the assembled guests were anointed with the chief ointments, the finest and most expensive perfumeries, filling the ball with their intoxicating odors. The passions kindled by the voluptuous music and suggestive dress were nourished by the rich food and fanned into irrepressive ardor by large bowlfuls of wine freely making the rounds (Amo. 6:6). The term used here for bowls in all other passages denotes ritual bowls used in the Temple for sprinkling the sacrificial blood upon the altar. Were they used at these banquets in the homes and the idol temples in order to give a semblance of piety to these orgiastic festivals, as the saying of grace before modern family dinners ending in drinking bouts? We are reminded of Belshazzars feasts (Dan. 5:1-5).
The Arabic and Greek words translated idle mean literally, to throw or strew many useless words about, to gossip, and this describes the singing at the banquets as frivolous nonsense. The sin is not, per se, in the use of instruments of music in religious worship (David was commanded to invent instruments of music to be used in Gods temple in worshipping the One, True God), but the use of instruments to sing vain and idle songs in a perverted religious ceremony. As David made instruments of music to worship the true God, these idolaters made instruments to accompany their stupid songs as they worshiped their god, the belly! Amo. 6:5 cannot be used to condemn the use of an instrument in New Testament church worshipto do so is wresting the scriptures! It could be used to show Gods displeasure with a great amount of the silly, nonsensical, and immoral music which has been invented today by those whose god is still their physical lusts!
The word used by Amos to describe the bowls out of which the gluttons drank their wine has special reference to the silver sacrificial bowls made by the tribe-princes at the consecration of the altar to Jehovah (Numbers 7). Amos does this to show that the people in Moses day manifested their zeal for Jehovah by so doing, and these people of Israel, of Amos own times, showed just as much zeal is their care for their god, the belly.
And the greater crime than all this gluttony and idolatry is, as Amos states in Amo. 6:6, they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. They were blind, deaf and dumb to the spiritual rottenness then prevalent. They were not the least concerned that this nation whose destiny was holiness and truth was sick unto death with the leprosy of sin. The injustice, cruelty, decadence did not bother them. They were perfectly satisfied as long as they had food and drink and were rich enough to satisfy their desires.
Amo. 6:7-8 THEREFORE SHALL THEY NOW GO CAPTIVE WITH THE FIRST THAT GO CAPTIVE; AND THE REVELRY OF THEM THAT STRETCHED THEMSELVES SHALL PASS AWAY . . . THE LORD JEHOVAH HATH SWORN BY HIMSELF . . . Jehovah makes a solemn, terrible vow. Those who spent their time luxuriating and satisfying every selfish whimwho had no time for Godwill be the first taken captive. They will be the first to be made slaves of a foreign despot. They will have no time henceforward for revelry. That will come to a sudden end. From that time onward they will be an enslaved people. God cannot make His vows any more emphatic than by swearing by His own name, for there is nothing greater in existence than God. Since He has the authority and power to carry out His threats it is not at all evil for Him to swear by His own Holy Name. It is vain for man to swear by anything, either heaven or hell, or by the hairs on his head since he has no control over any of it (cf. Mat. 5:33-37; Jas. 5:12). Hebrews, in that glorious passage emphasizing how God demonstrated the immutability and finality of His promise-keeping, in Amo. 6:13-14 tells us that God interposed Himself with an oath. We believe the interpretation of how God interposed Himself is found in 2Co. 5:19 where we are told, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself . . . and in 2Co. 1:20, . . . For all the promises of God find their Yea in Him (that is, in Christ), So, when God swears by Himself, rest assured, it is certain to come to pass!
QUIZ
1.
Why was Amos against the ease those in Zion and Samaria were having?
2.
Why refer the people of Israel to the cities of Calneh, Hamath and Gath?
3.
What does Amos mean by saying they were putting far away the evil day?
4.
What sort of society does Amos describe in Amo. 6:4-6?
5.
May Amo. 6:5 be used against the use of instruments in religious worship? Explain your answer!
6.
Why condemn them because of their lack of grief for the affliction or Joseph?
7.
How emphatic is the phrase The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by himself to be taken?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Trust.The word for trust is a participle, and we should translate as the parallelism indicates: the confident (or complacent) dwellers in the mountain of Samaria; i.e., the upper luxurious classes, the chief of the first of nations, meaning the rulers, to whom Israel, the supreme and highly-favoured nation, comes up for judgment and for guidance in all civil affairs. These are now summoned to listen to the rebuke of the Divine Judge.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
WOE UPON THE LUXURIOUS, THE SELF-CONFIDENT, AND THE PROUD, 1-14.
In Amo 6:1, the prophet turns once more to the leaders of the people, who, reveling in wealth and luxury, were perfectly content with the present state of things, and were completely indifferent to the ruin threatening the people (Amo 6:1-6). Exile will be their punishment (Amo 6:7). The whole city and nation will be given over to destruction, because the inhabitants have perverted the truth and righteousness and have put their trust in their own resources (Amo 6:8-14).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Condemnation of the nobles, Amo 6:1-7.
1. Woe See on Amo 5:18.
That are at ease Margin, “secure.” In a bad sense, those who are recklessly at ease, who are insensible to the dangers lurking on every side (Isa 32:9).
Zion Jerusalem (Amo 1:2), the center of the southern kingdom. There is no reason for regarding this a later interpolation. While the commission of Amos was primarily to the north, it would be strange if, as a citizen of Judah, he would never make mention in his discourses of the home land; especially since conditions in Judah called for the same denunciation as those in the north. Nor is there any reason for giving to the clause a meaning different from that suggested by the English translation.
Trust R.V., “are secure.” Not, who put their trust in the mountain of Samaria rather than in God, but identical in meaning with “are at ease” (Isa 32:9; Isa 32:11).
Which are named chief of the nations R.V., “the notable men of the chief of the nations.” The Hebrew is ambiguous. A.V. connects chief with the subject of the preceding relative clauses. Those who live at ease and are secure are the chief, or leaders, of the nations, that is, of Israel and Judah. The Revisers understood the words differently. The first word in Hebrew, apparently entirely misunderstood by A.V., they took in apposition to the preceding relative clauses, at the same time connecting chief with nations. The first word means literally the marked ones, those who stand out prominently on account of wealth and position; therefore, notable, or, distinguished. These persons are further described as belonging to the chief of the nations, Israel, which, as the chosen people of Jehovah, occupied a unique place among the nations of the world (Exo 19:5). Some, with less probability, consider the expression ironical: Israel is the chief only according to the erroneous estimate of the people. In order to indicate even more clearly the responsibilities of the leaders and the guilt arising from their failure to meet them, the prophet adds, to whom the house of Israel came For judgment and guidance. The house of Israel includes the inhabitants of both kingdoms.
The natural continuation of Amo 6:1 Isaiah 3 ff.; Amo 6:2 seems to interrupt the thought. For this and the additional reason that the verse is thought to contain historical allusions unsuitable in the time of Amos many commentators consider Amo 6:2 a later interpolation. The second reason is not conclusive, for the historical situation presupposed in Amo 6:2 is by no means certain (see below). Hence, other commentators see no sufficient reason for denying it to Amos, but they admit that it may not be in its original place. Still others, though conceding that the abruptness in transition is very marked, accept it as coming from Amos and retain it in its present position. In view of this divergence of opinion, it may be best, for the present, to retain the verse where it now stands and to interpret it as an utterance of Amos. But when this is done the interpretation still remains doubtful. In fact, two interpretations are possible: one connecting Amo 6:2 more closely with Amo 6:1, the other joining Amo 6:2-3 ff. If the former is accepted, the verse is an illustration of the superiority of Israel, justifying the designation “chief of the nations”; the localities named are examples of marked prosperity, which is, however, far inferior to that of Israel. By implication attention is directed to Israel’s greater ingratitude. The latter thought receives additional emphasis in Amo 6:3-6, leading up to the announcement of judgment in Amo 6:7. The other interpretation sees in the cities mentioned examples of fallen greatness and makes the verse a warning to Israel. These cities, once prominent, are now in ruin; therefore, let Israel take heed, for it may suffer a similar fate. To the first interpretation the objection may be made that the cities named, especially Calneh and Gath, were not among the most prominent cities of the eighth century B.C. Would not the prophet have selected more celebrated localities, had he desired to bring before the people examples of marked prosperity? Against the second it may be said that it is exceedingly doubtful that the three places were in ruin at the time of Amos. Gath, it is true, is not named in Amo 1:7-8, but the silence is not conclusive evidence of the city’s disappearance from the scene. On the whole, the first interpretation is preferable. If we knew more of the history of the places mentioned we might understand why Amos selected these rather than some that, judging from our present knowledge, appear to have been more prominent in his day.
Calneh Not the Calneh of Gen 10:10, but the Calno of Isa 10:9. Where the place is to be sought is not quite certain.
Various identifications have been proposed; the most probable is that which connects Calneh with the Assyrian Kullani, mentioned in the Eponym Canon as having been conquered by Tiglath-pileser III in 738. Since in that year the latter was fighting in northern Syria, Kullani must have been located there; and it has sometimes been identified with the modern village Kullanhou, about six miles from Arpad, a little north of Aleppo. This identification is supported by Isa 10:9, where Calno and Arpad are named together.
Hamath In ancient times a city and city state of great prominence (2Sa 8:9; 2Ki 23:33 ; 2Ki 25:21; Isa 10:9). It is mentioned frequently in the Assyrian inscriptions; its armies fought in the battle of Karkar in 854; Tiglath-pileser III annexed a large part of its territory to Assyria; in 720 Sargon reconquered the city and flayed its king alive. The present name of the city is Hama; it is located on the Orontes, about one hundred and fifty miles north of Dan. Its population at the present time is estimated variously from thirty thousand to sixty thousand.
From the far north they are to sweep down to the far south.
Gath One of the five principal cities of Philistia (see on Amo 1:6-8). Its location is not altogether beyond doubt, though many scholars are inclined to identify it with the modern Tel-es-Safi, about eleven miles southeast of Ekron (Amo 1:8). The Tel-el-Amarna tablets bear witness to its great antiquity. In an inscription of Sargon, a city Gimtu Asdudim (Gath of Ashdod?) is mentioned, but it is not certain that this is the Gath of the Old Testament.
They The cities enumerated.
These kingdoms Israel and Judah.
Their border The extent of their territory. Having named the cities, the prophet requests his hearers to compare their own resources with those of the three cities and to decide which is the more favored. The decision he expects to be in favor of Israel. But if Israel is the more favored, how base its ingratitude!
Amo 6:3 continues the condemnation of the reckless skepticism and luxury of the nobles.
Put far away Not in reality, but in their own minds; they refuse to believe that it is near.
Evil day As described in Amo 5:18-20.
Cause the seat (literally, sitting) of violence to come near “They prepare in their very midst a place where, instead of justice, violence may sit enthroned.” Emendations are not necessary.
Amo 6:4 describes the luxury and self-indulgence.
Beds Better, divans, or, couches.
Of ivory With frames made of ivory, or whose frames were inlaid with pieces of ivory. These “ivory couches” are often mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions. Sennacherib claims to have received some as a part of the tribute paid by Hezekiah of Judah (Taylor Cylinder, III, 50. 36).
Stretch themselves While eating. The ancient custom seems to have been to sit while eating ( Jdg 19:6 ; 1Sa 20:5; 1Sa 20:24; 2Ki 4:10). Reclining is first mentioned in this passage; it may have been a foreign custom introduced by the self-indulgent nobles. The innovation would appear to the simple shepherd prophet an abomination. At a later period reclining at the table became the common custom (Mat 10:9). Another indication of wanton luxury is the eating of only the tenderest and most delicate meats.
Lambs Not the common Hebrew word for lamb, but one implying choice quality (Deu 32:14; 1Sa 15:9).
Calves out of the midst of the stall Kept there to be artificially fattened (Jer 46:21; Mal 4:2; compare Luk 15:23). The feasts were accompanied by excesses of every sort (5, 6).
Chant R.V., “sing idle songs.” Various translations and interpretations of the verb have been suggested. That the reference is to music accompanying the feasts (Amo 5:23; Isa 5:12; Isa 24:9) cannot be doubted, but since the verb occurs only in this place in the Old Testament its exact meaning is uncertain. However, R.V. is probably correct.
Viol See on Amo 5:23. Of uncertain meaning and subject to much discussion is also the last clause of the verse, in which LXX. differs considerably from the Hebrew.
Invent Or, devise, the most natural meaning of the verb here.
Instruments of music, like David Since no other canonical book speaks of David as the inventor of musical instruments, margin R.V. reads “like David’s,” that is, like those owned by David (1Sa 16:18). Cheyne changes the text so as to remove all reference to David and reads Amo 6:5, “who play on timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of song.” Marti reads, “who consider themselves equal to David in understanding songs.” There is no external evidence warranting these emendations. If the present text is original, whether we accept the usual or marginal translation, the passage is important in a discussion of the dates of the psalms and of the relation of David to the Psalter, as showing that even at this early date David enjoyed the reputation of possessing extraordinary musical skill, even though the allusion here is not to sacred hymns. For the reason mentioned above some commentators, thinking a reference to musical instruments out of place, translate the Hebrew “melodies of song” or “airs of song.” This translation, however, is contrary to the common usage of the word.
Drink wine in bowls The noun is used commonly to designate the basin in which the sacrificial blood was received; but the emphasis is not on this fact; rather on the large size of the drinking vessels. Cups of ordinary size were too small, they substituted large bowls. Chief ointments [“oils”] The finest and most expensive (see on Joe 1:10).
The thoughts of the nobles were entirely self-centered; their chief ambition was to satisfy their own lusts and fancies; others, even those whose guardians and protectors they should be, must look out for themselves.
Grieved Literally, made sick. The present condition and prospects for the future were such as to make a sensitive person sick in heart and mind, but the selfish nobles had no concern.
Affliction Literally, breach, or, wound. Including the present corruption, which was a sore in the body politic, and the coming calamity, which would inflict incurable wounds (Isa 1:5-6).
Joseph See on Amo 5:6.
Amo 6:7 announces the inevitable judgment.
Therefore now The force of the latter is logical, not temporal; the two should be read together, as in Hebrew, “Therefore now,” that is, because of the utter incompetence of the nobles.
Go captive See on Amo 4:3; Amo 5:27; Amo 7:17.
With the first Now they regard themselves superior to all; they will retain the lead when the calamity falls.
Banquet Better, R.V., “revelry”; literally, loud noise.
Stretched themselves The same word as in Amo 6:4 (see there).
Shall be removed Lamentation (Amo 5:16) will take its place. The three Hebrew words of which Amo 6:7 b consists are very similar in sound; this paronomasia would make the utterance even more impressive.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Second Woe On Those Who Complacently Relaxed, Depending On YHWH’s Protection, While They Also Totally Ignored His Requirements ( Amo 6:1-14 ).
While Amos’s mission was to Israel he never overlooked the situation of Judah, and especially in decadent Jerusalem. He had already made clear in Amo 2:4-5 that YHWH had not overlooked Judah, but had already determined their punishment. And he had spoken in Amo 3:1 of the ‘whole family’ who had come out of Egypt. For to the prophets the separation of Israel from Judah was not a part of God’s ideal agenda, and they continued to see them as one. So now he introduces Judah alongside Israel in his reference to their capital cities, Zion and Samaria. Indeed we should recognise that many Israelites had taken up residence in Judah, especially in and around Jerusalem where the central sanctuary was, so that Israel’s fortunes were very much involved with Judah’s.
In this passage a ‘woe’ is declared on both Zion and Samaria, an thus on Judah and Israel, because of their complacency and their pride (with Aram decimated and subject to Israel, Egypt quiescent, Assyria not at present on the horizon (they were being kept busy elsewhere with Urartu), and Hamath, Calneh and Gath no longer as powerful as them, they saw themselves as ‘the chief of the nations’). But what they needed to recognise was that their security was a myth, and their pride folly, because their unscrupulous and idle ways would shortly bring YHWH’s judgment on them.
Amo 6:1
“Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,
And to those who are secure in the mountain of Samaria,
The men of note of the chief of the nations,
To whom the house of Israel come!”
This second ‘woe’ is directed at the leadership of Judah and Israel in both Zion and Samaria. Both were under God’s intense scrutiny as they lolled about, confident that they were safe and secure and that nothing could touch them. They arrogantly saw themselves as the noble leaders (the men of note) of ‘the chief of the nations’ (Israel and Judah). And it was to such that the house of Israel had to come for guidance and leadership!
There was something especially poignant about being ‘complacently at ease’ in Zion, which is no doubt why Amos introduces the idea here. There had been such hopes when the Name of YHWH had been established in Zion by the introduction of the Ark of the covenant (2 Samuel 6), and possibly even more so when the Temple of YHWH had been erected there and made into the central sanctuary, but as royal favour had grown in importance, and Zion had become the place to go in order to gain influence in the right quarters, the impact of the covenant had tended to diminish, and the true heart of the instruction of Moses had become lost as such men vied for position and wealth. Thus Zion, the visible centre of the truth of YHWH (Isa 2:3), had diminished into being simply another centre of secular influence and wealth, so that instead of its inhabitants thrilling to the truths of the Scriptures, and taking YHWH’s instruction out to the people (Isa 2:3), they indolently lay on their couches drinking and anointing themselves, satisfied with their own importance as rulers, along with Samaria, of ‘the chief of the nations’.
Not having our historical perspective, and unaware of the full truth about the world in which they lived, it was quite possible for these men actually genuinely to see their nations of Israel and Judah as ‘the chief of the nations’. Egypt was quiescent and now kept itself to itself. Assyria was far off, little known and troubling no one (except Urartu). Aram had been previously neutralised by the Assyrians, and were now subject to Israel. Calneh, Hamath and Gath could not bear comparison with them, and were also probably subject to them as well. The remainder of the surrounding nations like Moab, Ammon, Edom, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Gaza were no threat. Israel and Judah were thus top dogs within their spheres of activity, expanding their borders in all directions, and extremely proud and self assured at the fact. We can see why, as a result of this, they had even been able to think in terms of a ‘day of YHWH’ when He would enable them to rule over a world about whose size they had a very limited conception (Amo 5:18).
Amo 6:2
“Pass you to Calneh, and see, and from there go you to Hamath the great. Then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms? or is their border greater than your border?”
A comparison is made here between Israel/Judah on the one hand and three former great city states within the area of their activities on the other. And the question is being asked as to whether these states could bear any comparison with a resurgent Israel/Judah (‘these kingdoms’) in either quality or size, expecting the answer ‘no’, thus demonstrating that Israel/Judah were ‘the chief of the nations’.
(Some, however, see ‘these kingdoms as referring to Calneh, Hamath and Gath and therefore as indicating that any presumption to be the chief of the nations was folly).
Calneh was farthest north, associated with Arpad, and probably the Kullani of Assyrian tribute lists, being some few kilometres/miles north-north-east of Hamath (compare Isa 10:9). Hamath, on the east bank of the Orontes and on the main trade route from the north, was to the north of Damascus. Gath was, of course, in Philistia. All three had in the past been great city states but were by this time somewhat diminished, with Hamath and Gath at least subject to Israel and Judah (see e.g. 2Ki 14:28; 2Ch 26:6, compare 2Ch 11:8). We know that Gath had been devastated by Hazael of Aram (2Ki 12:17), and had always had an especially close association with Israel/Judah (in the beginning through Achish, see 1Ki 2:40), and it may well be that Calneh and Hamath, who stood in the way that led from Assyria to Egypt and Palestine, had both been considerably weakened by the same Assyrian activity as had so devastated Damascus, so that their glory was no more. This obvious diminution in power may have been why they were held up as examples. It may also be, as previously suggested, that it was because all three were in some way at present under the control of Israel/Judah (e.g. 2Ki 14:28).
There are four ways in which to see these words:
1) We may see them simply as a comparison made in order to vindicate the claim that Israel and Judah were the chief of the nations, (reading ‘these kingdoms’ as indicating Israel and Judah), and spoken by Amos as a simple matter of fact.
2) We may see them as a comparison made in order to vindicate Israel and Judah’s claim to be the chief of the nations on the same basis, but taken as spoken by the leaders of Israel/Judah as a boast.
3) We may see them as Amos moving on to warn of coming judgment on Samaria/Zion by pointing to these three nations as having already suffered diminution, and asking Israel/Judah if they really thought that they were any better than these.
4) We may see them as asking whether Israel/Judah were any better than these other city states (reading ‘these kingdoms’ as referring to the city states).
Amo 6:3-6
“You who put far away the evil day,
And cause the seat of violence to come near,
Who lie on beds of ivory,
And stretch themselves on their couches,
And eat the lambs out of the flock,
And the calves out of the midst of the stall,
Who sing idle songs to the sound of the viol,
Who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David,
Who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
But they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.”
Amos now paints a picture of an indolent, arrogant Israel. He sees them as ignoring the evil day that is threatening because of YHWH’s displeasure at their ways, and instead as engaging in all kinds of violence in order to obtain their ends, and as indolent and greedy, revelling in luxury, and as totally unconcerned for the state of Israel, and for the way that the poor were continually being afflicted.
“You who put far away the evil day.” They dismissed the possibility of Israel suffering under YHWH’s anger, and experiencing the ‘evil day’ mentioned in Amo 5:18, as a result of their ignoring of their covenant obligations (the anger and its consequences as described in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28-29), thereby failing to recognise that the day of YHWH was coming with all its darkness and hopelessness (Amo 5:18-20). After all, they said, do we not offer up our offerings regularly and generously, and engage in religious feasts, and make love to the gods through the cult prostitutes, and fill the air with incense? Surely the gods, (even YHWH), must be happy with this. What more could YHWH want? And they pointed out in vindication that wherever they looked all that they could see was prosperity and advancement. Where was this ‘evil day’? They failed to recognise that it was in fact just around the corner.
(How equally foolish are we when we spend our time in gaining for ourselves wealth and a name, and in seeking out pleasure and enjoyment, and looking at the things that are seen, and fail to consider the things that are unseen and the need to be about establishing the Kingly Rule of God over men when the judgments of God and the coming of Jesus Christ are just around the corner).
Others, however, see the reference to the ‘putting far away of the evil day’ as indicating the use of divination for the discernment of what day and periods were ‘unlucky’ and avoiding the evil days by staying in luxury at home, thus ‘justifiably’ avoiding their responsibilities while enjoying their leisure.
‘And cause the seat of violence to come near.’ In contrast to their ‘putting far away’ of the evil day (when YHWH sits in judgment), is their ‘bringing near’ of the seat of violence, that is, their own judgment seat by means of which they twist and distort justice. (Had they not put away thoughts of retribution they would never have dared to do what they did). This has in mind the fact that the judiciary sat to make their decisions, ready to use violence and oppression as their instruments, so as to ensure that the rich and powerful got their way, by open violence if necessary, and even more by covert ‘pressure’.
‘Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches.’ Beds inlaid with ivory were the height of expensive luxury and the picture is of the nobility lying indolently on them, basking in their luxury (while many starved), and having come easily from their seat of violence to their couch of luxury.
‘And eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall.’ To eat lambs and calves was another sign of luxury. In an agricultural nation to eat the livestock, except when it had been offered in thanksgiving to YHWH or to back up a vow, was frowned on, for they were seen as the very basis of the nation’s wealth and provided milk and wool. It was only the wealthy city dwellers who could behave in such a way.
‘Who sing idle songs to the sound of the viol, who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David.’ The picture is men idling away their time in pleasure by singing with no purpose other than enjoyment when they should have been actively putting right the wrongs in the country. They sang idly while the poor of Israel suffered. This is not a criticism of David who made his instruments while watching the sheep. The ‘like David’ is seen as being a comment from their own lips. These people do it idly while doing nothing for the people, totally careless about their responsibilities, but likening themselves to David although without having his conscience and concern.
‘Who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief oils (the firstfruit of the oils).’ They lie there constantly drinking wine from large bowls and pouring expensive oils over themselves (which took away their odours and also killed their lice), indolently and luxuriously unaware of the misery around them for which they were supposed to take responsibility.
‘But they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.’ And in all their luxury and rich living they had no regard for the sufferings of the common people. They experienced no grief at the misery around them, for whilst Israel had grown prosperous that wealth had gone to the comparatively few, and the poor were even more exploited and hungry.
Amo 6:7
“Therefore will they now go captive with the first who go captive,
And the revelry of those who stretched themselves will pass away.”
Because of their behaviour and attitudes they will be in the van of those who will be taken into exile, and for them there will be no more revelry, for it will have passed away. So much for their sense of ease and security. And in Samaria, which is chiefly in mind here, it would happen within short forty years.
Amo 6:8
“The Lord YHWH has sworn by himself,” says YHWH, the God of hosts, “I abhor the excellency of Jacob (or ‘Jacob’s pride’), and hate his palaces, therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is in it.”
The Lord YHWH Himself now added His condemnation to that of Amos. Indeed He took the situation so seriously that He swore an oath by Himself, the most sacred of oaths (compare Amo 4:2; Amo 8:7 for YHWH’s further oaths). And His oath was that because He hated all the outward show of excellence of Jacob (Israel), and their pride and arrogance, including all their ostentatious palaces, therefore He would deliver up the city to destruction, and all that was in it. And such would be the devastation and slaughter that everything about the slaughter would be unusual. There would be no male survivors, honourable burial would be forbidden, and there would be no official mourning for the dead. For it would be YHWH Himself Who would have done it.
Amo 6:9
“And it will come about, if there remain ten men in one house, that they will die.”
What He would do is now spelled out. Such would be the devastation and slaughter that if during it a large household be reduced to just a few (ten) men, those few men would also die. This time there would be no survivors to carry on the name.
Amo 6:10
“And when a man’s uncle will take him up, even he who burns him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and will say to him who is in the innermost parts of the house, ‘Is there yet any with you?’ and he will say, ‘No’, then will he say, ‘Hush, for we may not make mention of the name of YHWH’.”
And when a relative come to burn the bodies so that they may take the bones away for burial (compare 1Sa 31:12-13), he would call to one who was within the house (possibly in hiding) and ask if anyone was with him, and the answer would be ‘no’. No men would be left. Possibly the idea of the burning here indicates that the situation would be very similar to that of Saul after his death. The bodies would have to be stolen away for burial because burial was being forbidden by those who wanted to make a show of the bodies. Alternatively the thought may be that plague would have stricken the house, finishing off what the invaders had started and resulting in the need to burn the bodies.
Furthermore, with such death and devastation around them there would normally be mourning for the dead, a calling in distress on the Name of YHWH, but here they were forbidden to do so because they had to recognise that it was YHWH Himself Who had brought this devastation on them. There was no one left to appeal to. The ‘hush’ signifies that they are to wait in silence in the face of YHWH’s activity, recognising its inevitability (compare Hab 2:20; Zechariah 2:17; Rev 8:1). They may weep, but so sacred was the situation as YHWH carried out His judgment that YHWH’s Name must not be brought into the situation. No attempt must be made to prevent from carrying out His set purpose. Or it may signify that such was YHWH’s hatred of Samaria’s sins that to call on YHWH’s Name would simply be to bring on them more of the same as they reminded Him of how evil they had been. Both may, of course, be in mind.
Amo 6:11
“For, behold, YHWH commands, and the great house will be smitten with breaches, and the little house with clefts.”
And here is why YHWH’s Name must not be called on for assistance. It is YHWH Himself Who is in charge of operations and commanding that the large houses be broken down, and their walls breached, and the small houses (which were too small for their walls to produce what could be called ‘breaches’) should be broken down and their walls cracked open. The picture is one of total destruction of all buildings.
Amo 6:12
“Will horses run on the rock? Will one plough there (or ‘the sea’) with oxen? that you have turned justice into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,”
And all this would occur because Israel had done what was totally incongruous. No horse would run over the rocky ground, for it would soon lame itself. No oxen would be called on to plough the sea (or the rocky ground) because it would be ludicrous. But Israel had done the equivalent in that they had turned justice (what should have been so sweet) into the poison of gall, and the fruit of righteousness (delightful to the taste) into bitter wormwood. In other words they had turned the meaning of justice and righteousness upside down, totally distorting the ideas beyond comprehension so that what they indicated was no longer acceptable, but abhorrent.
‘Will one plough the sea with oxen?’ This translation is obtained (through a changing of the pointing only), by dividing babbqariym into babbaqar yam, using the same consonants from the original Hebrew text.
Amo 6:13
“You who rejoice in a thing of nought, who say, ‘Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?’ ”
Furthermore the absurdity continued. They boasted about their own strength when before YHWH it was nothing. They claimed to have ‘grown themselves horns’ (become powerful) as a result of their own strength and ability. When all the time they would simply be like a man wearing home-made horns battling in single combat against a great wild ox (Assyria).
Alternately we may translate as ‘you who rejoice about Lo-debar, who say, have we not taken for ourselves Karnaim by our own strength?’. Lo-debar (see 2Sa 9:4-5; 2Sa 17:27; Jos 13:26) was in northern Gilead (in Transjordan), and Karnaim even farther north in Aramaean territory. Both had been in the hands of Aramaean forces and had been delivered by the Israelites. The thought is then that they were boasting in their petty conquests, (note that their confidence was very much in themselves and not in YHWH), not having the faintest realisation of the armed might that would soon come against them which without YHWH they would be helpless to resist.
Amo 6:14
“For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, says YHWH, the God of hosts, and they will afflict you from Libo-Hamath to the brook of the Arabah.”
And they would soon discover the truth about themselves. For YHWH, God of all the hosts in heaven and earth, was about to raise up a nation against them so powerful that they would afflict them from Libo-Hamath (a now identified city) on their northern borders, to the brook of the Arabah, at the southern end of the Dead Sea, in the south (compare 2Ki 14:25). Local invasions usually resulted in only losing part of their territory, but this invader would be so powerful that they would take over the whole land from one end to the other.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Two Woes ( Amo 5:18 to Amo 6:7 ).
It may be that we are to see the ‘alas, alas’ (ho ho) of Amo 5:16 as leading into these two ‘woes’ (hoy, hoy, a longer form of ho) in Amo 5:18 and Amo 6:1. But certainly Amos now introduces two woes/alases. The first ‘woe/alas’ is in respect of their false hopes about the day of YHWH, which they are wrongly expecting will bring them great benefits, and the second is in respect of the fact that they are at ease when they should rather be desperately concerned. Both thus deal with misunderstanding and complacency on the part of Israel.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The People Guilty of Security and Luxury
v. 1. Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, v. 2. Pass ye unto Calneh, v. 3. Ye that put far away the evil day, v. 4. that lie upon beds of ivory, v. 5. that chant to the sound of the viol, v. 6. that drink wine in bowls,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Amo 6:1-6
With a second woe the prophet denounces the chiefs of the whole nation, who were quite satisfied with the present state of things, and, revelling in luxury, feared no coming judgment.
Amo 6:1
Them that are at ease in Zion; living in fancied security and self-pleasing (Isa 32:9, Isa 32:11; Zep 1:12). Judah is included in the denunciation, because she is equally guilty; the whole covenant nation is sunk in the same dangerous apathy. Septuagint, , “them that set at naught Zion.” The same rendering is found in the Syriac, and can be supported by a small change in the Hebrew. It may have been intended thus to confine the announcement to Israel alone, in conformity with the prophet’s chief scope. But he has introduced mention of Judah elsewhere, as Amo 2:4; Amo 6:5; Amo 9:11, and his sense of his own people’s careless ease may well lead him to include them in his warning. Trust in the mountain of Samaria. The city was deemed impregnable, and it kept the Assyrians at bay for three years before it was finally taken (2Ki 18:9, etc.; see notes on Amo 3:9 and Amo 4:1). Another rendering, not so suitable, is, the careless ones upon the mountain of Samaria. The point, however, is the supposed impregnability of the city which occasioned a feeling of perfect security. Which are named chief of the nations; rather, to the notable men of the chief of nations; i.e. the principal men of Israel, which had the proud title of the chief of the nations because it was beloved and elected of God, and was designed to keep alive true religion, and to set an example to the rest of the world (Exo 19:5; Nm Exo 1:17; Deu 4:20; 2Sa 7:23). Septuagint, , “they plucked the chiefs of the nations,” where the verb is a mistaken Tendering. To whom the house of Israel came; or, come. Resort for counsel and judgment (2Sa 15:4), and who ought therefore to be patterns of righteousness and equity. The rendering of the Vulgate, ingredientes pompatice domum Israel, “entering with pomp into the house of Israel” (which does not agree with the present Hebrew text), implies that these chieftains carried themselves haughtily in the congregation of Israel.
Amo 6:2
Pass ye. Go and compare your condition with that of other countries, from the furthest east to the north, to your own neighbourshas not God done more for you than for them? Nothing is said about the destruction of the three capitals, nor is Samaria threatened with similar ruin. Rather the cities are contemplated as still flourishing and prosperous (though by this time they had suffered at their enemies’ hands), and Israel is bidden to remember that she is more favoured than they. Calneh, one of the five great Babylonian cities, is probably the Kul-unu of the inscriptions, a town in Southern Babylonia, whose site is unknown. In Gen 10:10 and Isa 10:9 the LXX. call it Chalanne or Chalane; in the present passage they mistake the Hebrew, and render, , “pass ye all by”. St. Jerome identifies it with Ctesiphon, on the east bank of the Tigris. Others find in it Nopher or Nipur, the modern Niffer, some sixty miles southeast of Babylon. As one of the oldest cities in the world, ranking with Babel, Erech, and Aecad, it was well known to the Israelites. Hamath the great; Septuagint, . This was the principal city of Upper Syria, and a place of great importance. In after years it was called Epiphania, after Antiochus Epiphanes (Gen 10:18; Num 34:8; Isa 10:9). It fell in Sargon’s reign, B.C. 720; afterwards it lost its independence, and was incorporated in the Assyrian empire. Oath of the Philistines. One of their five chief cities, and at one time the principal (1Ch 18:1). The site is placed by Porter at Tell-es-Safi, an isolated hill; standing above the bread valley of Elah, and “presenting on the north and west a white precipice of many hundred feet.” Dr. Thomson considers Gath to be the same city as Betogabra, Eleutheropolis, and the modern Beth Jibrin, which is some few miles south of Tell Safi. He thinks the site of Tell Sift is not adapted for the seat of a large city, and he saw few indications of ancient ruins there; whereas Beit Jibrin has in and around it the most wonderful remains of antiquity to be found in all Philistia. It had probably declined in importance at this time (see note on Isa 1:6), but its old reputation was still remembered. It was taken by Uzziah, but seems not to have remained long in his possession (2Ch 26:6). In the year B.C. 711 Sargon reduced Ashdod and Garb, which he calls Gimtu Asdudim, i.e. Gath of the Ashdodites. Be they better? Have they received more earthly prosperity at God’s hands than you? Is their territory greater than yours? No. How ungrateful, then, are you for all my favours (comp. Jer 2:5-11)! Schrader and Bickell regard the verse as an interpolation, grammatically, metrically, and chronologically inadmissible; but their arguments are not strong, and Ames makes no mention of the fate of these cities.
Amo 6:3
Ye that put far away the evil day. They assigned a distant date to the time of punishment and calamity; they would not look it in the face or contemplate it as approaching and ready to come upon them. Septuagint, , “Ye who are coming unto the evil day.” The Alexandrian manuscript has , “ye who pray for” (Amo 5:18), with which the Syriac seems to agree. The Vulgate (as Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion), taking the verb passively, renders, qui separati estis in diem malum. But it is beat to translate it as above, in the sense of “repelling,” “putting away with aversion,” as in Isa 66:5. And cause the seat of violence to come near. They erected the throne (shebheth, “the sitting,” or “enthroning”) of violence in their midst, made themselves the subjects and slaves of wickedness and oppression. The LXX; mistaking shebheth for shabbath translates, . “Ye who are drawing near and clinging to false sabbaths.”
Amo 6:4
That lie upon beds of ivory; couches inlaid with ivory (see note on Amo 3:15) at meals. The prophet substantiates his denunciation by describing their selfish luxury and debauchery. Stretch themselves literally, are poured out; Septuagint, , “wantoning.“ Out of the midst of the stall. Calves put up to be fattened. They do this presumably net on festivals, when it would have been proper and excusable, but every day.
Amo 6:5
That chant. The word parat ( ) means rather “to prattle,” “to sing idle songs,” as the Revised Version translates it. The reading of the Septuagint varies between . “excelling,” and , the latter of which words might mean “applauding.” Viol (see note on Amo 5:23). Invent to themselves instruments of music, like David. As David devised stringed instruments and modes of singing to do honour to God and for the service of his sanctuary, so these debauchees invented new singing and playing to grace their luxurious feasts. The Septuagint rendering, which Jerome calls “sensus pulcherrimus,” is not to be explained by the present Hebrew text, however true to fact it may be considered, . “Regarded them as abiding and not as fleeting things.”
Amo 6:6
Wine in bowls (misraqim); sacrificial bowls; used in libations of wine and in the sprinkling of blood (comp. Exo 38:3; Num 7:13, etc.; 1Ch 28:17; 2Ch 4:8, 2Ch 4:22; Zec 9:15; Zec 14:20). These vessels the luxurious and sacrilegious princes employed in their feasts, proving thus their impiety and their excess (comp. Dan 5:2). Septuagint, , “who drink strained wine.” The chief ointments. Such as were used in Divine service (Exo 30:23, etc.), and nowhere else. If they had felt as they ought to feel in this time of rebuke and sorrow, they would, like mourners, have refrained from anointing themselves (Rth 3:3; 2Sa 14:2); but, on the contrary, they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. The coming ruin of the ten tribes affects them not; in their selfish voluptuousness they have no sympathy with calamity and suffering, and shut their eyes to coming evil. “The affliction of Joseph” is probably a proverbial expression derived from the narratives in Gen 37:25, etc; and Gen 40:14, Gen 40:23 (comp. Gen 42:21).
Amo 6:7-11
Here follows the announce. merit of punishment for the crimes mentioned above: the people shall go into captivity; they shall be rejected of God, and given over to utter ruin.
Amo 6:7
With the first. They shall have a pre-eminence indeed, being the first to go into captivity. St Jerome, “Vos qui primi estis divitiis, primi captivitatis sustinebitis jugum, secundum illud quod in Ezechiele scriptum est: ‘a sanctuario meo incipite'” (Eze 9:6). With the first; literally, at the head, with reference doubtless to Amo 6:1. The banquet (mirzakh); the screech of revellers. The word is used of the scream of mourners in Jer 16:5; here of the cries and shouts of feasters at a banquet. Them that stretched themselves on couches, as Jer 16:4. The Septuagint, reading differently, has. “They shall depart into captivity from the dominion of princes, and the neighing of horses shall be taken away from Ephraim.” From this passage of Amos St. Augustine takes occasion to show that the most untrained of the prophets possessed eloquence and literary skill (‘De Doctr. Christ.,’ Amo 4:7).
Amo 6:8
Hath sworn by himself (nephesh); in anima sua (Vulgate), “by his soul;” a concession to human language (comp. Amo 4:2; Jer 51:14; Heb 6:13, Heb 6:17, Heb 6:18). God thus shows that the threat proceeds from him, and is immutable. The excellency; the pride; that of which Jacob is proud (Hos 5:5), as, for instance, his palaces, built by exaction, maintained in voluptuous luxury. Will deliver up to the enemy for destruction (Deu 32:30; Oba 1:14).
Amo 6:9
If there remain ten men in one house. If these escape death in war, they shall die of famine and pestilence in the three years’ siege of Samaria (2Ki 17:5). If the prophet is still referring to the rich chieftains, ten would be only a poor remnant of the inhabitants of their palaces. The LXX. adds, very unnecesarily, , “And those remaining shall be left behind.”
Amo 6:10
The prophet gives an instance of the terror and misery in that common calamity. He depicts a scene where the nearest surviving kinsman comes into the house to perform the funeral rites for a dead man. And a man’s uncle; better, and when a man‘s kinsman; the apodosis being at the end of the verse, “Then shall he say.” Dod is sometimes rendered “beloved,” but usually “father’s brother,” but it may mean any near relation upon whom, in default of father and brethren, would devolve the duty of burying the corpse. Septuagint, el : propinquus suus (Vulgate). And he that burneth him; literally, and his burner. This is the same person as the kinsman. the butler; but tot some reason, either from the number of deaths, or from the pestilence, or from the distance of the burying place, which would be out of the city and inaccessible in the blockade, he cannot lay the body in the brave, and is forced to take and burn it. Though the Jews generally buried dead bodies, cremation was sometimes used, both in honour or emergency (1Sa 31:12) and in punishment (Le 20:14; 21:9). The bones; i.e. the corpse, as in Exo 13:19; Jos 24:32; and 2Ki 13:21; Keil. The kinsman takes it up to bring it out of the house to burn it. Him that is by the sides of the house; him that is in the innermost parts of the house; qui in penetralibus domus est (Vulgate). This is the last living person, who had hidden himself in the most remote chambers; or it may be a messenger whom the kinsman had sent to search the house. He asks himIs there yet any with thee? Is there any one left alive to succour, or dead to bury? And he shall say, No; Vulgate, et respondebit, Finis est. Then he (the kinsman) shall say, Hold thy tongue (Has!); Hush! He stays the man in the inner chamber from speaking; and why? For we may not make mention of the name of the Lord; Vulgate, et non recorderis nominis Domini. Some, as Pussy, Schegg, and Gandell, see here the voice of despair. It is too late to call upon God now; it is the time of vengeance. We rejected him in life; we may not cry to him in death. St. Jerome refers the prohibition to the hardness of heart and unbelief of the people, who even in all this misery will not confess the name of the Lord. Keil says, “It indicates a fear lest, by the invocation of the name of God, his eye should be drawn towards this last remaining one, and he also should fall a victim to the judgment of death.” Others again think that the notion in the mind of the impious speaker is that Jehovah is the Author of all their calamities, and that he is impatient at the very mention of his name. The simplest explanation is the first, or a modification of it The person addressed is about to pray or to call on God in his distress. “Be silent,” says the speaker; “we can no longer appeal to Jehovah as the covenant God; by naming him we call to his remembrance how we have broken the covenant, violated our relation to him; therefore provoke him not further by making mention of his name.”
Amo 6:11
The prophet confirms the judgment denounced in Amo 6:8. The Lord commandeth, and he will smite. The expression, thus taken, implies that God executes his commands through the ministers of his judgment; but it may well be rendered, “and men shall smite” (comp. Amo 9:9). Breaches clefts. The great palace requires a breach to bring it to the ground; the little but is ruined by a small rent or cleft. All houses, great and small, shall be smitten. Possibly Israel and Judah are signified respectively by “the great house” and “the little house” (comp. Amo 9:11); and their treatment by the Assyrians may be thus symbolized.
Amo 6:12-14
The prophet shows the folly of these evil doers who think in their own strength to defy judgment and to resist the enemy whom God is sending against them.
Amo 6:12
Shall horses run upon the rock? Can horses gallop safely over places covered with rocks and stones? Will one plough there with oxen? Do men plough the rock with their oxen? The answer, of course, is “No.” Yet your conduct is equally foolish, your labour is equally lost. Some, dividing the words differently, translate, “Does one plough the sea with oxen?” which reminds one of the Latin proverb, “Litus arare bubus.” Thus Ovid, ‘Ep. Heroid,’ 5:115
“Quid facis OEnone? Quid arenae semina mandas?
Non protecturis litora bubus aras.”
For ye have turned; or, that ye have turned. Judgment into gall (see note on Amo 5:7). Hemlock. Some plant with an acrid juice. Ye turn the administration of justice, which is “the fruit of righteousness,” into the bitterest injustice and wrong. It were “more easy,” says Pusey, “to change the course of nature or the use of things of nature, than the course of God’s providence or the laws of his just retribution.”
Amo 6:13
In a thing of nought; a nothinga thing which does not really exist, viz. your prosperity and power. Horns; symbols of strength (Deu 33:17; 1Ki 22:11); the idea being derived from the wild bull, the strongest animal of their fauna. Their boast was a consequence of the successful wars with the Syrians (2Ki 14:25-28). The prophet proceeds to demolish their proud vaunt.
Amo 6:14
I will raise up. A nation. The Assyrians. From the entering in of Hamath. A district in the upper part of Coele-Syria, hod. El-Bukaa, the northern boundary of the kingdom of Israel (Num 34:8; see on Num 34:2). The river of the wilderness; rather, the torrent of the Arabah, which is the curious depression in which the Jordan flows, and which continues. though now on a higher level, south of the Dead Sea, towards the Gulf of Akaba. The torrent is probably the Wady es Safieh, just south of the Dead Sea. The limits named define the territory which Jeroboam recovered (2Ki 14:25). The LXX. gives, , “the torrent of the west.”
HOMILETICS
Amo 6:1-7
Wantonness the way to woe.
God’s thoughts are not as ours. He sees things all round; we see but one side of them. He sees the inner reality of things; we see but their outward semblance. He sees the tendency and ultimate result of things; we but guess their probable tendency, knowing nothing of distant results whatever. Hence, in their estimates of life and of good, “the wisdom of men is foolishness with God.” The passage before us is an illustration of this The conditions of being desiderated by carnal wisdom are here declared utterly baneful, its calculations fallacious, and its canons of judgment false. We see here
I. THE GREATNESS OF THE WICKED. This is no uncommon sight (Psa 37:35), nor one whose lesson is hard to read (Psa 92:7).
1. Israel was first of the nations. (Amo 6:1.) In its palmy days, and even now, it would have compared favourably with the neighbouring heathen states (Amo 6:2). It had the power of unique knowledge. It had the greatness of a unique culture. It had the glory of a unique Divine connection (Exo 19:5; 2Sa 7:23). With an equal numerical, financial, and territorial strength, it held, in virtue of these advantages, a pre-eminence above any other people. Its wealth and magnificence were the admiration of even Oriental sovereigns (1Ki 10:1-29.); its armies, under normal circumstances, could hold their own with any of the time (1Sa 15:1-8); and the white wings of its commerce gleamed on every sea. In spite of national unfaithfulness and rebellion and wickedness, God’s promise to Abraham to make of him “a great nation” had been, in the fullest sense, accomplished.
2. These were the chiefs of Israel. (Amo 6:1.) They were magistrates, rulers, and judges of the people. They occupied the position of princes, and the house of Israel came to them for the regulation of its affairs. “They were the descendants of those tribe princes who had once been honoured to conduct the affairs of the chosen family along with Moses and Aaron, and whose light shone forth from that better age as brilliant examples of what a truly theocratical character was” (Hengstenberg), This was a proud position, and it had brought the usual amount of arrogance with it.
II. THE SECURITY OF THE GREAT. “Woe to the secure!” Conscious strength makes men and nations feel secure. As to Israel:
1. They were secure in religious privilege. “In Zion.” They presumed on their covenant relation. They ignored its sanctions, disregarded its responsibilities, and took it as a guarantee of immunity, even in sin. Religion is only good as a whole. To have its privileges without its spiritual character leads through carnal security to carnal indulgence, and so to a condition worse than to be destitute of both.
2. They were secure in strategic strength. “And to the careless upon the mountain of Samaria.” Samaria was a strong place, a mountain fortress, situated in a rich valley. It held out against Benhadad, King of Syria, defying assault, and escaping reduction even by famine (2Ki 7:1-20.). To Shalmaneser, long afterwards, it only yielded after a three years’ siege (2Ki 17:5, 2Ki 17:6). Man naturally looks for victory to “the big battalion.” This is reasonable in the case of a human enemy, but mere fatuity if the enemy be God.
3. They were secure in self-deception. “Put far away the evil day.” Security, beaten out of one retreat, betakes itself to another. Trust in our earthly resources win ultimately fail. Security in external religious advantages will some day be broken also by a rude awaking. But the Fabian policy still prevails, and proves an almost impregnable last resort. “It cannot be for a long while yet” is an argumentative device that seldom fails to reassure.
III. THE WANTONNESS OF THE SECURE. The idea of immunity is an encouragement to sin. Among Israel’s sins were:
1. Indolence. “Stretch themselves upon their couches.” This is the first temptation of wealth. Work has ceased to be necessary, and the easily acquired habit of idleness very soon develops indolence of disposition. Having nothing to do leads to doing nothing, and when a man does nothing for a while he wants to go on with it.
2. Luxury. “Lie upon beds of ivory;” “Eat lambs,” etc. Luxury is a direct result of indolence. Having nothing else to occupy their attention, men concentrate it on themselves. They make it the business of their life to coddle themselves, with the inevitable result of becoming harder to please. As the appetite is pampered it becomes more dainty, and must be tempted with luxury after luxury, if any measure of relish would be retained.
3. Effeminacy. “Who trill to the sound of the harp” (Amo 6:5). The tendency of luxury is to unman. On the discontinuance of manly exercises follows closely the loss of manly qualities. Pampering the body weakens body and mind both, and prepares the way for occupations that will be in character. Effeminacy grows fastest when nursed in the lap of luxury. The Israel that was too fastidious to lie on anything but an ivory couch, or too dainty to touch coarser fare than “the fatted calf,” was too enervated in a little while for any manlier pastime than trilling to a harp.
4. Profanity. “Drink wine out of sacrificial bowls.” “The pleasures of sin” are only “for a season.” They quickly wear out. Zest and relish fail, and satiety and disgust follow. Hence the tendency of indulgence to become more and more extravagant and eccentric. It is an attempt to stimulate failing powers of enjoyment by presenting new sensations. Then the natural heart is essential enmity against God. Accordingly, in the case of a thoroughly perverted nature, when a sinful indulgence has ceased to give pleasure as indulgence, it will continue to do so as sin. Israel had now fallen so low as this. Sensual indulgence began to pall, and it took a fresh lease of enjoyableness by becoming sacrilegious.
5. Heartless egotism. “And do not grieve for the hurt of Joseph.” Sin is essentially selfish, and the sin of self-indulgence supremely so. The happiness, and even the lives, of others are as nothing in the balance against lust. Let who may suffer, let what may happen, the sensualist will indulge. To such a person philanthropy and patriotism are alike impossible. He will “not grieve for the hurt of Joseph” even when he is himself responsible for it. He could play comfortably “while Rome burns.”
6. Increasing violence. “And bring near the seat of violence.” As destruction becomes more imminent, the violence that provokes it becomes more extreme. This is sometimes due to the blindness that will not see; sometimes to the recklessness that does not care; sometimes to the malignity that, forecasting overthrow, would do all the evil possible before it comes. In any case it is aggravated and judgment-hastening sin.
IV. THE DOOM OF THE WANTON. Here, as elsewhere, punishment answers to crime, both as to degree and kind.
1. Cherished indulgence should be interrupted. “The shouting of the revellers will depart” (Amo 6:7). This is about the first step in retributive punishment. The criminal’s enjoyment comes to be centred in his sin, and to interrupt it is a sharp blow. The retributive measure to which lust is most of all amenable is to put a stop to indulgence. Deprive the oppressor of his power, the extortioner of his opportunity, the drunkard of his drink, and already the work of taking vengeance on him is well begun.
2. Apposite hardship should be inflicted. “Shall go captive.” As captives they should endure oppression, not inflict it. For indulgence would be substituted privation in every form. They would make juster acquaintance with luxury by having the means of it wrung out of their own helplessness and misery. It is no doubt along these lines that eternal reward and punishment are arranged. Heaven will be the perfect exercise and enjoyment of all that is pure and spiritual in desire and taste. Hell, among other things, will be the cutting off forever of sinful sources of enjoyment, for which the wicked had learned to live.
3. Those who had been first among the nations should be first among the captives. This is only fitting. The guilt of any evil movement culminates in its ringleaders, and “first in transgression, first in punishment,” is a maxim of natural justice. Those who organize and officer a wicked movement are those on whom justice will lay the earliest and the heaviest hand.
Amo 6:1
Sorrow dogging the secure.
Human life is proverbially uncertain. “We know not what shall be on the morrow,” whether we ourselves shall be. “The unexpected” is always happening; and the lesson of this istake nothing for granted that is still future. In the religious sphere the application of this principle would put an end to carnal security, and at this object our text aims. As to the security denounced here, notice
I. THE SPHERE OF IT. “In Zion.” This is often in Scripture a name for the Church on earth (Rom 9:33; see on Amo 1:2). The membership of this is mixed (Mat 13:30, Mat 13:41). There are cold and hot and lukewarm among them. Some love God, some hate him; some are in equilibrio, having neither declared for him nor against him. Of the last two classes many are at ease. The ideal of spiritual life is watchfulness, activity, and self-suspicion; but these qualities need not be looked for in unspiritual men. Their fitness is not seen, nor the motives to them felt. Though in the Church, they are not of it; and the characters of their life are not those proper to the sincere believer.
II. THE MEANING OF IT. There are principles at hand on which to account for it without difficulty.
1. Preoccupation. Spiritual things ought to get our first and best and continuous attention (Mat 6:33; Mat 26:41; Luk 13:24). But they do not. The careless “eats and drink, and marry, and are given in marriage” (Luk 17:27), and so events come on them unawares. The householder relaxes his vigilance, and as a result his house is broken into (Mat 24:43). The wise virgins as well as the foolish sleep (Mat 25:5), and the bridegroom comes on them unawares. The security is foolish in proportion to the interests involved, and criminal in proportion to the number and plainness of arousing circumstances.
2. Blindness. The natural man is blind in spiritual things (1Co 2:14). He does not see the beauty of spiritual qualities (Isa 53:2), nor the self-evidentness of spiritual principles, nor the inviolability of spiritual deliverances, nor the grounds of spiritual assurance, nor the evidences of approaching Divine action, He sees neither what has been, nor what is, nor what is coming. Accordingly, he is secure and at ease in the very teeth of danger.
3. Presumption. Men do not adequately realize sin as to either its guilt or danger. They live in it equably and calmly, as if it were the normal thing. They anticipate no evil and no disturbance. They reckon on being spiritual fixtures, and on the perpetual maintenance of the status quo. They do not mean to turn, nor take account of being disturbed; but assume that there will be “no changes” forevermore. Character is become stereotyped, conscience is silent, and the quiet of strong delusion is within them and around.
III. THE VARIETIES OF IT. The secure in Zion are not all secure in the same degree or sense.
1. Some are secure in sin. They expect to sin on and suffer no evil. Either they do not recognize the inseparable connection between the two, or they trust to the chapter of accidents for something to intervene and stay proceedings before evil actually falls (Isa 28:15).
2. Some are secure in morality. They trust in the arm of flesh. They persuade themselves that they are but little to blame. They view the coming judgments as provoked by, and meant for, others. They see nothing in their own life to provoke them; and they build on this as a ground of immunity from evil when the day of it shall come. And so they are secure; less guiltily, it may be, but no more reasonably than the secure in sin (Jer 17:5; Rom 3:20).
3. Some are secure in ordinances. They locate spiritual power in Church forms. The sacraments, they say, contain and convey the grace they signify. Regeneration with them means a sprinkled face, and justification an elevated host, and sanctification an exhaustive observance of ordinances. Many are secure in the persuasion of these things. They put a hollow form of godliness for its spirit and power, and lull their souls to rest in its deep recesses.
IV. THE OCCASIONS OF IT. There is an incongruity about it that seems to call for explanation. In the case of Israel, and others like it, one cause was:
1. Unvarying prosperity. “Because they have no changes they forget God.” People calculate on uniformity. As life has been, so they easily assume it will be. A smiling world is a dangerous tranquillizer. Even the godly experience this (Psa 119:67), and the direct tendency of adversity is to prevent it (2Co 4:17, 2Co 4:18). An unbroken run of prosperity is most unfavourable to spiritual life and liveliness.
2. Luxurious living. (Amo 6:4.) The course of religion in the soul is just the progress of a warfare between flesh and spirit (Rom 7:23). To this warfare there is one uniform issuethe triumph of the spiritual principle. But victory is not won without a struggle. The spiritual principle waxes strong only under culture. The flesh gets weak only By being crucified. If it be let alone it will grow strong, much more if it is indulged and fed. Hence “fulness of bread and abundance of idleness” (Eze 16:19) are a revealed occasion of spiritual declension; and God was lightly esteemed and forsaken when Jeshurun “waxed fat, and grew thick” (Deu 32:15). Luxury is leaving its mark on all the Churches in indolence and self-indulgence and a lowered spiritual tone.
3. Companionship of the ungodly. “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise,” etc. Character propagates itselfbegets character in its own likeness. Familiarity with sin breeds tolerance of it. A sinful example is a temptation to sin. So long as men not impeccable instinctively imitate each other, association with the wicked must, to a certain extent, corrupt. The corrupter any society is, the lower will be the spiritual tone of the Church in it. All Israel were not alike guilty, nor alike secure. Many were innocent, no doubt, of the special national sins; and there is no reason to suppose that they all were recklessly at ease in Zion. But it is certain that the security of many was due to the hardening influence of the sins become familiar to his mind.
4. Sin. This is not an occasion merely, but a cause, and the most fruitful cause of all. Sin both blinds and hardens. The more sin we commit the less do we see of its consequences, the less do we fear what we can see, and the further are we from an appreciative knowledge of God in those characters which lead inevitably to the punishment of it. The climax of security is more than likely to correspond to the extreme of wickedness. It was so with Israel. Never was she more corrupt, yet never was she more recklessly at ease, than when these words were spoken.
V. THE EVIL OF IT. “Woe to them,” etc.! Wherever the security is the woe is denounced.
1. With the godly it comes before a fall. They stand by faith. That faith is not an act merely; it is a habit of soul It is not maintained at normal strength without an effort. And the frame most favourable to its maintenance at par is evident from the injunction, “Be not high-minded, but fear” (Rom 11:20). In the perfect realization of our dependence on God is the condition of abiding faith, and in the maintenance of such faith is the condition of escaping a fall From the moment Peter soared in his own imagination, his fall was a foregone conclusion (Mat 26:33, Mat 26:34).
2. With the ungodly it comes before destruction. Carnal security is in proportion to blindness, and blindness is in proportion to corruption. When a sinner is most secure he most of all deserves his doom, and is least of all on his guard against it. Hence, as the height of imagined safety is the depth of real danger (1Th 5:3). No surer sign of destruction near than the cry, “Peace, peace!”
Amo 6:3
The procrastinator family.
The fear of suffering is universal and instinctive. All the lower animals exhibit it. So do men in different ways. It is not joyous, but grievous. Human life and happiness are shaped largely by this feeling. Men make their relations to it a chief concern. If it be past, they seek compensations for it. If it be present, they seek relief. If it be coming, they try to prevent it; or, failing that, to postpone it; or, failing both, to mitigate it. And as a certain proportion of the pain is altogether mental, and due to our thoughts about it, one of the commonest palliatives for it is the endeavour to ignore it altogether. Among her other follies and sins, the attempt to do so on the part of Israel is here announced.
I. THE EVIL DAY WHICH MEN WOULD PUT OFF. This will be:
1. The day of actual evil. To the wicked there are many such days, with almost as many individual characteristics. Such a day pre-eminently is:
(1) The day of death. This is the king of terrors. To the wicked it means the end of all the good they know of, and the beginning of sufferings of every possible kind and a magnitude inconceivable. It is, therefore, the day of evil in a sense peculiar to itself.
(2) The day of visitation for sin. Such days are sure and frequent. Israel had experienced many of them, and the reminiscence was not agreeable. They had brought, and might again bring, every calamity for body, mind, and estate short of utter destruction. They were evil days in a very emphatic sense, and as such were specially feared.
2. The day of imagined evil. Such days would be:
(1) The day of submission to God, which is an evil day in the estimation of pride.
(2) The day of forsaking sin, which is disagreeable to lust.
(3) The day of coming into relation to spiritual things, against all which the carnal mind is enmity. For such things the “more convenient season” is convenient in proportion as it is or can be regarded as distant.
II. THE FOOLISH DEVICES BY WHICH MEN TRY TO ACCOMPLISH THE IMPOSSIBLE. A foolish thing is never attempted for a wise reason or in a wise way. As to the evil day:
1. Some do not practically believe that it is coming at all. They minimize their own guilt, which is the provoking cause. They magnify the considerations which bear in the direction of postponement. They ignore the sure Word of God, which denounces inevitable suffering on sin. The result is an amount of ignorance or scepticism about the matter sufficient to prevent its exercising any practical effect. It is believed in a vague and heedless way, but not so as to lead to appropriate, nor in fact to any, action.
2. Some trust to the chapter of accidents. They know the evil day is denounced. They know it is coming. They know that, if it comes, it will involve them in its calamities. But they hope events will take some happy turn. and something indefinite, but highly convenient, will occur, which will change the issue, and prevent the crisis from touching them (Isa 28:15). All sinners persist in the life of sin, yet hope, somehow or other, to escape hell.
3. Some endeavour not to think about it at all. They, of set purpose, divert their attention from the subject. They refuse to “consider their latter end.” They busy themselves about other things. They insanely act as if the danger would be annihilated by being ignored. Into this snare of the devil many fall. They cannot see the nearness of the evil day who refuse to look at the matter. Blinder and more stupid than the ox or the ass is the people that will not consider (Isa 1:3).
III. THE LAST STATE OF THE PROCRASTINATOR, WHICH IS WORSE THAN THE FIRST. What he gains is a heritage of woe (Amo 6:1). As to the coming of this, it is evident:
1. He cannot prevent it. God makes his own arrangements and keeps to them. We cannot resist his power. We cannot change his purpose. His word on any matter is the last word, and fixes it once for all. What he has spoken, and as he has spoken, must come to pass.
2. He cannot postpone it. The justice, goodness, and wisdom that combine in fixing an event enter also into the timing of it. All possible considerations are taken into account, and infinite power no more surely does the thing it means than at the time it means. It would be as wise to attempt and as easy to accomplish the defeat of God’s purposes as their postponement. Our mental and active attitude are alike inoperative as to both.
3. He disqualifies himself for facing it. “Be ye also ready” is the Divine prescription in reference to the unrevealed date of the day of God. To be unready is to face it at tremendous disadvantage. To be inexpectant besides is to aggravate the disadvantage to the very utmost. Prepare and watch are equally essential conditions of meeting the day of God in safety. Wilful delusion about the event means woeful injury by it. Men ought to be prepared for what is sure to come, and when it comes be in expectation of it. “Be ye also ready;” “Watch therefore.” By the confluence of these streams of action is made the river of a life “throughly furnished.”
Amo 6:6
The dry eye of the destroyer.
“But they are not grieved for the hurt of Joseph.” Of the many aspects of Israel’s sin, this is among the most repulsive. It is bad enough to sin against our brother, and by our wrong doing to blight his life; but it makes the crime hideous to look, uncaring and callous, on the desolation we ourselves have wrought.
I. ONE MAN‘S SUFFERING IS A FIT OCCASION OF ANOTHER MAN‘S SORROW. Men are brothers (Act 17:26), and owe a mutual regard for each other’s concerns (Php 2:4). Suffering is evil, and the proper relation toward those enduring it is sympathy (1Jn 3:17). God pities the afflicted, and compassion in him is the reason and measure of its dutifulness in us (Mat 9:36; Luk 10:33-37). We cannot disregard the sufferings of men without sinning against God and against our own humanity.
II. THE GREAT OBSTACLE TO SYMPATHY IS THE SELFISHNESS OF SIN. This leads to atheism on the one hand, and misanthropy on the other. The first man showed this tendency, the second that. Adam failed in regard for God, Cain in regard for his brother. But both transgressions arose out of the one sinful character of selfishness. Adam violated God’s command because he preferred his own way; Cain destroyed Abel’s life because he thought less of it than of his own wounded self-love. And all men, in proportion as they are sinful, are selfish, inconsiderate, and misanthropic. Love is of God, and rules where God dwells. Where God dwells not we have men “hateful and hating one another.” Selfishness and disregard of others’ happiness is the very mark and token of a corrupt nature.
III. SELFISHNESS IS WORST IN KIND WHEN MANIFESTED TOWARD OUR OWN KINDRED. In addition to the philanthropy which has its basis in the brotherhood of the race, is the stronger affection which arises out of nearer ties. “Our neighbour,” “our own,” “those of our own household,” are, in an ascending scale, the prescribed and natural objects of our love and care (Mat 19:19; 1Ti 5:8). In proportion to the closeness of our relation to an individual is the normal strength of the tie between us, and so the guilt of disregarding it. The disregard of Israel for Israelites was selfishness of a peculiarly heartless kind. It was the sin of brother against brethren, and involved the violation of blood ties sacred by every law.
IV. THE GREATEST DEGREE OF SELFISHNESS IS THAT IN REGARD TO THE SUFFERINGS OF OTHERS, INFLICTED OR BROUGHT ABOUT BY OURSELVES. In Israel, the men who disregarded the judgments decimating the nation were the men whose wickedness had brought them on. They were indifferent, in fact, about sufferings of which they were themselves the authors. And they have their counterparts in the world still. The drunkard who ruins his own family, the libertine who ruins the family of his neighbour, are the only men in the community who “care for none of these things.” The explanation is that special sin produces special hardness of heart, and the man whose wickedness involves society in misery is the man who, by the very fact, is constituted most incapable of feeling it.
Amo 6:8-11
Wrath revealing itself in judgment.
The squaring of a sinner’s account with God is of necessity a bitter experience. It is the last fact in a wide induction, and completes our knowledge of what sin really is. The best and only adequate view of this is reached when a man reads it in the light of its punishment. We are enabled to perform this office for Israel’s crying and incredible wickedness here.
I. THE WORD THAT CANNOT BE BROKEN. Accommodating himself to our mode of conceiving things, God condescends to give assurance of his faithfulness in three degrees of assertion. The word that cannot be broken is:
1. What God says. “Thy Word is truth.” God can neither err nor lie. He does when he promises (Num 23:19). He does as much as he promises. He does exactly the thing he promises, The fact of his truth lies at the foundation of all religion and all knowledge. Because he is true, we not only believe his testimony absolutely, but we believe absolutely the testimony of our own consciousness as being his gift.
2. What God swears. In itself his word is as good as his oath. But to our apprehension there may be a difference. For God to swear is an act of special condescension. It is making a great concession to our unbelief, and the limitation of our faculties, that God conforms to our human modes of making solemn affirmation, in order if possible to win our implicit credence for his words (Heb 6:17). His oath, added to his word in any matter, is for fullness of confirmation and assurance, and is a specially gracious act. What he swears by himself. In default of a greater, God swears by himself (Heb 6:13). He is “the true God,” and a “God of truth.” An oath in his name has the highest sanction possible, and assumes its most solemn form. God’s oath in his own name is as sure as his own existenceis, in fact, a putting of his existence in pledge for the word of his mouth.
II. THE ESSENTIAL ANTAGONISM BETWEEN DIVINE HOLINESS AND HUMAN SIN. This is extreme, utter, and necessary.
1. God does not hate men, but their sin. He is not said to do so here. The statements elsewhere, that he hates the wicked (Psa 5:5; Rom 9:13), must be taken in connection with the clearly revealed fact that he also loves them (Joh 3:16), and loved his people while they were of them. It cannot be that he loves the wicked and hates them in the same sense. His love has reference to their humanity, his hatred to their sinfulness (Rom 1:18). He hates them as sinners, yet loves them as men; forgives them often, yet takes vengeance on their inventions (Psa 99:8).
2. God‘s hatred of sin extends to the occasions of it. “I abhor the pride of Jacob.” God’s abhorrence of sin extends to everything that tends to produce it. Pride or loftiness, being in itself sinful, and a fruitful occasion of sin, he must hate. Excellence or greatness, whether imaginary or real, is, in so far as it leads to pride, included in the reach of the Divine abhorrence. Sin, like a cesspool, fouls all approaches to it. It is spiritual treason, and attaints its nearest of kin.
3. It includes even the scenes of it. “And I hate his palaces.” The palaces were closely connected with the sin. They were built with the wages of unrighteousness, for luxurious gratification, and as a means to further exaction. Accordingly, as at once an expression of sin and an accessory of it, they were hateful in God’s sight. God’s attitude in the matter is the model for ours. If we are baptized into his Spirit we shall “hate even the garments spotted by the flesh.” Not only is sin hateful, but all that leads to it, all that borders on it, all that has any connection with it. Even the remotest contact with it will be hateful to the spiritually minded.
III. THE SWEEPING JUDGMENTS THAT EXPRESS A HOLY WRATH. These are set forth in various forms and degrees of severity.
1. The capital would be delivered up. “And give up the city and the fulness thereof.” Samaria, the capital, was the strength and pride of Israel. It was the impregnable metropolis, the great storehouse of national wealth, the seat of government, the home of luxury, the social, political, economical, and military centre of the kingdom. To destroy it was like taking the heart out of their kingdom at one fell stroke. Notwithstanding this, or rather perhaps because of this, it would be captured and pillaged. In sin it had set the example, and taken the lead, and in punishment its leading position would be retained.
2. Not even one out of ten should escape. (Amo 6:9.) Such sweeping destruction as this was almost unheard of. Even Sodom and Gomorrah were not more utterly destroyed. This was due ultimately to the almost universal impenitence, and proximately to the length and stubbornness of the fighting. God would not allow the persistently impenitent to escape, and the Assyrian armies, his instruments, would not spare the obstinate defenders of Samaria, who had kept them three years at bay.
3. The straggling survivors should be in abject fear of the almost universal fate. (Amo 6:10.) The solitary survivor is no nearer faith in God than those who have been destroyed. He does not cast himself on his mercy. He does not even in that dreadful hour seek his face. His stupid but thoroughly characteristic impulse is to hide away from his presence. Apart from Divine grace, sin committed drives away from God (Gen 3:8), and punishment approaching drives further still (Rev 6:16). In prosperity the wicked will not even fear God; in adversity, if they fear, they still refuse to trust him.
4. The work of destruction would be carried out systematically and in detail. (Amo 6:11.) Neither palace nor cabin should escape. The great house would be broken into great pieces, and the small house into small pieces. God’s judgments are nothing if not effective. The greatest cannot defy, nor can the smallest elude them. The destruction of each shall be elaborately and circumstantially complete.
IV. GOD THE AUTHOR OF THE PUNISHMENT PROCURES. “The Lord commandeth,” etc.
1. The sin of man is often a factor in the accomplishment of God‘s purpose. It was so with the transportation of Joseph (Gen 45:5, Gen 45:8; Gen 1:20), with the death of Christ (Act 2:23; Act 4:28), and with the affliction of Israel by Assyria (Isa 10:5-7). The actors are in each case impelled by their own evil motives, aim at their own evil ends, use their own evil means, and act altogether of their own free will; and yet, when they succeed, the result is found to serve some important collateral interest they think nothing of, and so to be part of the infinitely good purpose of God. It is thus that God accomplishes his wilt by the instrumentality of men, without infringing on their perfect freedom, or being implicated in the sin which, in unconscious furtherance of it, they commit. The Assyrian destroying Israel in an unjustifiable war was at once carrying out God’s purpose and sinning against him.
2. God destroys the chosen people, not as “Israel,” but as “Jacob.” “Israel,” the covenant name, is given them in connection with promises of covenant treatment. God blesses them as “Israel,” and afflicts them as “Israel,” and even decimates them as “Israel,” all these being elements of a gracious discipline. But destruction is not so. It is the penalty of a covenant already broken, and God marks them out for this by the uncovenanted name of “Jacob.”
Amo 6:12-14
The doomed people who will not turn.
Sin brings often present gain, but it never pays in the end. When the balance is struck, the wrong doer always finds it on the wrong side of the book. A sinner is one who sets himself against God, and in the nature of things ignorance cannot overreach knowledge, nor weakness overcome omnipotence. Israel had long been under instruction in this matter, and they would see it one day when the knowledge would be too late. Many Scripture maxims are illustrated here.
I. “BEHOLD, YE ARE OF NOTHING, AND YOUR WORK OF NOUGHT.” (Amo 6:13.) “In a thing of nought;” literally, a “non-thing,” a phantasm, what has an appearance of being, and yet is not.
1. Human strength is nothing. It is nothing in comparison with God’s. It is nothing apart from God’s. Being derived wholly from God, it has no existence independent of him. It is, therefore, virtually and practically “a thing of nought;” incapable of being used for any purpose either against him or irrespective of him.
2. Out of nothing nothing comes. Human power being a nonentity, belief in it is delusion, trust in it is baseless, and expectation from it must be disappointed. Doubly, therefore, and trebly “cursed is he that maketh flesh his arm.”
3. Yet it is in this nonentity that men rejoice. Sin is at bottom a deification of self. We believe in ourselvesin our own power and knowledge and excellence. We are satisfied with ourselves, expect great things from ourselves, and rejoice in ourselves (Psa 10:6; Psa 52:7). Only by a work of grace are we disabused of our carnal confidence and won to a higher trust. It is as complementary of our “trusting in the Lord” that we “lean not to our own understanding.”
II. “WHO CAN BRING A CLEAN THING OUT OF AN UNCLEAN? NOT ONE.” (Amo 6:12.) Israel joined oppression to unrighteousness, and out of this endeavoured to bring themselves lasting gain. This is likened to an attempt by the husbandman to cultivate the rock. It implies:
1. Utter futility. The husbandman does not attempt impracticable things. He knows there is no fertility in a bare rockno soil for crop, no bed for seed, no furrow for plough; and so he cultivates the good soil, and leaves the rook alone. And no more than till the rock for a harvest need men seek safety by wrongdoing. They cannot find it so. It is not where they seek it. Good cannot come out of evil by natural generation, for it is not in it.
2. Loss instead of gain. An attempt to plough the rock, like every other offence against the nature of things, must be worse than futile. It means lost time, lost labour, and broken implements. So with the perversion of justice, and the corruption of the fruit of righteousness. It is evil, and can only lead to evil. It increases the sum total of the wickedness that provokes Divine wrath, and itself creates a new source of danger.
III. “THEREFORE LET NO MAN GLORY IN MEN.” (Amo 6:13.) It is the very essence of unreason.
1. It is a crime. It involves departure from God. The soul is capable of sustaining but one great attachment at a time. We cannot love both the Father and the world, or “serve God and mammon,” or “make flesh our arm,” without our heart departing from the Lord. And it is not only that the two trusts are one too many; they are incompatible and mutually destructive. To deify serf, and defy Jehovah, are acts of the same moral quality. The blindness, and only the blindness, that is capable of the one is capable of the other.
2. It is a blunder. It is putting faith in the faithless. It is attributing power to the impotent. It is pitting the creature against the Creator, the vessel against the potter, the thing formed against him that formed it. Only disappointment can come out of this. A pierced hand is the natural and inevitable penalty of leaning on a broken reed. “Hast thou an arm like God,” etc.?
IV. “O ASSYRIAN, THE ROD OF MINE ANGER.” Israel’s overthrow was decided on, and the instrument of it prepared.
1. War the minister of God. He does not command, nor authorize, nor sanction it. He forbids the lusts of ambition and greed and revenge that lead to it. He inculcates a love of others which, carried out, would make it impossible. The progress of his religion leads to the diminution of war, and its final establishment will coordinate itself with the turning of war into peace to the ends of the earth. Yet, as with other evil things, he permits it to happen, controls its operation, utilizes its results, and makes it a means of good, and the minister of his holy will. War has always been a prominent agency in the judgments that fall on nations. And a terrible agency it is, more ruthlessly destructive than any other. It expresses all the evil qualities of corrupt humanity, deserving the poet’s scathing words
“O war, thou son of hell,
Whom angry Heavens do make their minister.”
And war, apart from its severity as a scourge, is well calculated to be disciplinary. As a revelation of human wickedness, it indirectly lays bare to us the plagues of our own heart. Linked hand in hand as it is, moreover, with deceit and treachery, it exhibits carnal human nature as “a thing of nought,” and so is an effective antidote to confidence in the flesh
2. The heathen the rod in his hand. God is not fastidious in the matter of instruments. He uses every man, however vile, for some purpose or other. Israel, moreover, was so enamoured of the heathenof their gods and worship and waysthat to know them in the character of enemies and conquerors and masters would be a great advantage. It would be in these capacities that the worst effects of idolatry on the human character would show themselves, and closer acquaintance with them might help to disenchant the idol loving Israel.
3. Victory always on God’s side. God, for the time being, would be on the Assyrian’s side. Without reference to the intrinsic merits of the struggle, as between parties almost equally wicked, he would help the heathen to overcome the apostates. Israel’s victories over the nations were due, not to their own valour or strength, but to God’s assisting arm (Psa 44:2, Psa 44:3). Left to themselves, they would be utterly beaten now. The difference between defeat and victory is the difference between the God-forsaken and the God-defended.
4. God-sent affliction covers all the ground covered by the provoking sin. “And it shall oppress you from the entrance Hamath”the extreme northern boundary (Num 34:8)”to the brook of the desert,” the southern boundary, whether “the brook of the willows,” Isa 15:7 (Pusey), or the present “El Ahsy” (Keil). This territory they had recovered under Jeroboam II; and lost soon to Tiglath-Pileser, defeat and loss retracing to the last inch the steps of conquest. Not only was “the whole scene of their triumphs one scene of affliction and woe” (Pusey), but the very thing, and the whole thing, which they had made an occasion of pride and carnal confidence, vainly deeming that they had conquered it in their own strength, is made an occasion of humiliation and distress. The only way to put us out of conceit with our idol is to destroy it all, and destroy it utterly.
Amo 6:13
Joy in the unreal always precarious.
It is quite unaccountable. It is almost incredible. But it is unquestionably true. Men reject the staff, and lean upon the broken reed. Whatever is worthy of trust they doubt, whatever is utterly unreliable they confide in. This was the way of Israel, and it is the way of humanity. They do not see the reality of things. They attribute to them qualities they do not possess, qualities sometimes the very opposite of the actual ones. Then they act on their theory of things, and rejoice in a figment, the creation of their own fancy, whilst repudiating or disregarding real and reliable objects of trust.
I. THE THINGS THAT ARE “THINGS OF NOUGHT.” The arm of flesh, or human help, as against God’s strength, is the “non-thing” or nonentity referred to primarily. But the expression is capable of wider application. Among the nonentities are:
1. All things sinful. This is an extreme case. Sin is an ephemera, offering only what fleets away. It is a negation, the privation of all good. It is a phantasm, having an appearance of good with no reality below it. It is a deception, having a lie at the bottom of it. It is a non-thing in a unique sense.
2. All things material. The positivist only believes in material phenomena, as those of which alone he has positive knowledge. But these are really the most uncertain phenomena there are. The bodily sense that notes them is more certain, and the thinking mind that has cognizance of the bodily sense is more certain than either, and the ultimate test of the existence of both. What we know most surely and directly is spirit. Observation may be incorrect, and lead us astray, but consciousness speaks only truth. If there are things which “are not as they seem,” they are physical, as distinguished from psychical things.
3. All things temporal. These are evanescent in their nature. “The world passeth away.” They are still more evanescent in their form: “The fashion of this world passeth away.” They are doubly evanescent in their character as a means of happiness; for not alone the world, but the “lust thereof,” passeth away. This evanescence means unreality. The thing that perishes in the using is conspicuously a thing of nought. Such a thing is human nature, and each of its temporal blessings and relationsin other words, human life. It is a vapour on the hill, a bubble on the stream, a ripple on the wave, a meteor in the sky, an unsubstantial thing that passes and leaves no trace.
4. All things created. God, the “I Am,” is essential Existence. He alone hath immortality, exists of himself and from himself. The existence of creatures is derived, an existence from God and in him. It is not, therefore, real as God’s is. We are phantoms, he is reality. We are shadows, he is substance. Creation as contrasted with the Creator is a “non-thing,” a thing of nought.
II. THE CHARACTER THAT FINDS ITS JOY IN UNREALITY. This character is one with a wide geographical range. It might almost be said to belong to sinful man as such. As to its qualities, it is:
1. Blind. Such a man “cannot see afar off.” He does not see things through and through. He does not see things as they are. He sees things through coloured glasses. He dwells in the superficies of things. He is deceived by appearances. He confounds the qualities of things. He cannot, in fact, be said to “know anything as he ought.” The blindness of our heart is a universal infirmity. Sin blinds, and prejudice blinds, and infirmity blinds us all; and the most convincing proof of the fact is that we choose the worst and poorest in the universe, and often and long reject the true riches.
2. Prejudiced. The blindness that permits us to rejoice in the flesh must have prejudice behind it. It involves a wrong condition of heart. “The carnal mind is enmity against God” is a maxim which explains the rejection of him by the sinner. “They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh” is one which explains his choice of sin. In the spiritual, as in other departments, things follow their affinities.
3. Prowl. Well says the poet
“What the weak head with strangest bias rules
Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.”
It misreads altogether the proportions of things. It has an overweening estimate of self. “Thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think,” and “thinking God to be altogether such a one as ourselves,” the transfer of trust from heaven to earth, is not alone natural, but inevitable.
III. THE JOY WHAT FLAMES WITHOUT FUEL. That there should be such joy at all is an abnormal thing. A priori it is not what we should expect. And we are prepared to find something anomalous about a joy that could exist in such circumstances. This we do.
1. It is a passing joy. It cannot last. The meteor irradiating the sky, the thorns crackling under the pot, both blaze and both burn quickly out. The fire has too little to feed on. It is only a puff, and done with. So with joy in the earthly. It has an unsubstantial and unenduring basis. The thing it rests on perishes, and it cannot itself endure.
2. It is an unreal joy. It is not alone that it has reference to an ephemeral thing, but to an unsubstantial thing. It is a mere figment of the mind; an appearance rather than an existence; not a fire in the proper sense, but a phosphorescence.
3. Its unreality is the parent of real woe. To rejoice in a nonentity is a course on which disappointment clearly waits. It also involves distrust, and so incurs the wrath of God. No man can deceive himself with impunity. The line of action into which his false notion wilt lead him mast end in calamity. Mistaken opinion associates itself with unfitting action, and this in turn with undesired results. He who follows the fen fire lands in the fen.
4. Of all who rejoice in a thing of nought the most hopelessly deceived are the self-righteous. With others the trust is something apart from religion, and adopted in preference to it. But with the self-righteous it masquerades in the name of religion itself. There is an idea, either that nothing is wrong, or that the man can help himself. In either case Divine help is despised. God’s right is spurned. The one only way is refused. And on the moral impossibility of escaping if they neglect so great salvation, the self-deluded soul makes shipwreck. “Behold, all ye that kindle a fire,” etc.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON
Amo 6:1
Religious indifference and false security.
Amos was a native of the southern kingdom, but his ministry was mainly to Israel. His impartiality appears in the censures and reproaches which he addresses, as in this passage, to both Judah and Samaria. But the description applies to professing Christians today as accurately as if it had just then been written, and had been explicitly applied to such. How many who are called to devotion and diligence are “at ease,” are “confident,” or “secure”!
I. THE DISPOSITION AND HABIT HERE CONDEMNED. The following elements are to be recognized.
1. Self-satisfaction.
2. Self-indulgence.
3. Indifference.
4. Carelessness.
5. Negligence.
II. THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH AGGRAVATE THE SIN OF INDIFFERENCE AND SECURITY. In the case of those here addressed we observe:
1. That they resided in places which were themselves a reminder of the character of Jehovah and of his past “dealings” with the chosen people.
2. That they occupied positions fitted to inspire them with a sense of personal responsibility. They were the distinguished chiefs of the nationsthe men to whom the people looked as their leaders, and in whom they might reasonably expect to find an example of piety, unselfishness, and zeal
3. That they lived in times when the judgments of God were abroad, and when insensibility to duty and religion were all the more inexcusably culpable.
III. THE EVIL FOLLOWING UPON THE DISPOSITION AND HABIT HERE CONDEMNED.
1. Divine displeasure is prophetically declared against those who are at ease when they should be at work, against those who are secure and confident when they should be examining and judging themselves, and beginning a new and better life.
2. Moral deterioration cannot but follow upon such a state of mind as is here depicted. The slothful are the first to feel the ill effects of their sloth; the habit grows, and a religious, not to say an heroic, life becomes an impossibility.
3. National disaster and punishment are entailed by the indifference and unfaithfulness of those who are called to be a nation’s guides and rulers.T.
Amo 6:3
Putting away the evil day.
By the “evil day” must be meant the day of account and reckoning which comes to all men and to all communities. As surely as there is a moral government and a moral Governor in the universe, so surely must all reasonable and intelligent natures be held responsible for their conduct and for their influence. Yet it is no unusual thing for men to follow the example of those who are censured in this verse.
I. THE THOUGHT OF A DAY OF ACCOUNT IS UNWELCOME TO THE UNFAITHFUL AND THE IRRELIGIOUS. Such persons need not be disbelievers in judgment, in accountability; they may accept the assurance of their own reason and conscience that an account must be rendered to the Judge of all. Yet, as the thought of a reckoning is one altogether repugnant to them, they persuade themselves that it may be indefinitely deferred. It must come, but it may not come yet; it may not come for a very long time; indeed, may be so remote that it need not be taken into consideration in arranging the plans of life. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”
II. THE DEFERRING OF THE THOUGHT OF THE DAY OF ACCOUNT WILL NOT DEFER THE DAY ITSELF. Moral law is never inoperative, is never suspended. Judgment lingereth not. The history alike of nations and of individuals proves that there is a Ruler on high, who is not remiss in carrying out his purposes. There is a reckoning in time; there will be a reckoning in eternity.
“Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience he stands waiting, he exactly judgeth all.”
It is irrational and futile to imagine that by forgetting responsibility men can efface it. Such a supposition reminds of the action of the foolish ostrich who thrusts his head into a hush, and, because he loses sight of his pursuers, supposes that he has eluded them. There is no discharge in this war.
III. NEGLIGENCE CONCERNING RESPONSIBILITY MAY EVEN HASTEN THE APPROACH OF THE INEVITABLE DAY OF ACCOUNT. They who forget their accountability to God for their unfaithfulness are likely to be confirmed in their sinful courses; and, as iniquity abounds, judgment approaches. Thus the dreaded retribution is hastened rather than postponed; and the evil day which men would fain put far from them is brought near, and the tempest, which they dread and would avoid and escape, breaks upon them in all its force and fury.T.
Amo 6:4-7
The sin of dissolute life.
A herdsman and gatherer of wild figs like Amos, brought into contact with the nobility and the courtiers of a wealthy and luxurious city like Samaria, was likely enough to be shocked and scandalized. The judgments he formed were naturally severe, but they were not unjust or passionate. His language remains a merited and everlasting rebuke to those in high station who live for their own gratification and indulgence.
I. A LUXURIOUS AND DISSOLUTE LIFE IS A SHAMEFUL MISUSE OF PRECIOUS OPPORTUNITIES. It is sometimes judged that those who are “born in the purple,” those who inherit great estates, great wealth, are to be excused if they form in youth, and retain in manhood, habits of expensive self-indulgence. But as all men are, above all, the children of God, endowed with a spiritual nature and entrusted with sacred opportunities, it is not to be for a moment admitted that the advantages of high station absolve them from the obligations involved in human nature and human life. A man has no right to pamper the body and exalt it to a lordship over the spirit; he has no right to gratify his tastes as though self-gratification were the great end of existence.
II. A LUXURIOUS AND DISSOLUTE LIFE IS MORALLY DEBASING AND DEGRADING. No one can live below the appointed level of humanity without paying the inevitable penalty, without incurring the inevitable deterioration. The light burns dim; the fine gold turns to clay. The couch of indolence, the feast of gluttony, the voluptuous music, the brimming bowls of wine, the costly unguents,these are dangerous indulgences. Men may give them fine names, and call them the bounties of Divine providence. And it is quite true that the evil is not in the instruments of self-indulgence, but in the bad uses to which they are put. But none can live merely for bodily, for aesthetic, for social, enjoyment, without injuring his own character, without losing self-respect and the esteem of those whose esteem is worth having.
III. A LUXURIOUS AND DISSOLUTE LIFE ON THE PART OF THE GREAT IS A BAD EXAMPLE TO THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE. Bad habits penetrate from the so called upper to the so called lower class. When the nobility and gentry are self-indulgent, the tradespeople who grow wealthy are likely to follow their example, and the poor are likely enough to grow envious and discontented. The Samaritan chiefs were reproached for misleading the people, and justly. The ignorant and the thoughtless are naturally influenced by an example of selfishness, and none can altogether escape receiving some measure of harm.
IV. A LUXURIOUS AND DISSOLUTE LIFE RENDERS THE GREAT INSENSIBLE TO THE AFFLICTIONS OF THE POOR AND OPPRESSED. The language of the prophet is very touching: the self indulgent “are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.” Wrapped up in their own enjoyments, comforts, and luxuries, the great fail to sympathize with those whom we call “the masses.” A self-denying and benevolent and public-spirited course of conduct would have precisely an opposite effect. There is no reason m the nature of things why nobles should not feel with and for the poor and unfortunate; as a matter of fact, they often do so. But those whose absorbing thought is of self have neither heart nor time to give to their less-favoured neighbours.
V. A LUXURIOUS AND DISSOLUTE LIFE OFTEN INVOLVES A SPEEDY AND FEARFUL RETRIBUTION. The table of the epicure is overthrown. The sybarite is dragged from his palace, and sent away into exile. Those who have been worthless members of their own state become banished mourners in a strange land. And the song of pleasure is exchanged for the wail of woe.T.
Amo 6:11
The Lord commandeth.
It was the office and function of a prophet to lose himself in becoming the vehicle of Divine communications, the organ of Divine decisions. His prefatory words were these: “Thus saith the Lord.” He saw and felt the Lord’s presence, not only in his own ministry, but in all the events that occurred in the range of his observation, whether affecting individuals or nations.
I. THERE IS AN ELEMENT OF AUTHORITY IN EVERY WORD OF THE LORD. Whether God addresses to men language of rebuke or reproach, of entreaty or of threatening, he speaks with authority. His invitation is that of a King; it is a command When our Lord Christ spoke in the course of his ministry, he spoke with authority. The Divine judgment is always correct, the Divine will is always obligatory.
II. ALL AGENCIES AND INSTRUMENTALITIES ARE OBEDIENT TO THE LORD‘S BEHESTS. It is so with the forces of nature. “The stormy wind fulfilleth his word;” “His ministers are a flaming fire.” It is so with the institutions of human society, with the purposes and the activities of men. The hand which is visible in a work may be that of a creature; the power that directs that hand may, nevertheless, be creative wisdom and creative might. God gives the word; it is executed by ten thousand ministers of his holy will. He maketh even the wrath of man to praise him.
III. THE POWER OF THE GREATEST AMONG MEN IS INCAPABLE OF RESISTING THE DIVINE COMMANDS. The “great house” and the “little house” alike are smitten when the Lord makes bare his arm. Israel and Judah, the prince and the husbandman, may know that nothing can protect them from the might of the Eternal when his decree of judgment has gone out against them. Well may the people that rebel against God tremble and fear, and remember that they are but men.T.
Amo 6:12
The vanity of the sinner’s principles and hopes.
The perfect naturalness and genuineness of Amos must be apparent to every reader. The sources from which he drew his graphic imagery were his own life and experiences. As a husbandman employed upon the land, he was brought into contact both with the phenomena of nature and with the processes of agriculture; and from these sources his mind was supplied with the bold similitudes which occur in his prophecies. Wishing to depict the irrational and absurd suppositions and expectations of the sinful and rebellious, he compared them to husbandmen who should attempt to drive horses up a steep cliff, or to plough the hard, barren rock by oxen.
I. JUSTICE IS THE ETERNAL LAW OF THE MORAL UNIVERSE. Here is the true and Divine bond of human society; here is the principle which should govern earthly rulers, judges, and princes. The higher men’s station, the greater men’s power, the more important is it that justice should guide and inspire their conduct.
II. IN A CORRUPT STATE OF SOCIETY OPPRESSION AND VIOLENCE ARE SUBSTITUTED FOR JUSTICE. Amos complained that the kings and nobles of Israel were guilty of the basest and most degrading conduct; they exchanged the sweet and wholesome fruit of righteousness for the bitterness of gall and wormwood and the poison of hemlock, i.e. for bribery, for violence, for oppressiveness. History is full of such instances. The noble institutions of society are perverted into instruments of personal ambition, aggrandizement, and wrong. Cruel kings, luxurious nobles, corrupt judges, are morally disastrous to the state; their example spreads through all classes, and faith, honour, and purity decay and perish.
III. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE THAT TRUE PROSPERITY SHOULD PREVAIL WHERE THE FOUNTAIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IS POISONED. The great men of Israel had come to confide in their own strength, in their military power, and, like so many in high estate, thought that physical force was sufficient to secure a nation’s greatness. The prophet justly characterizes such a doctrine as “a thing of nought,” a nonentity, an absurdity! As well may horses climb the scaur, as well may oxen plough the bare, hard rock, as a nation prosper which has renounced the Law of God, and is attempting to base its success upon physical force, military prestige, ostentations luxury, judicial corruption. We in our own days need not look far for an exemplification of the folly of such confidence. “Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.”T.
Amo 6:14
The hand of God seen in national retribution.
Coming when it did, this prophecy was an unmistakable proof of Divine foresight. Samaria was rejoicing and boasting because of a temporary victory obtained by her arms. The kingdom of Israel had taken horns, and by its own strength had pushed back the foe from the borders. This was the moment appointed for Amos to utter the faithful warning contained in this verse. Subsequent events proved the predictive authority from which this language proceeded. The advance of Assyria soon reminded the unbelieving and impenitent of the warning to which they had been indifferent. But we are chiefly concerned to trace the truths and to draw the lessons regarding Divine government upon earth, which this prediction so strikingly unfolds.
I. THE FACT THAT A NATION IS CHOSEN BY GOD FOR A SPECIAL PURPOSE DOES NOT EXEMPT THAT NATION FROM THE OPERATION OF THE LAWS OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. It is sometimes represented that the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were treated by the Ruler of all with an especial favouritism. But such a view cannot be justified from the sacred records. Undoubtedly, this nation was selected for high purposes, and appointed to occupy a position of enlightenment and eminence; but this was in order that the Jews might fulfil the purposes of God’s wisdom, might in the fulness of the time produce the Messiah, and might become a blessing to all the nations of the earth. But never was a nation subjected to more stringent discipline than the Hebrew theocracy endured. No transgression was unnoticed or unchastised. Such afflictions have indeed seldom been endured as Israel has known, both in ancient and in modern times.
II. GOD, WHO IS NOT CONFINED TO ANY SPECIAL AGENCIES, HAS OFTEN EMPLOYED ONE NATION AS THE SCOURGE BY WHICH ANOTHER NATION HAS BEEN CHASTISED. It may be asked why Assyria, an idolatrous nation, should be employed to punish the transgressions of Israel. To such a question we can give no answer; but we may point out that the moral qualities of the chastising instrument have no bearing upon the purposes of punishment. God raiseth up one and setteth down another. History is full of examples of this principle. Amidst very much that is mysterious, there is not a little that is plain. Only in the most general way is it permitted us to interpret the methods of the Divine government. But the authoritative language of this and other passages of Scripture assure us that he who doeth according to his will among the inhabitants of the earth is impressing his own great lessons and fulfilling his own great designs by the changes which occur among the nations. Even wars, conquests, and captivities are the means by which God’s Law is vindicated and God’s kingdom is advanced.
III. NATIONAL TRIBULATION MAY BE THE MEANS OF NATIONAL PURIFICATION AND PROGRESS. Punishment is not an end in itself; however deserved and just, it is inflicted with a view to the good of the community or individual punished, or the good of human society at large. We can to some extent trace, in the subsequent history of the Hebrew people, the beneficial results of the conquest and captivity here foretold. Idolatry, at all events, came to an end; more spiritual views of religion became general; the nation, or that portion of it which returned to the land of promise, was prepared for giving birth to the Messiah, and for furnishing the elements which were to constitute the primitive Church. Thus God brought the light of morning out of the darkness, and a spiritual spring from the long winter of affliction.T.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS
Amo 6:1-6
Woeful ease.
“Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!” etc. “This chapter embraces the character and punishment of the whole Hebrew nation. The inhabitants of the two capitals are directly addressed in the language of denunciation, and charged to take warning from the fate of other nations (Amo 6:1, Amo 6:2). Their carnal security, injustice, self-indulgence, sensuality, and total disregard of the Divine threatenings are next described (Amo 6:3-6). After which the prophet announces the Captivity and the calamitous circumstances connected with the siege of Samaria, by which it was to be preceded (Amo 6:7-11). He then exposes the absurdity of their conduct, and threatens them with the irruption of an enemy that should pervade the whole country (Amo 6:12-14)” (Henderson). The words of our text (Amo 6:1) denounce a state of mind which most men desiderate”ease.” Amidst the harassing cares, turmoils, and agitating events of life, men on all hands are crying out for ease. Like mariners that have long battled with tempests, they long for a calm sea in which to drop anchor and be at rest. But here there is a fearful “woe” denounced against ease. What is this ease?
I. IT IS THE EASE OF PRIDE. These great nations, Judah and Israel, the one having its seat in Zion and the other in Samaria, because of their imaginary superiority as the chief of the nations, settled down in carnal security. Those that dwelt in Zion, or Jerusalem, felt themselves safe because of its historic grandeur, its temple, the dwelling place of the Almighty, and its mountain fortifications. Those that dwelt in Samariathe ten tribeshad the same false confidence in their safety. The mountains of Samaria, the seat both of the religion and government of a strong people, they relied upon, free from all apprehension of dangers. It was the ease of pride and overrated power.
II. IT IS THE EASE OF RUIN. “Pass ye unto Calneh [this was an ancient city built by Nimrod] and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great [one of the chief cities of Syria]: then go down to Gath of the Philistines [the great city in Philistia].” Remember these cities, be they better than these kingdoms? Are you who live at Zion and Samaria greater people than they were, more strong and invincible? Yet they are gone. Calneh gone, Hamath gone, Gath gone. All are in ruins, long, long ago. Why, then, should you feel yourselves safe and be at ease in Zion and Samaria? Their example condemns your false security and predicts your ruin. The ease here denounced is like the ease of stolid indifference or the ease of a torpid conscience, terribly general, fearfully criminal, and awfully dangerous. It must sooner or later be broken. The hurricanes of retribution must sooner or later lash the sleeping ocean into foaming fury. Souls are everywhere sleeping on the bosom of volcanoes. Oh for some voice from the heavens above or the earth beneath, to startle the men of this generation!
CONCLUSION. Learn from this subject:
1. That the mere feeling of security is no infallible proof of safety. Men are prone to deceive themselves. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Some men, like the drunkard whose vessel is going down, feel themselves safe because they are unconscious of the danger. Some men feel themselves safe because of the confidence they have in objects that are utterly unable to sustain them. The only feeling of security that warrants safety is that which springs from a conscious trust in God. Such as have this can say, “God is our Refuge and Strength,” etc.
2. That great advantages may prove great curses. It was a great advantage for Judah to have Zion, and Israel to have Samariagreat in many respects, national and religious. But these advantages, because they were overrated, trusted in, put in the place of God himself, proved to them most disastrous. So it ever is. Our civilization, our literature, our Churches, our Bibles, have proved curses to millions, and will perhaps to millions more. The Pharisee in the temple is an illustration of this.
3. That retributions which have overtaken others should be a warning to us. The prophet calls upon these men of Judah and Israel to remember Calneh, Hamath, Garb. “All these things,” says Paul, “happened unto them for ensamples.” Learn to read our fate in history. Ungodly nations, where are Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome? Ungodly Churches, where axe the Churches of Asia Minor?D.T.
Amo 6:3
Man’s evil day.
“Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near.” This is another denunciation addressed to the great men in Zion and Samaria. They are said “to keep the day of calamity afar off, and bring the seat of violence near” (Delitzsch). Three remarks are suggested by these words.
I. ALL MEN HAVE AN “EVIL DAY” IN THEIR FUTURE. Even the holiest men, men whose path through life has been most calm and prosperous, have to expect certain calamities that befall all. There are trials common to all men, whatever their condition or characterafflictions, bereavements, infirmities; these await most men. There is one evil day, however, for us all. Death is in many respects an “evil day.” What mysterious sufferings it generally involves! What privileges and pleasures it terminates! What disruptions it produces! Sinner, thy death will be an evil day; and it is before thee, and it is nearer now than ever.
II. SOME MEN ADJOURN IN THOUGHT THIS “EVIL DAY.” They “put far away the evil day.” Ungodly men put this evil day so far on in the course of time that they seldom discern it and never realize it. It is a mere speck, seldom visible on the horizon of many years of unclouded sunshine. Why do men adjourn in thought this evil day?
1. Not because they have any doubt as to its advent. No day is more certain. Sooner shall all the wheels of nature be stopped than the sun of this day fail to break on every eye. “It is appointed to men once to die.”
2. Not because they lack reminders of its approach. Every physical pain, every tolling knell, every funeral procession, every graveyardall remind us almost every moment that our evil day is coming. Why, then, adjourn the thought? The reason is found:
1. In the strength of our material attachments.
2. In our dread of the mysterious.
3. In our lack of interest in the spiritual and material.
4. In our conscious want of preparation for the scenes of retribution.
III. NONE WHO ADJOURN THIS “EVIL DAY” IN THOUGHT CAN DELAY IT IN FACT. “And cause the seat of violence to come near.” Perhaps what is meant here is that these men so ignored their coming calamities that by their conduct they hastened them on. Ignoring the evil day, they pursued such a course of injustice, falsehood, dishonesty, sinful indulgence, and impiety as served to bring it nearer. Thus the more they put it off in thought the nearer it drew, because they became more self-destructive in their conduct. A general truth is suggested here, viz. that a man who adjourns all thought of his end will pursue such a course of conduct as will hasten its approach. Some men imagine that by thinking upon death they will hasten its advent; hence their dread of making wills. But such is not the fact. He who keeps the evil day in view, rightly regards it, prepares for it, will render such a practical obedience to the laws of health as to delay rather than hasten it. “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”D.T.
Amo 6:4-7
Carnal indulgence.
“That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall,” etc. Here is a sketch of the way in which these leading men of the chief nations luxuriated in carnal pleasures and sensual indulgences. Observe two things.
I. THE MORAL TORPOR OF CARNAL INDULGENCE. Observe two things.
1. These people wrought entirely for the senses. See how they slept! They provided themselves with “beds of ivory.” They did not require rest for their weary limbs, otherwise beds of straw would have done. They wanted to be grand, they loved glitter, hence “beds of ivory.” Here is the lust of the eye. See how they ate! “And stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall.” They abounded in superfluities; they partook of the choicest dainties of nature, and that in a recumbent position. Here is the lust of the palate. See how they sang! “That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David.” Musical sounds gratified their auricular sensibilities, and they chanted to the “viol.” Here is the lust of the ear. See how they drank! They “drink wine in bowls.” Small vessels would not do; they must take long, deep draughts of the pleasing beverage. Here again is the lust of the palate. See how they anointed themselves! With the chief ointments.” They regaled their olfactory nerves with the choicest perfumes of nature. Here is the lust of the smell. See how indifferent they were to the suffering of the true Church of God! “They are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.” What a description this of a people that lived and wrought entirely for the senses! They were practical materialists. They had no spiritual vision, sensibilities, or experience. Their imperishable souls were submerged in the deep flowing sea of mere animal pleasures. Are there no such men now? For what do our prosperous tradesmen and the upper ten thousand live? For the most part, we fear, for the senses. Grand furniture”beds of ivory;” choicest viands”lambs out of the flock, and calves out of the midst of the stall;” ravishing music”chants to the sound of the viol;” delectable beveragesthe choicest wines in “bowls;” the most delicious aromas”the chief ointments.” Has carnal indulgence been more rife in any land or age than this? Matter everywhere governs spirit; the body everywhere is the despot, men are “carnal, sold under sin.”
2. These people wrought without conscience. In all this there is no effort of conscience recorded, no word uttered. There is, indeed, a reference to intellectual effort, for it is said “they invented to themselves instruments of music.” Carnal indulgence has ever been and is now as much, if not more than ever, the great employer of man’s inventive faculties. Luxury in England today is the great employer of human ingenuity. But there is no conscience here. When conscience is touched in such a state of things, and startled by the sense of its guilt, it exclaims, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this sin and death?”
II. THE RETRIBUTIVE RESULT OF CARNAL INDULGENCE. The threat in the text is:
1. The loss of liberty. “Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive.” Those who had taken the lead in revelry and all manner of wickedness were to be the first in the procession of captives. In such a position their disgrace would be more conspicuous. Luxury always leads to slavery: it is the eternal law of justice, that those who live to the flesh shall lose their freedom and be exiled into the region of tyranny. “Lust, when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, bringeth forth death” (Jas 1:15).
2. The loss of provisions. “And the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.” They shall have scarcity, perhaps starvation, instead of the profusion of dainties with which their tables have been spread. All this carnal indulgence and voluptuousness, this luxury in ease, and diet, and music, and aroma will not go on forever. They are abnormal conditions of human nature; retribution will one day put an end to them.
“O luxury,
Bane of elated life, of affluent states,
What ruin is not thine? Behind thee gapes
Th’ unfathomable gulf where Ashur lies
O’erwhelmed, forgotten; and high boasting Cham:
And Elam’s haughty pomp; and beauteous Greece;
And the great queen of earth, imperial Rome.”
(Dyer.)
D.T.
Amo 6:8
National depravity.
“The Lord God hath sworn by himself, saith the Lord the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein.” In order to show the voluptuous debauchees referred to in the preceding verses the terrible judgments that would overtake them, Jehovah is here represented as making a solemn oath. Whether the city here refers to Samaria or Jerusalem, or both, is of little moment. The subject is national depravity, and we infer from the words
I. THAT DEPRAVITY MAY EXIST IN A NATION WHERE THERE IS MUCH THAT IS MAGNIFICENT. Here is a reference to the “excellency”or, as some render it, the splendour”of Jacob;” and here is a reference to “palaces,” the homes of princes, There was much that was magnificent amongst the Jewish people of old in their own land. Great cities and their palaces, and, above all, the temple at Jerusalem, beautiful in architecture and situation, with an organized priesthood and gorgeous ceremonies. Still, its depravity at this time was wide and deep and hideous. A nation may have much that is magnificent, and yet be deeply sunk in moral corruption. Witness ancient Greece and Rome; witness England today. The arts, sculpture, painting, architecture, music, have reached their perfection, and abound. On all hands our eyes are attracted by grand churches, splendid mansions, marts, banks, museums, colleges, and galleries of art. Albeit was depravity ever more rife in any age or country than this? Greed, ambition, selfishness, sensuality, fraud, falsehood, and self-indulgence,these, the elements of depravity and the fountains of crime, abound in all directions. It is true they do not appear in their naked deformity, as in barbaric lands. Our civilization not only spreads a veil over them, but paints and decorates them, and thus conceals their native hideousness. Still, though the devil robes himself in the garb of an angel, he is yet the devil. Poison is poison, however much you may flavour it.
II. THAT DEPRAVITY UNDER THE MOST MAGNIFICENT FORM IS UTTERLY ABHORRENT TO THE GREAT GOD. “I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces.” No veil can cover it from his eye; his glance pierces through all its decorations; to his view its ornamentations add to its ugliness. The same vices displayed in the hut of a savage chief, are more hideous to him when developed in the gorgeous palaces of Christian sovereigns. “I abhor the excellency [splendour] of Jacob.” God has moral sensibility. He has not only a sensibility for the beautiful in form and the perfect in arrangement, but for the moral. He loves the true, the beautiful, and the good; he loathes the false, the selfish, and the corrupt. “Oh, do not this abominable thing, which I hate” (Jer 44:4).
III. THAT DEPRAVITY, WHICH IS EVER ABHORRENT TO GOD, MUST BRING RUIN ON ITS SUBJECTS. “Therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein.” Observe:
1. The completeness of the ruin. “All that is therein”utter destruction.
2. The certainty of the ruin. “The Lord God hath sworn by himself.”
CONCLUSION. What an argument does this subject furnish for national seriousness and investigation! The progress of civilization is not the true progress of humanity. A nation may advance in the arts, and go back in morals; may be robed in artistic beauty, and yet be loathsome in moral corruption. Heaven will not smile on a nation because it is externally grand, but only when it is internally good.D.T.
Amo 6:12
Trying the impossible.
“Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plough there with oxen?” The folly of expecting real prosperity by committing acts of injustice or pursuing courses of sin is here forcibly represented by comparing it to the absurdity of attempting to run horses upon a rock or to plough the rock with oxen. The strength of the representation is increased by its interrogative form. Our subject isTrying the impossible. Men are constantly doing this. Let us furnish a few examples.
I. WHEN THEY ATTEMPT TO DESTROY AN ENEMY BY PHYSICAL FORCE. An individual has an enemy, a man who hates him with an inveterate antipathy. In order to overcome him, what does he do? He disables or perhaps kills him. Or a nation has an enemy, strong and malignant. How does it seek to overcome it? In the same way, by brute forceswords, cannons, bayonets, these are employed. Now, the attempt to destroy an enemy by brute force is as absurd as to make horses run on the peaks of craggy rocks, or to put oxen to plough them. To destroy the enemy’s body is not to destroy either him or his enmity. Philosophy and the Bible teach that the body is not the man; it is his, not himself. All the men that have fallen in duels, campaigns, or private assassinations are living, thinking, acting still, and await their murderers in another state. No bullet or sword can touch the man.
II. WHEN THEY ATTEMPT TO MAKE SOCIETY MORALLY GOOD BY MERE SECULAR INSTRUCTION. There are men who imagine that by teaching children the arts of reading, writing, ciphering, and the rudiments of science they will improve the morality of the nation. When you remember that the moral character grows out of the heart and not out of the brain, out of the likings and dislikings, not out of the ideas or intelligence, all this seems as absurd as the attempt to make horses run on rocks. Secular knowledge cannot change the heart, cannot alter a man’s likes or dislikes. It may strengthen them, but not alter them. Dishonesty, uneducated, may commit petty thefts; but educated, it will legally swindle a nation. Knowledge, alas! is all in vain.
III. WHEN THEY ATTEMPT TO GET HAPPINESS FROM WITHOUT. All mankind are in search of happiness. “Who will show us any good?”this is the universal cry. The great bulk seek happiness from without, from what they can see, and taste, and hear, and handle. They look for happiness in the titillation of the nerves and the gratification of the senses. Now, were man nothing but body, this would do. This does for the brute and the bird. But man is spirit; and matter in no form or combination can satisfy spirit. A man’s life, or happiness, consisteth not in the abundance of material things. True happiness springs from within, not from without; arises from holy loves. hopes, aspirations, and aims. In one word, love is the well of water that springs up unto everlasting life.
IV. WHEN THEY ATTEMPT TO SAVE SOULS BY MINISTERING TO THEIR SELFISHNESS. There are men in all Churches who give themselves to saving souls, as they say. Salvation is the burden of all their thought and talk. But how do they endeavour to accomplish their object? By everlasting appeals to the selfish fears and hopes of men. Tragic descriptions are given of hell in order to frighten men, and sensuous descriptions of heaven in order to attract them. But can this save the soul? Impossible. It will only aggravate its damnation. Salvation consists in the extinction of all that is selfish in human nature, and in the generating, fostering, and perfecting disinterested, self-oblivious love. “He that seeketh his life shall lose it: he that loseth his life shall find it.” A preacher may increase his congregation by appealing to the selfishness of his hearers, but he does not add one to the family of the good. The man who tries to save souls by constant appeals to the selfishness of human nature acts more absurdly than he who attempts to gallop horses upon the sharp peaks of rugged rocks.
V. WHEN THEY ATTEMPT TO CONVERT HEATHENS ABROAD BEFORE CONVERTING THE HEATHENS AT HOME. London abounds with heathens. All the heathens of the heathen world have their representatives in London; besides, the great bulk of the resident population are heathens; they are without God and without hope in the world. The influence of London upon the most distant parts of the world is a thousand times as great as that of all the missionaries from England and America. Under such circumstances, to send a few lonely men to distant peoples, who are ignorant of our language, modes of thought, and habits, with the idea of converting the world, is more absurd than to put horses to run on the rock, and oxen to plough thereon. Are we not bound to go into all the world to spread the gospel? Yes, but is there a greater world than London? and should not our sailors, our merchants, our travellers, and emigrants be the missionaries to foreign lands? Whilst your missionaries carry teaspoonfuls of the gospel here and there, your London pours out floods of depravity on every zone.
CONCLUSION. Alas! how much human effort and sacrifice are lost for the want of practical wisdom and common sense! “Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plough there with oxen?” Yes, more successfully than we poor fools can accomplish some things that we labour to attain.D.T.
Amo 6:12
Man’s perverting power.
“For ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock.” The meaning of this is that they had turned the best things into bad use. Judgment and righteousness, the laws of right, they had made as nauseous and noxious as “gall” and “hemlock.” Our subject is man‘s perverting power. Our blessed Maker in our constitution has endowed us with a force which no other creature under heaven seems to have, of turning things to wrong uses, and making those things which he intended to bless us the means of misery and rain. You can see man exercising this power in many departments of action.
I. IN PHYSICAL OPERATIONS. What does he do with the iron which he discovers in the depths of the earth? Forges it into implements of human destruction. What does he do with the vineyards and the corn fields? He turns them into inebriating liquids, and rolls them like rivers of poison through every district of society. What does he do with his own physical appetites? Instead of attending to them as means of relief, he makes their gratification the chief sources of his pleasure, and thus degrades his mental and moral nature. Everywhere you see man perverting natureperverting the metals, the rivers, the fruits, and the chemical elements of the world.
II. IN CIVIC LIFE. The principle of human government is a Divine ordinance, intended to secure equal justice and protection. But how has man perverted it! He has turned it into an instrument to benefit the few at the expense of the many, an instrument of tyranny and oppression. The principle of judicature, intended to secure for all a just administration of law, man notoriously perverts. Men are appointed to occupy the throne of judgment who are not always, or generally, known as incorruptibly just and morally pure. Hence often in the name of justice iniquities are enacted. Man’s perversion of the law is proverbial as a hideous enormity. The principle of merchandise, intended to band man together by the exchange of commodities in mutual obligation and fellowship, man has awfully perverted. He has made it the instrument of cupidity, monopoly, and nameless frauds. Thus, in every part of social life you see this perverting power in actionman turning “judgment into gall, and the fruits of righteousness into hemlock.”
III. IN THE RELIGIOUS SPHERE. In spiritual matters and in scenes that should be the most sacred, its action is perhaps more flagrant and formidable than anywhere else. Without going into the great world of heathenism, or even to remote parts of Christendom, look into our own religious England, and what do you see? You see the gospel ministry, which is essentially self-denying, humble, devout, turned into an arrogant and plethoric priesthood. You see gospel ceremonies, intended to adumbrate spiritual truths, employed as mystic channels of saving grace. You see a system of universal philanthropy made an instrument of miserable sectarianism and intolerable bigotry.
CONCLUSION. Do not let man say he has no power. His moral power is something stupendous. He has power to turn the things of God to the use of Satan, heavenly blessings into hellish curses. This he is doing everywhere. “Ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock.”D.T.
Amo 6:13
Human joy in the unsubstantial.
“Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?” “Horns” are signs and symbols of power; here they stand for the military resources with which they fancied that they could conquer every foe. “These delusions of God-forgetting pride the prophet casts down, by saying that Jehovah, the God of hosts, will raise up a nation against them, which will crush them down in the whole length and breadth of the kingdom. This nation was Assyria” (Delitzsch). What these ancient Hebrews did is an evil prevalent in all times and landsrejoicing in the things of nought, taking pleasure in the unreal, the empty, and the fleeting.
I. TO REJOICE IN WORLDLY WEALTH is to “rejoice in a thing of nought.” Rich men everywhere are always disposed to rejoice in their wealth. Houses, lands, and funded treasures, of these worldly men are ever boasting, in these they proudly exult. But what is earthly wealth? It is, in truth, so far as the possessor is concerned, “a thing of nought.” It was not his a few years ago, and may not be his tomorrow. “Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle towards heaven” (Pro 23:5). Wealth, at best, is a most unsubstantial thing; it is a mere air bubble rising on the stream of life, glittering for a moment, and then departing forever. Great fortunes are but bubbles; they vanish before a ripple on the stream or a gust in the atmosphere. “Wealth,” says old Adams, “is like a bird; it hops all day from man to man as the bird from tree to tree, and none can say where it will roost or rest at night.”
“Go, enter the mart where the merchantmen meet,
Get rich, and retire to some rural retreat:
Ere happiness comes, comes the season to die;
Quickly. then will thy riches all vanish and fly.
Go, sit with the mighty in purple and gold;
Thy mansions be stately, thy treasures untold;
But soon shalt thou dwell in the damp house of clay,
While thy riches make wings to themselves and away.”
II. TO REJOICE IN PERSONAL BEAUTY is to “rejoice in a thing of nought.” Nature has endowed some with personal charms which it has denied to othersfinely chiselled features, a radiant countenance, commanding brow, symmetrical form, majestic presence. He who is thus blest has many advantages; he commands admiration and exerts an influence upon human hearts. But is this beauty a thing to rejoice in? Those who possess it do rejoice in it; many pride themselves on their good looks and fine figures. But what is beauty? It is “a thing of nought.” Why rejoice in that for which we can take no credit? Does the moss rose deserve praise for unfolding more beauty and emitting more fragrance than the nettle? Who can make one hair white or black, or add one cubit to his stature? Why rejoice, too, in that which is so evanescent? Socrates called beauty “a short-lived tyranny;” and Theophrastus, “a silent cheat.” One old divine says it is like an almanacit “lasts for one year, as it were.” Men are like the productions of the fields and the meadows. In the summer the variety is striking, some herbs and flowers appear in more stately form and attractive hues than others; but when old winter comes round, who sees the distinctions? Where are the plants of beauty? They are faded and gone. “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field.”
“Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good,
A shining gloss, that fadeth suddenly;
A flower that dies, when first it ‘gins to bud;
A brittle glass, that’s broken presently:
A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,
Lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour.
“And as good lost is seldom or never found,
As fading gloss no rubbing will refresh,
As flowers dead lie withered on the ground,
As broken glass no cement can redress,
So beauty, blemished once, forever’s lost,
In spite of physic, painting, pain, and cost.”
(Shakespeare.)
III. TO REJOICE IN ANCESTRAL DISTINCTION is to “rejoice in a thing of nought.” There are those who are constantly exulting in their pedigree. Some who in this country can go back to the days of William the Conqueror, how delighted they are! But who were the men that William brought over with him, and between whom he divided this England of ours? Cobblers, tailors, smiths, plunderers, men of rapine and blood, most of them destitute alike of intellectual culture and morality. But even had we come from the loins of the intellectual and moral peers of the race, what cause in this is there for rejoicing? it is truly “a thing of nought.” Our ancestry is independent of us; we are not responsible for it. It is not a matter either of blame or praise. Each man is complete in himselfan accountable unity, a moral cause. A prime minister has a number of earnest servile lackeysthey are printers, jewellers, clothmakers, tailors, and such-like; in the zenith of his power he rewards them by causing them to be titled “sir,” “lord,” “baron,” etc. In this their children rejoice. But is it not “a thing of nought”? What is there in it? Nothing.
“Knighthoods and honours borne
Without desert, are titles but of scorn.”
(Shakespeare.)
IV. TO REJOICE IN MORAL MERITORIOUSNESS is to “rejoice in a thing of nought.” There are many who rejoice in their morality. Like the Pharisee in the temple, they thank God they are not as “other men,” They consider they are “rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing,” whereas they are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Moral merit in a sinner is a baseless vision, a phantom of a proud heart. The man exulting in his own self-righteousness acts as foolishly as the man who endeavours to secure himself from the scorching rays of the sun under his own shadow. He seeks to bring his shadow between him and the sun, but cannot. If he runs, the shadow is before or behind him; if he falls down, the shadow falls with him, and leaves him in contact with the burning beam. No; our righteousness is “a thing of nought;” it is “filthy rags.”
“Beware of too sublime a sense
Of your own worth and consequence.
The man who deems himself so great,
And his importance of such weight,
That all around, in all that’s done,
Must move and act for him alone,
Will learn in school of tribulation
The folly of his expectation.”
(Cowper.)
CONCLUSION. Ah me! how many on all hands are rejoicing in “a thing of nought”! Wealth, beauty, ancestry, self-righteousness,what are these? Fleeting shadows, dying echoes. They are clouds without water; to the eye they may for a minute or two appear in gorgeous forms, but before a breeze they melt into thin air and are lost. Rejoice in the real, the spiritual, the eternal, the Divine.D.T.
Amo 6:14
God chastising nations by nations.
“But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the Lord the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness.” What “nation” is here referred to as about to be raised up by God against Israel? Undoubtedly, Assyria. This Assyrian nation is here represented as overspreading the country “from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness.” Hamath was a point of entrance for an invading army into Israel from the north, which had just been subjugated by Jeroboam II. The boundaries are virtually the same as those mentioned (2Ki 14:25) as restored to Israel by Jeroboam II; “from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain,” i.e. the Dead Sea, into which the river of the wilderness here mentioned flows. Do not glory in your recently acquired city, for it shall be the starting point for the foe to afflict you. How sad the contrast to the feast of Solomon, attended by a congregation from the same Hamath, the most northern boundary of Israel, to the Nile, the river of Egypt, the most southern boundary! “Unto the river of the wilderness,” i.e. to Kedron, or that part of it which empties itself into the northern bay of the Dead Sea below Jericho (2Ch 28:15), which city was at the southern boundary of the ten tribes (Maurer). To the river Nile, which skirts the Arabian wilderness and separates Egypt from Canaan (Grotius). If this verse includes Judah as well as Israel, Grotius’s view is correct, and it agrees with 1Ki 8:65, “Solomon held a feast, and all Israel from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt” (Fausset). The subject suggested by the words is thisGod chastising nations by nations. He now threatens to chastise the kingdoms of Judah and Israel by the Assyrian people. This is how the Almighty has acted from the beginning. He has chastised nations by nations. The history of the world is little else than a history of civil wars. Let us for a moment notice the how and the why of this.
I. THE HOW. How does the Almighty bring about wars?
1. Not by his inspiration. The God of peace does not breathe into any people greed, ambition, revenge. These principles, from which all war emanates, are repugnant to his nature. He denounces them. His grand aim in the world is to annihilate them, and in their place propagate disinterestedness, humility, and magnanimous love.
2. Not by his authority. All war is directly against his command; whilst everywhere he prohibits covetousness, pride, and revenge, he inculcates, in almost every page of inspiration and every form of utterance, love to our neighbours. The God of peace works everywhere in the world through peace, works by the peaceful influences of nature and the love of the gospel to produce “peace on earth, and good will towards men.” How, then, can he be said to raise a nation to war? Simply by permission. He allows human nature freedom to work out the evil principles that are operating in it. The power of free action with which he endowed men at first he does not crush, he does not restrict; he treats it with respect, and leaves men free to do evil as well as good. He who permits the river at times to overflow its boundaries, and the subterranean fires to break forth, permits the passions of men to issue in war and bloodshed. Permission is not authorship.
II. THE WHY. Why does the Almighty chastise nations by nations? Why not employ the elements of nature or angelic intelligences? or why not do it by his own direct volition, without any instrumentality whatever? He may, for aught we know, chastise men in all these ways; but we can see reasons for his employing nations to chastise nations by wars. In acting thus:
1. Man has revealed to him in the most impressive way the wickedness of the human heart. It has been well said that war is the effect, the embodiment, and manifestation of every conceivable sin. In every war hell is revealed; its fires flash, its thunders roll, its fiends revel and shriek. For man to get rid of sin, he must be impressed with its enormity; and does not war make that impression? Does not every crimson chapter in its history reveal to the human heart the stupendous enormity of sin?
2. Man has revealed to him the utter folly of putting confidence his fellow man. War reveals falsehood, treachery, cunning, fraud, cruelty; and who can trust these? Does not war say to every man, “Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm”? To day a man may fondle you as a friend, tomorrow foam at you as a fiend. “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no hope.”
3. Man has revealed to him the supreme importance of cultivating the true friendship of his fellow men. What thoughtful men have not groaned and wept over the utter failure of all means to produce the results for which they were ostensibly commencedto vindicate national honour, to establish peace? Such ends are never realized. What, then, is the lesson? Cultivate friendship with your fellow men, the friendship of man with man, family with family, tribe with tribe, nation with nation. Wars are God’s moral lessons to man in tragedy.D.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Amo 6:1. Woe to them that are at ease Houbigant reads very properly, Woe to them that despise Sion; for there was a perpetual rivalship between Sion and Samaria; and it is plain from the whole series, not only of this verse, but of the whole chapter, that the prophet addresses the men of Israel, and not of Judah.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Amos 6
4. Woe to the Secure who think that the Day of the Lord is far off
1 Woe to the secure1 in Zion,
And to the careless in the mountain of Samaria!
To the princes of the first of nations,
To whom the house of Israel comes!
2 Pass over2 to Calneh and see,
And go thence to Hamath the great,
And go down to Gath of the Philistines;
Are they better than these kingdoms,
Or is their territory greater than your territory?
3 Ye who put far off the evil day,
And bring near the seat of violence;
4 Who lie upon beds of ivory
And stretch themselves upon their couches,
Who eat lambs out of the flock,
And calves from the fattening stall:
5 Who trill3 to the sound of the harp,
Like David, they invent string instruments,4
6 Who drink wine out of sacrificial bowls,5
And anoint themselves with the best oils,
And do not grieve for the hurt of Joseph.
7 Therefore now shall they go captive at the head of the captives,
And the shout6 of the revellers shall depart.
8 The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by himself,
Saith Jehovah, God of hosts,
I abhor the pride of Jacob7
And hate his palaces,
And will give up the city and the fullness thereof.
9 And if ten men are left in one house they shall die.
10 And his cousin8 and his burier shall lift him up,
To carry his bones out of the house,
And shall say to the one in the inmost recess of the house,
Is there still any one with thee? and he says, Not one,
Then shall he say, Be still,
For we must not call upon Jehovahs name.
11 For behold, Jehoyah commands, and men smite the great house9 into ruins
And the small house into pieces.
12 Do horses indeed run upon the rock,10
Or do men plough there with cattle,
That ye have turned justice into poison,
And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood?
13 Ye who rejoice in a thing of nought,11
Who say, With our own strength we have taken to us horns.
14 For, behold, I raise up over you, O house of Israel,
Saith Jehovah, God of hosts, a nation,12
And it shall oppress you from the entrance Hamath to the brook of the desert.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Amo 6:1-6. A sharp censure of the thoughtless revelry of the heads of the nation. The woe points back to the similar exclamation in Amo 5:18. There a woe was pronounced upon those who mistakenly desired the day of the Lord, as if it would bring to them prosperity. Here the question is of the confident who bestowed no thought at all upon that day. Amo 6:1, in Zion: shows that the rebuke includes Judah also, although the subsequent description refers especially to the great men in the hill of Samaria. And as these are the distinguished in the nation, so the nation itself is called the first or most exalted of all nations, naturally enough, since it was the chosen, peculiar people of God. These princes are further described as those to whom the house of Israel comes, i. e., for counsel and direction. Justly remarks Hengstenberg (Auth. Pent., i. 148), that thus the chief men were reminded that they were the successors of those princes of the tribes who were formerly thought worthy to be joined with Moses and Aaron in managing the affairs of the chosen people.
Amo 6:2. How high they stood, is now shown by the fact that Israel, at whose head they were placed, was not inferior in prosperity or greatness to the mightiest heathen states. [He bids them look east, north, and west, and survey three neighboring kingdoms. Calneh (Calno in Isaiah, Calneh in Ezekiel), was built by Nimrod in the land of Shinar (Gen 10:10) but is not mentioned again in Scripture until this place. Afterwards it became celebrated under the name of Ctesiphon. Julians generals held it impregnable, being built on a peninsula surrounded on three sides by the Tigris. Hamath the great was the capital of the Syrian kingdom of that name on the Orontes. Gath was one of the five chief cities in Philistia, and in Davids time the capital of the whole country.] Than these kingdoms, namely, Judah and Israel. Others say that the prophet speaks of destroyed cities, and that the Israelites are reminded of their fate as intimating that the same was in store for themselves (so Luther). This view would commend itself to favor, were it not opposed to the fair construction of the words. It might be allowed, if the double question, are they better, etc., admitted of an affirmative answer, namely, yes they are better. But this plainly cannot be. Bauer indeed sees this, and accordingly explains thus: Observe these heathen states. Their lot is not better, their power not greater than yours; rather they have fallen while you by Gods grace still stand; if you apostatize from Jehovah, the same fate will befall you. But how could any one speak of a power which was overthrown as not greater than one still standing? A comparison in respect to greatness can be made only with a still existing power. [Pusey adopts Bauers view, but Wordsworth and Keil agree with Schmoller in making the verse simply an expansion of the statement in Amo 6:1, that Israel is first of the nations, unexcelled by any of their heathen neighbors.]
Amo 6:3 begins the further explanation of the careless security charged in Amo 6:1. Regarding the evil day, i. e., day of judgment as far off, they cause violence to erect its throne nearer and nearer among them. [Pusey follows Jerome, Grotius, Newcome, and others in referring the throne of violence to the rule of Assyria, which the people brought nearer to them while they were thinking to put it far off. But the former reference is much more natural.]
Amo 6:4. To oppression they added luxurious sensuality (cf. Amo 2:8; Amo 3:12).
Amo 6:5. Like David they employed themselves in inventing musical instruments, but with a very different aim.
Amo 6:6. They used the best oils, at a time when there was abundant cause for mourning in the breach, i. e., the overthrow of Joseph. [The custom of anointing was usually suspended in time of mourning, 2Sa 14:2. But these so far from grieving employed the most costly unguents.]
2. Amo 6:7-10. These verses announce the punishment. The phrase at the head of the captives, contains a bitter irony. The princes should maintain their preminence even in the procession of captives.
Amo 6:8. [The oath here is like that in Amo 4:2, except that it is by himself instead of by his holiness, but the sense is the same, for the nephesh of Jehovah, i. e., his inmost self or being, is his holiness. Keil.]
Amo 6:9-10. Ten, that is, many; but even of the many not one shall escape. This is made plainer by what follows.
Amo 6:10. When on the death of the ninth, a relative comes to the house to bury the dead, he will ask the last one, the tenth, who has retired into a remote corner to save his life, whether there is any one still with him, i. e., alive. On receiving the reply, None, he calls out to him, Silence! (literally St), i. e., he interrupts him quickly lest he may utter Jehovahs name, and by attracting Jehovahs attention, bring down a judgment upon himself. The words, there must be no mention of the Lords name, are spoken, not by Amos but by the kinsman, and they do not express despair but fear. The deaths mentioned occur partly by the sword and partly by famine, both in consequence of the conquest and overthrow of the city.
[Amo 6:11. The For assigns the reason of the fearful destruction. It is the Lords command, and his arm reaches rich and poor alike, regum turres ac pauperum tabernas.]
3. Amo 6:12-14. Upon rocks can neither horses run nor man plough. What is the force of this comparison? Either the attempt to do one or the other of these things is represented as something preposterous, and the meaning is, Even so preposterous is your turning justice into poison, etc.; or it is represented as something impossible, and the sense is, Is then the impossible possible, that you turn justice, etc., and do you think you can escape unpunished, and even attain prosperity? That ye turn, etc., cf. Amo 5:7. Fruit of righteousness is said, because unrighteousness is compared with a bitter fruit.
Amo 6:13. With our strength, taken, as if the whole originated with themselves. Horns, the usual symbol of strength, heremeans of overcoming foes.
Amo 6:14 contains Jehovahs answer to this presumption. You are rejoicing in a thing of nought, for I will, etc. At the same time this verse resumes and confirms the threat in Amo 6:11, which begins with the same words, For behold! Assyria is plainly intended by a people, but as it was still in the distance, Amos nowhere mentions it by name. Perhaps, too, the omission was designed, in order to awaken the more attention. The entrance of Hamath, was the standing term for the northern boundary of Israel, Num 34:8; 2Ki 14:25. [For its exact place, see Smiths Bible Dictionary, Amer. ed. p. 987]. The brook of the desert, the southern boundary, is the present Wady el-Ahsi, which separated Moab from Edom at the lower extremity of the Dead Sea. [Israels strength had of late been increasing steadily. Jehoash had thrice defeated the Syrians and recovered several cities. What he began, Jeroboam continued during a reign of forty-one years, until he had completely restored all the ancient boundaries of the kingdom. Amos here declares that the whole region of their triumphs should be one scene of affliction and woe. This was fulfilled after some forty-five years at the invasion of Tiglath Pileser. Pusey.]
DOCTRINAL AND MORAL
1. Israel the first among the nations. Again and again is the lofty position of Israel emphasized, i. e., its peculiar enjoyment of the divine favor, which was shown even in its outward relations, its power and influence as compared with surrounding nations. In these respects it could measure itself with any of them. This was not the highest motive of action, yet it should have sufficed to confirm them in fidelity to God. For the penalty of unfaithfulness was the loss of their position hitherto, a fall below other nations and a shameful end.
2. But alas, prosperity only led to self-will, and rendered them arrogant and secure. There is a striking picture in Amo 6:4-6 of an insolent, presumptuous community in which every thought of danger is drowned. The internal evils of the national life are not seen, nor is it observed how all tends steadily downward to destruction. Alas, the higher ranks here precede with their example. Instead of becoming pillars of the state by their position and culture, they help to undermine it. No wonder then that when the crash comes, they are most deeply affected and meet a frightful end.
3. The judgment which the prophet everywhere speaks of is conquest and overthrow by a foreign enemy. From this we may learn the right conception of war. It is natural to consider it a heavy calamity, since it involves the loss of fortune and life to thousands, and sometimes the downfall of entire states. But while it is true that on this account we must desire its general cessation, yet the declamations against it of the so called friends of peace are vain, proceeding, if not always yet generally, from a mind which comprehends little or nothing of the divine government of the world. In spite of all these well-meant performances, war neither will nor can cease in this world, i. e., so long as sin still exists. For it is necessary as a means of inflicting the divine chastisement upon sin. Through it God executes the judgments which, being required by his righteousness, are therefore indispensable and irresistible,not so much upon individuals as upon nations and states which are considered as collective persons. Such acts are either processes of purification, or when the measure of iniquity is full and the time has come, works of destruction. On this ground even a war which subjectively is altogether wrong, as a war of conquest, may still be objectively justified, in so far as it is a means of executing Gods righteous wrath upon a people. On the other hand we can conceive how a war undertaken only in self-defense, and therefore righteous in itself, may yet fail of the issue one would expect. It comes as a judgment upon a people ripe for such a process, and therefore no defense avails. In other cases it does avail, and a deserved punishment overtakes the for eager for conquest. But even then the war, by the distress it causes and the sacrifices it requires, proves a serious time of sifting for the victor. Hence it is right and proper to maintain beforehand an earnest conflict against sin, lest such a heavy scourge as war should become necessary. But when such a point is reached, it becomes Christians not to utter empty declamations against war nor womanish complaints over it, but humbly to bow beneath Gods hand and patiently bear their sorrows, so that thus may spring up the fruit of a new spirit well pleasing to God. For even the destruction of a nation is so far stayed that at least a remnant is left to undertake a new life. And the more the kingdom of God prevails among men to the overthrow of sin, the less needful will be the frightful scourge of war; but the complete reign of peace will come only when the first earth and the first heavens are passed away and all things become new. The horrors of war may and should aid in keeping alive and intense our longing for that blissful period.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Amo 6:1. Woe to the secure. Security and vain confidence, the common faults of man! He is blind to his danger. He reels around the abyss without perceiving it, and at last would plunge headlong, were it not that God startles him with judgments. It is this that renders such strokes necessary. They are therefore to be deemed gracious acts, since they are intended to save from a total overthrow. But alas, how many refuse to heed them! First of nations. What an honor! But so much the worse if such a divine favor is not properly recognized, so much the greater the responsibility and the guilt. [The author applies this thought directly to his own nation, in view of Gods recent dealings with the German people. But surely it is equally applicable to our own favored land. If our territorial extent, our material development, our liberal institutions, our final welding together in the furnace of the war for the Union, have made us first of nations, this fact should not generate vain confidence and a stupid sensuality, but rather awaken a lively gratitude and a generous obedience to the Ruler of nations, the God of hosts.]
Amo 6:2. Pass over to Calneh, etc. A comparison with others less favored than ourselves is always wise when it prompts to humility and thankfulness. Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? Alas, often all the thanks God receives for giving us more than to others, is that we forget Him the more.
[Amo 6:3. Who put far off the evil day. The thought that the Lord has a day in which to judge man, frets or frightens the irreligious, and they use different ways to get rid of it. The strong harden themselves, and distort or disbelieve the truth. The weak and voluptuous shut their eyes to it, like the bird in the fable, as if what they dread would cease to be, because they cease to see it. (Pusev). Henderson quotes a parallel from Claudian, *In Entrop., ii. 5054.
Sed quam ccus inest vitiis amor! omne futurum
Despicitur, suadentque brevem prsentia fructum,
Et ruit in vetitum damni secura libido
Dum mora supplicii lucro, serumque quod instat,
Creditur.
Amo 6:5. Who trill to the sound of the harp. An artificial effeminate music Which relaxes the soul, frittering the melody and displacing the power of divine harmony by tricks of art, is meet company for giddy, thoughtless, heartless versifying. Debased music is a mark of a nations decay, and promotes it. Like David they invent, etc. The same pains which David employed on music to the honor of God, they employed on their light, enervating, unmeaning music, and, if they were earnest enough, justified their inventions by the example of David. Much as people have justified our degraded, sensualizing, immodest dancing by the religious dancing of Holy Scripture. (Pusey.) See Bishop Sanderson, Lectures on Conscience, iii. 13.
Amo 6:6. Drink wine out of sacrificial bowls. The first princes of the tribes (Num 7:13 ff.) showed their zeal for God by offering massive silver bowls for the service of the tabernacle; the like zeal had these princes for their own god, their belly, using the huge sacred vessels for their compotations. Like swine in the trough, they immersed themselves in their drink, swimming in mutual swill.13 (Ibid.) Anoint themselves, etc. In this crisis, when the divine wrath was about to break out upon the nation, and they ought to have been sitting in sackcloth and ashes, they were curious to procure the best ointment for their own use. Roman patricians, in Ciceros days, cared only for their own fish-ponds that their tables might be well supplied with mullets and other fish, while their country was in danger of being overwhelmed with a flood; they thought only of the cock-boat of their own fortunes when the vessel of the state was going to wreck.. Here is another prophetic warning for our selfish luxury. (Wordsworth.)
Grieve not for the hurt of Joseph. Joseph, the ancestor of Ephraim, the head of the ten tribes, was afflicted by his own brethren, who saw the anguish of his soul and were not moved by his tears; and when they had sold him to the Ishmaelites, sat down in heartless indifference to eat bread (Gen 37:23). So their descendants, the Jews, feasted at the Passover after they had killed the true Joseph (Joh 18:28). How many dwell in ceiled houses and sing to the sound of the harp and feast on the richest dainties, and care nothing for the sorrows of Christ and his Church! (Wordsworth.)
Amo 6:7. Go at the head of the captives. Preminence in rank or wealth is often followed by preeminence in sorrow and shame. As the Wisd. of Sol. says (6:6): For mercy will soon pardon the meekest, but mighty men shall be mightily tormented.
Amo 6:8. The Lord hath sworn, etc. Our oaths mean, As God is true and avenges untruth, what I say is true. So God says, As I am God, this is true. God then must cease to be God if He did not hate oppression. (Pusey.)
Amo 6:9. Ten righteous men in Sodom would have saved that city. Here ten were left in one house after the siege was begun, but they did not turn to God; and therefore all were taken or destroyed.
Amo 6:10. We must not call upon Jehovahs name. Things have come to a fearful pass when a man trembles at Gods name because he fears and must fear his wrath, and hence instead of turning to Him would rather flee away. This is a frightful exhibition of the power of an evil conscience. There must be a broken heart before a man can turn in prayer for forgiveness to the God whom his sins have offended. [He who has obstinately abused the intellectual powers given him by God, to cavil at Gods truth, will be forsaken by Him at last, and will not be able to utter his name. (Wordsworth.)]
Amo 6:11. Jehovah commands, and men smile, etc. When a people is ripe for judgment, a human conqueror acts only as a divine instrument. Gods judgment strikes equally the high and the low.
[Amo 6:12. Do horses run upon rocks, etc. It is more easy to change the course of nature, or the use of things of nature, than the course of Gods providence or the laws of his just retribution. They had changed the sweet laws of justice into the gall of oppression, and the healthful fruit of righteousness into the life-destroying poison of sin. Better to have ploughed the rock with oxen for food. For now where they looked for prosperity, they found not barrenness but death. (Pusey.)
Amo 6:13. Who rejoice in, etc. How striking, to rejoice in a non-thing! Yet this is the way with men. How much of that in which they trust is a mere nonentity! It seems to be something, and still is nothing. With our own strength, etc. Such is the language of arrogant self-confidence. But God alone is strength, and only through Him are we strong.
Amo 6:14. I raise up, etc. No foe could ever invade us, if the Lord did not raise Him up. War, therefore, is not an accident, but a providential dispensation. [Pharaoh, Hadad, Rezon, the Chaldees, are all expressly said to have been raised up by the Lord (Exo 9:16; 1Ki 11:14; 1Ki 11:23; Hab 1:6).]
Footnotes:
[1]Amo 6:1. comes from the intransitive form, and is equivalent here to its use in Isa 32:9-11. Mount of Sam. is not the object of trust (as in E. V.) but the place where the careless security is cherished. , a Mosaic word (Num 1:17), = specified by name, chosen, distinguished.
[2]Amo 6:2., Pass over, because the Euphrates must be crossed in going to Calneh.
[3]Amo 6:5., . . perhaps = , to divide. According to Frst it is here = to break out, especially in song. Keil interprets it to strew around, i. e., words, and thinks it describes the singing as frivolous nonsense. Meier renders it to jingle. [Pusey understands it as meaning a hurried flow of unmeaning words in which the rhythm is everything, the sense nothing. The rendering in the text, trill, is from Wordsworth.]
[4]Amo 6:5. , lit., instruments of music, seems, from a comparison of 2Ch 34:12 with 2Ch 29:26-27, and 1Ch 23:5, to denote stringed instruments. [So Keil and Pusey.] , to invent, devise.
[5]Amo 6:6., lit. sprinkling vessels, always elsewhere denotes bowls used in the temple service. Exo 38:3; Num 4:14; 2Ch 4:8.
[6]Amo 6:7. constr. of , a loud cry, here of joy. as in Amo 6:4, the stretched out, i.e., at a banquet = the revellers. Frst assumes a second root of the same radicals, to which he gives the meaning, to be bad, to stink, and metaph., to be corrupt, and renders here, the degenerate. [This seems quite needless.]
[7]Amo 6:8., the pride of Jacob, i. e., everything of which he is proud. to give up, i. e., to the enemy. The city, means Samaria, and its fullness, whatever it contains.
[8]Amo 6:10., lit., uncle, here denotes any kinsman. , lit., burner. As the Israelites were wont to bury and not burn their dead, it is supposed that the multitude of corpses compelled the latter course. , bones, here = body, as Exo 13:19; Jos 24:32; 2Ki 13:21.
[9]Amo 6:11., the singular is used indefinitely = every house, great and small. Cf. 3:15
[10]Amo 6:12.Meier points , thus, . Does man plough the sea with oxen? [But this is a mere conjecture].
[11]Amo 6:13. a not-thing, somewhich which does not exist, namely, the strength mentioned in the next clause.
[12]Amo 6:14.Few instances are found in Hebrew in which the object of a verb is so far removed from it, as is from . Henderson. is the well known Arabah, the deep and remarkable depression, now called the Ghor, which extends from the lake of Gennesareth to the Dead Sea.]
[13]Thomson, Autumn.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 1192
CARNAL EASE AND SECURITY REPROVED
Amo 6:1. Woe to them that are at ease in Zion.
ONE would scarcely conceive it possible, that the Jews, with so many instances of Gods displeasure before their eyes, could indulge in security, whilst they were evidently, in the whole course of their lives, provoking him to anger. But the blindness both of Israel and Judah was almost incurable. The ten tribes having wholly addicted themselves to idolatry, were the first monuments of Gods indignation. Yet on them the divine judgments fell at first but partially, in order that they might be stirred up to penitence, and avert, by timely reformation, their impending fate. But they continued obdurate, under all the chastisements that were inflicted on them: nor did Judah make any suitable improvement, either of the judgments inflicted on others, or of the forbearance that was exercised towards themselves. God, by the Prophet Jeremiah, complains of Judah thus: I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also [Note: Jer 3:8.]. A similar complaint was made by the Prophet Amos in our text. God had begun to cut Israel short; but neither did they nor Judah lay it to heart, as they should have done: they saw what had been done to nations less guilty and more powerful than themselves; to Calneh, in Chaldea; to Hemath, in Syria; to Gath of the Philistines; and yet they put away the evil day from themselves [Note: ver. 2, 3.], as though the cup of bitterness should never be put into their hands. But the prophet denounces against them the heavy judgments of God: Woe to them that are at ease in Zion!
It is my intention from these words, to shew you,
I.
The evil which is here reproved
We are not to suppose that the mere circumstance of a persons being at ease is sinful: on the contrary, it is the privilege of Gods people to enjoy that very state, and that, too, in relation both to their temporal and spiritual concerns. In reference to temporal matters, God has said, Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and be quiet from fear of evil [Note: Pro 1:33.]. And in the book of Job, Eliphaz states this point at large: He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. In famine, he shall redeem thee from death; and in war, from the power of the sword. Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue; neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh. At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh; neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth: for thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field; and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee: and thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace [Note: Job 5:19-24.]. Nor is spiritual peace a whit less the portion of the godly: for it is expressly said, What man is he that feareth the Lord? His soul shall dwell at ease [Note: Psa 25:12-13.].
Yet, that there is a sinful kind of ease, is evident, from the woe denounced against it. The state, then, that is here condemned, is a state,
1.
Of carnal confidence
[Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria! Both Judah and Israel were ready to place an undue confidence in the capitals of their respective countries, as being well fortified both by nature and art: and when they had been made to see how weak such fortresses were, when defended only by an arm of flesh, they would say in the pride and stoutness of their hearts, The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars [Note: Isa 9:9-10.]. In their outward relation to God, also, they trusted; as the reproof administered to them shews: Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we [Note: Jer 7:4.]. Because they had Abraham to their father, they thought that no evil could befall them [Note: Mat 3:9.].
And is not this a common evil amongst ourselves? What is there in which we do not trust, rather than in God? In all our concerns, whether personal or public, we lean on an arm of flesh, and find it altogether foreign to our habits to cast all our care on God. Even in relation to our eternal interests we find it exceeding difficult to realize our dependence on God. Our own wisdom and strength and righteousness are, for the most part, the objects of our reliance, and the grounds of our ease. But the whole of this is most displeasing to God; according as it is written, Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is; but cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and that maketh flesh his arm [Note: Jer 17:5; Jer 17:7.].]
2.
Of sensual indulgence
[To possess indulgences, or to use them, is no ground of offence; for God has given us all things richly to enjoy [Note: 1Ti 6:17.]: But to place our happiness in them, is to provoke God to jealousy; since he ought to be to us the one only fountain and source of bliss. The Jews, whom the prophet reproves, were greatly guilty in this particular. When both the sins which they committed, and the judgments which they suffered, were rather calling them to mourning and to fasting and to weeping [Note: Isa 22:12-14.], they were living in all the indulgences of the most luxurious ease: as the prophet says: they lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; they chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David; they drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointment [Note: ver. 46.]. Now this is the very state in which happiness is supposed to consist: it is universally spoken of as the very summit of human enjoyment; and is held forth as an object greatly to be envied and desired. But how different are these things in Gods estimation! To all who spend their lives in such a way as this, our Lord, no less than the prophet, says, Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall weep [Note: Luk 6:25.].
Let it not however be imagined that this woe attaches only to the opulent: for the lower classes of society are equally obnoxious to the same condemnation; whilst, with less refinement indeed, but not an atom less of sensuality, they gratify themselves with those indulgences which every public-house supplies. I forbear to specify their enjoyments with the same minuteness as the prophet does the gratifications of the rich: but your own minds will present you with a detail of the accompaniments of carousals amongst the poor, and of the gratifications wherein they consume their time, their property, their health, their souls.]
3.
Of selfish apathy
[Swallowed up with their vain amusements, the Jews were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph [Note: ver. 6.]. They laid not to heart the miseries of others; nor considered either from whom the judgments had come, or for what cause they had been inflicted. The harp and the viol, the tabret and the pipe, and wine, were in their feasts; but they regarded not the work of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands [Note: Isa 5:12.]. And this constitutes a very essential part of that wickedness, which a state of self-indulgent ease invariably brings with it. None feel so little for others, or for the Church of God, as those who are immersed in worldly pleasures. The chief butler, when restored to his office in Pharaohs household, forgat the interests of the suffering Joseph; as all in prosperity are but too apt to do: so that it is well said by the apostle, She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth [Note: Gen 40:23 and Est 3:13; Est 3:15. with 1Ti 5:6.]. In truth, such persons are dead to all holy feelings, whether towards God or man. But this is a state of grievous criminality. We ought all of us to consider ourselves as members of one body, and to have the same care one for another, every member participating in both the joys and sorrows of all the rest [Note: 1Co 12:25-26.]. We should all be able to make to God the very same appeal as Job did: Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? and was not my soul grieved for the poor [Note: Job 30:25.]? But in a more especial manner ought we to be concerned for the souls of men: and when we view the lamentable condition of Jews or Gentiles, or of the souls of nominal Christians, without pity and compassion, we may well tremble, as obnoxious to the displeasure of our God, as being most unreasonably and unmercifully at ease in Zion. If we would have any evidence that we are right with God, we must be able, like St. Paul, to appeal to the all-seeing God, that for our perishing brethren, whoever they may be, we have great heaviness and continual sorrow in our heart [Note: Rom 9:1-2.].]
That we may not think lightly of this evil, I will proceed to shew,
II.
The equity of the judgments denounced against it
We are ready to think that nothing but gross and flagrant immorality deserves Gods wrath. But the habit of the mind may be as offensive to God as any overt act whatever: and we hesitate not to say, that the evil which is here reproved, deserves the woes that are denounced against it.
The judgments which are threatened in the Old Testament are chiefly of a temporal nature. In truth, nations, as nations, are incapable of sustaining any other. But individuals, so far as they are implicated, will have to bear that wrath of God which, in the New Testament, is fully revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men [Note: Rom 1:18.].
That the evil which we have been considering deserves this, will be seen, if we reflect that it implies,
1.
A total alienation of heart from God
[How impossible would it be to conceive of an angel in heaven, or of Adam in Paradise, in such a state as our text imports! Not one of them could for a moment forget his dependence on God. However crowned with comforts suited to their nature, not one of them would rest in those things as his happiness, or cease to seek his happiness in God. And, if we suppose any part of the creation reduced to a state of suffering, not one of them would be indifferent to their welfare, or indisposed, if it were in his power, to promote it. It is in consequence of our departure from God, that all this evil is come upon us; and that we resemble rather the devil in pride, the beasts in sensuality, and the very stones in an insensibility to all around us. And let me ask, Docs not such a state as this deserve the wrath of God? And is not a woe most justly denounced against it? Look at the Saviour; do you find any symptom of such a disposition in him? Was not the very reverse manifested by him, when for our sakes he made himself of no reputation, and took on him the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross? If we are so far from his image, and so far from seeking his glory, as my text implies, it is in vain to hope that we shall have any part with him in the world above.]
2.
An utter insensibility to all the wonders of Redemption
[Among the ends for which our blessed Lord came into the world, one of prime importance was, that we should not henceforth live unto ourselves, but unto Him who died for us and rose again. But the sensual life, which we have before described, is altogether foreign from this, or, rather, directly opposed to it. Shall one then in Zion be thus at ease? It would be bad enough for those who have never heard of redeeming love to rest in such a state; but, for those who profess to have come unto Mount Zion, and to belong to the Church of Christ, to be thus lost to all that is good, is an abomination that merits, and will assuredly be visited with, Gods heavy displeasure. If we would dwell with Christ in a better world, we must have the mind that was in him, and walk as he walked ]
3.
An entire forgetfulness of the future judgment
[Could any man living on the borders of eternity rest in such a state as is here described? What if we were to see a dying man immersed in carnal confidence, and sensual indulgence, and selfish apathy; should we think such dispositions suited to his state? Would not even an ungodly man judge it better for him to rise above the things of time and sense, and to have his mind occupied with the concerns and interests of eternity? Think, then, of an immortal being thus occupied; not knowing, but that, before another day shall arrive, he may be summoned to the judgment-seat of Christ, and receive his doom, either in heaven or in hell, for ever: is it not almost incredible that a human being of this description should be found? But so it is, even with the great mass of mankind: they put far from them the evil day, and scarcely think of eternity till they are constrained to meet it with all its horrors. What, then, shall I say to such persons? What can I say, but Woe unto them? I am aware that it must appear harsh; and that it would be more pleasing to the generality, if we were to prophesy unto them smooth things, and prophesy deceits. But we dare not do so. Our blessed Lord, when addressing such personseven persons in Zion, who, whilst they professed to know God, in works denied him repeated no less than seven times, in one short chapter, this solemn warning, Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! and then closed his address with this terrible denunciation: Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how shall ye escape the damnation of hell [Note: Mat 23:13-33.]! This, by the way, shews us what is meant by the woe denounced in my text. Yes, it is nothing less than the damnation of hell that must be the portion of such self-deceiving professors. I pray you, Brethren, be not satisfied with having it supposed that ye belong to Zion, whilst ye really belong to the synagogue of Satan. To have a name to live, will be an awful state, if ye be found dead at last. Indeed, if you would obtain the prize, you must run as in a race: if you would gain the victory, you must fight the good right of faith: if ever you would have eternal life, glory and honour and immortality must, to the latest hour of your lives, be the one object of your pursuit.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
CONTENTS
Here is a cry to the Church. The wanton state of professors described; and the Lord’s determination to punish.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
What is here said of Zion, in the days of the Prophet Amos, is equally applicable to the Church in all days. There is nothing more foreign to a state of grace, than a state of ease in the world. For when a soul is really and truly at ease in Christ, he must be at contention with the world. It was the character which the Lord gave Moab, that Moab had been at ease from his youth, and had settled on his lees; so that the old tang of nature was the same, and no change of heart had taken place. Jer 48 ; Jer 2 . Whereas the Lord Jesus describes his people as being carried into captivity, and called upon as his followers to the taking up a cross, plucking out an eye, cutting off an arm. Luk 9:23 . And the Apostle sets it down as a truth not to be questioned, that if any man will live godly in Christ Jesus, he must suffer persecution. 2Ti 3:12 . We have therefore here a melancholy picture of sinners at ease, unawakened to a sense of sin, and unconcerned for their eternal salvation. And what makes the picture more melancholy is, that it is in Zion; that is, under the very roof of God’s church. Reader! think how truly awful must it be to sit under the preaching of the gospel, and yet to be a total stranger to a work of grace in the heart. The Prophet describes in these verses the corresponding conduct of all such; ease, indolence, disregard, and a contempt of salvation. They are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Alas! No–nor for the agonies of the Lord Jesus! Job hath given another such a description. Job 21:7-15 . Reader! before you turn away from this awful account, for very awful it is, look round and see whether you cannot find the picture of the Prophet, and what the Man of Uz describes; but too sadly brought forth to the life, in the present day in which we live. Yea, bless God if in your own heart, and house, and family, no such features appear.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Amo 6:1
There is a saying which I have heard attributed to Mr. Carlyle about Socrates, a very happy saying, whether it is really Mr. Carlyle’s or not which excellently marks the essential point in which Hebraism differs from Hellenism. ‘Socrates,’ this saying goes, ‘is terribly at ease in Zion’. Hebraism and here is the source of its wonderful strength has always been serenely preoccupied with an awful sense of the impossibility of being at ease in Zion…. It is all very well to talk of getting rid of one’s ignorance, of seeing things in their reality, and seeing them in their full beauty; but how is this to be done when there is something which thwarts and spoils all our efforts? This something is sin.
M. Arnold in Culture and Anarchy.
References. VI. 1. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No. 417. C. Perren, Revival Sermons in Outline, p. 120. VI. 1-8. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. lii. No. 2977. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets, p. 163. VI. 6. A. E. Garvie, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxiii. 1908, p. 231. VI. 12. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv. No. 1470; vol. lii. No. 2977. VII. 1-6. Ibid. vol. lii. No. 2977. VII. 7, 8. Ibid. vol. 1. No. 2904. R. Winterbotham, Sermons Preached in Holy Trinity Church, Edinburgh. VIII. 1. J. Menzies, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlii. 1892, p. 112. VIII. 1-14. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets, p. 169. VIII. 1, 2. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi. No. 343. VIII. 9. W. Huntington, The Eternal Setting of the Sun, Sermons, 1781-1877. VIII. 11. Bishop Lightfoot, British Weekly Pulpit, vol. ii. p. 446. H. A. Stimson, The New Things of God, p. 85. VIII. 11, 12. J. J. Tayler, Christian Aspects of Faith and Duty, p. 1. IX. 9. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv. No. 825. IX. 13. Ibid. vol. vi. No. 296. J. Wallace, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. 1899, p. 142.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Society Challenged
Amo 6:1-6
This cowherd keeps on his way well. He is not all subdued up to this moment. We saw how he began in a high, clear, resonant voice of judgment and criticism. Not one tone has yet been softened. The voice is as clear as ever; the judgment has never faltered. Amos has never trifled with the standard; he began with righteousness, and he has never been tempted to change the court of appeal.
“Woe to them that are at ease in Zion” ( Amo 6:1 ).
But is not ease a sign of contentment? Is not ease indicative of satisfaction? Is not repose the highest aspect of power? What is there, then, to condemn in the spirit and attitude of ease? To find out the prophet’s meaning we must go back to the language the prophet himself used; then the reading will be, Woe to them that are recklessly at ease in Zion Woe to them that care not; who say, It is nothing to us. “Recklessly at ease” is the literal translation of the prophet’s word. This is not mere indifference, not a studied withdrawment from tumult, not some early Cowper sighing for “a lodge in some vast wilderness, some boundless contiguity of shade,” because he is weary of this world’s story of tumult and worry; this is studied carelessness as to the condition and fate of men. The Bible will never tolerate that hostile view of providence, human education, and human destiny; the Bible insists that we are to be careful about all these things all the time. Where is my brother? What is he doing? How can I help him? Can I lend a hand at carrying the burden which is too much for him? There are those who have hidden themselves away from the calamities of their brethren, have wrapped themselves round with a garment of reckless ease; and the cowherd comes, sends a blasting denunciation after them; he takes the roof off their house, and blows upon them with a whirlwind of righteous indignation. When did the Bible cease to care for men? When did the Bible ever lose itself in ideal contemplation, and withdraw itself from the line of human want, and sorrow, and pain, and wound, and helplessness? This is the one book in the library that sits up all night with us, that goes the whole road of life step for step with us, and that is tenderest when we are sorest, mightiest when we most realise our own helplessness.
The prophet, speaking representatively, says:
“Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border?” ( Amo 6:2 ).
Here he is reproving another kind of discontentment. He is rebuking those who think they have given up a good deal for God. There are persons who say that if they had only been anything but Christians they would have been millionaires. There are even preachers who say that if they had not in some mysterious hour sacrificed themselves in the interests of the pulpit they might have been driving in a carriage. There are those who say that if they had not given up all for Christ they might have been in the House of Commons or in the House of Lords! The Bible will not have it so. Peter once said to his Lord, “We have forsaken all and followed thee,” and the Lord turned round about him and said, “Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” Where is your little “all” in that boundless ocean of recompense and reward? The prophet, however, will have concrete evidence. He is not content with saying, Your state is as good as it would otherwise have been; he says, Go to Calneh, to Hamath, to Gath; reckon up all the Philistines have, total the sum of benefit accruing to heathenism, paganism, worldliness: cast up the account well, and now tell me how the totals run. Where has the Christian been left short? Where has the good man been at a disadvantage? If in the hand, not in the heart; if in visible and tangible substance, not in the mind, that wondrous sanctuary of the imagination, by which a man lays hold of all the worlds, and by which he appropriates the whole universe of God, to his spiritual nutriment, his moral satisfaction, and the establishment and consolidation of his truest usefulness. Thus the Lord admits the principle of competitive criticism and judgment. He submits himself to be so judged. He says, Produce your gods: where are they? What are their names? what are their histories? what have they done? Are these your gods that are nailed up? Are these your divinities whose faces are freshly painted? Are these your trusts, worlds that are far away, and which you worship only on account of their distance and their magnitude? Where are your gods? So he descends to another level and says, Where are your advantages? What has the bad man got that is denied to the good man that is really of true substance, true value, and lasting quality? We cannot lay God under obligation; we cannot approach him and say, We have done great honour to the Cross, and but for our largeness and liberality, our faithfulness and constant endeavour, the cause of Christ would have gone down in the world. Never. No cause that is of Christ can go down, except to rise again. Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die. There are moments of recession, moments even of putrefaction; but the chemistry of nature is operating, and the laws of nature never cease, and the upshot shall be that where there was a seedtime there shall be a harvest. No good word is lost, no true speech is blown away in the heedless wind; every word that has in it life and music and gospel and hope goes from thee to come back again a thousandfold in music and in strength and in blessedness. The Lord thus drives us out to Calneh, to Hamath, to Gath; to New York, to Paris, to St. Petersburg, to London; and he says, Take with you your books; write down all you see; cast up the account well; only be exact, be spiritual, be penetrating, omit nothing; even the dust is gold; reckon it, and when thou hast totalled all, tell me, saith the Lord, how stands the account.
The prophet now hurls another denunciation. “Ye that put far away the evil day,” the day of judgment, the day cf the Lord, the day of inquest. They could not destroy that day, but they could postpone it. Is this an accusation limited to people who lived three thousand years ago? Is there no action of postponement now? Do we not cause things to be transferred until tomorrow and the day following? Do we not draw a visor over our faces that in momentary blindness we may do things we never should have done if our eyes were open, and were receiving the noonday light? This is the practical sophism of life; this is how men throw themselves away. So it is that judgment is put down, and the voice of conscience is silenced, and all the monitions of the better life are stifled. We say, Well tomorrow; we do not deny the importance of these things. The preacher talks well; in his sentences there are many words that are very valuable; but just now urgency, pressure of another kind is upon us: when we have a more convenient season we will hear this man, he shall unroll his revelations, and tell us what he wants to be and to do. There are men who do not deny the day of judgment, but they have put it off a long way. Nor have they done so merely in an arithmetical sense, for in the language used by Amos there is a tone which indicates that the postponement has been accomplished because the men who accomplish it viewed the day of the Lord with aversion. If we omit the element of aversion we miss the true criticism of the text. To avert is to turn the shoulder upon, to turn away from, to express displeasure, impatience, disgust, fear; never to express joy, welcome, gladness, thankfulness. Bad men have nothing to hope for from the day of the Lord.
“… And cause the seat of violence to come near” ( Amo 6:3 ), even in the very act of apparently postponing it. The people here charged postponed the day of the Lord, and in doing so hastened the day of the Assyrian. Men do not take in the double aspect of life; they see only one point in the great circle; they think that if they have postponed the day of judgment they have made all things quiet and smooth, and henceforth all things will run easily, forgetting that no man can put off the Lord without inviting the enemy. They “cause the seat of violence to come near” the session of violence, the sitting of violence; so that whilst the people were so dealing with God, putting off his day to a long date, the Assyrian was preparing to come down. When we have dismissed God we have opened the door to the invader. He who keeps the door of the nation is God; he who puts a roof over the head of the nation to save his people from desolating winds and rains is God. If we have dismissed the altar we have dismissed providence along with worship. This is the teaching of history, this is the tone of the prophets; and if it were the tone of the prophets only we might say this is ancient poetry, a fine idealism; but there is a grip upon us that says, The hand of the Lord is as the iron of almightiness. No man ever postponed a prayer without losing a bargain; or if he made his bargain for the moment, and took home his bag of gold, when he opened it there was nothing in that bag but darkness. It is on this basis of life we proceed. History is our evidence, consciousness is our witness; and for any man to break down this witness he must first break down by irrefragable evidence our personal character.
Again the cowherd comes to the charge. He scourges those
“That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches” ( Amo 6:4 ).
Literally: Pour out themselves like a libation upon their couches, enjoy luxury to the full; and then he adds,
“That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David” ( Amo 6:5 ).
How we shelter ourselves behind great names “like David,” yet not at all David-like. David invented or devised instruments of music that upon them he might discourse to the praise and glory of the all-giving and all-directing God. They prostituted what David devised and consecrated. How often we say, Like the Puritans; like the Reformers; like the Revolutionists; like the Prophets; like David, when we are prostituting what they consecrated or devoted to the service of God. A man may make a lyre, and on it he may play to the devil; a man may paint a picture, and to him it may represent the beauty that fascinates the heart with other than spiritual loveliness, a singular mystery of appeal that in its very silence subtly affects the imagination and subtly wears down the finest quality of the soul. “Like David”: we may have David’s harp without playing upon it with David’s spirit; we may read David’s psalms and find no music in them. There are those who could parody David; there are irreverent creatures who could mimic the altar; there is a degeneracy of reverence that finds no God in blooming flower or in singing bird or in radiant morning. We could not fashion our lives after that sort. We could do so, we could play the beast as well as they. Have they tongues? So have we. Are they gifted in speech? We are not wanting in skill of utterance; we could talk profanity, we could curse society and blast the universe, and show the riches of our vocabulary of blasphemy, but we would not do so; we could be irreverent in the sanctuary, and make a kind of spurious fame by our want of veneration; we prefer silence, solemnity, and the spirit of adoration. These men made musical instruments, and said they were following the example of David. They lied, they dishonoured the immortal dead.
“That drink wine in bowls” that drink bowls full of wine. The ordinary goblet was too small; the little crystal glass excited but their contempt; their souls were on fire for accursed drink, and they must gulp it out of the bowl. Was that all? Far from it. The bowls that were here used, according to the best criticism, were bowls out of which the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled. See the priest with his bowl, filled with the blood of sacrifice; see him dipping his fingers, and sprinkling and so consecrating the objects that were specified for such chrism; then see these hell-hounds, their throats all fire, using the very bowls, filling them with poison-wine, and drinking that they might forget their misery. To such degradation men have come. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. No man may boast against another herein. There are giants in the dust, there are mighty men registered among the lost. A haughty spirit goeth before a fall; pride goeth before destruction. If a man shall boast himself of his personal security, what wonder if his very boastfulness become a temptation and a snare? We are safe in humility, we are secured by self-distrust; for then we go to the munition of rocks, and cry mightily with the tenderness of prayer, “Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe.”
What came of all this outstretching upon beds of ivory, and this pouring out upon couches and divans of luxury? What came of all this eating of the deer, the hart, the roebuck, the fallow deer, and the fat fowls of the poultry-yard? What came of all this drinking out of bowls and anointing with chief ointments? This came: “They are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.” “Joseph” here is the name that stands for the tribe of Ephraim. All luxury tends to moral insensibility, to social carelessness, to the recklessness of ease which the prophet began by condemning. There are two ways of treating the afflictions of society, and we are well practised in them. The first plan is to regard them as so little that poor people and others can manage the whole administration of the case themselves; we say, These are but skin-wounds; in a day or two they will be healed; these are little questions of momentary irritation and dislocation; in a little while by the poor taking care of themselves all this will be rectified. Drink more! bigger bowls! That is one way. Then the other way, the more philosophical and statesmanlike way, is to say that these evils are so gigantic and overwhelming that it is simply useless to talk about them drink! more drink! larger bowls! This is what it comes to, not always in the same broad form, not always with the same openness and visibleness of manifestation; but a man cannot overfeed his body without going down in the quality of his soul; a man cannot go down in the quality of his soul without ceasing to care for the souls of other people. A man cannot have his eyes filled with fatness and his whole nature surfeited with plentifulness of luxury without losing spiritual vision, spiritual sensitivity, spiritual bloom and quality; and now speak to him about the young and the poor and the sick and the helpless, and he says, I cannot attend to it now: I leave that to others: I can no longer take interest in public and social controversy drink! Bring in more wine, more luxury, more fatness from the jungle, the forest, and the vineyard. Shall it come to this? or shall we return to the grand old rule of simple living and high thinking? Not a monastic treatment of the body, but such an elevation of the soul as will make all other things low, poor, insignificant, comparatively worthless? Shall we use the world as not abusing it, or shall we allow the world to overweigh us and crush us and destroy us? To a great question there should be a solemn answer.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Interrogative Parables
Amo 6
We now come to one of the “Therefores” which are so characteristic of this practical prophet. He builds up his reasoning well; then he plunges into his conclusions. He is emphatically a great preacher, never concluding without a rousing application. We have considered what apostate men have done, and we move into this practical “Therefore” with abundant intelligence. We have seen men recklessly at ease in Zion, and trusting to the mountain of Samaria; we have seen them lying upon beds of ivory, and pouring themselves out upon couches of luxury, ordering the lambs out of the flock that they might increase their fatness. What can we expect the “Therefore” of the prophet to lead to? Shall we strike out the words after “Therefore,” and fill the blank as we like? Let us see how far our moral sense replaces inspiration.
The men are apostate. They have gone down so rapidly that they are now drinking wine in bowls consecrated to sacrifice. They are not drinking the wine, they are swallowing it, devouring it: Therefore they shall be glad and rejoice; they shall be strong and happy; they shall shut the north wind out of their garden; their vines shall be plentiful in fruitfulness, and their day shall be long, warm; yea, the sun shall stand still to admire their enjoyments, and the moon shall halt that she may look down upon the glad festival. Conscience itself would not allow the use of such words. There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding, even where he has not seen the written Bible. With an introduction so immoral we must have a conclusion adapted to it. We cannot replace the words we find here with better; the balance of the chapter is equal. There is a sublimity of style even in describing immorality, and that sublimity is well-balanced by the sublimity of the denunciation of judgment in which the ardent prophet indulges. The vengeance will be measured by the immorality. We do not know what the immorality is until we receive its punishment. We are not judges of our own actions; we cannot tell where they begin, how they proceed, how far their influence palpitates and throbs on the lake of being. We must know ourselves by studying providence; in the blight of the harvest we must see what we ourselves have been; in the action of the body reduced to a groan of helplessness we must see what sin really means. Sin was never meant to be theorised about, to be defined as a dictionary word, to be treated as a theological term; it is one of those words that stand apart from speech, gathering up into themselves colours, forces, suggestions, that do not lie within the limited function of word-explainers.
Only history can tell what sin is; nothing but divine judgment can give you a definition of bad doing. We must watch the desolation if we would know the meaning of certain terms, and know the range of certain actions. Men have shown folly herein, deep and incredible, for they have set themselves to writing books about sin; as if sin would ever consent to have itself passed through an inkhorn, to be explained by made pen, and by weary incapable hand, that cannot supply its own wants, much less write the tragedy of creation. We must study divine judgment if we would know human sin. The difficulty of the teacher herein is that so many persons are unconscious of sin, and are therefore mayhap the greater sinners. Some do not distinguish between crime and sin. They have not been criminals, and therefore they think they have not been sinners, as if all the story of life did not lie in the disposition rather than in the action. The action is nothing a poor impotent hand stretched out to do something it cannot accomplish. The heart is the seat of evil. None knoweth the heart but God. The heart does not know itself; the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; and if there were not a concurrent line called history or providence or judgment, we should never know the real state of the heart. What have we then in books but elaborate mistakes, metaphysics perverted to immoral uses, made to show that there is no sin; and in showing that there is no sin metaphysics leave unexplained the penal providences of life, the tremendous devastations that have been wrought by fire and plague and angry skies in every mood of indignation. How are all these to be explained, understood, or received into the line of education, and made to instruct the growing life? Never by any theory that undervalues or mistakes the force of sin. The young cannot enter into this; the life that has been lived in easy frivolity can never understand so grim a doctrine; the girl that has always had her own way and enjoyed herself abundantly at home, and has only had to ask for luxuries in order to receive them, and who has never been tried beyond the point of being called upon to thank her friends for their lavish kindness, what can she understand of this tragedy? To her, they who preach it must be fanatics, yea, madmen. We must, however, go to the broader history, the larger experience of mankind, and find, not in it alone, but in it as interpreted by divine providence, God’s meaning of the term sin.
When the Lord putteth forth the whole of his judgment the desolation is terrible:
“A man’s uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house, Is there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue [hush]” ( Amo 6:10 ).
That is God’s judgment. There is nothing left but the man’s uncle; that is to say, in Biblical language, the man’s goel, the man’s next-of-kin, whose duty it is to burn the dead body or to bury it; and he shall come to seek the corpses, and shall grope round the sides of the house to know if there are any more dead there, and one shall say in a whispered groan, Hush! “We may not make mention of the name of the Lord,” either because we have proved ourselves unworthy to take that holy name into our lips, or because the judgment is so tremendous that even to mention the name of the Lord may seem to provoke but a repetition of his wrath. “Hold thy tongue” is a term which is best interpreted by the word, Hush! There is a time when we want no speech, a time when God’s wrath has had free play, and is glorified not in destruction, but in the attestation of right. There are times when God himself must define terms and show us their meaning, and when he is driven to this he writes with a sword, he speaks with a tempest trumpet.
Amos is fond of interrogative parables. We have seen how often he puts a parable into an enigma. Here he has recourse to his favourite method of exposition and suggestion, saying, “Shall horses run upon the rock? Will one plow there with oxen?” Amos was a philosopher before the time. He talks here, though hardly knowing that he is so talking, about the “laws of nature.” The passage may be interpreted variously. We may take it for practical purposes as indicating a certain law of cause and effect, a law of fitness of things, a law of possible and impossible. “Shall horses run upon the rock,” and break their limbs? “Will one plow there with oxen?” who can make a plough that will cut rocks? Then there is a law of nature. How easily we assent to that proposition! But how difficult it is for us to understand the term “law of nature” in its larger uses and applications! There are those who are eloquent upon the laws of nature who only talk about those laws on one side or aspect. Is there no law of nature of a moral kind? Has the whole spiritual region of life no law, no philosophy, no genius which represents the fitness of things? Is there not a law of nature which demands that the child shall be filial? Is there not a law of nature which says that there are sovereignties that must be obeyed? Is there not a law of nature which calls for thankfulness as the natural sequence of benefaction? Is there no impulse toward the Eternal? Is there not a law which says to him who would find eternity in time, Set down the goblet, for out of that small vessel thou canst not drink immortality? We talk about these laws of nature as if they were limited, mechanical, ponderable, and such as can be represented in plain figures. Or, if we talk about laws of nature, why not take in all the laws of nature, all impulses, volitions, tendencies, aspirations, dumb strugglings after things above and beyond? Never imagine that the laws of nature are confined to certain mechanical and dynamical actions which are accessible only by the physiologist, or the chemist, or the biologist. There are laws of nature, and it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. It will be hard for thee to turn wrong into right. “The way of transgressors is hard”: that is as certainly a law of nature as any procession of the stars or sequence of the seasons. In talking, therefore, about laws of nature take in all life, all nature, all possibilities of being; then you will not be pedants, but philosophers.
“Thus hath the Lord God showed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings. And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord God, forgive” ( Amo 7:1-2 ).
There is the triune God forming for the verb should be represented as rather an immediate and continuous action than an action already accomplished. This, indeed, is the key of many passages of Scripture, that the action is still proceeding. God is still forming man out of the ground; God is still creating man in his own image and likeness; God is still forming judgments, and making heavens of reward. The Lord humbles his creatures by the very instruments which he sometimes uses. An army could meet an army; but what soldiery could fight a grasshopper? or what cannon can strike the beast in a vital part? Where is it? What its magnitude? What its weight? What space does it occupy? Give us these data, and we will take them to the mathematician, and he will make elaborate calculations, and shape his weapon accordingly. That cannot be done. There may be a greater population on a green leaf than you find in all England. There may be a larger congregation in a drop of water than ever assembled in a cathedral. The Lord will not send some red-coated soldiery down to fight those apostates; he will make grasshoppers, and in the morning the grass will all be gone. We are told by those who have lived in lands known to grasshoppers and locusts, and other devouring insects, that to-day there shall be fifty acres of luxuriant corn waving in the summer wind, radiant, and beautified by the summer sun, and in less than twenty-four hours it shall be cut off within an inch of the root. By what? By swords? No; there were dignity in dying by a sword; the murder is not so rough, the instrument is long and sharp and silver-handled. By what ministry has this destruction been wrought? There is a tone of contempt in the very enunciation of the name this is the work of locusts, this is the miracle of grasshoppers.
Amos sees another vision,
“Thus he showed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel” ( Amo 7:7-8 ).
These words are open to two meanings: I have measured up Israel, and none of it shall be lost; or, I will try Israel by a plumbline, and whatever is out of plumb shall be thrown down. The Lord’s government is represented by a plumbline. He will have no leaning pillars; he builds no fancy Pisas; he is not a God of eccentricity. The Lord will have right; he will have the square, the vertical, the exact; he will not accept a rough polygon for a circle. His eyes are flames of fire; he weighs the actions of men in the scales of the sanctuary. The king knows what is written on the wall. Men have made wonderful expositions of “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN,” simply meaning, Pounds, ounces, pennyweights. There need be no esoteric meaning about the writing. The king knew it; he said, This means weighing: I have to go upon the scales; the weighing time has come: “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” Sometimes we have to be weighed without our consent being obtained. All life has to be weighed; the plumbline has to be set against every wall, and if the building be bad, as bad as it will be if not built first with the plumbline, down it goes, not arbitrarily, but because the laws of nature, gravitation, will not have crooked lines and bad speculative building and mean jerry-work in its holy universe. There must be a great tumbling down of bad building. On the other hand, we can lay comfort to ourselves by saying that because there is a plumbline in the hand of God no good action shall be allowed to fall, no good building shall perish; nothing that is right shall suffer loss; the judgment of God is but an aspect of his mercy.
Amos talked thus roughly and frankly, and Amos had a poor congregation. Men do not like this kind of speech. Better talk in polysyllables that jingle to one another, and call rhyme poetry; better sing some wordless lullaby, for thieves like sleep after felony. Who cares for judgment? If Amos were to return to the church there is not a congregation in the world that he would not dissolve. Amaziah represents what would happen: “O thou seer” there is mockery in the tone: thou man of eyes; seeing, penetrating, piercing looker; thou cowherd seer “go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there [sell thy judgments in Judah]: but prophesy not again any more at Beth-el: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court” go, talk to the rabble, but do not let the king hear thy raving! The prophet of God has always been handed down to the poor. There is a refinement that cannot speak above whispers; there is a delicacy that goes daintily down to hell, quietly, easily, gracefully; but you can hear the rustle of the silk as it goes down to be burned. The religious teachers have always been handed over to the canaille, to the rubbish of society. Religion has always been regarded as an excellent thing for the East-end.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
VI
THE BOOK OF AMOS PART 2
Amo 3:1-9:15
Helps commended: (1) “Bible Commentary,” (2) “Pulpit Commentary,” (3) Pusey’s Minor Prophets, (4) “Benson’s Commentary.”
The section, Amo 3:1-6:14 , consists of three parts, or three distinct addresses, each commencing with the words, “Hear this word.”
The first address consists, in particular, of the verdict and sentence of Jehovah against all Israel, and is divided as follows: (1) a principle stated (Amo 3:1-8 ); (2) a reason assigned (Amo 3:9-12 ); (3) a sentence announced (Amo 3:13-15 ).
The principle stated in Amo 3:1-8 is that an effect proves a cause. This principle is enforced by seven illustrative questions, viz: (1) communion proves agreement; (2) the lion’s roar proves the prey; (3) the cry of the young lion proves the prey possessed; (4) the fall of the bird proves the bait; (5) the springing of the snare proves the bird to be taken; (6) the sounding of the trumpet proves the alarm; (7) calamity in the city proves Jehovah. The application of all this is made by the prophet) bringing in his text, as follows: “The lion [Jehovah] hath roared; therefore I fear. The Lord hath spoken, therefore I prophesy.”
In Amo 3:9-12 we hear the prophet giving a special invitation to the Philistines and Egyptians, Israel’s inveterate enemies, to assemble in Samaria to witness the great wickedness and destruction of Israel because they did not do right, storing up violence and robbery in their palaces, and whose tumults and oppressions abounded toward the people. The judgment to follow was to be like the work of the lion devouring his prey.
The sentence announced (Amo 3:13-15 ) is the complete destruction of Israel, and the thoroughness of its execution is indicated by the sentence of destruction against its objects and places of worship and the smiting of the habitations of the rulers, showing the complete desolation of their city, Samaria.
The second address consists, in particular, of an indictment and a summons of Jehovah, and its parts are as follows: (1) the king of Bashan threatened (Amo 4:1-3 ); (2) a sarcastic command (Amo 4:4-5 ) ; (3) a list of providences (Amo 4:6-11 ); (4) a summons to an account (Amo 4:12-13 ).
In Amo 4:1-3 we have Jehovah’s threat against the carousing and oppressive women. Bashan was famous for its flocks and herds. The proud and luxurious matrons of Israel are here described as like the cattle of Bashan, because the cattle of the pastures of Bashan were uncommonly large, wanton, and headstrong by reason of their full feeding. These women because of their luxuries were oppressing the poor and crushing the needy. How perverted their natures must have been from the true instincts of womanhood! But such is the effect of luxury without grace. How depraved and animal-like to say, “Bring and let us drink,” but such are the marks of a well-developed animal nature. No wonder that just here we should hear Jehovah’s oath and threat announced: “they shall take you away with hooks,” indicating their humiliation in contrast with their present luxury and pride. How true the proverb: “Pride goeth before a fall.”
In Amo 4:4-5 we have a sample of the prophet’s sarcasm, commanding the people to multiply their offerings in their transgression at Gilgal and Bethel, the two most prominent places of worship in Israel. At these places they worshiped the calf after the pattern of Jeroboam 1.
In Amo 4:6-11 there are mentioned five distinct providences of the Lord as follows: (2) a scarcity of food, or a famine, per- haps the famine of 2Ki 8:1 ; (2) a severe drought; (3) a blasting with mildew; (4) a pestilence; (5) a destruction of cities. The express purpose of all these was to turn the people unto Jehovah. This is an everlasting refutation of the contention that God’s providences do not come into the realm of the temporal. He sent the famine, he sent the drought, he sent the blasting and mildew, he sent the pestilence, and he overthrew the cities, and why not believe that he “is the same yesterday and today, yea and for ever” (Heb 13:8 )? A great text is found in Amo 4:11 , and also in Amo 4:12 .
In Amo 4:12-13 we have the summons to get ready to meet a powerful and angry God. He had exhausted his mercy and chastisements to bring them back but all these things had failed, after which he calls them to meet him in judgment. So we may say that God is now in Christ exhausting his mercy and visiting the world with chastisements and when all has failed, he says to the one who has rejected his mercy and treated lightly his visitation, “Prepare to meet thy God,” and it is appropriate to say that we may prepare to meet God in Christ, or we must meet him in judgment out of Christ, and out of Christ, “God is a consuming fire.”
The third address consists of repeated announcements of judgments, with appeals to turn and do good, and its parts are as follows: (1) a lamentation, an exhortation, and a hope for the remnant (Amo 5:1-15 ) ; (2) another lamentation, a woe, a disgust, and a judgment (Amo 5:16-27 ); (3) another woe, an abhorrence, and a certain judgment (Amo 8:1-14 ).
In Amo 5:1-15 we have a lamentation, an exhortation, and a hope expressed. The lamentation is that of the prophet himself, over the condition of Israel and the judgment already decreed. The exhortation is to repentance and to seek the true God. The hope is, that through repentance, a remnant of Israel may be saved. In Amo 5:16-27 we have another lamentation, a woe, a disgust, and a judgment. The lamentation in this instance is that of the people when Jehovah comes in judgment upon the land; the woe is pronounced upon the hypocrite who wishes for the day of Jehovah, for it will be to him an awful day; the disgust here is that of Jehovah at their feasts, offerings, and music, because of their sins, and the judgment denounced is their captivity, beyond Damascus, or their captivity by the Assyrians. In Amo 6:1-14 we have another woe, an abhorrence and a certain judgment. The woe in this passage is to the rich, luxurious oppressors who feel secure; the abhorrence is that of Jehovah for the excellency, or pride, of Jacob. As a result of it all there is denounced against Israel again her certain doom and the extent of it particularly noted.
Amo 7:1-9:10 consists of revelations for all Israel, conveyed by means of visions. The several parts of this section are as follows: (1) the locusts, (2) the fire, (3) the plumb line, (4) the basket of fruit, (5) Jehovah himself. In Amo 7:1-3 we have the prophet’s vision of the locusts which are represented as eating the grass of the land, the latter growth after the king’s mowing. This signified a threatened judgment, which is the threatened invasion of Pul (Tiglathpileser II) (2Ki 15:1-17 ff.), but it was restrained by the intercession of the prophet, at which Jehovah repented and judgment was arrested.
In Amo 7:4-6 we have the prophet’s vision of fire which is represented as devouring the deep and was making for the land. This signified a threatened judgment more severe than the other, which is the second invasion of Tiglath-pileser II, who conquered Gilead and the northern part of the kingdom and carried some of the people captive to Assyria (2Ki 15:29 ). This, too, was restrained by the intercession of the prophet, at which God repented and arrested the judgment.
In Amo 7:7-9 we have the prophet’s vision of the plumb line in the hand of Jehovah by which he signified that justice was to be meted out to Israel and that judgment was determined. So the prophet holds his peace and makes no more intercession. This judgment was irremediable and typified the final conquest by Shalmaneser.
Just after the vision of the plumb line there follows the incident of the interference of Amaziah, the priest of Bethel. This Amaziah was an imposter, and yet held the position of priest. He reported to Jeroboam what Amos was saying, advising his exile. He, moreover, attempted to appeal to the fear of Amos, and advised him to flee to Judah. The answer of Amos was full of dignity, born of the consciousness of the divine authority of his mission. He declared that he was no prophet, but that Jehovah had taken him and spoken to him; thus he had become a prophet in very deed. Then he prophesied against Amaziah declaring that God’s judgment would overtake him and Israel.
In Amo 8:1-14 we have the vision of a basket of ripe, summer fruit which indicates that the people were ripe for judgment and that judgment was imminent. Jehovah declared that the end had come; that he would not pass by them any more. This announcement was followed, on the part of the prophet, by an impassioned address to the money-makers, in which he declared the effect of their lust for gain, viz: they swallowed the needy and caused the poor to fail. He described the intensity of that lust, thus: the new moon and sabbath were irksome. Then follows a figurative description of judgment, which declared Jehovah’s perpetual consciousness of these things and his consequent retribution. The final issue of judgment the prophet declared to be a famine of the words of the Lord, as a result of which there would come eager and fruitless search, followed by the fainting of youth because of their thirst for a knowledge of God. All this finds fulfilment in the events which followed in the history of Israel. They were deprived of prophets and revelations after Amos and Hosea, and the captivity came according to this prophecy, during which they had no prophets in the strange land of their captivity. This is a foreshadowing of Israel’s condition today. She rejected the Messiah and for these two thousand years she has been without a prophet, priest or Urim and Thummim, no revelation from God to cheer their dark and gloomy hearts.
In Amo 9:1-10 we have the vision of God himself standing beside the altar which symbolizes judgment executed, though there was no symbol, or sign. We hear the manifesto of Jehovah himself. It is one of the most awe-inspiring visions of the whole Bible. The message proceeded in two phases: First, an announcement of judgment irrevocable and irresistible; secondly, a declaration of the procedure so reasonable and discriminative. Jehovah is seen standing by the altar, declaring the stroke of destruction to be inevitable, and all attempts at escape futile, because he has proceeded to action. While the judgment is to be reasonable and discriminative, the claims in which Israel had trusted were nothing. They became as the children of the Ethiopians. The Philistines and the Syrians had also been led by God. The eyes of Jehovah were on the sinful kingdom and the sifting process must go forward but no grain of wheat should perish.
In Amo 9:11-15 , we have a most consoling conclusion of this prophecy in sundry evangelical promises, after so many very severe and sharp menaces.
The phrase, “In that day,” refers to the time after the events previously mentioned had been fulfilled and extends into the messianic age. See Act 15:16 . But what does the prophet mean by raising up the tabernacle of David? The promise, doubtless, at least in the first place, was intended of the return of the Jews from the land of their captivity, their resettlement in Judea, rebuilding Jerusalem, and attaining to the height of power and glory which they enjoyed under the Maccabees. This restoration was an event so extraordinary, and the hope of it so necessary to be maintained in the minds of the Jewish people, in order to their support under the calamity of their seventy years of captivity, that God was pleased to foretell it by the mouth of all his prophets. This prophecy however must be extended to the days of the Messiah, and to the calling of the Gentiles to the knowledge of the true God, according to Act 15:16 . They did not possess the remnant of Edom until after their restoration in the days of Hyrcanus, when they made an entire conquest of Edom, but the statement which follows, viz: “and all the nations that are called by my name,” goes farther into the future and, at least, intimates the salvation of the Gentiles.
In Amo 9:13 we have the promise of the blessings of grace to come in the messianic age in which the reaping shall be so great that the reapers cannot get out of the way of the sowers. This we see fulfilled now sometimes in a small way but these times of harvest are but the firstfruits of the harvest which is to follow, especially, the harvest that is to follow in the millennium. The promise of Amo 9:14-15 will find its complete fulfilment at the return of the Jews to their own land and their conversion which will usher in the millennium and extend the glorious kingdom of our Lord.
QUESTIONS
1. Of what in general, does the section, Amo 3:1-6:14 consist and how does each part commence?
2. Of what, in particular, does the first address consist and what its parts?
3. What is the principle stated in Amo 3:13 , how illustrated and what the application?
4. In Amo 3:9-12 who were invited to witness Israel’s doom, what the reason assigned and what was to be the character of the judgment to come upon Israel?
5. What the sentence announced in Amo 3:13-15 , and how is the thoroughness of its execution indicated?
6. Of what, in particular, does the second address consist and what its parts?
7. What the force and application of “ye kine of Bashan” and what the threat against them?
8. What of the sarcastic command of Amo 4:4-5 ?
9. What the items of providence cited and what their purpose as expressed by the prophet in Amo 4:6-11 ?
10. What the summons of Amo 4:12-13 , and what application may be made of such texts in preaching?
11. Of what, in particular, does the third address consist, and what its
12. What the lamentation, what the exhortation and what the hope, of Amo 5:1-15 ?
13. What the lamentation, what the woe, what the disgust, and what. The judgment of Amo 5:16-27 ?
14. What the woe, what the abhorrence and what the certain judgment of Amo 6:1-14 ?
15. Of what, in general, does the section, Amo 7:1-9:10 , consist, and what are its several parts?
16. What is the vision of locusts and what its interpretation?
17. What the vision of fire and what its interpretation?
18. What the vision of the plumb line and what its interpretation?
19. What historical incident follows the vision of the plumb line and what the several points of the story in detail?
20. What the vision of the basket of fruit, what its interpretation and what the prophet’s explanation following?
21. What the vision of God himself and what its interpretation?
22. What, in general, the prophecy of Amo 9:11-15 ?
23. What the meaning of the phrase, “In that day”?
24. What does the prophet mean by raising up the tabernacle of David?
25. When did they possess the remnant of Edom?
26. What the meaning of Amo 9:13 ?
27. What the fulfilment of Amo 9:14-15 ?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Amo 6:1 Woe to them [that are] at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, [which are] named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!
Ver. 1. Woe to them that are at ease in Zion ] That lie sleeping on both sides ( In utramvis aurora dormiunt ), and slighting the former menaces, as Leviathan doth the iron weapons, Job 41:27 , that live as if ye were out of the reach of God’s rod; and as for all your enemies, ye puff at them, saying, We shall not be moved, we shall never be in adversity, Psa 10:5-6 . To these sleepers in Zion God here sends forth his summons (the word Hoi signifieth as well Heus as Vae, ho as wo, Isa 55:1 Zec 2:6 . Ho, ho, come forth), that were quiet and still, Zec 1:11 , lulled asleep by Satan, or rather. cast into a dead lethargy: Samson-like their enemies are upon them, and they fast asleep the while; Ishbosheth-like they stretch themselves upon their beds of ivory, till they lose, not their precious lives only, but their immortal souls. Security ushereth in destruction; those that are at ease in Zion shall be raised by a dreadful woe rung in their ears, that shall make their hearts fall down, and their hairs stand upright. In the froth of carnal security and sensual delights is bred that worm of conscience that never dieth, Mar 9:44 , and here begins to grub and gnaw; like as while the crocodile sleepeth with open mouth, the Ichneumon, or Indian rat, shoots himself into his bowels; after which he never is at ease, as having his entrails daily devoured; so that one while he will be in the water, and anon after on the land, till life fails him.
And trust in the mountain of Samaria
Which are named chief of the nations
chief
To whom the house of Israel came
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Amos
THE CARCASS AND THE EAGLES
Amo 6:1 – Amo 6:8
Amos prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam, the son of Joash. Jeroboam’s reign was a time of great prosperity for Israel. Moab, Gilead, and part of Syria were reconquered, and the usual effects of conquest, increased luxury and vainglory, followed. Amos was not an Israelite born, for he came from Tekoa, away down south, in the wild country west of the Dead Sea, where he had been a simple herdsman till the divine call sent him into the midst of the corrupt civilisation of the Northern Kingdom. The first words of his prophecy give its whole spirit: ‘The Lord will roar from Zion.’ The word rendered ‘roar’ is the term specially used for the terrible cry with which a lion leaps on its surprised prey Amo 3:4 , Amo 3:8. It is from Zion, the seat of God’s Temple, that the ‘roar’ proceeds, and Amos’s prophecy is but the echo of it in Israel.
The prophecy of judgment in this passage is directed against the sins of the upper classes in Samaria. They are described in verse 1 as the ‘notable men . . . to whom the house of Israel come,’ which, in modern language, is just ‘conspicuous citizens,’ who set the fashion, and are looked to as authorities and leaders, whether in political or commercial or social life. The word by which they are designated is used in Num 1:17 : ‘Which are expressed by name.’ The word ‘carried back the thoughts of the degenerate aristocracy of Israel to the faith and zeal of their forefathers’ Pusey, Minor Prophets , on this verse. Israel, Amos calls ‘The first of the nations.’ It is singular that such a title should be given to the nation against whose corruption his one business is to testify, but probably there is keen irony in the word. It takes Israel at its own estimate, and then goes on to show how rotten, and therefore short-lived, was the prosperity which had swollen national pride to such a pitch. The chiefs of the foremost nation in the world should surely be something better than the heartless debauchees whom the Prophet proceeds to paint. Anglo-Saxons on both sides of the Atlantic, who are by no means deficient in this same complacent estimate of their own superiority to all other peoples, may take note. The same thought is prominent in the description of these notables as ‘at ease.’ They are living in a fool’s paradise, shutting their eyes to the thunder-clouds that begin to rise slowly above the horizon, and keeping each other in countenance in laughing at Amos and his gloomy forecasts. They ‘trusted in the mountain of Samaria,’ which, they thought, made the city impregnable to assault. No doubt they thought that the Prophet’s talk about doing right and trusting in Jehovah was very fanatical and unpractical, just as many in England and America think that their nations are exalted, not by righteousness, but by armies, navies, and dollars or sovereigns.
Amo 6:2 is very obscure to us from our ignorance of the facts underlying its allusions. In fact, it has been explained in exactly opposite ways, being taken by some to enumerate three instances of prosperous communities, which yet are not more prosperous than Israel, and by others to enumerate three instances of God’s judgments falling on places which, though strong, had been conquered. In the former explanation, God’s favour to Israel is made the ground of an implied appeal to their gratitude; in the latter, His judgments on other nations are made the ground of an appeal to their fear, lest like destruction should fall on them.
But the main points of the passage are the photograph of the crimes which are bringing the judgment of God, and the solemn divine oath to inflict the judgment. The crimes rebuked are not the false worship of the calves, though in other parts of his prophecy Amos lashes that with terrible invectives, nor foul breaches of morality, though these were not wanting in Israel, but the vices peculiar to selfish, luxurious upper classes in all times and countries, who forget the obligations of wealth, and think only of its possibilities of self-indulgence. French noblesse before the Revolution, and English peers and commercial magnates, and American millionaires, would yield examples of the same sin. The hardy shepherd from Tekoa had learned ‘plain living and high thinking’ before he was a prophet, and would look with wondering and disgusted eyes at the wicked waste which he saw in Samaria. He begins with scourging the reckless security already referred to. These notables in Israel were ‘at ease’ because they ‘put far away the evil day,’ by refusing to believe that it was at hand, and paying no heed to prophets’ warnings, as their fellows do still and always, and as we all are tempted to do. They who see and declare the certain end of national or personal sins are usually jeered at as pessimists, fanatics, alarmists, bad patriots, or personal ill-wishers, and the men whom they try to warn fancy that they hinder the coming of a day of retribution by disbelieving in its coming. Incredulity is no lightning-conductor to keep off the flash, and, listened to or not, the low growls of the thunder are coming nearer.
With one hand these sinners tried to push away the evil day, while with the other they drew near to themselves that which made its coming certain-’the seat of violence,’ or, rather, ‘the sitting,’ or ‘session.’ Violence, or wrongdoing, is enthroned by them, and where men enthrone iniquity, God’s day of vengeance is not far off.
Then follows a graphic picture of the senseless, corrupting luxury of the Samaritan magnates, on which the Tekoan shepherd pours his scorn, but which is simplicity itself, and almost asceticism, before what he would see if he came to London or New York. To him it seemed effeminate to loll on a divan at meals, and possibly it was a custom imported from abroad. It is noted that ‘the older custom in Israel was to sit while eating.’ The woodwork of the divans, inlaid with ivory, had caught his eye in some of his peeps into the great houses, and he inveighs against them very much as one of the Pilgrim Fathers might do if he could see the furniture in the drawing-rooms of some of his descendants. There is no harm in pretty things, but the hetic craze does sometimes indicate and increase selfish heartlessness as to the poverty and misery, which have not only no ivory on their divans, but no divans at all. Thus stretched in unmanly indolence on their cushions, they feast on delicacies. ‘Lambs out of the flock’ and ‘calves out of the stall’ seem to mean animals too young to be used as food. These gourmands, like their successors, prided themselves on having dainties out of season, because they were more costly then. And their feasts had the adornment of music, which the shepherd, who knew only the pastoral pipe that gathered his sheep, refers to with contempt. He uses a very rare word of uncertain meaning, which is probably best rendered in some such way as the Revised Version does: ‘They sing idle songs.’ To him their elaborate performances seemed like empty babble. Worse than that, they ‘devise musical instruments like David.’ But how unlike him in the use they make of art! What a descent from the praises of God to the ‘idle songs’ fit for the hot dining-halls and the guests there! Amos was indignant at the profanation of art, and thought it best used in the service of God. What would he have said if he had been ‘fastened into a front-row box’ and treated to a modern opera?
The revellers ‘drink wine in bowls’ by which larger vessels than generally employed are intended. They drank to excess, or as we might say, by bucketfuls. So the dainty feast, with its artistic refinement and music, ends at last in a brutal carouse, and the heads anointed with the most costly unguents drop in drunken slumber. A similar picture of Samaritan manners is drawn by Isa 28:1 – Isa 28:29 , and obviously drunkenness was one of the besetting sins of the capital.
But the darkest hue in the dark picture has yet to be added: ‘They are not grieved for the affliction literally, the ‘breach’ or ‘wound’ of Joseph.’ The tribe of Ephraim, Joseph’s son, being the principal tribe of the Northern Kingdom, Joseph is often employed as a synonym for Israel. All these pieces of luxury, corrupting and effeminate as they are, might be permitted, but heartless indifference to the miseries groaning at the door of the banqueting-hall goes with them. ‘The classes’ are indifferent to the condition of ‘the masses.’ Put Amos into modern English, and he is denouncing the heartlessness of wealth, refinement, art, and culture, which has no ear for the complaining of the poor, and no eyes to see either the sorrows and sins around it, or the lowering cloud that is ready to burst in tempest.
The inevitable issue is certain, because of the very nature of God. It is outlined with keen irony. Amos sees in imagination the long procession of sad captives, and marching in the front ranks, the self-indulgent Sybarites, whose pre-eminence is now only the melancholy prerogative of going first in the fettered train. What has become of their revelry? It is gone, like the imaginary banquets of dreams, and instead of luxurious lolling on silken couches, there is the weary tramp of the captive exiles. Such result must be, since God is what He is. He has sworn ‘by Himself’; His being and character are the pledge that it will be so as Amos has declared. How can such a God as He is do otherwise than hate the pride of such a selfish, heartless, God-forgetting aristocracy? How can He do otherwise than deliver up the city? God has not changed, and though His mills grind slowly, they do grind still; and it is as true for England and America, as it was for Samaria, that a wealthy and leisurely upper class, which cares only for material luxury glossed over by art, which has condescended to be its servant, is bringing near the evil day which it hugs itself into believing will never come.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Amo 6:1-3
1Woe to those who are at ease in Zion
And to those who feel secure in the mountain of Samaria,
The distinguished men of the foremost of nations,
To whom the house of Israel comes.
2Go over to Calneh and look,
And go from there to Hamath the great,
Then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are they better than these kingdoms,
Or is their territory greater than yours?
3Do you put off the day of calamity,
And would you bring near the seat of violence?
Amo 6:1 Woe The pronunciation of the word sounds like exasperated or sorrowful feelings. This term (BDB 222) characterizes the book of Lamentations (cf. Amo 5:24). The Prophets often used the literary form (a 3-2 beat) of a funeral dirge to express the disapproval of God and His coming judgment. This term is recurrent in Isaiah (cf. negative in Isa 1:4; Isa 1:24; Isa 5:8; Isa 5:11; Isa 5:18; Isa 5:20-22; Isa 10:1; Isa 17:12; Isa 18:1; Isa 28:1; Isa 29:1; Isa 29:15; Isa 30:1; Isa 31:1; Isa 33:1; Isa 45:9-10; neutral in Isa 10:5; and positive in Isa 55:1) and Jeremiah (cf. Jer 22:13; Jer 22:18; Jer 23:1; Jer 30:7; Jer 34:5; Jer 47:6; Jer 48:1; Jer 50:27).
This INTERJECTION is followed by a series of PARTICIPLES, which carries the woe thought with each of them (Amo 6:1-7).
to those who are at ease There is no VERB. This phrase is used as a SUBSTANTIVE. It has the prophetic connotation of careless, wanton, arrogant (BDB 983, cf. Isa 32:9; Isa 32:11; Zec 1:15; and Psa 123:4). It was not their leisure or wealth or social status that was the problem, but their trust in these things instead of God.
The group is characterized in several ways in the next few verses:
1. those who feel secure, Amo 6:1 b
2. you who put away the evil day, Amo 6:3
3. those who lie on beds of ivory, Amo 6:4
4. those who improvise (sing idle songs), Amo 6:5
5. those who drink wine from sacrificial bowls, Amo 6:6
All of these phrases have the DEFINITE ARTICLE plus a PARTICIPLE.
in Zion This seems to be parallel to in the mountain of Samaria (the capital of the Northern Ten Tribes). However, Zion is one of the seven hills of Jerusalem. Therefore, this could mean
1. covenant people as a whole, Amo 3:1; Amo 6:8
2. Judah and Israel were both sinful and guilty
3. a literary parallel, but with no distinction intended
See Special Topic: Moriah, Salem, Jebus, Zion, Jerusalem .
The distinguished men This is literally pierced men (BDB 666; KB, 718, Qal PARTICIPLE). The Arabic root means one who scrutinizes (i.e., leaders). This seems to refer to (1) former leaders with whom Israel was trying to make security agreements to protect themselves from the judgment of God (i.e., Assyrian exile) or (2) what these wealthy leaders thought of themselves (cf. Amo 6:13; NET Bible; Tyndale Commentary).
Amo 6:2 Depending on how one interprets Amo 6:1, this verse would be
1. Amos’ words to the arrogant leadership of the covenant people (Judah and Israel) similar to Amo 9:7. However, this involved some textual emendations (cf. UBS, Handbook, #31, p. 289).
2. the leaders’ comments to the people (cf. NET Bible, Tyndale commentary).
Calnah This was a fortified city in Syria (cf. Isa 10:6), which was destroyed by Tiglath-pileser III in 738 B.C. It became a proverb of the coming exile of Israel. It was on this occasion that the king of Israel, Menahen, began to give tribute to Assyria.
Hamath The Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 3, p. 33, has a good brief comment.
A city in Syria, the southern border of which often became part of the formula for the northern idealized border of Israel (cf. 1Ki 8:65; 1Ch 13:5). The city was an object of the Assyrian conquest (Isa 36:19), and some of its inhabitants were exiled and settled in Israel (2Ki 17:24).
It was located about 150 miles north of the city of Dan on the Orantes River.
Gath The Philistines established five city-states in southwest Judah on the coastal plain. Four of those cities are mentioned earlier in Amo 1:6-8 (Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Ekron). Gath is also mentioned in Mic 1:10. It was later destroyed by the Assyrians.
Amo 6:3 The wealthy leaders were putting off (BDB 622, KB 672, Piel PARTICIPLE; this VERB appears only here in this form and only twice in the OT, cf. Isa 66:5) the day of God’s visitation by (1) divination or (2) trying to ignore (cf. TEV) the covenant consequences of Deuteronomy 27-29. The irony is that by their very acts they were hastening the day!
the seat of violence This could refer to (1) the leaders of Israel or (2) the coming invasion of Assyria. Seat is understood as throne, which is a metaphor for reign.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
‘Woe. The second woe. See Amo 5:18. them: i.e. the nobles of Judah, in comparison with the nobles of Israel (in Samaria) its the next clause. at ease = careless, secure, or easy-going.
trust = confide. Hebrew. batah. App-69. Here Part. = them that confide.
which are named = [the men of] men. Compare Num 1:17
chief of the nations: i.e.
Israel. Reference to Pentateuch (Exo 19:5). App-92,
the house of Israel: i.e. the Northern Kingdom = the People of Israel.
came. Supply the Ellipsis: “came [for judgment and justice]”, as shown by the rest of this member (“y1”).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Shall we turn in our Bibles to Amos chapter 6.
The Northern Kingdom of Israel has become apostate. They are living in luxury, carelessness, indifference towards God, when suddenly their peace is disturbed because of an unknown person to them who suddenly arises in Bethel, one of their cities of worship, and begins to denounce their worship. Begins to denounce the Northern Kingdom, and begins to prophecy the judgment of God. Amos suddenly appeared on the scene, telling of the judgment of God that is soon to come upon this apostate kingdom. In chapter 6, continuing his denunciations he declares,
Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion, that are trusting in the mountain of Samaria, which are named for the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! Pass unto Calneh, and see; go from there to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their borders greater than your borders? Ye that put far away the evil day, and caused the seat of violence to come near; That lie upon the beds of ivory, and stretch yourselves out on your couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent instruments of music, like David; That drink your wine out of bowls, and anoint yourselves with the oils: but you are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph ( Amo 6:1-6 ).
So he describes now the conditions that existed in the Northern Kingdom that were actually perpetuating its destruction. At ease in Zion, they were trusting in the mountains of Samaria. They felt that their cities were well defensed. That the city of Samaria, a very great stronghold. Actually, Samaria sits on the top of a mountain. They had ingeniously brought water into the city by a spring that was several miles away on another hill, and had brought a tunnel all the way along and up into Samaria. And by the process of water seeking its own level, as the pool on the other hill would fill, of course it would bring the water to the level there within Samaria. So they had a good source of fresh water within the city. The city had the strong walls, the great towers, and built on the hill they felt that they were impregnable as far as their enemies were concerned. So they were trusting in their military strength, in their strategic location, rather than really trusting in the Lord. So the prophet said, “Now go to some of these other cities that have fallen. You think that you’re any stronger or greater than they were? And yet they’ve been taken. You say that the evil day is far off, but in reality you are hastening your own destruction.”
There are always those who will mock the prophet of God by saying, “Oh, you know, that’s not going to come for years. All the things that you’re talking about, they’re way down the road. We’re gonna go on; we’ve got enough oil for the next hundred years. Let’s use up the supply, don’t have to worry about it.” In that attitude, actually, you’re only hastening the evil day of judgment.
Now the kingdom of Samaria had become very prosperous under Jeroboam. In the excavations of that city of Samaria, in excavating the ruins they found furniture made out of ivory. So this is not a figure of speech. But he’s talking about literal things that were happening. They were stretching themselves out on their beds of ivory, and upon their ivory couches. It was quite a vogue thing to have ivory furniture. As they feasted on their lambs and upon their pen-fed calves, as they were just indulging themselves in wine, in music, in luxurious living, living in the lap of luxury, and yet judgment is waiting right around the corner. They weren’t really grieved over the afflictions of Joseph. Therefore, these who are living in the lap of luxury are gonna be the first to go into captivity.
The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, I hate his palaces: therefore I will deliver the city up to the enemies and all that is in it ( Amo 6:8 ).
This is again one of those places where it declares that God swore by Himself.
Now we do not really practice the taking of oaths much anymore. It used to be a very common practice where a person would seek to affirm that what he is saying is really true. He would swear to the truth of his statement, and he would always swear by something greater than himself. You couldn’t say, “Well, I swear by my name that I’ll do it.” Your name might not be any good. So you’d swear by my mother’s honor, or you’d swear by heaven, or, “I swear by God that I will do it.” That was to confirm what a person was saying.
Now Jesus said, “You really shouldn’t be doing that. You shouldn’t have to be doing that. If you say yes, you should mean yes. If you say no, you should mean no.” Therefore, to take an oath or to take a vow is really superfluous. Be a man of your word, let your yes be a yes, let your no be a no, so that you don’t have to swear to declare that you’re gonna do it, or you’re not gonna do it. If I just, if I say I’m gonna do it, let my word be as my bond.
But God on occasions wanted to impress how definite was His decision in a certain matter. To establish the covenant so that they would know that this indeed is what God will do, God would swear. But who is He gonna swear by? There’s nothing greater in all the universe to swear by; He’s the greatest. So He would always have to swear by Himself. So God to confirm the covenant with… and the oath to Abraham swore by Himself saying, “And in blessing surely I will bless thee.” Confirming that covenant. Now God is… Amos is saying that God is swearing to the fact that He abhors the excellency of Jacob, and the palaces, and He promises to deliver the city up to the enemies, and God did do just that.
It shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, they’ll all die. And a man’s uncle shall take him up, and he that burns him, shall bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say to him that is by the sides of the house, Is there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of Jehovah ( Amo 6:9-10 ).
Now he’s talking about the destruction that’s gonna come. The people are gonna be slaughtered, they’ll come to the houses and to take the bodies of those that had been slaughtered to burn them. It was a very common practice to cremate the bodies.
There are some people today who wonder about the practice of cremation. Is it scriptural, or is it biblically right or wrong to be cremated? It was a practice in the Old Testament to cremate bodies. Saul’s body was cremated. I do not know of a single scripture that condemns cremation. I personally have no problems with cremation. They can do with my body whatever they please. I’ll care less. Once my spirit has moved out of this old house, I don’t care how they dispose of the house. To me cremation only speeds up the natural processes, and will do in thirty-seven minutes what nature will do in thirty-seven years or so. So I have absolutely no problem with cremation. There are some people that have problems, and if you have a problem, then let the worms eat it. But once I move out of this house, this old tent, I then have a building of God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, and so what they do with the tent could concern me less. You know, just, I don’t care.
I do care on another sense. I don’t want people going into hock to buy some fancy coffin for this old carcass. I think that’s ridiculous. I could care less if I’m buried in a pine box, or whatever. I means, this… the body isn’t me. The body is only a tent that I’m living in for a while. The real me is spirit; I’ll be gone. Do with the body whatever you want, but dispose of it as reasonably as possible. People make such a big to-do over the carcass. We ought to make a greater to-do over the person.
Behold, the LORD commands, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts. Shall horses run on the rocks? will one plow there on the rocks with oxen? ( Amo 6:11-12 )
Now, of course, you really need to go over to the land of Israel to appreciate those scriptures, because there are just hillsides that are just barren rock. Horses just don’t run on the rocks, nor is there any value in trying to plow them.
ye have turned judgment into gall, the fruit of righteousness into hemlock: Ye which rejoice in a thing of nothing, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength? But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness ( Amo 6:12-14 ).
So God’s rebuke against them.
“
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Amos was a herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. His words are rugged, but sometimes he rises to sublimity. His expressions are somewhat dark, and not readily to be understood; but when we learn the meaning of them, we perceive that they are full of deep, earnest, solemn warning and instruction.
Amo 6:1. Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!
It was a time of great sin, and also of great judgment, yet there were some in Zion who were quite at ease under all that was happening. No sense of sin grieved them, no thought of coming judgment alarmed them. What did they care if the nation went to rack and ruin? What did it signify to them that God was angry with his people? They were atheists; or, at least, they acted as if they were. Whatever might happen, they would run the risk of it. Woe, says God, to all such people as these; and when the Lord says Woe to anyone, it is indeed woe, for he never speaks thus without cause.
Amo 6:2. Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border?
The Lord points to other cities which had been destroyed, to Calneh, and Hamath, and Gath, which he had smitten because of the sin of the people who had lived there; and he says, Ye that dwell at Jerusalem, and ye that live at Samaria, do not imagine that ye will escape the consequences of your sin. I was able to reach the inhabitants of these proud cities, despite their strong fortifications and their powerful armies; and I can reach you also. So, when we look back upon the judgments of God upon guilty men, we may conclude that no sinner has any right to think that he shall escape. The proudest and mightiest have been brought down by God and so will men, who dare to resist the Most High. Continue to be humble, even to the worlds end.
Amo 6:3. Ye that put far away the evil day,
Ye who say, There is time enough yet. Let us see a little more of life; why need we be in a hurry to seek salvation? Ye that put far away the evil day,
Amo 6:3. And cause the seat of violence to come near;
For, when men try to postpone thoughts about the judgment which is to follow after death, they are generally the more eager to indulge in sin. They say, There is time enough yet, because they want a longer period to get greater indulgence in sinful ways. The Lord says Woe to all such people as these.
Amo 6:4. That lie upon beds of ivory,
They were men of wealth, who spent their money upon all manner of luxuries while the poor of the land were perishing through want.
Amo 6:4. And stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall;
It was, as I have said, a time of danger, when war was at the gates; but the people were so careless that they lived as if peace were established for ever, and the enemy could never touch them. Their expenditure was at a high rate for self-indulgence, and for that only.
Amo 6:5. That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instrument of music, like David;
But not for the same purpose as David played and sang; his instruments of music were used for spiritual solace and the worship of God; but these people set their wits to work to find out how their music might inflame their lusts, and be a vehicle for the expression of their lascivious desires.
Amo 6:6. That drink wine in bowls,
For seldom can a careless man crown the edifice of his sin without indulging in drunkenness; he must have the sensual delight that he finds in the flowing bowl.
Amo 6:6. And anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
It is not wrong for a person, to whom God has given much of the good things of this life, to enjoy them fitly and reasonably. The sin of these people consisted in the fact that, when others were afflicted, they took that opportunity to indulge themselves in all the delights of the flesh; and when Gods rod was being used for chastisement, they went on with their sinful mirth to show how little they cared about it. Probably I am addressing some who have, at this very moment, a sore sickness in the house; or it may be that a beloved wife is scarcely cold in her grave, or a dear child has only just sobbed itself into its death-sleep; yet the survivors are running after amusements, and pleasures, and follies, more wildly than ever, as if to hush the voice of conscience, and to forget the strokes of Gods rod. Oh, that this very solemn chapter might convey a warning message to them!
Amo 6:7. Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.
Whenever God does come forth to execute judgment upon the ungodly, he will first pick out those who have defied him the most. Those who have the proudest spirit and the hardest heart shall be the first to feel the strokes of his rod.
Amo 6:8. The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein.
The next chapter shows that, even when God was very angry with the wicked, there was still wonderful power in prayer.
This exposition consisted of readings from Amo 6:1-8; Amo 7:1-6.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Amo 6:1-8
RIGHTEOUSNESS DEMANDS REPENTANCE-
LUXURY LEADS TO INDOLENCE
TEXT: Amo 6:1-8
A false sense of pride and position has drugged Israel into a false feeling of security which in turn has led her to luxury, gluttony, indolence and lethargy. God promises judgment and captivity.
Amo 6:1 WOE TO THEM THAT ARE AT EASE IN ZION . . . AND . . . SECURE . . . IN . . . SAMARIA . . . Amos directs his warning from God to the whole nation. Especially to the notable men-the renowned leaders. These public leaders had allowed themselves to be lulled by luxury into a false ease and security. They, in turn, had counseled all the people who came to them that peace, prosperity and safety were the watchwords of the day (Jer 6:14). They were confident that God would not allow anything bad to happen to the chief of nations (Jer 7:4 ff), after all, had not God chosen this nation above all the others (Jer 2:3; Exo 19:5; 2Sa 7:23 ff; Amo 3:2). Prosperity is dangerous. It may be either blessing or curse, according to the way it is received by those to whom it may come. If the one who prospers receives it with thankfulness to God constantly aware of his dependence upon God and uses it to the glory of God it can be a wonderful blessing and a great source of joy. But if the one who prospers is ungrateful and makes his riches his whole aim in life he falls into a snare, into many hurtful lusts, and drowns in perdition (cf. 1Ti 6:6-10; Deu 4:9; Deu 6:10-12; Deu 8:11-20; Deu 32:15; Psa 9:17; Pro 1:32; Pro 30:9; Jer 3:21; Dan 4:30; Dan 5:20; Hos 10:13; Hos 13:6; Luk 12:16-19).
Zerr: Amo 6:1. Woe is pronounced just once in the present connection and it applies to all the leading men in Israel who are described in the first 6 verses of the chapter. It is from nowv and Strong defines it with the single word “oh! It has been rendered by ah, alas, ho, O, and woe in the A. V. It signifies that something very distressing is going to come upon those of whom it is spoken. At ease means to be feeling secure and contented, and unconcerned about the comfort of others. And that, too, even when the feeling of security might be at the expense of the poor and be causing them much distress. Zion is used figuratively to denote the people of Israel as a nation. Samaria was the capital of the 10-tribe kingdom, and that portion of the Jews trusted in the power of their headquarters to stand between them and all trouble. Named chief of the nations. These leaders of the Israelites had obtained a high standing even among the heathen nations because of their partaking with them in idolatrous practices. House of Israel came. These princes had so much power that the common people looked to them for leadership, notwithstanding the unjust treatment they had received concerning their own rights.
Amo 6:2-3 PASS YE UNTO CALNEH, AND SEE . . . ARE THEY BETTER THAN THESE KINGDOMS? Calneh was a city in the land of Babylonia (Calno of Isa 10:9) one of the four cities founded by Nimrod (cf. Gen 10:10). Hamath is one of the most ancient surviving cities on this earth located in upper Syria on the Orontes river. The entrance of Hamath (Num 34:8) was to be the northern limit of Israel, but God left some of the Hivites there to be a test to the faithfulness of Israel (Jdg 3:3). Calneh and Hamath were two of the 19 city-states that rebelled against mighty King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria (745-727 B.C.) and were subdued only after several campaigns and it is no wonder Amos calls it Hamath the great. Gath was one of the five royal cities of Philistia (Jos 13:3; Jdg 3:3; 1Sa 4:4; 1Sa 4:16; 1Sa 4:18), destroyed by Uzziah (2Ch 26:6) with a history of greatness and influence in the days of Amos. Amos has selected these three rich, powerful, influential cities to compare Israel, in her greatness, to, and thus emphasize Israels ingratitude! These three cities were powerful, yet none of them was better than Judah or Israel. In spite of Gods blessing the once insignificant Hebrew nomads until their prosperity exceeded that of these three rich metropolises, this generation of Hebrews remained an ungrateful people, unmindful of the Rock that begat them (Deu 32:6-18).
Zerr: Amo 6:2. Calneh, Hamath and Gath were communities of the heathen which were once powerful. But what was their condition now as Amos was writing? It was one of humiliation brought about by the same people who were predicted to come against Israel. Since the people of the Lord were no stronger than the mentioned ones who were subdued, they should not loll around with a feeling of security as if nothing evil could come upon them.
Amo 6:3-YE THAT PUT FAR AWAY THE EVIL DAY, AND CAUSE THE SEAT OF VIOLENCE TO COME NEAR . . . These people were just like those of a 150 years later in the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel crying Peace, peace, when there is no peace, (cf. Jer 6:14; Jer 8:11; Jer 14:13; Eze 13:10; Eze 13:16). How could Amos preach to them hard times, when all was well-politically and economically? They refused even to think of hard times, judgment, retribution of God for their sins. But by their very acts of impenitence and refusing to see anything wrong with their excesses and injustices they were hastening the day of Gods judgment upon them! They were ripening fast (as Amos later pictorializes with the basket of summer fruit). They were actually rotting. In just 40 years the northern kingdom would be overthrown completely by the Assyrians and as a nation it would disappear from the face of the earth.
Zerr: Amo 6:3, The false teachers denied that the nation was in any danger, or at least for the time being. Such as-surances of security misled the people because they believed their prophets. The result of it was to encourage further acts of injustice. This is along the same line as a statement of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 8; Ecclesiastes 11 : Because sentence against, an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
Amo 6:4-6 . . . THAT LIE UPON BEDS OF IVORY . . . EAT THE LAMBS OUT OF THE FLOCK . . . SING IDLE SONGS . . . INVENT . . . INSTRUMENTS OF MUSIC . . . DRINK WINE IN BOWLS . . . BUT ARE NOT GRIEVED FOR THE AFFLICTION OF JOSEPH. We wish to quote extensively here from, The Bible Commentary, The Minor Prophets, by T. Laetsch, pub., Concordia, pp. 170-171:
. . . In the homes of the rich were found all the conveniences and luxuries of the day. There were beds, or divans, of ivory, richly decorated with ivory plaques and panels . . . on which Mr. Richman sprawled; luxuriant couches, on which the lady of the house stretched out her weary limbs after having returned from a stroll through the avenues of the city where she load exhibited her beauty, enhanced by many an artificial means (Isa 3:18-23). The less fortunate sisters, the common rabble, the dames of the underworld, the flappers of 750 B.C., admired their richly attired sisters and ran to the next bazaar to buy some cheap bauble, some of the latest beauty helps, in order to look like their more favored sisters. In the elegant homes of the rich and in the temples of their idols (ch. Amo 2:7-8) riotous feasts and banquets were held. Only the most dainty meats were served, lambs selected from carefully tended flocks, calves from the midst of the stall (cp. Mal 4:2), kept in special stalls, fed with special feed. At these banquets men and women idled away their time by chanting crooning to the sound of the viol, the harp (Amo 6:5). They also invented for themselves, not to Gods glory, instruments of music. The better such noisemakers suited the intention of their inventors, to affect the nerves, create excitement, stir up passions, the higher was the inventor honored. He was likened to David, who had introduced many musical instruments in the Temple service (1Ch 23:5; 2Ch 29:25-26) . . . Amos, of course, uses these words in bitter irony. Such crooning, accompanied by jazzy instrumental music, was regarded as the highest super art by the delighted audiences. The heads and bodies of the assembled guests were anointed with the chief ointments, the finest and most expensive perfumeries, filling the ball with their intoxicating odors. The passions kindled by the voluptuous music and suggestive dress were nourished by the rich food and fanned into irrepressive ardor by large bowlfuls of wine freely making the rounds (Amo 6:6). The term used here for bowls in all other passages denotes ritual bowls used in the Temple for sprinkling the sacrificial blood upon the altar. Were they used at these banquets in the homes and the idol temples in order to give a semblance of piety to these orgiastic festivals, as the saying of grace before modern family dinners ending in drinking bouts? We are reminded of Belshazzars feasts (Dan 5:1-5).
The Arabic and Greek words translated idle mean literally, to throw or strew many useless words about, to gossip, and this describes the singing at the banquets as frivolous nonsense. The sin is not, per se, in the use of instruments of music in religious worship (David was commanded to invent instruments of music to be used in Gods temple in worshipping the One, True God), but the use of instruments to sing vain and idle songs in a perverted religious ceremony. As David made instruments of music to worship the true God, these idolaters made instruments to accompany their stupid songs as they worshiped their god, the belly! Amo 6:5 cannot be used to condemn the use of an instrument in New Testament church worship-to do so is wresting the scriptures! It could be used to show Gods displeasure with a great amount of the silly, nonsensical, and immoral music which has been invented today by those whose god is still their physical lusts!
Zerr: Amo 6:4. The simple meaning of this verse is that the princes and other leaders of the nation were living in the height of luxury. That fact alone would have been bad enough, hut by picking out the choicest food only, they deprived the common people of their share of the good things that were intended for all of the citizens. Amo 6:5. With all of the facts and truths before him that have been so clearly set forth, surely the reader is prepared to avoid a fundamental error that has been made in commenting on this verse, It is a common thing for certain .teachers to use this verse in showing that God condemned instrumental music even in Old Testament times. In such teaching they miss entirely the point the prophet is making. The verse is but another item of the practice I have already explained, that of mixing some things that would have been endorsed previously, with their idolatrous and other evil things, thinking that God would accept the whole program. Amo 6:6. In the preceding chapter we saw how these selfish leaders had sandwiched their evil doings with some of the original ordinances of the law, and the same thing is done in this. Verse 5 is the “fining composed of instrumental music, something introduced and endorsed by David with the Lords blessing. Then around that are the things that were prompted by their own evil desires. Drink wine in bowls. The last word is from MIZBAQ, which Strong defines, “A bowl (as if for sprinkling), and the word has also been rendered by ‘basin.” It indicates the extravagance and selfishness of these men. They were not satisfied with what a regular drinking cup would supply, but drank so much wine that it required these large vessels to serve them. The ointments were all precious and costly, but these men appropriated to their personal use the chief or choice ones. After his description of the general program of these leaders, the prophet states his concluding charge against them in the words, but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. For some reason the name of Joseph is occasionally used to designate the nation as a whole, especially when the writer is dealing with the sorrows and injustices of its common people. This is doubtless because he was such an unusual example of patience and virtue even under the most trying circumstances. But the hardships of the poor did not mean anything to these leaders among the Israelites, for they persisted in gratifying their own selfish desires at the expense of their poor brethren.
The word used by Amos to describe the bowls out of which the gluttons drank their wine has special reference to the silver sacrificial bowls made by the tribe-princes at the consecration of the altar to Jehovah (Numbers 7). Amos does this to show that the people in Moses day manifested their zeal for Jehovah by so doing, and these people of Israel, of Amos own times, showed just as much zeal is their care for their god, the belly.
And the greater crime than all this gluttony and idolatry is, as Amos states in Amo 6:6, they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. They were blind, deaf and dumb to the spiritual rottenness then prevalent. They were not the least concerned that this nation whose destiny was holiness and truth was sick unto death with the leprosy of sin. The injustice, cruelty, decadence did not bother them. They were perfectly satisfied as long as they had food and drink and were rich enough to satisfy their desires.
Amo 6:7-8 THEREFORE SHALL THEY NOW GO CAPTIVE WITH THE FIRST THAT GO CAPTIVE; AND THE REVELRY OF THEM THAT STRETCHED THEMSELVES SHALL PASS AWAY . . . THE LORD JEHOVAH HATH SWORN BY HIMSELF . . . Jehovah makes a solemn, terrible vow. Those who spent their time luxuriating and satisfying every selfish whim-who had no time for God-will be the first taken captive. They will be the first to be made slaves of a foreign despot. They will have no time henceforward for revelry. That will come to a sudden end. From that time onward they will be an enslaved people. God cannot make His vows any more emphatic than by swearing by His own name, for there is nothing greater in existence than God. Since He has the authority and power to carry out His threats it is not at all evil for Him to swear by His own Holy Name. It is vain for man to swear by anything, either heaven or hell, or by the hairs on his head since he has no control over any of it (cf. Mat 5:33-37; Jas 5:12). Hebrews, in that glorious passage emphasizing how God demonstrated the immutability and finality of His promise-keeping, in Amo 6:13-14 tells us that God interposed Himself with an oath. We believe the interpretation of how God interposed Himself is found in 2Co 5:19 where we are told, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself . . . and in 2Co 1:20, . . . For all the promises of God find their Yea in Him (that is, in Christ), So, when God swears by Himself, rest assured, it is certain to come to pass!
Zerr: Amo 6:7. When an army invades a city or territory, it is considered good strategy to capture its leading men first if possible (for example see 1Ki 22:31). That idea seems to have been followed in this case, for the men who were out in front in their selfish domination over the common people, were destined to be first, to go when the enemy came against, the land. That will put ail end to their banquets and other indulgencies. The reader should again consult the long note in connection with the comments on Isa 1:10. Amo 6:8. Excellency is from a Hebrew word that means arrogance or pride. Jacob is used as a designation for the nation as a whole, but espedaily the leading men who dominated the common people. These men exalted themselves in their pride of power, and did many evil things under the pretense of their position. It was all this that God said he abhorred, and caused Him to decree the complete destruction of their city.
Questions
1. Why was Amos against the ease those in Zion and Samaria were having?
2. Why refer the people of Israel to the cities of Calneh, Hamath and Gath?
3. What does Amos mean by saying they were putting far away the evil day?
4. What sort of society does Amos describe in Amo 6:4-6?
5. May Amo 6:5 be used against the use of instruments in religious worship? Explain your answer!
6. Why condemn them because of their lack of grief for the affliction or Joseph?
7. How emphatic is the phrase The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by himself to be taken?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
From the formalists the prophet turned toward those who had lost all sense of the spiritual and the moral, and were indifferent, those were ”at ease in Zion,” and “secure upon the mountains of Samaria.” He had in mind the national leaders, “the notable men of the chief of the nation.” Zion and Samaria were the headquarters of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Here the rulers were living in luxury, and abandoned to animalism, having lost all consciousness of their relationship to Jehovah, with its consequent demands on life and conduct. It would seem that they had given up all reference to “the Day of the Lord,” being careless concerning it, and probably disbelieving in it.
On such, the prophet declared the coming of the swift and terrible judgments of Jehovah.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Woe to Them That Are at Ease in Zion!
Amo 6:1-14
Zion is included with Samaria in this prophecy and the nobles are especially condemned for their drunkenness, gluttony, and insolence. The prophet quotes the example of great neighboring peoples as a warning that the abuse of Gods good gifts leads to their withdrawal. Calneh on the Tigris, and Hamath, had fallen before Assyria; Gath, also, had been recently overwhelmed-how unlikely, therefore, that Israel, eaten through by extravagance and luxury, could endure. National dissolution is not far away, when palaces are filled with riot while the poor rot in neglect. It was thus that Josephs brethren ate their food at the pits mouth, while Joseph lay beneath. Many professing Christians are similarly at ease, indifferent to their brothers woe.
The greatness of approaching judgment is illustrated by a simple incident. A household of eleven is smitten by plague; ten die, one only survives. So great has been the mortality that no nearer relative than an uncle is left to carry out the dead for cremation; and when the matter of a funeral service is broached, the suggestion is instantly met by the remark, Those old customs cannot be observed amid the stress of such a time; we do not now mention Gods name. Funeral rites would pass out of use. Gods dealings with His people had been as useless as plowing rocks would be.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Chapter 6
At Ease In Zion!
It was not alone the house of Joseph who had provoked the Lord. As before noted, Israel refers throughout, not to the ten tribes only, but to the whole nation. Therefore this division of the prophecy concludes with a stirring word to those at ease in Zion, and to those who trusted in the mountain of Samaria (ver. 1). Down in the southern kingdom, the danger threatening the northern one seemed far off, and they took comfort in the fact that Samaria would, as they supposed, withstand a siege long enough to give them plenty of opportunity to prepare if the enemies drew near. Hence they took their ease, and were not concerned about obeying the voice of God calling them to repentance, nor did they afflict their souls for the sorrows of their brethren.
At ease in Zion may well speak to us of that unexercised condition in which so many of the professed children of God are found at the present time, unheeding the special message for the moment, and manifesting no concern as to walking in the power of the truth. But if Gods people are indifferent to that which is of importance in His eyes, they need not expect Him to act for them when difficulties and afflictions arise.
Philistine cities, once splendid and magnificent had been destroyed. Calneh, Hamath and Gath were but solemn reminders of past glory, and now in ruins. What better was Israel than these kingdoms? They put far off the evil day, while violence and corruption abounded within their borders. Stretched on beds of ivory and carved couches, they feasted without fear on the choice of the flock and herd. They chanted to the sound of musical instruments, drank wine, and delighted in costly ointments; but God winds up the solemn indictment by declaring, They are not grieved for the breach of Joseph (vers. 2-6). And shall not this have a voice for every saint of God today? Are we not in grave danger of living to please ourselves, rejoicing in our possessions, and forgetting the breach of Joseph?-forgetting the unhappy state of the assembly, indifferent to the breaches made by self-will, and which have so dishonored the Lord, the Churchs glorified Head? Surely true love to Him will result in exercise of soul as to the present state of that which is so precious in His sight. Such exercises will lead to searching the Scriptures, and judging all in their light; to seeking to walk individually in the old paths in which the people of God have walked, even if one has thus to walk alone. But, withal, there will of very necessity be a manifestation of that love to all the saints which should characterize every one who enters in any degree into the truth that there is one Body, and one Spirit.
Because of this lack of concern for the affliction, or breach, of Joseph, the Lord could not show Himself strong on their behalf, but would abhor the excellency of Jacob, and deliver up even the city of David to the Gentile oppressor (vers. 7, 8).
When at last the destruction came, the fearful sense of Jehovahs wrath would close every mouth, even as they buried the dead, for the name of the Lord would be unsuited to their denied lips (vers. 9, 10). It is sad indeed, to be under the rod, and yet to be utterly unable to get into touch with Him who appointed it. Such is the hardening power of the deceitfulness of sin!
Vers. 11 to 14 look on to the Babylonian captivity, which followed the Assyrian invasion of the north over a century later. When the Chaldeans came in like an inundation, overflowing all the land, it should be as by direct command of the Lord, as His rod, because of Judahs having turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into poisonous hemlock. The Holy One must Himself take sides against His own if they turn His truth into a lie, and walk in unclean-ness. So is it still. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness, and will not connect His name with what is contrary to it.
With this message the second division of our prophet comes to a close.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
CHAPTER 6
The Fourth Discourse
1. Woe to them that are at ease in Zion (Amo 6:1-6)
2. The punishment announced (Amo 6:7-14)
Amo 6:1-6. This woe concerns the great men, the chiefs of the nation, who were sunk into a godless self-security, and dreamt on in their darkness, while the clouds of judgment were gathering above them. They were to go from Calneh to Hamath and then down to Gath of the Philistines. Calneh was built by Nimrod in the land of Shinar Gen 10:10; Hamath was the capital of a Syrian kingdom, and Gath the center of Philistia. These places were the places of vileness and corruption. But were the kingdoms of both Judah and Israel any better than these?
While some desired the day of the Lord others put it far off, they refused to believe that judgment was impending. It was so in Ezekiels time when the people said The days are prolonged and every vision faileth Eze 12:22. So it is in Christendom. The evil servant Mat 24:1-51 says My Lord delayeth His coming, and as a result he acts outrageously. What were the results in Israel when the evil day was put far off? They committed violence; violence increased in the land. They lived luxuriously on beds of ivory and ate the best of the flock. They danced and made merry; they drank wine but none was exercised over the hurt of Joseph, the spiritual condition of the people.
Amo 6:7-14. They were now to go away as captives. There should be utter desolation. There would be a multitude of dead, so that they could not follow their ancient custom in burying them; they would have to burn them. Then the one who burns the corpses asks the last person in the house whether there is any one still with him, and the answer is No, but keep silence! For the name of the Lord is not to be invoked. It means that the speaker fears that the other one might mention the name of the Lord and in doing so bring down upon himself an additional judgment. Everything is to be smitten. What they had done could no more secure blessing and salvation than horses could run upon a rock and one plowing upon a rock with oxen. The nation which is announced in the last verse is the Assyrian.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
trust
(See Scofield “Psa 2:12”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
to them: Jdg 18:7, Isa 32:9-11, Isa 33:14, Jer 48:11, Jer 49:31, Luk 6:24, Luk 6:25, Luk 12:17-20, Jam 5:5, 1Pe 5:7
at ease: or, secure, Jer 7:4
and trust: Amo 4:1, Amo 8:14, 1Ki 16:24
named: Exo 19:5, Exo 19:6, Lam 1:1
chief: or, firstfruits, Jam 1:18
Reciprocal: Job 12:5 – of him Isa 10:9 – Calno Isa 10:13 – I have removed Isa 28:1 – whose Isa 33:10 – now will I be exalted Isa 59:8 – no Jer 2:3 – the firstfruits Eze 23:42 – a voice Eze 33:3 – he blow Hos 13:16 – Samaria Amo 3:9 – the mountains Amo 9:10 – The evil Mic 1:1 – concerning Mic 1:5 – is it Mic 6:9 – Lord’s Mic 6:12 – the rich Zep 1:12 – the men Zec 1:15 – General Zec 11:2 – Howl Rev 14:4 – redeemed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
AT EASE IN ZION
Woe to them that are at ease in Zion.
Amo 6:1
I. There is a great difference between being at ease and being contented.Every Christian should learn contentment even in pain and suffering. St. Paul said that he had learned in whatsoever state he was therein to be content. Peace, too, is not only a privilege of the Christian, but a dutypeace with God, the peace of God in the heart. The Christian should not be feverish and fretful. He should never worry. This quietness of faith is founded upon obedience and trust.
II. But there is a kind of ease which is full of danger.It is that ease against which our text warns us. The people of Israel were living at ease in sin. They were neglecting God, paying no heed to His commandments, and yet were giving themselves no thought about the consequences. People live on the slopes of a volcano, build their homes there, make their gardens, cultivate their vineyards, go on with their plans, forgetting that under them sleep the terrible fires which any hour may break out and destroy them. They are at ease in a false security. So are all who live in sin, and have no thought of sins guilt.
III. Luxury is not the best thing in this world.The people of Israel had rich houses, their bedsteads inlaid with ivory, and on their tables the richest and costliest provisions. They thought they were wondrously fortunate. No doubt their neighbours also envied them. But we see here that they were in a state of great danger. Wealth always has its dangers, and luxury very often destroys the soul. There is no time when we need to watch our spiritual life more carefully than when we are prospering in worldly things.
IV. Pleasure is not the best thing in this world.The people of Israel seemed to have no lack of pleasure. They had their feasts, their revels, with all kinds of musical instruments and other instruments of pleasure. Wine flowed so freely that they drank it not in ordinary cups, but in great bowls. They anointed themselves with the costliest ointments, but meanwhile their souls were dying. Indulgence in pleasure is always perilous.
V. Sin brings its sure and terrible penalties.All this luxury and indulgence foreboded coming ruin. The people were forgetting God, disregarding His commandments. They forgot that there was any judgment, that God thought or cared about their sins. Then captivity came with all its curse. The course is always the same. If we live in sin we must meet the penalty.
Illustrations
(1) The meaning is recklessly at ease. Such ease is the expression of the dont care spirit. A young man says, Anyhow, I am going to have a good time. He means an evil time. Gods warnings, the certainties of retributions, he scoffs at. Like Esau, he seizes the mess of pottage, and capitulates to the present. Said an old boatman bewailing his present plight of ignorance and inability, I played truant when I could have gone to school; I would not learn; now here I am. He had his foolish ease, now he had his pain. This sensual, pleasure-loving ease, which refuses to look before and after, will bring doom always. Mr. Lowell used to delightingly quote this sentence from Samuel Johnson: Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings.
(2) Sinful indulgence brought to Israel captivity; sinful indulgence brought to Rome, Greece, Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon, ruin. Now imagine, as well as you can, what would it be that a man like Amos would call to our attention if he were to speak out in these days. Would not national pride be one of the sins which he would bring to our remembrance?proud of our size, proud of our inventive genius, proud of our wealth, proud of our power, and now, in these last days, proud of our navy. Bragging is heard on every hand, as though we could beat the world.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Amo 6:1. Woe is pronounced just once in the present connection and it applies to all the leading men in Israel who are described in the first 6 verses of the chapter. It is from nowv and Strong defines it with the single word “oh! It has been rendered by ah, alas, ho, O, and woe in the A. V. It signifies that something very distressing is going to come upon those of whom it is spoken. At ease means to be feeling secure and contented, and unconcerned about the comfort of others. And that, too, even when the feeling of security might be at the expense of the poor and be causing them much distress. Zion is used figuratively to denote the people of Israel as a nation. Samaria was the capital of the 10-tribe kingdom, and that portion of the Jews trusted in the power of their headquarters to stand between them and all trouble. Named chief of the nations. These leaders of the Israelites had obtained a high standing even among the heathen nations because of their partaking with them in idolatrous practices. House of Israel came. These princes had so much power that the common people looked to them for leadership, notwithstanding the unjust treatment they had received concerning their own rights.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Amo 6:1. Wo to them that are at ease in Zion Who are secure, as the margin reads, continuing in their sins, fearless of Gods judgments, and resolved to indulge themselves in that voluptuousness and ease which their riches give them an opportunity of enjoying, notwithstanding the evident tokens of Gods displeasure against the whole nation, both Israel and Judah. For these and the following words contain a threatening against both kingdoms, although the chief design of this prophecy is against the kingdom of Israel. Because the word , which our translation renders at ease, signifies also to be insolent, therefore the LXX. translate the clause, , Wo unto them that despise Zion, in which sense the words may fitly belong to the ten tribes, who despised Zion, and the temple, though God had chosen it to place his name there. And trust in the mountain of Samaria In the strength of their capital city, built on the hill of Samaria. Which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came Zion, or Jerusalem, and Samaria, were the chief seats of the two kingdoms, whither there was the greatest resort of the whole nation. The Chaldee interprets it, Who give names to their children, according to the names of the chief of the heathen, to whom the house of Israel apply themselves for protection. Thus, in later times, some of the Jews took the names of Alexander, Antipater, Agrippa, and the like, to compliment some great men among the Greeks or Romans of those names. Lowth.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Amo 6:1. The mountain of Samaria. This city was built on a hill, like Zion, to make it impregnable. See note on Isa 28:1.
Amo 6:2. Calneh, or Ctesiphon. It was situate almost opposite Seleucia, above Bagdad, and was a royal city. Gen 10:10. Here stood the temple of Diana on seven hundred pillars, each of which was sixty feet high. The length was four hundred and twenty five feet, and the breadth two hundred. It was two hundred years in building. Ctesiphon, whom Pliny calls Chersiphron, was the principal architect. This temple was one of the seven wonders of the world. All Asia minor contributed towards the expense, and one hundred and twenty seven kings contributed towards the pillars. Pliny, book 36. chap. 14. Vitruvius adds, that Ctesiphon invented the machines for raising the stones. De Ivignes Dict. Paris, 1646. Art. Antiochus. See also the note on Dan 9:24.
Amo 6:5. Invent to themselves instruments of music, like David. The royal and inspired bard is not censured here. His instruments being devoted to sacred song, the censure is on those princes and people who had perverted them to soothe their passions in their carousings, and in the feasts of Baal. David, as a man of genius, did invent and improve instruments of music, but it was for high and holy purposes.All sounds are communicated by air; whether they proceed from the vibrations of the bell, the ring, the cord, or the flute. The genius of the musician is displayed in communicating these diversity of sounds. But no sounds are sweeter than the Eolian harp, where nature is untouched by art.
Amo 6:10. He that burneth him. The heathen custom of burning the dead, to preserve the ashes in urns, was now obtaining among the jews, which is here satirised by the prophet.
Amo 6:14. I will raise up against you a nation. The Assyrians should overspread the whole land, from Hamath, in the north-west passage, to the river leading to Egypt.
REFLECTIONS.
What dark and terrific addresses do we find in the prophets; yet such as were well adapted to the times. What powerful eloquence, what enlivened rhetoric, what cogent arguments does Amos employ to rouse his country, sleeping in their sins! He sends his slumbering countrymen to the far-famed Calneh for wisdom; to Emesa, the capital of Hamath; and to Gath, then recently taken by king Uzziah, 2Ch 26:6, to enquire whether they were better than those ancient cities. He thunders against the supineness of Judah, who trusted in Zion; against the security of Samaria, who deemed their city impregnable.
Full of carnal security, they slept on beds decorated with ivory, they reposed on the crimson couch, they dined daily at the sumptuous feast, they chanted to melodious instruments, they regaled themselves with goblets of wine; and conscious of superior discernment, they sneered at the judgments denounced by the Lord. What a portrait of the gay and giddy age in which we now live. How little they think of sermons, of the visitations of God, and of the enemy who has repeatedly sworn to destroy the new Carthage.
No nation is wise that makes heaven its foe: but the woe applies with double force to hypocrites and lukewarm professors, who are at ease in the christian Zion. Is God less holy? Is sin less heinous than in ancient times? May we now be saved with an accommodating religion; and forget the duties we owe to the unregenerate world? The giddy age is gone after pleasure; and many of those who hear the gospel conform to the world, and grasp at gain. But let us ask in the words of the prophet, Was Calneh safe; or could her temple save her? Were Hamath and Gaza secure by their strength? Ah, their glory was lost in a cloud. Yes, and did not Jerusalem and Samaria fall by terrible sieges? God can vanquish the strongest nations, and inspire a foe to storm cities hitherto deemed impregnable, with the same ease as a mortal can crush a worm.
The Lords anger was so far roused against the men who disregarded the nature and consequences of crime, as to swear by himself, that instead of being indulged with licentious liberty, they should go into a galling captivity; instead of enjoying ease, they should endure pain; instead of blooming with health, they should waste with pestilence; yea, that the whole nation should waste away, except a remnant for exile. Thus the Lord sent the nobles first into Assyria, with Coniah, for he hated their palaces, and abhorred the excellence of Jacob.
It was worse still, that prayer in the evil day was not allowed to be made for Israel. They had such a consciousness of guilt as to say, we may not mention the name of the Lord: or if we read, because they set not themselves to mention the name of the Lord, it equally marks a people abandoned to misery and despair. Oh that we may be made wise by the unaccountable obstinacy of impenitent men.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Amo 6:1-7. The Luxury of Israels Rulers.Extravagance in ritual often indicates a perverted sense of what constitutes a true philosophy of life. The price of luxury is far greater than men realise. The prophet now contrasts the careless luxury of the rich with the misery that is soon to overtake them (cf. Amo 6:8-14). The reference to Zion in Amo 6:1 has been suspected, on the ground that Amos preached exclusively to the Northern Kingdom. But a slight changes gives: Woe to those that are at ease in (their) pride (so Ehrlich). Woe to the rulers of the people in Israel and Samaria, the men of mark of Israel, the first of the nations. Consider the fate of other nations (Isa 10:9*, 2Ki 18:33-35; 2Ki 19:12 f.). Look (Amo 6:2) at Calneh, Hamath, and Gath! Amo 6:2 is regarded by some scholars (e.g. Kent) as a later addition, because these cities were not destroyed till after the days of Amos. Hamath was not taken until 720 B.C.; Calneh (if it be the same as Calno) was not conquered much before 701. But the identification of Calneh (cf. Isa 10:9; possibly the Kullani of Assyrian inscriptions, a place in the N. of Syria) is very doubtful; and, as Ehrlich says, Hamath may have suffered severely from other foes long before its conquest by Sargon. Hamath (2Ki 14:25*) was an important town on the Orontes, about 100 miles N. of Damascus and S. of Arpad. Gath, the identification of which is uncertain, was the fifth of the chief Philistine towns (cf. Amo 1:8). It was destroyed at a later date (2Ch 26:6). The prophet asks: Are ye better than these kingdoms, or is your territory larger than their territory (see below)? What right have ye to expect to escape their fate? Ye who refuse to contemplate the day of calamity, who are installed by violence; who (Amo 6:4) lie upon beds of ivory and sprawl (so translate) on couches; who feed on dainty lambs and stalled calves; who (Amo 6:5) improvise idly to the sound of the harp and like a David compose all sorts of melodies (so Nowack, slightly emending text); who drink bowls of wine and use the most costly ointments. Woe to such triflers! They cannot spare a thought (Amo 6:6) for the ruin of Joseph (cf. Nah 3:19). But (Amo 6:7) now the revelry of the sprawlers shall come to an end. They have prided themselves on being the first of the nations. Therefore they shall now march into captivity at the head of captured peoples!
Amo 6:2. Read, Are ye better?Read, or is your territory larger than their territory (gbulekem miggbulm).
Amo 6:3. Oettli reads sceptre (shbet).
Amo 6:5. Better, all sorts of melodies (kl for kl).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
6:1 Woe to {a} them [that are] at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, {b} [which are] named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!
(a) The Prophet threatens the wealthy, who did not regard God’s plagues, nor threatenings by his Prophets.
(b) These two cities were famous from their first inhabitants the Canaanites: and seeing that before they did not avail those that were born here, why should you think that they should save you who were brought in to dwell in other men’s possessions?
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The boastful complacency of Israel’s leaders 6:1-3
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The prophet began this message by announcing coming woe (Heb. hoy, cf. Amo 5:18). Those who felt at ease in Zion (Jerusalem) and secure in Samaria were the subjects of his message. Those who felt comfortable in Samaria, partially because it stood on a high hill that was easily defensible, were the distinguished men. They regarded Israel, and Judah, as the foremost of the nations of their day. They were the men to whom the rest of the house of Israel (the people of the Northern Kingdom) came for advice and or justice.
"With masterly irony, Amos addressed the self-satisfied rich, secure in their affluence (Amo 6:1; cf. Luk 6:24-25; Luk 12:13-21)." [Note: McComiskey, p. 317.]
"God doesn’t look at the talent of national leaders, the extent of a nation’s army, or the prosperity of its economy. God looks at the heart, and the heart of the two Jewish kingdoms was far from the Lord." [Note: Wiersbe, p. 360.]
This is the last reference to the people of Zion in this message; from now on Amos spoke only of the Northern Kingdom. Perhaps he referred to the Judean leaders because they were also guilty of the same sins (cf. Isa 32:9-11), but God had not decreed destruction against them yet.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
3. “AT EASE IN ZION”
Amo 6:1-14
The evil of the national worship was the false political confidence which it engendered. Leaving the ritual alone, Amos now proceeds to assault this confidence. We are taken from the public worship of the people to the private banquets of the rich, but again only in order to have their security and extravagance contrasted with the pestilence, the war, and the captivity that are rapidly approaching.
“Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion”-it is a proud and overweening ease which the word expresses-“and that trust in the mount of Samaria! Men of mark of the first of the peoples”-ironically, for that is Israels opinion of itself-“and to them do the house of Israel resort! Ye that put off the day of calamity and draw near the sessions of injustice”-an epigram and proverb, for it is the universal way of men to wish and fancy far away the very crisis that their sins are hastening on. Isaiah described this same generation as drawing iniquity with cords of hypocrisy, and sin as it were with a cart-rope! “That lie on ivory diwans and sprawl on their couches”-another luxurious custom, which filled this rude shepherd with contempt-“and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall”-that is, only the most delicate of meats-“who prate” or “purr” or “babble to the sound of the viol, and as if they were David” himself “invent for them instruments of song; who drink wine by ewerfuls-waterpot-fuls-and anoint with the finest of oil-yet never do they grieve at the havoc of Joseph!” The havoc is the moral havoc, for the social structure of Israel is obviously still secure. The rich are indifferent to it; they have wealth, art, patriotism, religion, but neither heart for the poverty nor conscience for the sin of their people. We know their kind! They are always with us, who live well and imagine they are proportionally clever and refined. They have their political zeal, will rally to an election when the interests of their class or their trade is in danger. They have a robust and, exuberant patriotism, talk grandly of commerce, empire, and the national destiny; but for the real woes and sores of the people, the poverty, the overwork, the drunkenness, the dissoluteness, which more affect a nations life than anything else, they have no pity and no care.
“Therefore now”-the double initial of judgment “shall they go into exile at the head of the exiles, and stilled shall be the revelry of the dissolute”-literally “the sprawlers,” as in Amo 6:4, but used here rather in the moral than in the physical sense. “Sworn hath the Lord Jehovah by Himself-tis the oracle of Jehovah God of Hosts: I am loathing the pride of Jacob, and his palaces do I hate, and I will pack up a city and its fullness. For, behold, Jehovah is commanding, and He will smite the great house into ruins and the small house into splinters.” The collapse must come, postpone it as their fancy will, for it has been worked for and is inevitable. How could it be otherwise?” Shall horses run on a cliff, or the sea be ploughed by oxen-that ye should turn justice to poison and the fruit of righteousness to wormwood! Ye that exult in Lo-Debar and say, By our own strength have we taken to ourselves Karnaim.” So Gratz rightly reads the verse. The Hebrew text and all the versions take these names as if they were common nouns-Lo-Debar, “a thing of naught”; Karnaim, “a pair of horns”-and doubtless it was just because-of this possible play upon their names, that Amos selected these two out of all the recent conquests of Israel. Karnaim, in full Ashteroth Karnaim, “Astarte of Horns,” was that immemorial fortress and sanctuary which lay out upon the great plateau of BaShan towards Damascus; so obvious and cardinal a site that it appears in the sacred history both in the earliest recorded campaign in Abrahams time and in one of the latest under the Maccabees. Lo-Debar was of Gilead, and probably lay on that last rampart of the province northward, overlooking the Yarmuk, a strategical point which must have often been contested by Israel and Aram, and with which no other Old Testament name has been identified. These two fortresses, with many others, Israel had lately taken from Aram; but not, as they boasted, “by their own strength.” It was only Arams preoccupation with Assyria, now surgent on the northern flank, which allowed Israel these easy victories. And this same northern foe would soon overwhelm themselves. “For, behold, I am to raise up against you, O house of Israel-tis the oracle of Jehovah God of the hosts-a Nation, and they shall oppress you from the Entrance of Hamath to the Torrent of the Arabah.” Everyone knows the former, the Pass between the Lebanons, at whose mouth stands Dan, northern limit of Israel; but it is hard to identify the latter. If Amos means to include Judah, we should have expected the Torrent of Egypt, the present Wady el Arish; but the Wady of the Arabah may be a corresponding valley in the eastern watershed issuing in the Arabah. If Amos threatens only the Northern Kingdom, he intends some wady running down to that Sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, which is elsewhere given as the limit of Israel.
The Assyrian flood, then, was about to break, and the oracles close with the hopeless prospect of the whole land submerged beneath it.
4. A FRAGMENT FROM THE PLAGUE
In the above exposition we have omitted two very curious verses, Amo 6:9-10, which are held by some critics to interrupt the current of the chapter, and to reflect an entirely different kind of calamity from that which it predicts. I do not think these critics right, for reasons I am about to give; but the verses are so remarkable that it is most convenient to treat them by themselves apart from the rest of the chapter. Here they are, with the verse immediately in front of them.
“I am loathing the pride of Jacob, and his palaces I hate. And I will give up a city and its fullness” to (perhaps “siege” or “pestilence”?). “And it shall come to pass, if there be left ten men in one house, and. they die, that his cousin and the man to burn him shall lift him to bring the body t out of the house, and they shall say to one who is in the recesses of the house. Are there any more with thee? And he Shall say, Not one and they shall say, Hush! (for one must not make mention of the name of Jehovah).”
This grim fragment is obscure in its relation to the context. But the death of even so large a household as ten-the funeral left to a distant relation -the disposal of the bodies by burning instead of the burial customary among the Hebrews-sufficiently reflect the kind of calamity. It is a weird little bit of memory, the recollection of an eye-witness, from one of those great pestilences which, during the first half of the eighth century, happened not seldom in Western Asia. But what does it do here? Wellhausen says that there is nothing to lead up to the incident; that before it the chapter speaks, not of pestilence, but only of political destruction by an enemy. This is not accurate. The phrase immediately preceding may mean either “I will shut up a city and its fullness,” in which case a siege is meant, and a siege was the possibility both of famine and pestilence; or “I will give up the city and its fullness” in which case a word or two may have been dropped, as words have undoubtedly been dropped at the end of the next verse, and one ought perhaps to add “to the pestilence.” The latter alternative is the more probable, and this may be one of the passages, already alluded to, in which the want of connection with the preceding verses is to be explained, not upon the favorite theory-that there has been a violent intrusion into the text, but upon the too much neglected hypothesis that some words have been lost.
The uncertainty of the text, however, does not weaken the impression of its ghastly realism: the unclean and haunted he use: the kinsman and the body-burner afraid to search through the infected rooms, and calling in muffled voice to the single survivor crouching in some far corner of them, “Are there any more with thee?” his reply, “None”-himself the next! Yet these details are not the most weird. Over all hangs a terror darker than the pestilence. “Shall there be evil in a city and Jehovah not have done it?” Such, as we have heard from Amos, was the settled faith of the age. But in times of woe it was held with an awful and a craven superstition. The whole of life was believed to be overhung with loose accumulations of Divine anger. And as in some fatal hollow in the high Alps, where any noise may bring down the impending masses of snow, and the fearful traveler hurries along in silence, so the men of that superstitious age feared, When an evil like the plague was imminent, even to utter the Deitys name, lest it should loosen some avalanche of His wrath. “And he said, Hush! for,” adds the comment, one “must not make mention of the name of Jehovah.”
This reveals another side of the popular religion which Amos has been attacking. We have seen it as the sheer superstition of routine; but we now know that it was a routine broken by panic. The God who in times of peace was propitiated by regular supplies of savoury sacrifice and flattery, is conceived, when His wrath is roused and imminent, as kept quiet only by the silence of its miserable objects. The false peace of ritual is tempered by panic.