Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Amos 6:11

For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.

11. For behold, &c.] The words give the reason for Amo 6:8, rather than for Amo 6:9-10, which describe merely an episode in the ruin.

commandeth ] viz. the human agents, by whose instrumentality (cf. Isa 10:6) He carries out His will. Who these agents are conceived by Amos to be will appear in Amo 6:14.

the great house into fragments and the little house into clefts ] Neither the palaces of the wealthy, nor the more modest dwellings of the ordinary citizens, will escape the coming ruin.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The Lord commandeth and He will smite – Jerome: If He commandeth, how doth He smite? If He smiteth, how doth He command? In that thing which He commands and enjoins His ministers, He Himself is seen to smite. In Egypt the Lord declares that He killed the first-born, who, we read, were slain by the destroyer Exo 12:23. The breaches denote probably the larger, the cleft the smaller ruin. The greater pile was the more greatly destroyed.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 11. He will smote the great house with breaches] The great and small shall equally suffer; no distinction shall be made; rich and poor shall fall together; death has received his commission, and he will spare none. Horace has a sentiment precisely like this, Carm. Lib. i., Od. iv., v. 13.

Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum TABERNAS,

Regumque TURRES.

With equal pace impartial fate

Knocks at the palace as the cottage gate.

But this may refer particularly to the houses of the poor in Eastern countries; their mud walls being frequently full of clefts; the earth of which they are built seldom adhering together because of its sandiness.

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

For, behold; consider this well: it seems to be the continued speech of him who took care of the dead, Amo 6:10.

The Lord commandeth; God, provoked by our sins, hath sent out thy enemies; war, famine, and pestilence all come commissioned of God, and when the arrow is shot it will hit and kill.

He will smite the great house with breaches; the palaces of great men, and their families, shall have great breaches made in them, by which they shall be ruined.

And the little house with clefts; the cottages and lesser dwellings of poor men, with their families, shall by lesser strokes be ruined, their clefts shall be enough to do this. All shall be overthrown, and we must submit to it.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

11. commandeth, and he willsmiteHis word of command, when once given, cannot but befulfilled (Isa 55:11). Hismere word is enough to smite with destruction.

great house . . . littlehouseHe will spare none, great or small (Am3:15). JEROMEinterprets “the great house” as Israel, and “the smallhouse” as Judah: the former being reduced to branches or ruins,literally, “small drops”; the latter, though injured with”clefts” or rents, which threaten its fall, yet stillpermitted to stand.

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

For, behold, the Lord commandeth,…. Hath determined and ordered the judgment before, and what follows: Kimchi paraphrases it, hath decreed the earthquake, as in Am 3:15; of which he understands the following:

and he will smite the great house with breaches; or “droppings” h; so that the rain shall drop through:

and the little house with clefts; so that it shall fall to ruin; that is, he shall smite the houses both of great and small, of the princes, and of the common people, either with an earthquake, so that they shall part asunder and fall; or, being left without inhabitants, shall of course become desolate, there being none to repair their breaches. Some understand, by the “great house”, the ten tribes of Israel; and, by the “little house”, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; to which sense the Targum seems to incline,

“he will smite the great kingdom with a mighty stroke, and the little kingdom with a weak stroke.”

h “guttis, [seu] stillis”, Piscator; , “quae est minuta et rorans pluvia”, Drusius.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

This verse is added only to confirm the former sentence. The Prophet indeed intimates, that the common people, as well as the chiefs, in vain trusted in their quiet state; for the Lord would destroy them all together, from the highest to the lowest. Behold, Jehovah, he says, commands etc. ; by using the word commands, he means, that God had many reasons why he should take away and destroy them all. But he goes farther than this, and intimates that their destruction was dependent on the sole will of God; as though he said, “Though the Lord may not send for ministers of vengeance, though he may not prepare great forces, yet his word only, whenever it shall go forth, will consume you all.” We now then perceive what the Prophet means by the word “commands.”

He afterwards adds, He will smite the great house with confusions, or, according to some, with breaking רסס, resas, means properly to mingle. The Prophet therefore, I doubt not, refers here to those dreadful falls which commonly happen to great and splendid palaces. When a cottage is overturned so great a ruin is not occasioned by its weight; nay, when its ruin begins to appear, fragments fall down one after another, so that the whole work falls without any violence. This, I say, is the case with small and common houses; but when there is a great building, its downfall is tremendous. I am therefore inclined to render the word “confusion,” and the difference between small and great houses will then be more evident. Great houses then shall be smitten with confusions, ( mixtionibus , with minglings) but small houses shall be smitten with fissures or clefts. But yet, as I have already reminded you, the Prophet means that there would be a ruin, both to the principal men and to the common people, so that they would all perish, from the least to the greatest. We hence learn how great was the corruption of that people; for God punishes none but the wicked. It then follows that equity was everywhere subverted and that all orders of men were become vicious and corrupt. It follows —

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(11) Breaches.For this read ruins. (See end of Note on Amo. 6:8.) The overthrow of all classes of the population is here referred to.

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

Amo 6:11 For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.

Ver. 11. For, behold, the Lord commandeth ] Calamities, and they come; the Chaldeans, and they are at hand with their battle axes, but it is he that gives them their commission, and biddeth them fall on.

And he will smite the great house with breaches, &c. ] i.e. He will destroy rich and poor together; pale death will knock at both their houses with an even foot ( aequo pulsat pede ), as in time of plague, earthquake, or the like epidemic evil. The grave is the congregation house of all living, Job 30:23 , whereinto men chop often before they think; as a man that walks in the snow may fall into a clay pit. The mortal scythe is master of the royal sceptre; and it mows down the lilies of the crown as well as the grass of the field. Death is the only king “against whom there is no rising up,” as Agur phraseth the most absolute predominance, Pro 30:31 ; it levelleth lords and lowlies, and lays all waste; breaking down the greater houses and cleaving the lesser, with an utter extermination of all. Search you therefore, search you, O nation not desired; before the decree come forth, &c., Zep 2:1-2 . Being wise after the fact helps not; repentance, though true, may come too late in respect of temporal judgments, as in Moses, Deu 1:37 , and David, 2Sa 12:10 .

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

behold. Figure of speech Asterismos. App-6.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

the Lord: Amo 3:6, Amo 3:7, Amo 9:1, Amo 9:9, Psa 105:16, Psa 105:31, Psa 105:34, Isa 10:5, Isa 10:6, Isa 13:3, Isa 46:10, Isa 46:11, Isa 55:11, Eze 29:18-20, Nah 1:14

he will: Amo 6:8, Amo 3:15, 2Ki 25:9, Hos 13:16, Zec 14:2, Luk 19:44

breaches: or, droppings, Ecc 10:18

Reciprocal: Lev 14:34 – I put the plague of leprosy 1Ki 13:33 – Jeroboam Isa 5:9 – Of a truth Isa 9:14 – will cut Jer 9:21 – General Jer 16:6 – the great Jer 52:13 – the king’s

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Amo 6:11. This verse explains why the remark was made in the close of the preceding one. The Lord had com-manded that just such a complete de-struction. was to come upon the people and houses of Israel as is described.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Yahweh was going to command the utter destruction of all houses in Samaria, small and great. Not only would the people of the city die (Amo 6:9-10), but the houses of the rich and poor would also perish.

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