Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Amos 4:9
I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured [them]: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
9. Blasting and mildew. The same two words in combination, Deu 28:22, 1Ki 8:37, Hag 2:17. Blasting (cf. Gen 41:6; Gen 41:23; Gen 41:27, “ blasted by the east wind”) denotes the disastrous effects produced by the scorching (Hos 13:15; Jon 4:8) and destructive (Job 27:21) ‘east wind,’ blowing up hotly from the desert. The ‘east wind’ of the O.T. is something very different from the ‘east wind,’ as known to us: it corresponds to the modern simoom or sirocco (Arab. sheryeh, or ‘east’ wind, applied, however, also to winds from the S.E. and S.), hot winds which in Palestine come up suddenly with great violence, driving clouds of sand before them, and so “withering and burning the growing corn that no animal will touch a blade of it” (Van Lennep, Bible Lands, p. 238). Robinson gives a description of one which he experienced in the extreme S. of Judah ( B.R [154] , I. 195): “The wind had been all the morning north-east, but at 11 o’clock it suddenly changed to the south, and came upon us with violence and intense heat, until it blew a perfect tempest. The atmosphere was filled with fine particles of sand, forming a bluish haze; the sun was scarcely visible, his disk exhibiting only a dun and sickly hue; and the glow of the wind came upon our faces as from a burning oven.” See also ib. p. 207, II. 123; G. A. Smith, Geogr., pp. 67 69; and Wetzstein’s note in Delitzsch’s Commentary on Job 27:21. By mildew is meant “a blight, in which the ears turn untimely a pale yellow, and have no grain.” The Heb. word signifies (pale and unhealthy) greenness.
[154] .R. Edw. Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine (ed. 2, 1856).
when your gardens increased &c.] R.V. the multitude of your gardens hath the palmerworm devoured. Neither rendering is grammatically possible: the Hebrew is corrupt. Read, with Wellh., for , and an excellent sense is at once obtained: “ I laid waste your gardens and your vineyards; and your fig-trees and your vines would [freq.] the shearer devour. ” The shearer ( gzm) is a name for a locust, so called from its destructiveness: see p. 85. A visitation of locusts was no uncommon occurrence in Palestine: for a vivid picture of their ravages, see Joe 1:4-12.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I have smitten you with blasting – Literally, an exceeding scorching, such as the hot east wind produced, and an exceeding mildew, a blight, in which the ears turn untimely a pale yellow, and have no grain. Both words are doubly intensive. They stand together in the prophecy of Moses Deu 28:22, among the other scourges of disobedience; and the mention of these would awaken, in those who would hear, the memory of a long train of other warnings and other judgments.
When your gardens … increased – Better, as English margin. the multitude of your gardens. The garden of the east united the orchard Job 8:16; Son 4:13-14; Son 6:11, herb Deu 11:10; Son 4:14; Son 6:2, and flower garden. It comprised what was necessary for use as well as what was fragrant. It furnished part of their support Amo 9:14; Jer 29:5, Jer 29:28. Its trees Ecc 2:6, as well as the garden (Son 4:15; Ecclus. 24:30) generally, being mostly watered artificially, it was beyond the reach of ordinary drought. The tree, planted by the channels of waters (Psa 1:3; Jer 17:8; add Isa 58:11; Jer 31:12, contrariwise Isa 1:30), was an image of abiding freshness and fertility, Yet neither would these escape Gods sentence. On these He sent the locusts, which, in a few hours – all leaves – flower, herb or tree, are as dead (see the note at Joe 1:7).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 9. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew] He sent blasting and mildew on the crops, and the locust on the gardens, vineyards, and fields; and this in such a way as to show it was a Divine judgment. They saw this; “yet they did not return to the Lord!”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
To other judgments inflicted on you I have added this also, my hand hath been heavy upon you,
I have smitten you with blasting; the excessive heat and drought have turned your corn into black and parched smut or ashes;
and mildew; a bane to corn through too much wet; the seasons were extremely unkind, and all spoiled with it.
When your gardens, about your houses for convenience and pleasure.
Vineyards; planted for your support and to enrich you, to cheer your heart.
Fig trees; which were excellent, of very great use and profit in those countries.
Olive trees; a principal commodity arose from their oliveyards: all that was for delight, profit, and necessary use.
Increased, when they were seemingly most fruitful.
The palmer-worm: see Joe 1:3,10-12.
Devoured; eat up all, as is the manner of that worm.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. blastingthe blightinginfluence of the east wind on the corn (Ge41:6).
when . . . gardens . . .increasedIn vain ye multiplied your gardens, &c., for Idestroyed their produce. BOCHARTsupports Margin, “the multitude of your gardens.”
palmer wormA speciesof locust is here meant, hurtful to fruits of trees, not toherbage or corn. The same east wind which brought the drought,blasting, and mildew, brought also the locusts into Judea [BOCHART],(Ex 10:13).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I have smitten you with blasting and mildew,…. “Blasting” is what we commonly call “blights”, generally occasioned by an east wind; and so Kimchi interprets the word here used; and the Vulgate Latin version renders it, “a burning wind”; which causes the buds and leaves of trees to shrivel up as if they were burnt with fire. “Mildew” is a kind of clammy dew, which falling upon corn, c. corrupts and destroys by its moisture and is a kind of jaundice to the fruits of the earth; and has its name as that, from yellowness, in the Hebrew language: when the Lord is said to smite them with these the sense is, that he sent these upon the fruits of their gardens, fields and vineyards, which consumed them:
when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmer worm devoured [them]; just when they were budding and blossoming, and bringing forth fruit; and so what the blasting and mildew did not consume, that the palmer worm, a kind of locust, did; which has its name from its biting and cutting off the leaves and branches of trees, as of those mentioned vines, olives and fig trees, with which the land of Canaan abounded, the cutting off which was a great calamity. The Targum is,
“the multitude of your gardens, c. the palmer worm hath eaten:”
yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord this dispensation of Providence was also without its desired fruit and effect;
[See comments on Am 4:6].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Though one kind of punishment may not convince men, they are yet thereby proved with sufficient clearness to be guilty before God. But when in various ways he urges them, and after having tried in vain to correct them in one way, he has recourse to another, and still effects nothing, it hence more fully appears that they, who are thus ever unmoved, and remain stupid whatever means God may adopt to lead them to repentance, are altogether past recovery. This is the drift of what the Prophet now adds: he says that they had been smitten by the east wind He shows that want of food does not always proceed from one cause; for men become hardened when they feel only one evil: as the case is when a country labors under a drought, it will be thought to be as it were its fate. But when God chastises men in various ways, they ought then no doubt to be touched and really affected: when, on the contrary, they pass by all punishments with their eyes closed, it is certain, that they are wholly obstinate and so fascinated by the devil, that they feel nothing and discern nothing. This is the reason why the Prophet records the various punishments which had been already inflicted on the people.
Hence he says now, that they had been smitten by the east wind, and by the mildew. What mischief the mildew does to the standing corn, we know; when the sun rises after a cold rain, it burns out its substance, so that the ears grow yellow, and rottenness follows. God then says, that the standing corn of the people had been destroyed by this blasting, after dryness had already prevailed though not through the whole land in an equal degree; for God rained on one part, while a neighboring region was parched through want of rain: the Prophet having stated this, now mentions also the mildew.
He says further, that the fig-trees and vines had been consumed, that the gardens had been destroyed, and that the olive trees had been devoured by chafers or palmer worms. Since then the Israelites had been in so many ways warned, was it not a strange and monstrous blindness, that being affrighted they could bear these chastisements of God, and be not moved to return to the right way? If the first chastisement had no effect, if the second also had been without fruit, they ought surely at last to have repented; but as they proceeded in their usual course, and continued like themselves in that contumacy of which we have spoken, what any more remained for them, but to be wholly destroyed as those who had trifled with God? We now then understand what the Prophet means.
Moreover, this passage teaches, as other similar passages do, that seasons vary not by chance; that now drought prevails, and then continual rains destroy the fruits of the earth, that now chafers are produced, and then that heaven is filled with various infections, — that these things happen not by chance, is what this passage clearly shows: but that they are so many tokens of God’s wrath, set before our eyes. God indeed does not govern the world, according to what profane men think, as though he gave uncontrolled license both in heaven and earth; but he now withholds rain, then he pours it down in profusion; he now burns the corn with heat, then he temperates the air; he now shows himself kind to men, then he shows himself angry with them. Let us then learn to refer the whole order of nature to the special providence of God. I mention his special providence, lest we should dream only of some general operation, as ungodly men do: but let us know that God would have himself to be seen in daily events, so that the tokens of his love may make us to rejoice, and also that the tokens of his wrath may humble us, to the end that we may repent. Let this then be learnt from the present words of the Prophet.
Amos further teaches us, that wind and rain, hail and droughts heat and cold, are arms or weapons by which God executes vengeance on account of our sins. Whenever God then intends to inflict punishment on us, he puts on his armor, that is, he sends either rain, or wind, or drought, or heat, or hail. Since it is so, let us not think that either rain or heat is fortuitous, or that they depend on the situation of the stars as ungodly men imagine. Let us therefore know, that all nature so obeys God’s command, that when rain falls seasonably, it is a token of his love towards us, and that when it is unseasonable, it is a proof of his displeasure. It is meet to think the same of heat and of cold, and of all other things. Let us now go on with the words of the Prophet —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(9) Blasting and mildew.Burning up the corn before it is ready to ear, and producing a tawny yellow, instead of golden red, was another judgment. Nothing escapes the Divine visitation. Your gardens, vineyards, fig-trees, and olive-treeswhich in a well-watered enclosure might escape the general droughtthe locust devours in vast numbers (so the Heb. should be rendered); comp. Joe. 1:4.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Amo 4:9 I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured [them]: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
Ver. 9. I have smitten you with blasting and mildews ] This by immoderate rain; that by drought caused by an east wind, that ventus urens et exsiccans. God cannot possibly want a weapon to tame a rebel.
When your gardens and your vineyards increased
The palmerworm
Yet have ye not returned unto me
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I have smitten, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 28:22). App-92. Compare Hag 2:17.
the palmerworm = the gnawer. Hebrew. gazam. See note on Joe 1:4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
with: Deu 28:22, 1Ki 8:37, 2Ch 6:28, Hag 2:17
when: etc. or, the multitude of your gardens, etc. did the palmer worm, etc
the palmerworm: Amo 7:1, Amo 7:2, Deu 28:42, Joe 1:4, Joe 2:25
yet: Amo 4:6, Amo 4:8, Job 36:8-13, Isa 1:5, Isa 42:24, Isa 42:25, Jer 5:3
Reciprocal: Exo 9:31 – the barley Deu 28:38 – for the locust Mal 3:11 – rebuke
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Amo 4:9. The reader may still be wondering why the Lord brought all these misfortunes upon the land of Israel. It, was just what he had warned them of in more than one place. It may help some to quote a statement written by Moses as follows: But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his com-mandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee. Cursed shalt. thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou he in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store (Deu 28:15 to Deu 1:7). With all these threatenings recorded in the Sacred Text, the people of Israel should have been induced to observe the divine laws. They were not, for the passage complains, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The Lord sent plant diseases and insects to blight their gardens, vineyards, and fruit trees. Yet the Israelites did not return to Him (cf. 1Ki 8:37-39). These were also threatened judgments in the Mosaic Covenant (Lev 26:20; Deu 28:18; Deu 28:22; Deu 28:30; Deu 28:38-40; Deu 28:42). "Many gardens" is another indication that the Israelites were affluent.