Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Amos 5:18
Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end [is] it for you? the day of the LORD [is] darkness, and not light.
18. Woe unto you that ] Ah! they that. The interjection Hy (the same as that used in 1Ki 13:30 &c. quoted on Amo 5:16) implies commiseration rather than denunciation. It is used frequently, as here, to introduce an announcement of judgement: Isa 1:4; Isa 1:24; Isa 5:8; Isa 5:11; Isa 5:18; Isa 5:20-22; Isa 29:1; Isa 29:15 &c. ( Woe Isa 3:9; Isa 3:11; Isa 6:5; Isa 24:16 &c., is a different word, and is followed by the prep. to).
the day of Jehovah ] i.e. the day in which Jehovah manifests Himself in triumph over His foes. The expression is based probably upon the Hebrew use of day as equivalent to day of battle or victory (Eze 13:5; cf. Isa 9:4, the ‘day’ of Midian, i.e. the day of victory over Midian). From the present passage it appears to have been a current popular idea that Jehovah would one day manifest Himself, and confer some crowning victory upon His people: Amos points out that whether that will be so or not, depends upon Israel’s moral condition; the ‘day of Jehovah,’ such as the people imagine, would not be necessarily a day of victory to Israel over foreign powers, but a day in which Jehovah’s righteousness would be vindicated against sin, whether among foreign nations or His own people: so long therefore as Israel neglects to amend its ways, and continues to treat ritual as a substitute for morality, it will find Jehovah’s day to be the reverse of what it anticipates, a day not of triumph but of disaster. The ‘day of Jehovah,’ as thus understood by Amos, becomes a figure which is afterwards often employed by the prophets in their pictures of impending judgement. The conception places out of sight the human agents, by whom actually the judgement, as a rule, is effected, and regards the decisive movements of history as the exclusive manifestation of Jehovah’s purpose and power. The prophets, in adopting the figure, develope it under varying imagery, suggested partly by the occasion, partly by their own imagination. Thus Isaiah (Isa 2:12-21) represents it as directed against the various objects of pride and strength which Judah had accumulated in the days of Uzziah; Joel (Amo 2:1 ff.) derives his imagery from a recent visitation of locusts (as described in ch. 1): for other examples, see Zep 1:7; Zep 1:14-16; Isa 13:6-10; Isa 24:8; Joe 3:14-16. Comp. further W. R. Smith, Prophets, pp. 397 f.; Schultz, O.T. Theol. ii. 354 ff.; Davidson on Zep 1:7.
to what end is it for you? ] what good will it do you? See Gen 27:46, where substantially the same Hebrew expression is thus paraphrased in A.V., R.V.
darkness, and not light ] figures, respectively, of disaster, and of prosperity or relief, as often in the Hebrew poets: see e.g. Isa 5:30; Isa 8:22; Isa 9:2; Isa 58:8; Isa 59:9; Jer 13:16.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
18 20. Those who desire the “Day of Jehovah,” as though it could be anything but an interposition in their favour, will find to their surprise that it is a day fraught with peril and disaster.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Woe unto you that desire – for yourselves.
The Day of the Lord – There were mockers in those days 2Pe 3:3-4; Jud 1:18, as there are now, and as there shall be in the last. And as the scoffers in the last days 2Pe 3:3-4; Jud 1:18 shall say, Where is the promise of His coming? so these said, let Him make speed and hasten His work, that we way see it, and let the council of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it Isa 5:19. Jeremiah complained; they say unto me, where is the word of the Lord? let it come now! Jer 17:15. And God says to Ezekiel, Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, the days are prolonged, and every vision faileth? The vision that he seeth is for many days, and he prophesieth of the times far off Eze 12:22, Eze 12:27. They would shew their courage and strength of mind, by longing for the Day of the Lord, which the prophets foretold, in which God was to shew forth His power on the disobedient.
Lap.: Let it come, what these prophets threaten until they are hoarse, let it come, let it come. It is ever held out to us, and never comes. We do not believe that it will come at all, or if it do come, it will not be so dreadful after all; it will go as it came. It may be, however, that they who scoffed at Amos, cloked their unbelief under the form of desiring the good days, which God had promised by Joel afterward. Jerome: There is not, they would say, so much of evil in the captivity, as there is of good in what the Lord has promised afterward. Amos meets the hypocrisy or the scoff, by the appeal to their consciences, to what end is it to you? They had nothing in common with it or with God. Whatever it had of good, was not for such as them. The Day of the Lord is darkness, and not light. Like the pillar of the cloud between Israel and the Egyptians, which betokened Gods presence, every day in which He shows forth His presence, is a day of light and darkness to those of different characters.
The prophets foretold both, but not to all. These scoffers either denied the Coming of that day altogether, or denied its terrors. Either way, they disbelieved God, and, disbelieving Him, would have no share in His promises. To them, the Day of the Lord would be unmixed darkness, distress, desolation, destruction, without one ray of gladness. The tempers of people, their belief or disbelief, are the same, as to the Great Day of the Lord, the Day of Judgment. It is all one, whether people deny it altogether or deny its terrors. In either case, they deny it, such as God has ordained it. The words of Amos condemn them too. The Day of the Lord had already become the name for every day of judgment, leading on to the Last Day. The principle of all Gods judgments is one and the same. One and the same are the characters of those who are to be judged. In one and the same way, is each judgment looked forward to, neglected, prepared for, believed, disbelieved. In one and the same way, our Lord has taught us, will the Great Day come, as the judgments of the flood or upon Sodom, and will find people prepared or unprepared, as they were then. Words then, which describe the character of any day of Judgment, do, according to the Mind of God the Holy Spirit, describe all, and the last also. Of this too, and that chiefly, because it is the greatest, are the words spoken, Woe unto you, who desire, amiss or rashly or scornfully or in misbelief, the Day of the Lord, to what end is it for you? The Day of the Lord is darkness and not light.
Rup.: This sounds a strange woe. It had not seemed strange, had he said, Woe to you, who fear not the Day of the Lord. For, not to fear, belongs to bad, ungodly people. But the good may desire it, so that the Apostle says, I desire to depart and to be with Christ Phi 1:23. Yet even their desire is not without a sort of fear. For who can say, I have made my heart clean? Pro 20:9. Yet that is the fear, not of slaves, but of sons; nor hath it torment, 1Jo 4:18, for it hath strong consolation through hope Heb 6:18; Rom 5:2. When then he says, Woe unto you that desire the Day of the Lord, he rebuketh their boldness, who trust in themselves, that they are righteous Luk 18:9. At one and the same time, says Jerome, the confidence of the proud is shaken off, who, in order to appear righteous before people, are accustomed to long for the Day of Judgment and to say, Would that the Lord would come, would that we might be dissolved and be with Christ, imitating the Pharisee, who spake in the Gospel, God, I thank Thee, that I am not as other men are Luk 18:11-12.
For the very fact, that they desire, and do not fear, the Day of the Lord, shows, that they are worthy of punishment, since no man is without sin 2Ch 6:36, and the stars are not pure in His sight Job 25:5. And He concluded all under sin, that he might have mercy upon all Gal 3:22; Rom 11:32. Since, then, no one can judge concerning the Judgment of God, and we are to give account of every idle word Mat 12:36, and Job offered sacrifices Job 1:5 daily for his sons, lest they should have thought something perversely against the Lord, what rashness it is, to long to reign alone! 1Co 4:8. In troubles and distresses we are accustomed to say, would that we might depart out of the body and be freed from the miseries of this world, not knowing that, while we are in this flesh, we have place for repentance; but if we depart, we shall hear that of the prophet, in hell who will give Thee thanks? Psa 6:5. That is the sorrow of this world 2Co 7:10, which worketh death, wherewith the Apostle would not have him sorrow who had sinned with his fathers wife; the sorrow whereby the wretched Judas too perished, who, swallowed up with overmuch sorrow 2Co 2:7, joined murder Mat 27:3-5 to his betrayal, a murder the worst of murders, so that where he thought to find a remedy, and that death by hanging was the end of ills, there he found the lion and the bear, and the serpent, under which names I think that different punishments are intended, or else the devil himself, who is rightly called a lion or bear or serpent.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Amo 5:18-19
Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord!
The day of the Lord
I.
AN AWAKENING COMMINATION.
1. What is meant by the day of the Lord? The day of death, or personal dissolution. The day of captivity, or national dissolution. The day of judgment, or general account.
2. What is meant by desiring this day? The people are censured for desiring it rashly, because they did not consider it; scoffingly, because they did not believe it; desperately, because they did not fear it. Men desired the day of the Lord from discontentedness in their own condition; presumption of their own innocency; and from ignorance or misapprehension of the thing itself.
II. The convincing expostulation. To what end is it for you? Here is a calling of them to an account for their desire, or an expostulation. And a discovering to them the fruitlessness of their desire, or a conviction. To all good Christians and believers it is a day of absolution; a day of redemption; and a day of salvation.
III. The express conclusion or determination. The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light. This is to be understood of the day of death and judgment. This sentence may be taken–
1. In the general proposition of it, as it stands by itself.
(1) In the affirmative, what it is;
(2) In the negative, what it is not.
By way of opposition; by way of intention, to show the greatness of the darkness; by way of perpetuity. Darkness and always dark; by way of extent or explication, to show unto us the full nature of this business, wherein it does consist.
2. In its particular scope, as directed more especially to the persons above mentioned, who desired this day of the Lord. It carries a threefold force or emphasis with it. An emphasis of information; an emphasis of conviction to those who were obstinate; and an emphasis of astonishment to those which were desperate, which knew it, but laid aside the thoughts and considerations of it, and would put it to the venture. (T. Horton, D. D.)
Avengers of a broken covenan
t:–To the overthrow of the ten tribes for their idolatry Amos refers in the text. He asserts the absolute certainty of that overthrow except on their national repentance.
I. The hardened impiety of ungodly men. Numbers of these impenitent and blaspheming Jews openly defied the judgment of the Almighty, mocked at the messages and warnings of Gods Word, and, as though to show their utter contempt of the prophet and the prophecy, expressed their desire to see the day –to brave the worst–as though convinced that, in spite of warnings, the judgment announced would never take place, or if it did, it would not be nearly so formidable as was described. It is not safe to despise death, as some affect to do, nor that God whose minister death is, since the dread realities of the unseen world will far surpass our utmost apprehension. The Arabians have a saying that there are three things not to be trifled with. It is not good to jest of God, of death, or of the devil. Not of God, for God neither can nor will be mocked. Not of death, for death mocks the pride of all men, one time or other. Nor even of the devil, for the devil puts an eternal sarcasm on those who are too familiar with him.
II. The causes of this hardened impiety.
1. It proceeds from infidel presumption. Infidelity is often more of the heart than of the head. A man never set about proving Christianity untrue, hut he wished it first.
2. Sometimes from a one-sided view of Gods character. At one time they argue that God is merciful, and therefore they trust to escape. At other times they think that others having escaped is an encouragement to them, and that threatenings long delayed may never be fulfilled. They presume upon security because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed. The silence of providence emboldens them.
3. From their practical immoralities. These darken the understanding, and sear the conscience, and blind the mind to its own guilt and deformity.
III. The threatened judgments to which they stand exposed.
1. The certainty of the punishment. The lion out of the forest; the bear from the wood; and the serpent by the sides of the house appear. These Jewish hypocrites defied the threatened judgment, but they could not escape it.
2. The slight and casual agency by which it was brought about. Amos paints to the life. To this day this is no uncommon circumstance. The naturalist in Jamaica tells us that the most common reptile of the serpent tribe in the East and West Indies, is the small black snake, which may often be seen hanging half out of the loose walls, so much used as fences, and thus lying motionless for its prey. Now apply these images to Gods judgments on the ancient Jews. Their own writers interpret this almost literally of the captivities they should suffer from the Chaldeans, the Persians, and the Grecian armies. Their words are, Fleeing from the face of Nebuchadnezzar, the Lion, you will be met by Ahasuerus the Persian, and encounter the Persecution instigated by Haman; or (the Empire of the Chaldeans being destroyed), next the Medes and Persians shall arise, compared by Daniel himself to the Bear, as their symbol. But When, at the command of Cyrus and Darius, your captivity is ended, and ye return to Jerusalem, and lean your weary hands upon its ruined wails in hope of peace and safety, then shall come Alexander the Great, the head of the Grecian Empire,–or Antiochus Epiphanes, the Great Persecutor, who shall bite like a serpent. Yet not without, as in Babylon or Susa, but within, in the very borders of the Holy Land itself. By all which it appears, say they, that the day you anticipate is a day not of joy but of sorrow, not of light but of darkness.
3. Guard against all approaches to this sin. Things do not suddenly come to the worst between man and God. Again, let the young beware of abusing the Divine forbearance to embolden them in sin. But though you escape the lion and the bear, you may, in an unexpected moment, be stung by the serpent to the heart, in the chinks and crevices of the wall.
4. Learn the value and preciousness of that Gospel which reveals a method of escape from greater evils than those which threatened ancient Israel.
5. Beware of neglecting the grace of the dispensation under which you live.
6. Implore especially the grace of the Holy Spirit to renew and restore your nature. To have a proud heart under humbling dispensations, and a hard heart under softening ones is awful. (Homiletic Magazine.)
On false hopes in death
We must distinguish the persons to whom the prophet addresses this solemn denunciation. They are self-deceivers. Notwithstanding the sinfulness of the people, that national pride which led them to imagine that because they had Abraham to their father they must needs be saved–was still their besetting sin.
1. From these words we gather at once this great, fact, that there is a day of the Lord coming–a day of judgment and righteous retribution. It is that day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ. It will be a day of fearful discovery; of universal assembly; of awful decision.
2. The only ground of hope on which we Can look for salvation in that day. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a subordinate condition of acquittal and salvation in the day of judgment. The future destiny of each individual will have an exact reference to the tenor of his present conduct.
3. There are many who form vain hopes of salvation at the coming of our Lord. There are some who appear to have no fear or hope on the subject. There are others who have strong expectations, while they have no warrant from Scripture for their hope. Some trust to what they call the goodness and benevolence of God. Some are self-righteous. Some make a high profession of faith in His name, while they have in works denied Him. Theirs is the hope of the hypocrite that shall perish. (Anon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord] The prophet had often denounced the coming of God’s day, that is, of a time of judgment; and the unbelievers had said, “Let his day come, that we may see it.” Now the prophet tells them that that day would be to them darkness-calamity, and not light-not prosperity.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That desire, scoffingly, or not believing any such day would come: the prophets had long threatened such a day, but these scoffers thought no such thing could overtake them, and if it did they would know the worst of it; alter their course they will not, whatever comes on it, and they are confident the prophets fright them with bugbears: but woe to such scoffers!
The day of the Lord: see Joe 1:15; 2:1; Zep 1:14.
To what end is it for you? what do you think to get by it? what good can you expect when darkest calamities overwhelm you?
The day of the Lord is darkness; all adversity, most black and doleful, therefore called in the abstract darkness.
And not light; no joy, hope, or comfort in it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. Woe unto you who do notscruple to say in irony, “We desire that the day of the Lordwould come,” that is, “Woe to you who treat it as if itwere a mere dream of the prophets” (Isa 5:19;Jer 17:15; Eze 12:22).
to what end is it foryou!Amos taking their ironical words in earnest: for God oftentakes the blasphemer at his own word, in righteous retribution makingthe scoffer’s jest a terrible reality against himself. Ye have butlittle reason to desire the day of the Lord; for it will be to youcalamity, and not joy.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord,…. Either the day of Christ’s coming in the flesh, as Cocceius interprets it; and which was desired by the people of Israel, not on account of spiritual and eternal salvation, but that they might be delivered by him from outward troubles and enemies, and enjoy temporal felicity; they had a notion of him as a temporal Saviour and Redeemer, in whose days they should possess much outward happiness, and therefore desired his coming; see Mal 3:1; or else the day of the Lord’s judgments upon them, spoken of by the prophet, and which they were threatened with, but did not believe it would ever come; and therefore in a scoffing jeering manner, expressed their desire of it, to show their disbelief of it, and that they were in no pain or fear about it, like those in Isa 5:19;
to what end [is] it for you? why do you desire it? what benefit do you expect to get by it?
the day of the Lord [is] darkness, and not light; it will bring on affliction, calamities, miseries, and distress, which are often in Scripture expressed by “darkness”, and not prosperity and happiness, which are sometimes signified by “light”; see Isa 5:30; and even the day of the coming of Christ were to the unbelieving Jews darkness, and not light; they were blinded in it, and given up to judicial blindness and darkness; they hating and rejecting the light of Christ, and his Gospel, and which issued in great calamities, in the utter ruin and destruction of that people, Joh 3:19.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The first turn. – Amo 5:18. “Woe to those who desire the day of Jehovah! What good is the day of Jehovah to you? It is darkness, and not light. Amo 5:19. As if a man fleeth before the lion, and the bear meets him; and he comes into the house, and rests his hand upon the wall, and the snake bites him. Amo 5:20. Alas! is not the day of Jehovah darkness, and not light; and gloom, and no brightness in it?” As the Israelites rested their hope of deliverance from every kind of hostile oppression upon their outward connection with the covenant nation (Amo 5:14); many wished the day to come, on which Jehovah would judge all the heathen, and redeem Israel out of all distress, and exalt it to might and dominion above all nations, and bless it with honour and glory, applying the prophecy of Joel in ch. 3 without the least reserve to Israel as the nation of Jehovah, and without considering that, according to Joe 2:32, those only would be saved on the day of Jehovah who called upon the name of the Lord, and were called by the Lord, i.e., were acknowledged by the Lord as His own. These infatuated hopes, which confirmed the nation in the security of its life of sin, are met by Amos with an exclamation of woe upon those who long for the day of Jehovah to come, and with the declaration explanatory of the woe, that that day is darkness and not light, and will bring them nothing but harm and destruction, and not prosperity and salvation. He explains this in Amo 5:19 by a figure taken from life. To those who wish the day of Jehovah to come, the same thing will happen as to a man who, when fleeing from a lion, meets a bear, etc. The meaning is perfectly clear: whoever would escape one danger, falls into a second; and whoever escapes this, falls into a third, and perishes therein. The serpent’s bite in the hand is fatal. “In that day every place is full of danger and death; neither in-doors nor out-of-doors is any one safe: for out-of-doors lions and bears prowl about, and in-doors snakes lie hidden, even in the holes of the walls” (C. a. Lap.). After this figurative indication of the sufferings and calamities which the day of the Lord will bring, Amos once more repeats in v. 20, in a still more emphatic manner ( , nonne = assuredly), that it will be no day of salvation, sc. to those who seek evil and not good, and trample justice and righteousness under foot (Amo 5:14, Amo 5:15).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
The Prophet expresses here more fully what he briefly and obscurely touched upon as to the passing of God through the land; for he shows that the Israelites acted strangely in setting up the name of God as their shield, as though they were under his protection, and in still entertaining a hope, though oppressed with many evils, because God had promised that they should be the objects of his care: he says that this was an extremely vain pretense. He yet more sharply reproves their presumption by saying, “Woe to those who desire the day of Jehovah!” This appears, even at the firstview, to be very severe; but we need not wonder that the Prophet burns with too much indignation towards hypocrites, from whom that security, through which they became ferocious against God, could hardly be shaken off. And we see that the holy Spirit treats hypocrites everywhere with much more severity than those who are openly impious and wicked: for the despisers of God, how stupid soever they may be, do not yet excuse their vices; but hypocrites seek ever to draw in God into the quarrel, and they have their veils to cover their turpitude: it was therefore necessary to treat them, as the Prophet does here, with sharpness and severity.
Woe, he says, to those who desire the day of Jehovah! Some expound this day of Jehovah of the day of death, and pervert the meaning of the Prophet; for they think that the Prophet speaks here of desperate men, who seek self-destruction, or lay violent hands on themselves. Woe, then, to those who desire the day of Jehovah, that is, who have recourse to hanging or to poison, as no other remedy appears to them. But the Prophet, as I have already reminded you, does here on the contrary rouse hypocrites. Others think that the contempt which Amos has before noticed, is here reproved; and this in part is true; but they do not sufficiently follow up the Prophet’s design; for they do not observe what is special in this place, — that hypocrites flattered themselves, falsely assuming this as a truth, that they were the people of God, and that God was bound to them. Though, then, the Israelites had been a hundred times perfidious, they yet continued arrogantly to boast of their circumcision; and then the law and the sacrifices, and all their ceremonies, were to them as banners, — “O! we are a holy nation, and God’s heritage; we are the children of Abraham, and the redeemed of the Lord; we are a priestly kingdom.” As then these things were ready in the mouth of all, the Prophet says, “Woe to those who desire the day of Jehovah!” And, indeed, when the Lord had begun to punish them for their sins, they still said, “The Lord, it may be, intends to try our constancy: but how can he destroy us? for he would then be false; his covenant cannot be made void: it is then certain that we shall be saved, and that he will be shortly reconciled to us.” They did not indeed expect that God would be propitious to them; but as they were overwhelmed with many evils, they sought to allay their sorrows by such a drug.
When therefore the Prophet saw, that the Israelites so waywardly flattered themselves, and so foolishly and wickedly laid claim to the name of God, he says, Woe to those who desire the day of Jehovah! What will this be, he says, to you? The day of Jehovah will be darkness and not light; as though he said, “God is an enemy to you, and the nearer he comes to you, the more grievously you must be afflicted: he will bring nothing to you but devastation, for he will come armed to destroy you. There is therefore no reason for you to boast that you are a chosen people, that you are a priestly kingdom, for ye are fallen away from the favor of God; and this is to be imputed to your own misconduct. God then is armed for your destruction; and whenever he will appear, he will at the same time pursue you with cruelty and violence; and it will be for your destruction that God will come thus armed to you. Whenever then the Lord will come, your evils must necessarily be increased. The day then of Jehovah will be darkness and not light.” He afterwards confirms this truth —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(18) Desire the day of the Lord.Expecting that day to bring you deliverance and judgments upon your enemies. It shall bring the reverse! There is a dark side to the pillar of fire.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE DARKNESS AND DESPAIR OF THE DAY OF JEHOVAH, Amo 5:18-27.
The new section opens with a startling woe upon those who desire the day of Jehovah. They will be sorely disappointed, for it will be a day of terror and disaster (18-20). It cannot be otherwise since, in truth, they are enemies of Jehovah. Their service is an abomination to him, because it is not in accord with his requirements (21-25). As a result the terrors of Jehovah, in the form of an exile, will fall upon them (26, 27).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
18-20. The day of Jehovah a day of calamity and ruin.
Woe Introduces frequently announcements of judgment (Isa 5:8 ff; Isa 10:1, etc.). In the light of Amos’s general attitude it becomes exceedingly doubtful that it “implies commiseration rather than denunciation” (Driver).
Desire Literally, desire for themselves, because they expect it to be a day of triumph.
Day of Jehovah See on Joe 1:15.
To what end R.V., “Wherefore would ye have.” A question of amazement that they should desire that day. What good will it be when it does come? The prophet does not leave them in uncertainty as to what they may expect. Would it not be wiser to shrink from it?
Darkness A picture of calamity and distress (compare Joe 2:2; Joe 2:31; Joe 3:15; Isa 5:30; Isa 8:22, etc.).
Light A picture of prosperity and salvation.
The awful character of the day of Jehovah is described in Amo 5:19 by illustrations familiar to the prophet and easily understood by the people. Though one danger may be avoided, another is sure to come; escape is absolutely out of the question.
Lion See on Hos 5:14.
Bear See on Hos 13:8. From the one the peasant escapes to meet the other; from him he seeks refuge in the house, only to meet his doom there.
Serpent Here is meant, probably, the small adder (Psa 91:13; Isa 11:8), which sometimes hides in the cracks and crevices of old walls, and which “is one of the few serpents that manifest an aggressive disposition” (Van Lennep, Bible Lands, p. 308). Being disturbed by the terrified fugitive it comes forth to inflict a deadly bite. Amo 5:20 is an emphatic restatement, in the form of a rhetorical question, of the truth that the day of Jehovah is one of utter darkness and despair; there is in it not one ray of light and hope.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Day Of YHWH That Is Coming Come On Israel Will Be A Day Of Darkness, Not Light ( Amo 5:18-20 ).
Amo 5:18
‘Woe to you who desire the day of YHWH! Why would you have the day of YHWH? It is darkness, and not light.’
Amos stressed that they should not be ‘looking with longing’ (the verb is strong) for YHWH to act in a special way, because they needed to recognise that when He did so it would not introduce light but darkness. Initially this ‘day of YHWH’, as indicated here, was speaking of the day when YHWH would make His people face up to their sin by destruction and judgment, and it would descend on first the land, and then the city, of Samaria as an act of judgment. Israel should therefore not be hungering for YHWH to act, (as seemingly they did at their feasts), for when He did so it would be against them. And it would be a day of darkness, of misery and catastrophe and suffering, and not a day of light.
It is significant that they had this deep ‘longing’, not at a time when things were going badly, but at a time when all seemed to be going well, and Israel and Judah had extended their borders and were defensively strong. It was thus not a longing for deliverance resulting from despair, but a yearning desire for even better things to come, a patriotic looking forward to ruling the nations. (Like many of us, when it came to their Scriptures they were selective of ‘the good bits’ and ignored the remainder).
There would in the future be many days of YHWH. Later the phrase ‘the day of YHWH’ would refer to the devastation to be brought on the world by a gathering of nations (probably under Assyria), and especially by their Medan contingents, which would result in the destruction of proud Babylon, an initial recognition of the fact that one day it would cease for ever (Isaiah 13). It would also refer to the coming of a huge plague of locusts (or armies) on Israel/Judah (Joel 1), when YHWH was seeking to bring them to repentance. And it would refer to the final destruction of Edom (Isa 34:8). All these were events of history. Thus there would be a number of ‘days of YHWH’. But each ‘day of YHWH’ had in mind in the end the final dreadful day when YHWH would call all nations to account, and that is why sometimes we are not sure which day He is referring to, the near or the far. For all were deserving of judgment and would one day have to face up one way or another to a day of YHWH, with the result that in the New Testament the ‘day of the Lord’ pointed forward to the time of the second coming of Christ when the old world would be judged and destroyed, resulting in the introducing of a new heaven and a new earth (e.g. 2Pe 3:10-13).
Amo 5:19
‘As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.’
This is then illustrated in picturesque fashion. When a man flees from a lion he ‘desires’ to run into a party of hunters so that he may be saved, but in fact in this instance he is given a dreadful shock when he simply runs into the arms of a bear. Lions and bears were quite common in the Israelite countryside so that this could easily occur. Or it will be like the time when a man goes into the refuge of his house, thinking that there at least he will be totally secure, only to find to his horror that when he confidently leans on the wall feeling a sense of security, he is bitten by a deadly snake. Thus in each case what comes to him is the opposite of what he expects. Thus will it be for them in the day of YHWH.
Note the emphasis on that fact that no one will be safe whether out of doors or indoors. Wherever they are tragedy will strike them.
Amo 5:20
‘Will not the day of YHWH be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?’
That is why for them the day of YHWH will result in darkness and not light. Indeed it will be very dark and there will be no brightness in it, because for them there will be no hope beyond it. (And so it would be at the destruction of Samaria). Night time was when terror was abroad (Psa 91:5) and it symbolised the end of life, for to be driven into darkness was to die (Job 10:22; Job 18:18). A day of darkness was a day which God did not observe from above, for it was a day of hopelessness (Job 3:4). It was God-forsaken. In contrast the light spelled hope (Isa 9:2), and to enjoy God’s light was to enjoy His blessing and presence and salvation (Isa 60:1).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The First Woe, Concerning The Day of YHWH ( Amo 5:18-27 ).
A ‘woe’ was the opposite of a ‘blessed be you of YHWH’. It was the announcing of troubles and disaster that would come on His people directly from YHWH (compare Isa 5:8-30; Isa 10:1-4; and see Num 21:29; 1Sa 4:7-8) in fulfilment of His warnings (Lev 26:14-46; Deuteronomy 28-29).
It is apparent from the context that Israel were living in expectation of ‘the day of YHWH’ (compare Isa 13:6; Isa 13:9), and that they saw it as something to look forward to, a day which would bring ‘light’ (2Sa 23:4; Psa 37:6; Psa 112:4; Psa 118:22-27) and worldwide domination (see Psalms 2; Psa 22:22-31; Psa 89:19-37; Isa 9:4-7). It was not in fact unusual for great kings to see themselves as destined by their national gods to rule the world. The kings of Assyria, for example, gave the credit for their victories to Assur whom they saw as having told them to go forth and subdue their world. It was as the representative of Assur that Sennacherib would proclaim his victory over all gods (except, as it turned out, YHWH). See 2Ki 18:33-35. But in most cases this idea followed as a result of initial military success and of having a powerful army. It was different with Israel in that they considered this to be true long before they enjoyed military might, not because of their military might, but because of the superiority of their position as YHWH’s chosen people, something evidenced by the call of Abraham, who had been told that all the nations of the world would be blessed (or would bless themselves) through his seed (indicating to the ancient world that he would rule over them), and that kings would come out of him (Gen 12:3; Gen 17:6; Gen 18:18); by the deliverance from Egypt which had confirmed their special position (Amo 2:10; Exo 19:5-6; Deu 32:8-9); and by the granting to them of the land of the Amorites (Amo 2:10; Exo 23:23; Num 21:31; Deu 1:20; Deu 7:1; Deu 20:17; Jos 24:18; etc). It was then confirmed to them by the covenant with David (2Sa 7:12-16) as expanded on in Psalms 2; etc. Thus they were looking for a Day of Blessing from YHWH. Amos was warning them that they must rather expect a Day of Woe. This was not, of course denying that one day YHWH would bring a Day of Blessing on His people, as Amo 9:11-15 makes clear. It was rather emphasising that that Day could only come on those whose hearts were prepared. It could not come on a people living in open sinfulness.
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
Amo 5:18. Woe unto you, &c. Woe unto them that wish for the day of the Lord. And why? To you the day of the Lord will be, &c. Infidels made a mock at the words of the prophets, when they told them the day of the Lord was at hand; and from a principle of unbelief expressed a desire of seeing this day, that they might be convinced of the truth of such predictions by ocular demonstrations. Amos goes on in very strong terms to inform them that this day would be in no respect desirable to them, as it would be attended with extreme terrors and evils.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
It should seem from what is here said, that there were characters in those days not unlike the scoffers the Apostle describes, that should come in the last days, who derided the day of the Lord’s coming. What an awful thing it is to be hardened in sin? 2Pe 3:3-4 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Amo 5:18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end [is] it for you? the day of the LORD [is] darkness, and not light.
Ver. 18. Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord ] The day of his visitation when he will go through us, as you prophets would make believe. Where is the promise of his coming? Let him make speed and hasten his work, that we may see it, Isa 5:19 Jer 17:15 . Let him increase his army and come down, Jdg 9:29 . Such jeering and daring spirits there are still abroad. But do they provoke the Lord to anger? are they stronger than he? The great and terrible day of the Lord will come time enough to their cost; they need not accelerate it. Can they stand to his trial? or abide the thunder of his power? Job 26:14 .
To what end is it for you
The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Amo 5:18-20
18Alas, you who are longing for the day of the LORD,
For what purpose will the day of the LORD be to you?
It will be darkness and not light;
19As when a man flees from a lion
And a bear meets him,
Or goes home, leans his hand against the wall
And a snake bites him.
20Will not the day of the LORD be darkness instead of light,
Even gloom with no brightness in it?
Amo 5:18 Alas This is literally woe (BDB 222). This is an interjection of grief and mourning over the dead (cf. Amo 5:16; Jer 22:18; Jer 34:5).
you who are longing for the day of the LORD This VERB (BDB 16, KB 20, Hiphil PARTICIPLE) means desire for yourselves. These people thought God’s coming (i.e., the day of the LORD) would bring blessings and deliverance because they were covenant people (cf. Amo 3:2). But because of this very reason, judgment would come. Because of the blindness of their hearts, God was coming to them as Judge (cf. Amo 3:14; Amo 5:18; Amo 8:3; Amo 8:9; Amo 8:11; Amo 8:13), not Savior (cf. Amo 9:11; Amo 9:13). Their religion resulted in a curse (cf. Deuteronomy 27-29).
Amos is the first of the writing prophets and this is the first use of the phrase the Day of the LORD (see note at Amo 2:16). It may have been a metaphor from the days of Holy War (i.e., Joshua and Judges). YHWH was the ever-present provider and protector of His covenant people, but in days of conflict His physical manifestation in miraculous ways delivered His people from danger. However, Israel had so violated the covenant that its privilege had turned to judgment and rejection (cf. Joel 2).
It will be darkness and not light This continues the contrast on these terms (cf. Amo 4:13 c; Amo 5:8 c,20).
Amo 5:19 There is absolutely no place to flee from God’s judgment.
Amo 5:20 What irony! What tragedy!
with no brightness in it The brightness (BDB 618) may be an allusion to the glory of God.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Woe. The first woe. See the Structure above. the day of the LORD. See notes on Isa 2:12; Isa 13:6. Joe 2:1
darkness, and not light. Note the Figure of speech Pleonasm (App-6) for emphasis. Compare Jer 30:7. Joe 2:2. Zep 1:15.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
desire: Isa 5:19, Isa 28:15-22, Jer 17:15, Eze 12:22, Eze 12:27, Mal 3:1, Mal 3:2, 2Pe 3:4
the day of the Lord is: Isa 5:30, Isa 9:19, Isa 24:11, Isa 24:12, Jer 30:7, Joe 1:15, Joe 2:1, Joe 2:2, Joe 2:10, Joe 2:31, Zep 1:14, Zep 1:15, Mal 4:1, 2Pe 3:10
Reciprocal: Job 3:4 – darkness Isa 2:12 – the day Isa 8:22 – look Isa 13:6 – for the day Isa 22:5 – a day Isa 59:9 – we wait Jer 5:6 – a lion Lam 3:2 – brought Lam 3:10 – unto Eze 13:5 – the day Eze 34:12 – in the cloudy Joe 2:11 – the day Amo 6:3 – put Zep 1:7 – for the day Luk 23:44 – there
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Amo 5:18. Woe. . . . desire the day of the Lord. In times of distress men will often call upon the Lord, even though they have been disrespecting Him in the past. These inconsistent leaders will pretend that they would like for the Lord to show hi3 hand when the clouds of trouble seem to be gathering. But that is just what He will be doing when those clouds begin to hover, and they will bring national darkness and not light.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Amo 5:18-20. Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord Scoffingly, not believing any such day will come: for this seems to be spoken of some among them, who, in mockery, expressed a desire of seeing those things which the prophet predicted brought to pass. Or, it may respect those who, notwithstanding all the prophet had said, still expected God would appear in their favour, not to their destruction: see Isa 5:19. To what end is it for you? To what purpose should you desire to see the day of the Lord? The day of the Lord is darkness Adversity, black and doleful, and not light No joy or comfort in it. It will certainly be a very dismal time to you, and indeed to all in the country, when evils shall succeed one another so fast, that he who seeks to escape one, shall fall into a greater. As if a man did flee from a lion A creature that has something of generosity in his nature; and a bear met him Which never spares any thing that comes in its way. Or went into the house Namely, for fear of being devoured by beasts, or to avoid some other danger which threatened him without; and a serpent bit him And a viper, whose sting is incurable, should creep out of the wall and bite him. Serpents sometimes concealed themselves in the holes and chinks of the walls of the eastern houses. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness It might indeed well be described as darkness; even very dark, without any brightness in it Since it was to be no less than the destruction of the towns and cities, the desolation of the country, the slaughtering of the people, or the carrying of them into captivity, and even the overturning of the whole kingdom.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Amo 5:18-27. Israels Delusions.The prophet resumes the subject of Israels delusions, how she disregards the essential conditions of real welfare. In Amo 5:18-20 he deals with a peculiar example of this, the conception or rather misconception of the day of Yahweh. The current belief was that when the day of Yahweh dawned, He would surely vindicate His people and punish their foes. Amos urges that this belief is a serious and unfortunate mistake, and conceives the day of Yahweh as a day of reckoning for His own people. What good will it do you? Yahwehs day is a day of darkness and not light (Harper). The prudent course would be at once to seek God and live. Simply to long and pray for the day of Yahweh is to flee from one danger and fall into another which may be more deadly (Amo 5:19). After disposing of this peculiar delusion, the prophet denounces again (Amo 5:21-27) a merely formal observance of religious rites and ceremonies. These are really hateful and despicable to Yahweh, if they are combined with a denial of justice and righteousness in everyday life (Amo 5:24). When Israel wandered in the wilderness forty years, she received remarkable tokens of Yahwehs care and favour. And yet there was no elaborate ritual, or, if there was, it could not in the circumstances be practised (Amo 5:25). (Amo 5:24 f. may be regarded as a parenthesis.) Amo 5:26 is supposed to resume the denunciation of vain or false worship and Amo 5:27 to indicate the penalty. Amo 5:26 is difficult. RV seems to assume that the reference is to the past, and that Siccuth and Chiun were idols. But these two words are probably the names of an Assyrian deity, and should be read Sakkuth and Kwn. The verse will then refer to the future, and is not so much a further denunciation of false worship as a prediction of what will happen to the Israelites and their idols. In that case it should be regarded as an editorial insertion. Sakkut and Kaiwn are Assyrian by-names of the god Saturn, and are found together in Assyrian texts. If Amo 5:26 is deleted, Amo 5:27 pronounces the penalty incurred by false piety. Thereforebecause of such idle practicesI will carry you away into exile.
Amo 5:20. even very dark, and no brightness in it: Kent, yea, murky darkness, without a ray of light in it.
Amo 5:21. Translate, I hate, I despise your pilgrim feasts (cf. Ar. hajja, to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, and I will not accept (lit. smell with acceptance) your festivals (rh here a synonym of hg, not a technical term as in Deu 16:8, Lev 23:36).
Amo 5:23. viols: render harps.
Amo 5:24. Better, and let right roll on like waters, and righteousness like a perennial stream.
Amo 5:26. Yea, ye have borne, etc.: rather, yea, ye will bear. The star of your god, or better, your star-god, is probably a gloss. Riessler, following LXX, would read melek for malkekem (your king). This gives Sakkuth-melek, for which he compares Adar-melek and Anam-melek in 2Ki 17:31.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
5:18 Woe unto you that {k} desire the day of the LORD! to what end [is] it for you? the day of the LORD [is] darkness, and not light.
(k) He speaks in this way because the wicked and hypocrites said they were content to endure God’s judgments, whereas the godly tremble and fear; Jer 30:7, Joe 2:2; Joe 2:11 , Zep 1:15 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
4. The fourth message on unacceptable worship 5:18-27
This lament also has a chiastic structure. It centers on a call for individual repentance.
A A description of inevitable judgment Amo 5:18-20
B An accusation of religious hypocrisy Amo 5:21-22
C A call for individual repentance Amo 5:23-24
B’ An accusation of religious hypocrisy Amo 5:25-26
A’ A description of inevitable judgment Amo 5:27
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
A description of inevitable judgment 5:18-20
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The prophet began his message by crying, "Alas" (Heb., hoy, woe, oh). This word announced coming doom, another funeral lament (cf. Amo 5:1). Many Israelites in Amos’ day were looking forward to a coming day of the Lord. Former prophets had spoken of a day in which Yahweh would conquer His enemies and the enemies of His people and establish His sovereign rule over the world (e.g., Deu 33:2-3; Joe 3:18-21, and perhaps Isa 24:21-23; Isa 34:1-3; Isa 34:8). The Israelites knew that this was going to be a time of great divine blessing, but Amos informed them that it would also be a time of divine chastisement. It would be a time of darkness rather than light (cf. Jer 46:10; Joe 3:1-17; Zep 3:8; Zec 14:1-3). God would judge His people before He blessed them.