13<\/strong>. In a time such as that, the prudent man will keep silence; a complaint, or accusation, or attempt to redress the wrongs which he sees about him, will be perilous to him, if he be in a good position, and will only add to his sufferings, if he be poor.<\/p>\n shall keep<\/em> ] will<\/strong> keep<\/em>, viz. if he is guided by his prudence.<\/p>\n in that time<\/em> ] not, at a future time, but at a time such as that which has been just described.<\/p>\n an evil time<\/em> ] a time when a man may well be anxious for his personal safety (cf. Psa 49:5<\/span>).<\/p>\n Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time – <\/B>The time may be either the time of the obduracy of the wicked, or that of the common punishment. For a time may be called evil, whether evil is done, or is suffered in it, as Jacob says, Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been Gen 47:9<\/span>. Of the first, he would perhaps say, that the oppressed poor would, if wise, be silent, not complaining or accusing, for, injustice having the mastery, complaint would only bring on them fresh sufferings. And again also he may mean that, on account of the incorrigibleness of the people, the wise and the prophets would be silent, because the more the people were rebuked, the more impatient and worse they became. So our Lord was silent before His judges, as had been foretold of Him, for since they would not hear, His speaking would only increase their condemnation. If I tell you, ye will not believe; and if I also ask you, ye will not answer Me, nor let Me go Luk 22:67-68<\/span>. So God said by Solomon: He that reproveth a scorner getteth himself shame, and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot Pro 9:7<\/span>. And our Lord bids, Give not that which is holy unto dogs, and cast not your pearls before swine Mat 7:6<\/span>. They hated and rejected those who rebuked them. Mat 7:10<\/span>. Since then rebuke profited not, the prophets should hold their peace. It is a fearful judgment, when God withholds His warnings. In times of punishment also the prudent keep silence. Intense affliction is dumb and openeth not its month, owning the hand of God. It may be too, that Amos, like Hosea Hos 4:4<\/span>, Hos 4:17<\/span>, expresses the uselessness of all reproof, in regard to the most of those whom be called to repentance, even while he continued earnestly to rebuke them.<\/P> <\/p>\n Verse 13. The prudent shall keep silence<\/B><\/I>] A wise man will consider that it is useless to complain. He can have no justice without bribes; and he has no money to give: consequently, in such an evil time<\/I>, it is best to keep silence.<\/P> <\/p>\n Therefore, <\/B>because that men are so universally impatient of hearing reproof, and yet their sins so much abound, and so much deserve reproof; since they will sooner turn against the speaker, than turn from the sin spoken against. <\/P> The prudent; <\/B>the wise men; prophets, say some, but I rather think other private men are here meant, whose private capacity alloweth them to keep silence when others must speak. <\/P> Shall keep silence; <\/B>be forced to it, say some, they shall be silenced; this is true, but rather here is a voluntary, chosen silence toward vile corrupters of law and justice, who will nothing mend though reproved; or a silence before God, owning his justice in punishing such sinners. <\/P> For it is an evil time; <\/B>both for the sinfulness of it, which provoketh God to wrath, and for the sorrows, troubles, wars, and captivity of this people, by the Assyrians. <\/P> <\/p>\n 13. the prudent<\/B>thespiritually wise. <\/P> shall keep silence<\/B>notmere silence of tongue, but the prudent shall keep himself quiet fromtaking part in any public or private affairs which he can avoid: asit is “an evil time,” and one in which all law is set atnaught. Eph 5:16<\/span> refers tothis. Instead of impatiently agitating against irremediable evils,the godly wise will not cast pearls before swine, who would tramplethese, and rend the offerers (Mt7:6<\/span>), but will patiently wait for God’s time of deliverance insilent submission (Ps 39:9<\/span>).<\/P><\/p>\n Therefore the prudent shall keep silence at that time<\/strong>,…. Not the prophets of the Lord, whose business it was at all times to reprove, and not hold their peace, let the consequence be what it would; though the Targum calls them teachers; but private persons, whose wisdom it would be to say nothing; since reproof would do no good to these persons, and they would bring a great deal of hatred ill will, and trouble upon themselves as well as would hear the name of God blasphemed, which would be very afflictive to them: or the sense is, they would not speak to God on the behalf of these wicked men, knowing the decree was gone forth; nor say one murmuring word at it, believing it was in righteousness; and being struck also with the awfulness of God’s righteous judgments:<\/p>\n for it [is] an evil time<\/strong>; in which sin abounded, and miseries and calamities on account of it.<\/p>\n With the new turn that all talking is useless, Amos repeats the admonition to seek good and hate evil, if they would live and obtain favour with God _(Amo 5:13-15<\/span>); and then appends the threat that deep mourning will arise on every hand, since God is drawing near to judgment. Amo 5:13<\/span>. “Therefore, whoever has prudence at this time is silent, for it is an evil time.” <\/em> As lakhen <\/em> (therefore) always introduces the threatening of divine punishment after the exposure of the sins (cf. Amo 5:11<\/span>, Amo 5:16<\/span>; Amo 6:7<\/span>; Amo 4:12<\/span>; Amo 3:11<\/span>), we might be disposed to connect Amo 5:13<\/span> with the preceding verse; but the contents of the verse require that it should be taken in connection with what follows, so that lakhen <\/em> simply denote the close connection of the two turns of speech, i.e., indicates that the new command in Amo 5:14<\/span>, Amo 5:15<\/span> is a consequence of the previous warnings. Hammaskl <\/em>, the prudent man, he who acts wisely, is silent. , at a time such as this is, because it is an evil time, not however “a dangerous time to speak, on account of the malignity of those in power,” but a time of moral corruption, in which all speaking and warning are of no avail. It is opposed to the context to refer to the future, i.e., to the time when God will come to punish, in which case the silence would be equivalent to not murmuring against God (Rashi and others). At the same time, love to his people, and zeal for their deliverance, impel the prophet to repeat his call to them to return.<\/p>\n Some interpreters think that a punishment is here denounced on the people of Israel, and that is, that the Lord would deprive them of Prophets and teachers. We indeed know that nothing is more to be dreaded, than that the Lord should extinguish the light of sound doctrine, and suffer us to go astray in darkness, yea, to stumble, and to rush headlong to ruin, as they do who are destitute of wholesome counsels. But I think that the meaning is quite different. Another exposition may be deemed probable, which is this, that the prudent dared not to speak on account of the prevailing tyranny; for Amos had said before that the judges, who then ruled, would not bear reproof. Hence, the prudent were forced to be silent at that time, for that time was evil; and every liberty of teaching was taken away. And this meaning opens still wider; for the silent would have to bear the wrongs done to them, and to devour inwardly their own groans, for they dared not to complain; nay, the very teachers did not oppose the torrent, for they saw that it was not the time to resist haughty and violent men. But this view may be also fitly applied to God’s judgment, that the prudent would be silent, being put in fear: for silence is often connected with fear: and it is a dreadful judgment of God, when the prudent closes his mouth, or puts his hand, as it is said elsewhere, on his mouth. <\/p>\n As to the first exposition, I have already rejected it, and it has certainly nothing in its favor: but the second may be accommodated to the general meaning of the Prophet, that is, the prudent shall be silent at that time, because all liberty shall be taken away. I am, at the same time, unwilling thus to restrict it, as they do; for it became not a wise man to pass by in silence sins so grievous: though tyrants threatened hundred deaths, yet those on whom was laid the necessity of teaching ought not to have been silent. But the Prophet here speaks not of what the prudent would do or omit to do; on the contrary, he intimates, that whenever they began to speak, the arrogance of the judges would be so great as to repel all reproofs. The prudent then shall be silent, not willingly; for that, as I have said, would have been unworthy of wise men. And the Prophet here, by way of honor, calls those prudent who rightly discern things, who are not led away by corruptions, but remain upright; who, though they see the whole order of things collapsing, and though they see heaven and earth, as it were, mingled together, yet retain a sound judgment. Since the Prophet speaks of such men, he certainly does not mean that they would be willingly silent; for it would have been a base indolence in them thus to betray the truth and a good cause. What then does he mean? Even this — that the wickedness of tyrants would be so great, as not to allow one word to be declared by the prudent; when any one came forth to reprove their vices, he was not suffered. <\/p>\n When therefore he says, that the time would be evil, he means, that such audacity would prevail, that all liberty would be denied to wise men. They would then be forced to be silent, for they could effect nothing by speaking, nay, they would have no freedom of speech allowed them: and though they attempted to discharge their office, yet tyrannical violence would instantly impose silence on them. Similar was the case with Lot, of whom it is said that he groaned and vexed his own heart, (Gen 16:1<\/span>) He was constrained, I have no doubt, to be silent after having often used free reproofs; nay, he doubtless exposed himself to many dangers by his attempts to reprove the Sodomites. Such seems to me to be the meaning of the Prophet, when he says, that the prudent would be silent, because these tyrants would impose silence on all teachers, — now throwing them into prisons, then banishing them, — now denouncing death on them, then visiting them with some punishment, or loading them with reproaches, or treating them with ridicule as persons worthy of contempt. We now understand the Prophet’s, design. We may further observe, that men have then advanced to the extremity of evil, when reception is no more given to sound doctrine and salutary counsels, and when all liberty is sternly suppressed, so that prudent men dare not to reprove vices, however rampant they may be, which even children observe, and the blind feel. When licentiousness has arrived to this pitch, it is certain that the state of things is past recovery and that there is no hope of repentance or of a better condition: and this was the meaning of the Prophet. <\/p>\n (13) Prudent . . . silence.<\/strong>The dumb silence of the prudent is the awful curse which comes upon a people when they are given up to selfishness and rapacity. Thus the doom:Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/strong> Woe upon Fools and Hypocrites<\/p>\n v. 13. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time,<\/strong> and when things have reached such extremities as here pictured, all admonitions are futile. Still the love of the prophet for his people and his desire to further their welfare in every possible way causes him to address them once more. <\/p>\n v. 14. Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live,<\/strong> for there lies the way to true life; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you as ye have spoken,<\/strong> that is, by following His will and not by a mere external membership in the Church of Israel. <\/p>\n v. 15. Hate the evil and love the good,<\/strong> Cf Rom 12:9<\/span>, and establish judgment in the gate,<\/strong> so that justice would truly be administered in all cases brought to trial; it may be that the Lord God of hosts,<\/strong> in that event, will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph,<\/strong> to the few of the northern nation who would be left after the punishment now impending. <\/p>\n v. 16. Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord,<\/strong> the one and only true God, saith thus, Wailing shall be in all streets,<\/strong> mourning on account of the chastisement which has come upon them for ignoring the appeal of the prophet; and they shall say in all the highways,<\/strong> expressing their grief in open lamentations, Alas! Alas! And they shall call the husbandman to mourning,<\/strong> to join in the death-wail over some relative, and such as are skilful of lamentation,<\/strong> the professional wailing women, to wailing,<\/strong> so that the entire country would resound with cries of grief. <\/p>\n v. 17. And in all vineyards shall be wailing,<\/strong> instead of the shouts of joy formerly heard there; for I will pass through thee, saith the Lord,<\/strong> with His visitation of wrath. <\/p>\n v. 18. Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord!<\/strong> believing that their external communion with the Lord’s people would save them from the judgment which was to strike the heathen. To what end is it for you?<\/strong> What result would it have for them? What good would it bring them?. The day of the Lord is darkness and not light;<\/strong> it would bring to willful sinners destruction and not deliverance. <\/p>\n v. 19. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him,<\/strong> so it would be with those who desired the day of the Lord’s judgment, or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. <\/strong> Hoping to escape the one calamity, the wicked Israelites would be overtaken by another. <\/p>\n v. 20. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light?<\/strong> full of tribulation and misery; the day of the Lord is darkness and not light; it would bring no deliverance to those who trample justice and right beneath their feet; even very dark, and no brightness in it?<\/strong> not a ray for the willful transgressors. Therefore even the feasts of the people would avail them nothing under the circumstances as here presented. <\/p>\n v. 21. I hate, I despise, your feast-days,<\/strong> as the Lord calls out to them, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies,<\/strong> by taking pleasure in the odor of the offerings brought by them. <\/p>\n v. 22. Though ye offer Me burnt offerings and your meat-offerings,<\/strong> as they still continued to do in their effort to have the Lord accept their outward worship, I will not accept them; neither will I accept the peace-offerings,<\/strong> or thank-offerings, of your fat beasts,<\/strong> since their entire service was hypocrisy. <\/p>\n v. 23. Take thou away from Me the noise of thy songs,<\/strong> as He contemptuously calls their congregational singing; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols,<\/strong> of the harps and other instrumental music used in public services. <\/p>\n v. 24. But let judgment,<\/strong> the just punishment of the Lord, run down as waters,<\/strong> in a great and consuming flood, and righteousness,<\/strong> namely, that of the divine justice, as a mighty stream. <\/p>\n v. 25. Have ye offered unto Me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness,<\/strong> during the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, forty years, O house of Israel?<\/strong> Even at that time the people were guilty of idolatry, and since then they added to their guilt. <\/p>\n v. 26. But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch,<\/strong> the war-god of the Moabites and Ammonites, and. Chiun,<\/strong> a star-divinity, your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. <\/strong> Even in the wilderness the children of Israel, as Ezekiel also shows, did not quite discard their idolatry, but carried their idol-pictures along with them and thus provoked the Lord, <\/p>\n v. 27. Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,<\/strong> in the power of a mighty Eastern nation, saith the Lord, whose name is The God of hosts. <\/strong> The last words were employed by Stephen in his powerful rebuke of the Jews after his arrest, Act 7:43<\/span>, in order to show that idolatry had ever been in vogue among the people in spite of all the efforts of the Lord to stamp it out. The modern idolatry in high places is just as persistent and apparently cares as little for the admonitions and rebukes of the Bible. <\/p>\n Amo 5:13<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong>Therefore the prudent shall keep silence, <\/em><\/strong>&c.<\/strong> “The prophet who finds that he shall not be heard, and that his remonstrances will not be regarded, shall retire, and keep silence till the Lord commands him to speak.” This was the conduct of Amos himself. See chap. Amo 7:12<\/span>; Amo 7:16<\/span>. The wise man advises us not to speak before those who will not hear and regard, Sir 32:9<\/span> and our Saviour in the Gospel exhorts, not to cast pearl before swine. See Calmet. <\/p>\n Amo 5:13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it [is] an evil time.<\/p>\n Ver. 13. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence<\/strong> ] According to that old and good rule, Either keep silence, or speak that which is better than silence, , . There is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak,” Ecc 3:7<\/span> , and it is a singular skill to time a word, Isa 50:4<\/span> , to set it upon its circumferences, Pro 25:11<\/span> , so to speak, and so to do, as those that shall be judged by the law of liberty, Jas 2:12<\/span> . He that would be able to speak right and forcible words, must first learn how and when to keep silence. It is not good casting pearls before swine; nor pulling a bear or mad dog by the ear. It is the true ambition of a Christian, to study to he quiet, to meddle with his own business, 1Th 4:11<\/span> , , to affect rather quietness from the wicked world than acquaintance with it, and to pass through it with as little noise and notice as he can. Not but that God’s faithful servants must cry aloud, and not spare, lifting up their voices like a trumpet, &c., Isa 58:1<\/span> , and casting away the inverse trumpets of Furius Fulvus, which sounded a retreat, when they should have sounded an alarm. But this must be done with godly discretion. Zeal should eat us up, but not eat up our wisdom (saith one), nor should policy eat up our zeal. The apostles professed that they could not but speak the things that they had heard and seen; they must either vent or burst. And yet holy Paul (who was full of the spirit of judgment and of burning, Isa 4:4 ), though he preached at Ephesus (where he lived two years and more together) that they be no gods that are made with hands; yet he made no particular invective against their great goddess Diana, whereon they so impotently doted, Act 19:26<\/span> ; Act 19:37<\/span> , He that hath a good mixture of zeal and prudence is like a ship well ballasted, that sails with a prosperous gale; but zeal without discretion is like fire on the chimney top; or like mettle in a blind horse; or the devil in the demoniac, that cast him sometimes into the fire, and sometimes into the water. What a storm of persecution raised Bishop Abdias in Persepolis by his intemperate zeal, not bridled with discretion; as the poets fable that Minerva put a golden bridle upon Pegasus, lest he should fly too fast? And it was some disadvantage to Paul, when in the council (though provoked and unjustly smitten) he called the high priest whited wall; he was glad to excuse it by his ignorance. We may not he too bold or too forward to speak in a good matter, to such as hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and abhor him that speaketh uprightly, Amo 5:10<\/span> . <\/p>\n <\/p>\n For it is an evil time<\/strong> ] By reason of an evil and adulterous generation, that make it so. It is a day of evil, as Psa 41:1<\/span> , that is, of difficulty and danger, to those that dare speak out: such as were Tiberius’s times. That tiger laid hold with his teeth on all the brave spirits that could speak their minds fitly, and dared to do it freely. He put to death a certain poet, which in a tragedy had inveighed against Agamemnon; suspecting himself to be intended. Freedom of speech used by the Waldenses in blaming and reproving the vices, dissolute manners, life, and actions of great ones, made them looked upon and persecuted as heretics and enemies to the see apostolic, as Manichees, Catharists, what not? (Girardus).<\/p>\n Therefore, &c. Compare Pro 28:11, Pro 28:28. an evil time, a time of calamity. Hebrew raa’. App-44. See note on Amo 3:6. <\/p>\n the prudent: Amo 6:10, Ecc 3:7, Isa 36:21, Hos 4:4, Mic 7:5-7, Mat 27:12-14 <\/p>\n an evil: Ecc 9:12, Isa 37:3, Mic 2:3, Hab 3:16, Zep 2:2, Zep 2:3, Eph 5:15, Eph 5:16, Eph 6:13, 2Ti 3:1 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: 2Ki 18:36 – held their peace Neh 2:12 – neither Job 13:5 – and it Job 21:5 – lay your Job 32:16 – General Psa 37:19 – in the evil Psa 38:14 – that heareth Psa 39:1 – while Psa 49:5 – days Pro 14:15 – the prudent Pro 29:11 – General Lam 2:10 – and keep Mic 1:10 – Declare Zec 1:4 – Turn Joh 7:10 – not Joh 8:6 – as though<\/p>\n Amo 5:13. A prudent man is one who does not “speak out of turn,” and in the present case it means not to speak any word of protest against what the Lord is threatening to do, The times are so evil that all wise men should endorse the Lord’s judgments.<\/p>\n 5:13 Therefore {h} the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it [is] an evil time.<\/p>\n (h) God will so plague them that they will not allow the godly to open their mouths once to admonish them of their faults.<\/p>\n Life had become so corrupt that keeping quiet about these abuses of power had become the only prudent thing to do. If a person spoke out against them, he could count on feeling the wrath of the powerful.<\/p>\n Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it [is] an evil time. 13. In a time such as that, the prudent man will keep silence; a complaint, or accusation, or attempt to redress the wrongs which he sees about him, will be perilous to him, if he be in a good position, … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Amos 5:13”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"