Bible Commentaries

In order to impress Israel the more, Amos begins this his third appeal by a "dirge" over its destruction, mourning over those who were full of joy, and thought themselves safe and enviable. As if a living man, in the midst of his pride and luxury and buoyant recklessness of heart, could see his own funeral procession, and hear, as it were, over himself the "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." It would give solemn thoughts, even though he should impatiently put them from him. So must it to Israel, when after the tide of victories of Jeroboam II, Amos said, "Hear this word which I am lifting up," as a heavy weight, to cast it down "against" or "upon you," a funeral "dirge," O house of Israel. Human greatness is so unstable, human strength so fleeting, that the prophet of decay finds a response in man's own conscience, however he may silence or resent it. He would not resent it, unless he felt its force.

Dionysius: "Amos, an Israelite, mourneth over Israel, as Samuel did over Saul 1 Samuel 15:35, or as Isaiah says, "I will weep bitterly; labor not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people" Isaiah 22:4; images of Him who wept over Jerusalem." "So are they bewailed, who know not why they are bewailed, the more miserable, because they know not their own misery."

She hath fallen, she shall rise no more, the virgin of Israel; she hath been dashed down upon her land, there is none to raise her up - Such is the dirge, a dirge like that of David over Saul and Jonathan, over what once was lovely and mighty, but which had perished. He speaks of all as past, and that, irremediably. Israel is one of the things which had been, and which would never again be. He calls her tenderly, "the virgin of Israel," not as having retained her purity or her fealty to God; still less, with human boastfulness, as though she had as yet been unsubdued by man. For she had been faithless to God, and had been many times conquered by man. Nor does it even seem that God so calls her, because He once espoused her to Himself For isaiah so calls Babylon. But Scripture seems to speak of cities, as women, because in women tenderness is most seen; they are most tenderly guarded; they, when pure, are most lovely; they, when corrupted, are most debased.

Hence , "God says on the one hand, "I remember thee, the love of thine espousals" Jeremiah 2:2; on the other, "Hear, thou harlot, the word of the Lord" Ezekiel 16:35. When He claims her faithfulness He calls her, betrothed." Again , "when He willeth to signify that a city or nation has been as tenderly loved and anxiously guarded, whether by Himsclf or by others, He calleth it "virgin," or when lie would indicate its beauty and lovely array. Isaiah saith, 'come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon' Isaiah 47:1, that is, thou who livedest before in all delicacies, like a virgin under the shelter of her home. For it follows, 'for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.'" More pitiable, for their tenderness and delicacy, is the distress of women. And so he pictures her as already fallen, "dashed" (the word imitates the sound) to the earth "upon her own ground." An army may be lost, and the nation recover. She was "dashed down upon her own ground." In the abode of her strength, in the midst of her resources, in her innermost retreat, she should fall. In herself, she fell powerless. And he adds, she has "no one to raise her up;" none to have ruth upon her; image of the judgment on a lost soul, when the terrible sentence is spoken and none can intercede! "She shall not rise again." As she fell, she did not again rise. The prophet beholds beyond the eighty-five years which separated the prosperity under Jeroboam II from her captivity. As a people, he says, she should be restored no more; nor was she.

The city that went out by a thousand - (that is, probably that sent out a thousand fighting men, as the word "went out" is often used for, "went out" to fight,) "shall have" literally, "shall retain, an hundred." She was to be decimated. Only, the tenth alone was to be reserved alive; the nine-tenths were to be destroyed. And this, alike in larger places and in the small. The city "that went forth an hundred shall retain ten." Smaller places escape for their obscurity, the larger from their strength and situation. One common doom was to befall all. Out of all that multitude, one tithe alone was to he preserved , "dedicated to God," that remnant which God always promised to reserve.

Seek ye Me and ye shall live - Literally, "seek Me; and live." Wonderful conciseness of the word of God, which, in two words, comprises the whole of the creature's duty and his hopes, his time and his eternity. The prophet users the two imperatives, inoneing both, man's duty and his reward. He does not speak of them, as cause and effect, but as one. Where the one is, there is the other. To seek God is to live. For to seek God is to find Him, and God is Life and the Source of life. Forgiveness, grace, life, enter the soul at once. But the seeking is diligent seeking. : "It is not to seek God anyhow, but as it is right and meet that He should be sought, longed for, prayed for, who is so great, a Good, constantly, fervently, yea, to our power, the more constantly and fervently, as an Infinite Good is more to be longed for, more loved than all created good." The object of the search is God Himself. "Seek Me," that is, seek God for Himself, not for anything out of Him, not for His gifts, not for anything to be loved with Him. This is not to seek Him purely. All is found in Him, but by seeking Him first, and then loving Him in all, and all in Him. "And ye shall live," first by the life of the body, escaping the enemy; then by the life of grace now, and the life of glory hereafter, as in that of the Psalmist, "your heart shall live who seek God" Psalm 69:32.

But (and) seek not Bethel - Israel pretended to seek God in Bethel. Amos sets the two seeking, as incompatible. The god, worshiped at Bethel, was not the One God. To seek God there was to lose Him. "Seek not God," he would say, "and a phantom, which will lead from God."

And pass not to Beersheba - Jeroboam I pretended that it was too much for Israel to go up to Jerusalem. And Yet Israel thought it not too much to go to the extremest point of Judah toward Idumaea , perhaps, four times as far south of Jerusalem, as Jerusalem lay from Bethel. For Beersheba is thought to have lain some thirty miles south of Hebron , which is twenty-two miles south of Jerusalem ; while Bethel is but twelve to the north. So much pains will people take in self-willed service, and yet not see that it takes away the excuse for neglecting the true. At Beersheba, Abraham "called upon the name of the Lord, the everlasting God" Genesis 21:33. There God revealed Himself to Isaac and Jacob Genesis 26:23-24; Genesis 46:1. There, because He had so revealed Himself, Judah made a place of idolatry, which Israel, seeking nought besides from Judah, sought. Beersheba was still a town or large village in the time of Jerome. Now all is swept away, except "some foundations of ruins," spread over 34 of a mile, "with scarcely one stone upon another" . The wells alone remain , with the ancient names.

Gilgal shall surely go into captivity - The verbal allusions in the prophets are sometimes artificial; sometimes, they develop the meaning of the word itself, as when Zephaniah says, "Ekron (probably the "firm-rooting") "shall be uprooted" Zephaniah 2:4; sometimes, as here, the words are connected, although not the same. In all cases, the likeness of sound was calculated to fix them in men's memories. It would be so, if one with authority could say, "Paris perira" , "Paris shall perish" or "London is undone." Still more would the words, Hag-gilgal galo yigleh, because the name Gilgal still retained its first meaning, "the great rolling , and the word joined with it had a kindred meaning. Originally it probably means, "swept clear away." God first "rolled away the reproaeh of Egypt" Joshua 5:9 from His people there. Then, when it made itself like the pagan, it should itself be rolled clear away Jeremiah 51:25. Gilgal was originally in Benjamin, but Israel had probably annexed it to itself, as it had Bethel and Jericho 1 Kings 16:34, both of which had been assigned by Joshua to Benjamin Joshua 18:21-22.

And Bethel shall come to nought - Hosea had called "Bethel, God's house," by the name of "Bethaven Hosea 4:15; Hosea 10:5, Vanity-house." Amos, in allusion to this probably, drops the first half of the name, and says that it shall not merely be "house of vanity," but "Aven, vanity" itself. "By sin the soul, which was the house or temple of God, becomes the temple of vanity and of devils."

Seek ye the Lord and ye shall live - Literally, "seek the Lord and live;" being united to Him, the Fountain of life. He reimpresses on them the one simple need of the creature, "seek God," the one true God as He revealed Himself, not as worldly people, or the politicians of Jeroboam's court, or the calf-priests, fabled of Him. "Seek Him." For in Him is all; without Him, nothing.

Lest He break out like fire in Bethel - Formerly the Spirit of God came vehemently down upon Sansom Judges 14:6, Judges 14:19; Judges 15:14 and Saul 1 Samuel 10:6; 1 Samuel 11:6 and David 1 Samuel 16:13, to fit them as instruments for God; as did the Evil spirit, when God departed from Saul 1 Samuel 18:10. So now, unless they repented, God Himself would suddenly show His powerful presence among them, but, as He had revealed Himself to be, "the, Lord thy God is a consuming Fire" Deuteronomy 4:24. "And devour" it, literally, "and it" (the fire) "shall devor, and" there be "none to quench" it "in" (better, "for") Bethel." Bethel, the center of their idol-hopes, so far from aiding them then, shall not be able to help itself, nor shall there be any to help it. The fire of God kindles around it, and there is none to quench it for her (as in Jeremiah 4:4).

Montanus: "The whole place treateth of mercy and justice. The whole ground of people's punishment, calamities, condemnation is ascribed to their own fault and negligence, who neglect the deliverance often promised and offered them by God, and 'love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil' John 3:19. Whoever is not saved, the whole blame lies in their own will and negligence and malice. God, who 'willeth not that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance' 2 Peter 3:9, Himself unsought, seeks, entreats, ceases not to monish, exhort, set before them their guilt, that they may cease to prepare such evil for themselves. But they neither give Him entrance, nor hear His entreaties, nor admit the warnings of the divine mercy, which if they neglect, they must needs be made over to His justice. The goodness of God is lacking to no one, save those who are wanting to themselves. Wherefore, having often besought them before, He invites them yet again to salvation, putting forth that His Name, so full of mysteries of mercy; 'Seek the Lord and live,'" seek Him who is, the Unchangeable. He who had willed their salvation, still willed it, for He "changes not" Malachi 3:6. "He adds threatenings, that those whom He calls to life, He might either allure by promises, or scare from death through fear of the impending evil."

Ye who turn - Those whom he calls to seek God, were people filled with all injustice, who turned the sweetness of justice into the bitterness of wormwood . Moses had used "gall" and "wormwood" as a proverb; "lest there be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; the Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him" Deuteronomy 29:18, Deuteronomy 29:20. The word of Amos would remind them of the word of Moses.

And leave off righteousness in the earth - Better, "and set righteousness to rest on the ground" . They dethroned righteousness, the representative and vice-gerent of God, and made it rest on the ground. The "little horn," Daniel says, should "cast truth to the ground" Daniel 8:12. These seem to have blended outrage with insult, as when "the Lord our Righteousness" Jeremiah 23:6 took our flesh, "they put on Him" the "scarlet robe, and the crown of thorns" upon His Head, and bowed the knee before Him, and mocked Him," and then "crucified Him." They "deposed" her, "set her down," it may be, with a mock make-believe deference, as people now-a-days, in civil terms, depose God, ignoring Him and His right over them. They set her on the ground and so left her, the image of God. This they did, not in one way only, but in all the ways in which they could. He does not limit it to the "righteousness" shown in doing justice. It includes all transactions between man and man, in which right enters, all buying and selling, all equity, all giving to another his due. All the bands of society were dissolved, and righteousness was placed on the ground, to be trampled on by all in all things.

Seek Him that maketh the seven stars - Misbelief effaces the thought of God as He Is. It retains the name God, but means something quite different from the One True God. So people spoke of "the Deity," as a sort of First Cause of all things, and did not perceive that they only meant to own that this fair harmony of things created was not (at least as it now exists,) self-existent, and that they had lost sight of the Personal God who had made known to them His Will, whom they were to believe in, obey, fear, love. "The Deity" was no object of fear or love. It was but a bold confession that they did not mean to be Atheists, or that they meant intellectually to admire the creation. Such confessions, even when not consciously atheistic, become at least the parents of Atheism or Panotheism, and slide insensibly into either. For a First Cause, who is conceived of as no more, is an abstraction, not God. God is the Cause of all causes.

All things are, and have their relations to each other, as cause and effect, because He so created them. A "Great First Cause," who is only thought of as a Cause, is a mere fiction of a man's imagining, an attempt to appear to account for the mysteries of being, without owning that, since our being is from God, we are responsible creatures whom He created for Himself, and who are to yield to Him an account of the use of our being which He gave us. In like way, Israel had probably so mixed up the thought of God with Nature, that it had lost sight of God, as distinct from the creation. And so Amos, after appealing to their consciences, sets forth God to them as the Creator, Disposer of all things, and the Just God, who redresseth man's violence and injustice. The "seven stars," literally, "the heap," are the striking cluster of stars, called by Greeks and Latins the Pleiades, , which consist of seven larger stars, and in all of above forty.

Orion, a constellation in one line with the Pleiades, was conceived by the Arabs and Syrians also, as a gigantic figure. The Chaldee also renders, the "violent" or "the rebel." The Hebrew title "כּסיל Keciyl, fool," adds the idea of an irreligious man, which is also the meaning of Nimrod, "rebel," literally, "let us rebel." Job, in that he speaks of "the bands of Orion Job 38:31, pictures him as "bound," the "belt" being the "band." This falls in with the later tradition, that Nimrod, who, as the founder of Babel, was the first rebel against God , was represented by the easterns in their grouping of the stars, as a giant chained , the same constellation which we call Orion.

And turneth the shadow of death into the morning - This is no mere alternation of night and day, no "kindling" of "each day out of night." The "shadow of death" is strictly the darkness of death, or of the grave Job 3:5; Job 10:21-22; Job 34:22; Job 38:17; Psalm 23:4; Jeremiah 13:16. It is used of darkness intense as the darkness of the grave Job 28:3, of gloom Job 24:17, or moral benightening (Isaiah 9:2, (1 Hebrew)) which seems to cast "the shadow of death" over the soul, of distress which is as the forerunner of death Job 16:16; Psalm 44:19; Psalm 107:10, Psalm 107:14; Jeremiah 2:6; Jeremiah 13:16, or of things, hidden as the grave, which God alone can bring to light Job 12:22. The word is united with darkness, physical, moral, mental, but always as intensifying it, beyond any mere darkness. Amos first sets forth the power of God, then His goodness. Out of every extremity of ill, God can, will, does, deliver. He who said, "let there be light and there was light," at once changeth any depth of darkness into light, the death-darkness of sin into the dawn of grace, the hopeless night of ignorance into "the day-star from on high," the night of the grave into the eternal morn of the Resurrection which knoweth no setting. But then on impenitence the contrary follows;

And maketh the day dark with night - Literally, "and darkeneth day into night." As God withdraws "the shadow of death," so that there should be no trace of it left, but all is filled with His light, so, again, when His light is abused or neglected, He so withdraws it, as at times, to leave no trace or gleam of it. Conscience becomes benighted, so as to sin undoubtingly: faith is darkened, so that the soul no more even suspects the truth. Hell has no light.

That calleth for the waters of the sea - This can be no other than a memory of the flood, "when the waters prevailed over the earth Genesis 7:24. The prophet speaks of nothing partial. He speaks of "sea" and "earth," each, as a whole, standing against the other. "God calleth the waters of the sea and poureth them over the face of the earth." They seem ever threatening the land, but for Him "which hath placed the sand for the bound of the sea, that it cannot pass it" Jeremiah 5:22. Now God calls them, and "pours them over the face," that is, the whole surface. The flood, He promised, should not again be. But it is the image of that universal destruction, which shall end man's thousands of years of rebellion against God. The words then of Amos, in their simplest sense, speak of a future universal judgment of the inhabitants of the earth, like, in extent, to that former judgment, when God "brought in the flood upon the world of the ungodly" 2 Peter 2:5.

The words have been thought also to describe that daily marvel of God's Providence, how, from the salt briny sea, which could bring but barrenness, He, by the heat of the Sun, draws up the moisture, and discharges it anew in life-giving showers on the surface of the earth. God's daily care of us, in the workings of His creatures is a witness Acts 14:17 of His relation to us as our Father; it is an earnest also of our relation, and so of our accountableness, to Him.

The Lord is His name - He, the One Self-existent Unchangeable God, who revealed Himself to their forefathers, and forbade them to worship Him under any form of their own device.