1Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are in the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their husbands, Bring in, that we may drink. 2The Lord Jehovah has sworn by His holiness that the days are coming that He will carry you away with meat hooks, and the last of you with fishhooks. 3And you shall go out at the breaches, each woman before her; and you shall be cast into the high fortress, declares Jehovah. 4Come to Bethel and transgress; multiply transgression at Gilgal; and bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every third year; 5and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven; cry out, call out the free-will offerings! For so you love to do, O sons of Israel, declares the Lord Jehovah. 6And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places; and you have not returned to Me, declares Jehovah. 7And I have also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest. And I caused rain to fall on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city. One parcel of land was rained on, and the parcel where it did not rain was dried up. 8So two or three cities staggered to one city in order to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me, declares Jehovah. 9I have struck you with blasting and mildew. When your gardens and your vineyards, and your figs, and your olives increased, the locust devoured them; yet you have not returned to Me, declares Jehovah. 10I have sent a plague among you in the manner of Egypt; I have killed your young men with the sword, along with your captive horses. And I have made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils; yet you have not returned to Me, declares Jehovah. 11I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked out of the burning; yet you have not returned to Me, declares Jehovah. 12Therefore I will do this to you, O Israel: Because of this that I will do to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel. 13For, behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind and declares to man what his thought is, He who makes the dawn darkness, and treads on the high places of the earth; Jehovah the God of Hosts, is His name.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 DENUNCIATION OF ISRAEL'S NOBLES FOR OPPRESSION; AND OF THE WHOLE NATION FOR IDOLATRY; AND FOR THEIR BEING UNREFORMED EVEN BY GOD'S JUDGMENTS: THEREFORE THEY MUST PREPARE FOR THE LAST AND WORST JUDGMENT OF ALL. (
Amos 4:1-
Amos 4:13)
kine of Bashan--fat and wanton cattle such as the rich pasture of Bashan (east of Jordan, between Hermon and Gilead) was famed for (
Deut 32:14;
Ps 22:12;
Ezek 39:18). Figurative for those luxurious nobles mentioned,
Amos 3:9-
Amos 3:10,
Amos 3:12,
Amos 3:15. The feminine, kine, or cows, not bulls, expresses their effeminacy. This accounts for masculine forms in the Hebrew being intermixed with feminine; the latter being figurative, the former the real persons meant.
say to their masters--that is to their king, with whom the princes indulged in potations (
Hos 7:5), and whom here they importune for more wine. "Bring" is singular, in the Hebrew implying that one "master" alone is meant.
2 The Lord--the same Hebrew as "masters" (
Amos 4:1). Israel's nobles say to their master or lord, Bring us drink: but "the Lord" of him and them "hath sworn," &c.
by his holiness--which binds Him to punish the guilty (
Ps 89:35).
he will take yon away--that is God by the instrumentality of the enemy.
with hooks--literally, "thorns" (compare
2Chr 33:11). As fish are taken out of the water by hooks, so the Israelites are to be taken out of their cities by the enemy (
Ezek 29:4; compare
Job 41:1-
Job 41:2;
Jer 16:16;
Hab 1:15). The image is the more appropriate, as anciently captives were led by their conquerors by a hook made to pass through the nose (
2Kgs 19:28), as is to be seen in the Assyrian remains.
3 go out at the breaches--namely, of the city walls broken by the enemy.
every cow at that which is before her--figurative for the once luxurious nobles (compare "kine of Bashan,"
Amos 4:1) shall go out each one right before her; not through the gates, but each at the breach before him, not turning to the right or left, apart from one another.
ye shall cast them into the palace--"them," that is, "your posterity," from
Amos 4:2. You yourselves shall escape through the breaches, after having cast your little children into the palace, so as not to see their destruction, and to escape the more quickly. Rather, "ye shall cast yourselves into the palace," so as to escape from it out of the city [CALVIN]. The palace, the scene of the princes riots (
Amos 3:10,
Amos 3:15;
Amos 4:1), is to be the scene of their ignominious flight. Compare in the similar case of Jerusalem's capture, the king's escape by way of the palace, through a breach in the wall (
Ezek 12:5,
Ezek 12:12). GESENIUS translates, "Ye shall be cast (as captives) into the (enemy's) stronghold"; in this view, the enemy's stronghold is called "palace," in retributive contrast to the "palaces" of Israel's nobles, the store houses of their robberies (
Amos 3:10).
4 God gives them up to their self-willed idolatry, that they may see how unable their idols are to save them from their coming calamities. So
Ezek 20:39.
Beth-el-- (
Amos 3:14).
Gilgal-- (
Hos 4:15;
Hos 9:15;
Hos 12:11).
sacrifices every morning--as commanded in the law (
Num 28:3-
Num 28:4). They imitated the letter, while violating by calf-worship the spirit, of the Jerusalem temple-worship.
after three years--every third year; literally, "after three (years of) days" (that is, the fullest complement of days, or a year); "after three full years." Compare
Lev 25:20;
Judg 17:10, and "the days" for the years,
Joel 1:2. So a month of days is used for a full month, wanting no day to complete it (
Gen 29:14, Margin;
Num 11:20-
Num 11:21). The Israelites here also kept to the letter of the law in bringing in the tithes of their increase every third year (
Deut 14:28;
Deut 26:12).
5 offer--literally, "burn incense"; that is, "offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with burnt incense and with leavened bread." The frankincense was laid on the meat offering, and taken by the priest from it to burn on the altar (
Lev 2:1-
Lev 2:2,
Lev 2:8-
Lev 2:11). Though unleavened cakes were to accompany the peace offering sacrifice of animals, leavened bread was also commanded (
Lev 7:12-
Lev 7:13), but not as a "meat offering" (
Lev 2:11).
this liketh you--that is, this is what ye like.
6 Jehovah details His several chastisements inflicted with a view to reclaiming them: but adds to each the same sad result, "yet have ye not returned unto Me" (
Isa 9:13;
Jer 5:3;
Hos 7:10); the monotonous repetition of the same burden marking their pitiable obstinacy.
cleanness of teeth--explained by the parallel, "want of bread." The famine alluded to is that mentioned in
2Kgs 8:1 [GROTIUS]. Where there is no food to masticate, the teeth are free from uncleanness, but it is the cleanness of want. Compare
Pro 14:4, "Where no oxen are, the crib is clean." So spiritually, where all is outwardly smooth and clean, it is often because there is no solid religion. Better fighting and fears with real piety, than peace and respectable decorum without spiritual life.
7 withholden . . . rain . . . three months to . . . harvest--the time when rain was most needed, and when usually "the latter rain" fell, namely, in spring, the latter half of February, and the whole of March and April (
Hos 6:3;
Joel 2:23). The drought meant is that mentioned in
1Kgs 17:1 [GROTIUS].
rain upon one city . . . not . . . upon another--My rain that fell was only partial.
8 three cities wandered--that is, the inhabitants of three cities (compare
Jer 14:1-
Jer 14:6). GROTIUS explains this verse and
Amos 4:7, "The rain fell on neighboring countries, but not on Israel, which marked the drought to be, not accidental, but the special judgment of God." The Israelites were obliged to leave their cities and homes to seek water at a distance [CALVIN].
9 blasting--the blighting influence of the east wind on the corn (
Gen 41:6).
when . . . gardens . . . increased--In vain ye multiplied your gardens, &c., for I destroyed their produce. BOCHART supports Margin, "the multitude of your gardens."
palmer worm--A species of locust is here meant, hurtful to fruits of trees, not to herbage or corn. The same east wind which brought the drought, blasting, and mildew, brought also the locusts into Judea [BOCHART], (
Exod 10:13).
10 pestilence after the manner of Egypt--such as I formerly sent on the Egyptians (
Exod 9:3,
Exod 9:8, &c.;
Exod 12:29;
Deut 28:27,
Deut 28:60). Compare the same phrase,
Isa 10:24.
have taken away your horses--literally, "accompanied with the captivity of your horses"; I have given up your young men to be slain, and their horses to be taken by the foe (compare
2Kgs 13:7).
stink of your camps--that is, of your slain men (compare
Isa 34:3;
Joel 2:20).
to come up unto your nostrils--The Hebrew is more emphatic, "to come up, and that unto your nostrils."
11 some of you--some parts of your territory.
as God overthrew Sodom-- (
Deut 29:23;
Isa 13:19;
Jer 49:18;
Jer 50:40;
2Pet 2:6;
Jude 1:7). "God" is often repeated in Hebrew instead of "I." The earthquake here apparently alluded to is not that in the reign of Uzziah, which occurred "two years" later (
Amos 1:1). Traces of earthquakes and volcanic agency abound in Palestine. The allusion here is to some of the effects of these in previous times. Compare the prophecy, Deu. 28:15-68, with
Amos 4:6-
Amos 4:11 here.
as a firebrand plucked out of . . . burning--(Compare
Isa 7:4;
Zech 3:2). The phrase is proverbial for a narrow escape from utter extinction. Though Israel revived as a nation under Jeroboam II, it was but for a time, and that after an almost utter destruction previously (
2Kgs 14:26).
12 Therefore--as all chastisements have failed to make thee "return unto Me."
thus will I do unto thee--as I have threatened (
Amos 4:2-
Amos 4:3).
prepare to meet thy God--God is about to inflict the last and worst judgment on thee, the extinction of thy nationality; consider then what preparation thou canst make for encountering Him as thy foe (
Jer 46:14;
Luke 14:31-
Luke 14:32). But as that would be madness to think of (
Isa 27:4;
Ezek 22:14;
Heb 10:31), see what can be done towards mitigating the severity of the coming judgment, by penitence (
Isa 27:5;
1Cor 11:31). This latter exhortation is followed up in
Amos 5:4,
Amos 5:6,
Amos 5:8,
Amos 5:14-
Amos 5:15.
13 The God whom Israel is to "prepare to meet" (
Amos 4:12) is here described in sublime terms.
wind--not as the Margin, "spirit." The God with whom thou hast to do is the Omnipotent Maker of things seen, such as the stupendous mountains, and of things too subtle to be seen, though of powerful agency, as the "wind."
declareth unto man . . . his thought-- (
Ps 139:2). Ye think that your secret thoughts escape My cognizance, but I am the searcher of hearts.
maketh . . . morning darkness-- (
Amos 5:8;
Amos 8:9). Both literally turning the sunshine into darkness, and figuratively turning the prosperity of the ungodly into sudden adversity (
Ps 73:12,
Ps 73:18-
Ps 73:19; compare
Jer 13:16).
treadeth upon . . . high places--God treadeth down the proud of the earth. He subjects to Him all things however high they be (
Mic 1:3). Compare
Deut 32:13;
Deut 33:29, where the same phrase is used of God's people, elevated by God above every other human height.