Text -- Amos 4:7 (NET)

4:7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. I gave rain to one city, but not to another. One field would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Wesley: Amo 4:7

At a season when your country most needed it.

Wesley: Amo 4:7

That you might see my hand in it, I gave rain to one city, and withheld it from the next; nay one part of the same field was watered and flourished: another part, dry and withered.

JFB: Amo 4:6-11

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.

JFB: Amo 4:6-11

Explained by the parallel, "want of bread." The famine alluded to is that mentioned in 2Ki 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.

JFB: Amo 4:7

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; Joe 2:23). The drought meant is that mentioned in 1Ki 17:1 [GROTIUS].

JFB: Amo 4:7

My rain that fell was only partial.

Clarke: Amo 4:7

When there were yet three months to the harvest - St. Jerome says, from the end of April, when the latter rain falls, until harvest, there are three months, May, June, and July, in which no rain falls in Judea. The rain, therefore, that God had withheld from them, was that which was usual in the spring months, particularly in April

Clarke: Amo 4:7

I caused it to rain upon one city - To prove to them that this rain did not come fortuitously or of necessity, God was pleased to make these most evident distinctions. One city had rain and could fill all its tanks or cisterns, while a neighboring city had none. One farm or field was well watered, and abundant in its crops, while one contiguous to it had not a shower. In these instances a particular providence was most evident. "And yet, they did not return to the Lord."

Calvin: Amo 4:7

I have said that another kind of punishment is here recorded by the Prophet; it is not, however, wholly different: for whence comes the want we have noticed, except through drought? For when God intends to deprive men of support, he shuts up heaven and makes it iron, so that it hears not the earth, according to what we have noticed elsewhere. Yet these words of the Prophet are not superfluous; for God would have the punishment he inflicts on men to be more attentively considered. When men are reduced to want, they will indeed acknowledge it to be the curse of God, except they be very stupid; but when a drought precedes, when the earth disappoints its cultivators, and then a want of food follows, more time is given to men to think of God’s displeasure. This is the reason why the Prophet now distinctly speaks of rain being withheld, after having said that the people had been before visited with a deficiency of provisions; as though he said “Ye ought to have returned, at least after a long course of time, to a sound mind. If God had been offended with you only for one day, and had given tokens of his displeasure, the shortness of time might have been some excuse for you: but as the earth had become dry; as God had restrained rain, and as hence sterility followed, and afterwards there came want, how great was your stupidity not to attend to so many and so successive tokens of God’s wrath?” We now perceive why the Prophet here connects drought with want of food, the cause with the effect: it was, that the stupidity of the people might hence be more evident.

But he says that God had withheld rain from them, when three months still remained to the harvest. When it rains not for a whole month, the earth becomes dry, and men become anxious, for it is an ill omen: but when two months pass without rain, men begin to be filled with apprehension and even dread; but if continual dryness lasts to the end of the third month, it is a sign of some great evil. The Prophet, then, here shows that the Israelites had not been in an ordinary way chastised, and that they were very stupid, as they did not, during the whole three months, apply their minds to consider their sins, though God urged them, and though his wrath had been manifested for so long a time. We now then see that the hardness of the people is amplified by the consideration of time, inasmuch as they were not awakened by a sign so portentous, When there were yet three months, he says, to the harvests I withheld rain from you.

Another circumstance follows, “God rained on one city, on another he did not rain; one part was watered, and no drop of rain fell on another This difference could not be ascribed to chance: except men resolved to be willfully mad, and to reject all reason, they must surely have been constrained to confess these to have been manifest signs of God’s wrath. How came it, that one place was rained upon, and another remained dry? that two neighboring cities were treated so differently? Whence was this, except that God appeared angry from heaven? The Prophet then does here again condemn the obstinacy of the people: they did not see in this difference the wrath of God, which was yet so very conspicuous. The import of the whole is, that God shows that he had to do with a people past recovery; for they were refractory and obstinate in their wickedness, and could bear the application of no remedy. It follows —

TSK: Amo 4:7

I have : Lev 26:18-21, Lev 26:23, Lev 26:24, Lev 26:27, Lev 26:28; Deu 28:23, Deu 28:24; 1Ki 8:35, 1Ki 8:36; 2Ch 7:13, 2Ch 7:14; Isa 5:6; Jer 3:3, Jer 5:24, Jer 5:25, Jer 14:4, Jer 14:22; Hag 1:10,Hag 1:11; Zec 14:17; Jam 5:17; Rev 11:6

when : Joe 2:23; Joh 4:35

and I : Exo 8:22, Exo 9:4, Exo 9:26, Exo 10:23; Jdg 6:37-40; 1Co 4:7

and the : Joe 1:10-18

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Amo 4:7

And I, I too have withholden the rain - Jerome, dwelling in Palestine, says, that "this rain, when "three months yet remained until harvest,"was the "latter rain,"of the very greatest necessity for the fields of Palestine and the thirsty ground, lest, when the blade is swelling into the crop, and gendering the wheat, it should dry up through lack of moisture. The time intended is the spring, at the end of April, whence, to the wheat-harvest, there remain three months, May, June, July.""God withheld the rain that they might endure, not only lack of bread, but burning thirst and penury of drink also. For in these places, where we now live, all the water, except small fountains, is of cisterns; and if the wrath of God should withhold the rain, there is greater peril of thirst than of hunger, such its Scripture relates to have endured for three years and six months in the days of the prophet Elijah. And lest they should think that this had befallen their cities and people, by a law of nature, or the influence of the stars, or the variety of the seasons, He says, that He rained upon one city and its fields, and from another withheld the rain."

This was a second visitation of God. First, a general famine, "in all their cities;"secondly, a discriminating visitation. "Nature"possesses no discrimination or power over her supplies. Seeming waste is one of the mysteries of God in nature, "to cause it to rain on the earth"Job 38:26 where "no man"is; on "the wilderness wherein"there, "is no man."Ordinarily too, God "maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust"Mat 5:45. But God does not enslave Himself, (as people would have it) to His own laws. Amos appeals to them, that God had dealt with them, not according to His ordinary laws; that not only God had given to one city the rain which he had withheld from another, but that He had made the same difference as to smaller "pieces"of ground, the inherited "portions"of individuals . Some such variations have been observed in Palestine now. But this would have been no indication of God’ s Providence, had not the consciences of people responded to the prophet’ s appeal, and recognized that the rain had been given or withheld according to the penitence or impenitence, the deeper or more mitigated idolatry, the greater or less sinfulness of the people. We have. then, in these few words a law of God’ s dealing with Israel. God, in His word, reveals to us the meaning of His daily variations in the workings of nature; yet, hardly even in such instances, as people can scarcely elude, do they think of God the Creator, rather than of nature, His creation.

Poole: Amo 4:7

I also have withholden the rain from you your vanities could not, and because ye did so greatly sin against me I would not, give you rain; I forbade the clouds from above, and they, thus prohibited, did withhold their rain, as I threatened, Deu 28:23,24 .

When there were yet three months to the harvest at a season when your country most usually had, and as then it ever did most need, rain: see Joe 2:23 . Three months drought then, as it was unusual in the course of nature, so it was an extraordinary curse and punishment on them. That you might see my hand in it and be instructed, I gave rain to one city, and withheld rain from the next neighbour city; nay, one part of a field, the same field, was watered and flourished, another part dry and withered. All this to convince and turn you.

PBC: Amo 4:7

See Philpot: AND ALSO I HAVE WITHHOLDEN THE RAIN FROM YOU...

Haydock: Amo 4:7

Months. The latter rain falls in April. See Deuteronomy xi. 14. (Calmet) ---

Harvest. Septuagint have as usual, "vintage." But this is less accurate, as it never rains in the preceding summer months. (St. Jerome)

Gill: Amo 4:7

And also I have withholden the rain from you,.... As he did for the space of three years successively in the days of Ahab, as predicted by Elijah, 1Ki 17:1; the consequences of which are very bad to men and beast, and bring on a scarcity of food for both, and a famine if long withheld:

when there were yet three months to the harvest; that is, three months before the harvest, as Jarchi; when, as Kimchi observes, there was need of rain: this was the latter rain which was usually given and expected about this time, and on which the goodness of the crop, and so of the harvest, greatly depended; these three months before barley harvest were December, January, and February, that being in March; and before the wheat harvest, February, March, and April, that being in May usually:

and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city; so that it might appear to be not by the course of nature, or through the influence of the planets, or by chance; but was according to the direction of divine Providence, the hand of God was manifestly in it: yea,

one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered; one piece of ground or field had a plentiful shower on it, whereby it became fruitful; and another field or close on the other side of the hedge or partition had none, whereby what did spring up withered away and came to nothing: or "one inheritance" ^u, or farm, as some render it; one man's estate was well watered with rain from heaven, and brought forth much fruit; and another man's estate, for want of it, was barren, and brought forth nothing: thus God was pleased to do in his providence, to show his sovereignty, and to chastise men for their sins; and in such a manner as that they might, if not blind easily perceive his hand in it.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Amo 4:7

¹ sn Rain…three months before the harvest refers to the rains of late March-early April.

² tn Heb “portion”; KJV, ASV “piece”; NASB “part.” The same word occurs a second time later in this verse.

Geneva Bible: Amo 4:7

And also I have withholden the rain from you, when [there were] yet three ^{( i )} months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.

^{( i )} I stopped the rain until the fruits of the earth were destroyed with drought, and yet you would not consider to return to me by repentance.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Amo 4:1-13

1 He reproves Israel for oppression,

4 for idolatry,

6 and for their incorrigibleness.

Maclaren: Amo 4:4-13

Smitten In Vain

Come to Beth-el, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years. 5. And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings; for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord God. 6. And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Lord. 7. And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. 8. So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Lord. 9. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew, when your gardens, and your vineyards, and your fig-trees, and your olive-trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Lord. 10. I have sent among you the pestilence, after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Lord. 11. I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Lord. 12. Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. 13. For, lo, He that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, is His name.'--Amos 4:4-13.

THE reign of Jeroboam II. was one of brilliant military success and of profound moral degradation. Amos was a simple, hardy shepherd from the southern wilds of Judah, and his prophecies are redolent of his early life, both in their homely imagery and in the wholesome indignation and contempt for the silken-robed vice of Israel. No sterner picture of an utterly rotten social state was ever drawn than this book gives of the luxury, licentiousness, and oppressiveness of the ruling classes. This passage deals rather with the religious declension underlying the moral filth, and sets forth the self-willed idolatry of the people (Amos 4:4, 5), their obstinate resistance to God's merciful chastisement (Amos 4:6-11), and the heavier impending judgment (Amos 4:12-13).

I. Indignant Irony Flashes In That Permission Or Command To Persevere In The Calf Worship.

The seeming command is the strongest prohibition. There can be no worse thing befall a man than that he should be left to go on frowardly in the way of his heart. The real meaning is sufficiently emphasised by that second verb,' and transgress.' Flock to one temple after another, and heap altars with sacrifices which you were never bid to offer, but understand that what you do is not worship, but sin.' That is a smiting sentence to pass upon elaborate ceremonial. The word literally means treason or rebellion, and by it Amos at one blow shatters the whole fabric. Note, too, that the offering of tithes was not called for by Mosaic law, every three days' (Revised Version), and that the use of leaven in burnt offerings was prohibited by it, and also that to call for freewill offerings was to turn spontaneousness into something like compulsion, and to bring ostentation into worship. All these characteristics spoiled the apparent religiousness, over and above the initial evil of disobedience, and warrant Amos's crushing equation, Your worship -- rebellion.' All are driven home by the last words of Amos 4:5, So ye love it.' The reason for all this prodigal ostentatious worship was to please themselves, not to obey God. That tainted everything, and always does.

The lessons of this burst of sarcasm are plain. The subtle influence of self creeps in even in worship, and makes it hollow, unreal, and powerless to bless the worshipper. Obedience is better than costly gifts. The beginning and end of all worship, which is not at the same time transgression,' is the submission of tastes, will, and the whole self. Again, men will lavish gifts far more freely in apparent religious service, which is but the worship of their reflected selves, than in true service of God. Again, the purity of willing offerings is marred when they are given in response to a loud call, or, when given, are proclaimed with acclamations. Let us not suppose that all the brunt of Amos's indignation fell only on these old devotees. The principles involved in it have a sharp edge, turned to a great deal which is allowed and fostered among ourselves.

II. The Prophet Speaks In The Name Of God.

The blaze of indignation changes in the second part of the passage into wounded tenderness, as the Prophet speaks in the name of God, and recounts the dreary monotony of failure attending all God's loving attempts to arrest Israel's departure by the mercy of judgment. Mark the sad cadence of the fivefold refrain, Ye have not returned unto Me, saith the Lord.' The unto' implies reaching the object to which we turn, and is not the less forcible but more usual word found in this phrase, which simply means towards' and indicates direction, without saying anything as to how far the return has gone. So there may have been partial moments of bethinking themselves, when the chastisement was on Israel; but there had been no thorough turning,' which had landed them at the side of God. Many a man turns towards God, who, for lack of resolved perseverance, never so turns as to get to God. The repeated complaint of the inefficacy of chastisements has in it a tone of sorrow and of wonder which does not belong only to the Prophet. If we remember who it was who was grieved at the blindness of their heart,' and who wondered at their unbelief,' we shall not fear to recognise here the attribution of the same emotions to the heart of God.

To Amos, famine, drought, blasting, locusts, pestilence, and probably earthquake, were five messengers of God, and Amos was taught by God. If we looked deeper, we should see more clearly. The true view of the relation of all material things and events to God is this which the herdsman of Tekoa proclaimed. These messengers were not miracles,' but they were God's messengers all the same. Behind all phenomena stands a personal will, and they are nearer the secret of the universe who see God working in it all, than they who see all forces except the One which is the only true force. I give cleanness of teeth. I have withholden the rain. I have smitten. I have sent the pestilence. I have overthrown some of you.' To the Prophet's eye the world is all aflame with a present God. Let no scientific views, important and illuminating as these may be, hide from us the deeper truth, which lies beyond their region. The child who says God,' has got nearer the centre than the scientist who says Force.'

But Amos had another principle, that God sent physical calamities because of moral delinquencies and for moral and religious ends. These disasters were meant to bring Israel back to God, and were at once punishments and reformatory methods. No doubt the connection between sin and material evils was closer under the Old Testament than now. But if we may not argue as Amos did, in reference to such calamities as drought, and failures of harvests, and the like, as these affect communities, we may, at all events, affirm that, in the case of the individual, he is a wise man who regards all outward evil as having a possible bearing on his bettering spiritually. If a drought comes, learn to look to your irrigation, and don't cut down your forests so wantonly,' say the wise men nowadays; if pestilence breaks out, see to your drainage.' By all means. These things, too, are God's commandments, and we have no right to interpret the consequences of infraction of physical laws as being meant to punish nations for their breach of moral and religious ones. If we were prophets, we might, but not else. But still, is God so poor that He can have but one purpose in a providence? Every sorrow, of whatever sort, is meant to produce all the good effects which it naturally tends to produce; and since every experience of pain and loss and grief naturally tends to wean us from earth, and to drive us to find in God what earth can never yield, all our sorrows are His messengers to draw us back to Him. Amos' lesson as to the purpose of trials is not antiquated.

But he has still another to teach us; namely, the awful power which we have of resisting God's efforts to draw us back. Our wills are ours, we know not how,' but alas! it is too often not' to make them Thine.' This is the true tragedy of the world that God calls, and we do refuse, even as it is the deepest mystery of sinful manhood that God calls and we can refuse. What infinite pathos and grieved love, thrown back upon itself, is in that refrain, Ye have not returned unto Me!' How its recurrence speaks of the longsuffering which multiplied means as others failed, and of the divine charity, which suffered long, was not soon angry, and hoped all things!' How vividly it gives the impression of the obstinacy that to all effort opposed insensibility, and clung the more closely and insanely to the idolatry which was its crime and its ruin! The very same temper is deep in us all. Israel holds up the mirror in which we may see ourselves. If blows do not break iron, they harden it. A wasted sorrow--that is, a sorrow which does not drive us to God--leaves us less impressible than it found us.

III. Again The Mood Changes, And The Issue Of Protracted Resistance Is Prophesied (Amos 4:12-13).

Therefore' sums up the instances of refusal to be warned, and presents them as the cause of the coming evil. The higher the dam is piled, the deeper the water that is gathered behind it, and the surer and more destructive the flood when it bursts. Long-delayed judgments are severe in proportion as they are slow. Note the awful vagueness of threatening in that emphatic thus,' as if the Prophet had the event before his eyes. There is no need to specify, for there can be but one result from such obstinacy. The terror of the Lord' is more moving by reason of the dimness which wraps it. The contact of divine power with human rebellion can only end in one way, and that is too terrible for speech. Conscience can translate thus.' The thunder-cloud is all the more dreadful for the vagueness of its outline, where its livid hues melt into formless black. What bolts lurk in its gloom?

The certainty of judgment is the basis of a call to repentance, which may avert it. The meeting with God for which Israel is besought to prepare, was, of course, not judgment after death, but the impending destruction of the Northern Kingdom. But Amos's prophetic call is not misapplied when directed to that final day of the Lord. Common-sense teaches preparation for a certain future, and Amos's trumpet-note is deepened and re-echoed by Jesus:' Be ye ready also, for, the Son of man cometh.' Note, too, that Israel's peculiar relation to God is the very ground of the certainty of its punishment, and of the appeal for repentance. Just because He is thy God,' will He assuredly come to judge, and you may assuredly prepare, by repentance, to meet Him. The conditions of meeting the Judge, and being found of Him in peace,' are that we should be without spot, and blameless'; and the conditions of being so spotless and uncensurable are, what they were in Amos's day, repentance and trust. Only we have Jesus as the brightness of the Father's glory to trust in, and His all-sufficient work to trust to, for pardon and purifying.

The magnificent proclamation of the name of the Lord which closes the passage, is meant as at once a guarantee of His judgment and an enforcement of the call to be ready to meet Him. He in creation forms the solid, changeless mountains and the viewless, passing wind. The most stable and the most mobile are His work. He reads men's hearts, and can tell them their thoughts afar off. He is the Author of all changes, both in the physical and the moral world, bringing the daily wonder of sunrise and the nightly shroud of darkness, and with like alternation blending joy and sorrow in men's lives. He treads on the high places of the earth,' making all created elevations the path of His feet, and crushing down whatever exalts itself. Thus, in creation almighty, in knowledge omniscient, in providence changing all things and Himself the same, subjugating all, and levelling a path for His purposes across every opposition, He manifests His name, as the living, eternal Jehovah, the God of the Covenant, and therefore of judgment on its breakers, and as the Commander and God of the embattled forces of the universe. Is this a God whose coming to judge is to be lightly dealt with? Is not this a God whom it is wise for us to be ready to meet?

MHCC: Amo 4:6-13

See the folly of carnal hearts; they wander from one creature to another, seeking for something to satisfy, and labour for that which satisfies not; yet, after all, they will not incline their ear to Him in whom they might find all they can want. Preaching the gospel is as rain, and every thing withers where this rain is wanting. It were well if people were as wise for their souls as they are for their bodies; and, when they have not this rain near, would go and seek it where it is to be had. As the Israelites persisted in rebellion and idolatry, the Lord was coming against them as an adversary. Ere long, we must meet our God in judgment; but we shall not be able to stand before him, if he tries us according to our doings. If we would prepare to meet our God with comfort, at the awful period of his coming, we must now meet him in Christ Jesus, the eternal Son of the Father, who came to save lost sinners. We must seek him while he is to be found.

Matthew Henry: Amo 4:6-13

Here, I. God complains of his people's incorrigibleness under the judgments which he had brought upon them in order to their humiliation and reformation. He had by several tokens intimated to them his displeasure, with this design, that they might by repentance make their peace with him; but it had not that effect.

1. It is five times repeated in these verses, as the burden of the charge, " Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord; you have been several times corrected, but in vain; you are not reclaimed, there is no sign of amendment. You have been sent for by one messenger after another, but you have not come back, you have not come home."(1.) This intimates that that which God designed in all his providential rebukes was to reduce them to their allegiance, to influence them to return to him. (2.) That, if they had returned to their God, they would have been accepted, he would have bidden them welcome, and the troubles they were in would have been removed. (3.) That the reason why God sent further troubles was because former troubles had not done the work, otherwise it is no pleasure to the Almighty that he should afflict. (4.) That God was grieved at their obstinacy, and took it unkindly that they should force him to do that which he did so unwillingly: " You have not returned to me from whom you have revolted, to me with whom you are in covenant, to me who stands ready to receive you, to me who have so often called you."Now,

2. To aggravate their incorrigibleness, and to justify himself in inflicting greater judgments, he recounts the less judgments with which he had tried to bring them to repentance.

(1.) There had sometimes been a scarcity of provisions, though there was no visible cause of it (Amo 4:6): " I have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, for you had no meat to chew, whereby your teeth might be fouled,"especially no flesh, which dirties the teeth. Or, I have given you emptiness of teeth, nothing to fill your mouths with. " Bread, the staff of life, has been wanting, for you have sown much and brought in little, "as Hag 1:9. Some think this refers to that seven years' famine that was in Elisha's time, which we read of 2Ki 8:1. Now when God thus took away their corn in the season thereof, because they had prepared it for Baal, they should have said, We will go and return to our first husband, having paid dearly for leaving him; but it had not that effect. They have not returned to me, saith the Lord.

(2.) Sometimes they had wanted rain, and then of course they wanted the fruits of the earth. This evil was of the Lord: I have withholden the rain from you. God has the key of the clouds, and, if he shut up, who can open? Amo 4:7. The rain was withheld when there were yet three months to the harvest, at the time when they used to have it, and therefore the withholding of it was an extraordinary thing, and, if the course of nature was altered, they must therein own the hand of the God of nature; and it was at a time when they most needed it, and therefore the want of it was a very sore judgment, and blasted their expectations of a crop at harvest. And one circumstance which made this very remarkable was that when there were some places that wanted rain, and withered for want of it, there were other places near adjoining that had it in abundance. God caused it to rain upon one city, and not upon another, in the same country; nay, he caused it to rain upon one field, one piece of a field, and it was thereby made fruitful and flourishing, but on the next field, on the other side of the hedge, nay, on another part of the same field, it rained not at all, and it was so long without rain that all the products of it withered. No doubt this was literally true, and there were many instances of it which were generally taken notice of. Now, [1.] By this it appeared that the withholding of the rain was not casual, but by a divine direction and disposal, and that the cloud which waters the earth is turned round about by the counsels of God, to do whatsoever he commands it, whether for correction, or for his land, or for his mercy, Job 37:12-18. Rain does not go by planets (as common people speak), but as God sends it by his winds. [2.] We have reason to think that those cities on which it rained not were the most infamous for wickedness, such as Bethel and Gilgal (Amo 4:4), and that those on which it rained were such as retained something of religion and virtue among them. And so in the town-fields it rained or rained not, upon the piece, according as the owner was; for we are sure the curse of the Lord is in the house, and upon the ground, of the wicked, but he blesses the habitation of the just, and his field is a field that the Lord has blessed. [3.] It would be the greater grief and vexation to those whose fields withered for want of rain to see their neighbours' fields well watered and flourishing. My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry, Isa 65:13. The wicked shall see it, and be grieved. Probably those that were oppressed were rained upon, and so they recovered their losses, while the oppressors withered, and so lost their gains. [4.] Yet, as to the nation in general, it was a mixture of mercy with the judgment, and, consequently, strengthened the call to repentance and reformation, and encouraged them to hope for all mercy, in their returns to God, since there was so much mercy even in God's rebukes of them. But, because they did not make good use of this gracious allay to the extremity of the judgment, they had not the benefit of it, which otherwise they might have had, for (Amo 4:8) two or three cities wandered at uncertainty, as beggars, unto one city, to drink water, and, if possible, to have some to carry home with them, but they were not satisfied; it was but here and there one city that had water, while many wanted, and then it was not, as usual, Usus communis aquarum - Water is free to all. Those that had it had occasion for it, or knew not how soon they might, and therefore could afford but little to those that wanted, saying, Lest there be not enough for us and you. Those that came drank water, but they were not satisfied, because they drank it by measure, and with astonishment; and those that drink of this water shall thirst again, Joh 4:13. They were not satisfied, because their desires were greedy, and what they had God did not bless to them, Hag 1:6. And now, one would think, when they met with all this disappointment, they should have considered their ways and repented; but it had not that effect: " Yet have you not returned to me, no, not so much as to pray in a right manner for the former and latter rain,"Zec 10:1. See the folly of carnal hearts; they will wander from city to city, from one creature to another, in pursuit of satisfaction, and still they miss of it; they labour for that which satisfies not (Isa 55:2), and yet, after all, they will not return to God, will not incline their ear to him in whom they might have satisfaction. The preaching of the gospel is as rain; God sometimes blesses one place with it more than another; some countries, some cities, are, like Gideon's fleece, wet with this dew, while the ground about is dry; all withers where this rain is wanting. But it were well if people were but as wise for their souls as they are for their bodies, and, when they have not this rain near them, would go and seek it where it is to be had; and, if they seek aright, they shall not seek in vain.

(3.) Sometimes the fruits of their ground were eaten up by caterpillars, or blasted with mildew, Amo 4:9. Heaven and earth are armed against those who have made God their enemy. When God pleased, that is, when he was displeased, [1.] They suffered by a malignant air, the influence of which, either too hot or too cold, blasted their fruits, with a force that could be neither discerned nor resisted, and against which there was no defence. [2.] They suffered by malignant animals. Their vineyards and gardens yielded their increase in great abundance, so did their fig-trees and olive-trees; but the palmer-worm devoured them before the fruits were ripe, and fit to be gathered in. This was either the same judgment with that which we read of Joe 1:4-6, or a less judgment of the same nature, sent before to give warning of that. But they did not take warning: Yet have you not returned unto me.

(4.) Sometimes the plague had raged among them, and the sword of war had cut off multitudes, Amo 4:10. The pestilence is God's messenger; this he sent among them, with directions whom to strike dead, and it was done. It was a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; deaths were scattered among them by the hand of a destroying angel at midnight. And perhaps this pestilence, as that of Egypt, fastened upon the first-born. In the way of Egypt (so the margin); when they were making their escape to Egypt, or going thither to seek for aid, the pestilence seized them by the way and stopped their journey. The sword of war is likewise the sword of the Lord; this was drawn among them with commission; and then it slew their young men, the strength of the present generation and the seed of the next. God says, I have slain them; he avows the execution. The slain of the Lord are many. The enemy took away their horses, and converted them to their own use; and the dead carcases of those that were slain either with sword or pestilence were so many, and for want of surviving friends were left so long unburied, that the stench of their camps came up into their nostrils, and was both noisome and dangerous, and might put them in mind of the offensiveness of their sin to God. And yet this did not prevail to humble and reclaim them: You have not returned to him that smites you. Such a rueful woeful sight as this prevailed not to make them religious.

(5.) In these and other judgments some were remarkably cut off, and made monuments of justice, others were remarkably spared, and made monuments of mercy, the setting of which the one over against the other one would have thought likely to work upon them, but it had not its effect, Amo 4:11. [1.] Some were quite ruined, their families destroyed, and themselves in them: I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. Perhaps they were consumed with lightning, as Sodom was, or the houses were, in some other way, burnt to the ground, and the inhabitants in them. Sodom and Gomorrah are said to be condemned with an overthrow, and so made an example, 2Pe 2:6. God had threatened to destroy the whole land with such an overthrow as that of Sodom, Deu 29:23. But he began with some particular places first, to give them warning, or perhaps with some particular persons, whose sins went beforehand to judgment. [2.] Others very narrowly escaped: "You were many of you as a firebrand plucked out of the burning, like Lot out of Sodom, when the fire had already kindled upon you; and yet you hate sin never the more for the danger it has brought you to, nor love God ever the more for the deliverance he wrought for you. You that have been so signally delivered, and in such a distinguishing way, have not returned unto me. "

II. God, in the close, calls upon his people, now at length, in this their day, to understand the things that belong to their peace, before they were hidden from their eyes, Amo 4:12, Amo 4:13. Observe here,

1. How God threatens them with sorer judgments than any they had yet been under: "Therefore, seeing you have not been wrought upon by correction hitherto, thus will I do unto thee, O Israel! "He does not say how he will do, but it shall be something worse than had come yet, Joh 5:14. Or, " Thus I will go on to do unto thee, following one judgment with another, like the plagues of Egypt, till I have made a full end."Nothing but reformation will prevent the ruin of a sinful people. If they turn not to him, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. I will punish you yet seven times more, if you will not be reformed; so it was written in the law, Lev 26:23, Lev 26:24.

2. How he awakens them therefore to think of making their peace with God: " Seeing I will do this unto thee, and there is no remedy, prepare to meet they God, O Israel! "that is, (1.) "Consider how unable thou art to meet him as a combatant."Some make it to be spoken by way of irony or challenge: "Prepare to meet God, who is coming forth to contend with thee. What armour of proof canst thou put on? What courage canst thou steel thyself with? Alas! it is but putting briers and thorns before a consuming fire, Isa 27:4, Isa 27:5. Art thou able with less than 10,000 to meet him that comes forth against thee with more than 20,000?"Luk 14:31. (2.) "Resolve therefore to meet him as a penitent, as a humble suppliant, to meet him as thy God, in covenant with thee, to submit, and stand it out no longer."We must prepare to meet God in the way of his judgments (Isa 26:8), to take hold on his strength, that we may make peace. Note, Since we cannot flee from God we are concerned to prepare to meet him; and therefore he gives us warning, that we may prepare. When we are to meet him in his ordinances we must prepare to meet him, prepare to seek him.

3. How he sets forth the greatness and power of God as a reason why we should prepare to meet him, Amo 4:13. If he be such a God as he is here described to be, it is folly to contend with him, and our duty and interest to make our peace with him; it is good having him our friend and bad having him our enemy. (1.) He formed the mountains, made the earth, the strongest stateliest parts of it, and by the word of his power still upholds it and them. Whatever are the products of the everlasting mountains, he formed them; whatever salvation is hoped for from hills and mountains, he is the founder of it, Psa 89:11, Psa 89:12. He that formed the great mountains can make them plain, when they stand in the way of his people's salvation. (2.) He creates the wind. The power of the air is derived from him, and directed by him; he brings the wind out of his treasures, and orders from what point of the compass it shall blow; and he that made it rules it; even the winds and the seas obey him. (3.) He declares unto man what is his thought. He makes known his counsel by his servants the prophets to the children of men, the thought of his justice against impenitent sinners, and the thought of good he thinks towards those that repent. He can also make known, for he perfectly knows, the thought that is in man's heart; he understands it afar off, and in the day of conviction will set the evil thoughts among the other sins of sinners in order before them. (4.) He often makes the morning darkness, by thick clouds overspreading the sky immediately after the sun rose bright and glorious; so when we look for prosperity and joy he can dash our expectations with some unlooked-for calamity. (5.) He treads upon the high places of the earth, is not only higher than the highest, but has dominion over all, tramples upon proud men, and upon the idols that were worshipped in the highest places. (6.) Jehovah the God of hosts is his name, for he has his being of himself, and is the fountain of all being, and all the hosts of heaven and earth are at his command. Let us humble ourselves before this God, prepare to meet him, and give all diligence to make him our God, for happy are the people whose God he is, who have all this power engaged for them.

Keil-Delitzsch: Amo 4:6-11

But as Israel would not desist from its idolatrous worship, Jehovah would also continue to visit the people with judgments, as He had already done, though without effecting any conversion to their God. This last thought is explained in Amo 4:6-11 in a series of instances, in which the expression ולא שׁבתּם עדי (and ye have not returned to me), which is repeated five times, depicts in the most thorough manner the unwearied love of the Lord to His rebellious children.

Amo 4:6

"And I have also given you cleanness of teeth in all your towns, and want of bread in all your places: and ye have not returned to me, is the saying of Jehovah." The strongly adversative וגם אני forms the antithesis to כן אהבתּם : Ye love to persist in your idolatry, and yet I have tried all means of turning you to me. Cleanness of teeth is explained by the parallel "want of bread."The first chastisement, therefore, consisted in famine, with which God visited the nation, as He had threatened the transgressors that He would do in the law (Deu 28:48, Deu 28:57). For שׁוּב עד , compare Hos 14:2.

Amo 4:7-8

"And I have also withholden the rain from you, in yet three months to the harvest; and have caused it to rain upon one city, and I do not cause it to rain upon another. One field is rained upon, and the field upon which it does not rain withers. Amo 4:8. And two, three towns stagger to one town to drink water, and are not satisfied: and ye have not returned to me, is the saying of Jehovah." The second punishment mentioned is the withholding of rain, or drought, which was followed by the failure of the harvest and the scarcity of water (cf. Lev 26:19-20; Deu 28:23). The rain "in yet (i.e., at the time when there were yet) three months to the harvest"is the so-called latter rain, which falls in the latter half of February and the first half of March, and is of the greatest importance to the vigorous development of the ears of corn and also of the grains. In southern Palestine the harvest commences in the latter half of April (Nisan), and falls for the most part in May and June; but in the northern part of the land it is from two to four weeks later (see my Archäologie , i. pp. 33, 34, ii. pp. 113, 114), so that in round numbers we may reckon three months from the latter rain to the harvest. But in order to show the people more clearly that the sending and withholding of rain belonged to Him, God caused it to rain here and there, upon one town and one field, and not upon others (the imperfects from 'amtı̄r onwards express the repetition of a thing, what generally happens, and timmâtēr , third pers. fem., is used impersonally). This occasioned such distress, that the inhabitants of the places in which it had not rained were obliged to go to a great distance for the necessary supply of water to drink, and yet could not get enough to satisfy them. נוּע , to stagger, to totter, expresses the insecure and trembling walk of a man almost fainting with thirst.

Amo 4:9

"I have smitten you with blight and yellowness; many of your gardens, and of your vineyards, and of your fig-trees, and of your olive-trees, the locust devoured; and ye have not returned to me, is the saying of Jehovah." The third chastisement consisted in the perishing of the corn by blight, and by the ears turning yellow, and also in the destruction of the produce of the gardens and the fruits of the trees by locusts. The first is threatened in Deu 28:22, against despisers of the commandments of God; the second points to the threatenings in Deu 28:39-40, Deu 28:42. The infin. constr. harbōth is used as a substantive, and stands as a noun in the construct state before the following words; so that it is not to be taken adverbially in the sense of many times, or often, as though used instead of harbēh (cf. Ewald, §280, c ). On gâzâm , see at Joe 1:4. The juxtaposition of these two plagues is not to be understood as implying that they occurred simultaneously, or that the second was the consequence of the first; still less are the two to be placed in causal connection with the drought mentioned in Amo 4:7, Amo 4:8. For although such combinations do take place in the course of nature, there is no allusion to this in the present instance, where Amos is simply enumerating a series of judgments, through which Jehovah had already endeavoured to bring the people to repentance, without any regard to the time when they occurred.

Amo 4:10

The same thing may be said of the fourth chastisement mentioned in Amo 4:10, "I have sent pestilence among you in the manner of Egypt, have slain your young men with the sword, together with the booty of your horses, and caused the stench of your camps to ascend, and that into your nose; and ye have not returned to me, is the saying of Jehovah." In the combination of pestilence and sword (war), the allusion to Lev 26:25 is unmistakeable (compare Deu 28:60, where the rebellious are threatened with all the diseases of Egypt). בּדרך מצרים , in the manner (not in the road) of Egypt (compare Isa 10:24, Isa 10:26; Eze 20:30), because pestilence is epidemic in Egypt. The idea that there is any allusion to the pestilence with which God visited Egypt (Exo 9:3.), is overthrown by the circumstance that it is only a dreadful murrain that is mentioned there. The slaying of the youths or young men points to overthrow in war, which the Israelites endured most grievously in the wars with the Syrians (compare 2Ki 8:12; 2Ki 13:3, 2Ki 13:7). עם שׁבי סוּסילם does not mean together with, or by the side of, the carrying away of your horses, i.e., along with the fact that your horses were carried away; for שׁבי does not mean carrying away captive, but the captivity, or the whole body of captives. The words are still dependent upon הרגתּי , and affirm that even the horses that had been taken perished, - a fact which is also referred to in 2Ki 13:7. From the slain men and animals forming the camp the stench ascended, and that into their noses, "as it were, as an 'azkârâh of their sins"(Hitzig), but without their turning to their God.

Amo 4:11

"I have destroyed among you, like the destruction of God upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were like a brand plucked out of the fire; and ye have not returned to me, is the saying of Jehovah." Proceeding from the smaller to the greater chastisements, Amos mentions last of all the destruction similar to that of Sodom and Gomorrah, i.e., the utter confusion of the state, by which Israel was brought to the verge of ruin, so that it had only been saved like a firebrand out of the fire. הפכתּי does not refer to an earthquake, which had laid waste cities and hamlets, or a part of the land, say that mentioned in Amo 1:1, as Kimchi and others suppose; but it denotes the desolation of the whole land in consequence of devastating wars, more especially the Syrian (2Ki 13:4, 2Ki 13:7), and other calamities, which had undermined the stability of the kingdom, as in Isa 1:9. The words כּמהפּכת אלהים וגו are taken from Deu 29:22, where the complete desolation of the land, after the driving away of the people into exile on account of their obstinate apostasy, is compared to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. By thus playing upon this terrible threat uttered by Moses, the prophet seeks to show to the people what has already happened to them, and what still awaits them if they do not eventually turn to their God. They have again been rescued from the threatening destruction like a firebrand out of the fire (Zec 3:2) by the deliverer whom the Lord gave to them, so that they escaped from the power of the Syrians (2Ki 13:5). But inasmuch as all these chastisements have produced no fruit of repentance, the Lord will now proceed to judgment with His people.

Constable: Amo 1:3--7:1

II. Prophetic messages that Amos delivered 1:3--6:14

The Book of Amos consists of words (oracles, 1:3-6:14) and visions (chs. 7-9), though these sections also contain short sub-sections of other types of material.

Constable: Amo 3:1--6:14

B. Messages of Judgment against Israel chs. 3-6

After announcing that God would judge Israel, Amos delivered five messages in which he explained more fully why God would judge the Northern Kingdom. Appeals for repentance and explanations of how to avoid judgment appear within these messages. The first three begin with the word, "Hear" (3:1; 4:1; 5:1; cf. Prov. 8:32), and the last two begin "Alas" (5:18) and "Woe" (6:1), both translations of the Hebrew word hoy.

Constable: Amo 4:1-13

2. The second message on women, worship, and stubbornness ch. 4

This message consists of seven prophetic announcements each of which concludes, "declares the LORD" (vv. 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11). Verse 12 is a final conclusion and verse 13 a doxology.

Constable: Amo 4:6-11

Refusal to repent 4:6-11

4:6 The Lord had brought famine throughout the land to warn His people about their disobedience and His displeasure, but this judgment did not move them to repent (cf. 1 Kings 8:37). Famine was one of the curses that God said He might bring if His people proved unfaithful to His covenant (Lev. 26:26, 29; Deut. 28:17, 48).

4:7-8 He had also sent drought when the people needed rain the most, three months before their harvest. He had let rain fall on one town but not another resulting in only spotty productivity (cf. 1 Kings 8:35). This too should have moved them to repent. Drought was also a punishment for covenant unfaithfulness (Lev. 26:19; Deut. 28:22-24, 48).

4:9 The Lord sent plant diseases and insects to blight their gardens, vineyards, and fruit trees, yet they did not return to Him (cf. 1 Kings 8:37). These were also threatened judgments in the Mosaic Covenant (Lev. 26:20; Deut. 28:18, 22, 30, 38-40, 42).

4:10 Wars had brought various plagues on the Israelites, and many of their soldiers had died (cf. 1 Kings 8:33, 37). The plagues on the Israelites should have made them conclude that God was now judging them. God had plagued His people as He formerly had plagued the Egyptians. The stench of dead bodies should have led the people to repent, but it did not (cf. Lev. 26:16-17, 25, 31-39; Deut. 28:21-22, 25-27, 35, 49-52, 59-61; 29:23-28).

4:11 Even the overthrow of some Israelite cities did not move the Israelites to repent (cf. Deut. 28:62). Comparing these overthrown cities to Sodom and Gomorrah indicates their proverbial complete destruction (cf. Isa. 1:9; 13:19; Jer. 50:40; Zeph. 2:9), not necessarily the method of their destruction. God had rescued His people like burning sticks from a conflagration, as He had formerly extracted Lot and his daughters from Sodom (Gen. 19).

In all, Amos mentioned seven disciplinary judgments that God had brought on the Israelites: famine (v. 6), drought, (vv. 7-8), plant diseases (v. 9), insects (v. 9), plague (v. 10), warfare (v. 10), and military defeat (v. 11). God sometimes permits His people to suffer so they will turn back to Him (cf. Heb. 12:6), but the Israelites had not done this.

Guzik: Amo 4:1-13

Amos 4 - "Yet You Have Not Returned to Me"

A. The sinful women of Israel.

1. (1) Amos describes the indulgent women of Israel.

Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, "Bring wine, let us drink!"

a. You cows of Bashan: Amos wasn't trained as a prophet, he was a simple herdsman and farmer. When he wanted to get the point across to the indulgent women of Israel, he called them fat cows. The livestock of Bashan - in the northern part of Israel, the modern-day Golan Heights - was known for being fat and healthy.

i. Psalm 22:12 mentions the strong bulls of Bashan; Ezekiel 39:18 mentions the large livestock, the fatlings of Bashan. It's no exaggeration to say that Amos calls these women "fat cows." Though it is true that the very skinny ideal of female beauty is a modern phenomenon and especially in ancient times plumpness was a valued sign of affluence, we can count on it that at no time in human history has a woman appreciated being called a fat cow.

ii. "The sarcastic epithet cows of Bashan seems to refer both to the luxury that the wealthy women enjoyed and to a certain voluptuousness and sensuality which their extravagant life-style afforded them." (Hubbard)

iii. "The prophet here represents the iniquitous, opulent, idle, lazy drones, whether men or women, under the idea of fatted bullocks, which were shortly to be led out to the slaughter." (Clarke)

b. Who oppress the poor, who crush the needy: It wasn't that these women were plump and affluent, it was that they gained their wealth and affluence by oppressing and crushing the less fortunate. God saw this and promised to hold them to account.

i. "These women may not have been directly involved in mistreating the poor. But their incessant demands for luxuries drove their husbands to greater injustices." (McComiskey)

ii. "David complains of the strong bulls of Bashan (Psalm 22:12), but those he might better deal with than these cursed cows of Bashan." (Trapp)

c. Who say to your husbands, "Bring wine, let us drink!" It wasn't that these women were plump and affluent, it was that they used their affluence in the pure, self-focused pursuit of pleasure. God saw this and promised to hold them to account.

2. (2-3) God's promise of judgment against the women of Israel.

The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness: "Behold, the days shall come upon you when He will take you away with fishhooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. You will go out through broken walls, each one straight ahead of her, and you will be cast into Harmon," Says the LORD.

a. The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness: This is an exceedingly solemn and sure oath. "When he swore by his holiness in Amos 4:2, he guaranteed that the judgment would become a reality, because the holy God does not lie, nor can his holiness allow sin to go unpunished." (McComiskey)

b. He will take you away with fishhooks: God tells unrepentant Israel of their coming agony when they are conquered and exiled by the Assyrians. When the Assyrians depopulated and exiled a conquered community, they led the captives away on journeys of hundreds of miles, with the captives naked and attached together with a system of strings and fishhooks pierced through their lower lip. God would make sure they were led in this humiliating manner through the broken walls of their conquered cities. This would thoroughly humble the fat cows of Israel.

B. God's answer to Israel's vain sacrifices.

1. (4-5) The vain sacrifices of Israel.

"Come to Bethel and transgress, at Gilgal multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, proclaim and announce the freewill offerings; for this you love, you children of Israel!" says the Lord GOD.

a. Come to Bethel and transgress: Because the kings of Israel did not want their people to go to the southern kingdom of Judah and sacrifice at Jerusalem, they set up rival centers of worship in cities like Bethel and Gilgal. The offered sacrifices - supposedly to the Lord - at these places, but because the offering wasn't made in obedience to God, it was only a transgression.

i. Your tithes every three days: There was a tithe that was to be brought every three years (Deuteronomy 14:28). Amos says, even if you were to bring your tithes every three days it would not matter, because it is all just outward show.

b. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven: Only one offering in Israel included leaven, the wave offering made on the Day of Pentecost. Here the prophet either refers to this one offering, or to mock their corrupt sacrifices, he suggests they bring an offering polluted by leaven.

c. For this you love: The children of Israel loved their corrupted worship. It was disobedient both in heart and action, but they loved it. It's always wrong to measure worship by how it pleases us, because it is possible for corrupt and disobedient worship to be "wonderfully" pleasing.

i. Of course, we don't want to get into the thinking that worship must "hurt" or be "dour" to be holy and acceptable. That isn't the point. The point is that we don't first measure worship by how it makes us feel, we measure it by how it honors God.

2. (6-8) God withholds rain from idolatrous Israel.

"Also I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities. And lack of bread in all your places; yet you have not returned to Me," Says the LORD. "I also withheld rain from you, when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me," says the LORD."

a. I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities: Because Israel seems have enjoyed financial prosperity when Amos preached, this is probably set in the "prophetic present" - future events spoken of in the present tense. God will so humble prosperous Israel that their clean teeth won't be made "dirty" by food, because there will be no food to eat in the drought God will send.

b. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city: God made the provision of rain so specific, they would know it was from His hand. Yet the message did not get through to them.

i. "To prove to them that this rain did not come fortuitously or of necessity, God was pleased to make these most evident distinctions. One city had rain, and could fill all its tanks or cisterns, while a neighbouring city had none . . . in these instances a particular providence was most evident." (Clarke)

c. Yet you have not returned to Me: This is the greatest tragedy. Anyone can stumble into sin and feel the correcting hand of God, but we are in far greater trouble when we feel God's correction and still will not return to Him.

3. (9-11) Further judgment on idolatrous Israel.

"I blasted you with blight and mildew. When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees, the locust devoured them; yet you have not returned to Me," says the LORD. "I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt; your young men I killed with a sword, along with your captive horses; I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils; yet you have not returned to Me," says the LORD. "I overthrew some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning; yet you have not returned to Me," says the LORD.

a. I blasted you . . . the locust devoured . . . I sent among you a plague . . . I made the stench of your camps come up: Because Israel would not listen to the chastisement of the Lord, His hand grew more and more heavy upon them.

i. This wasn't a demonstration of God's anger, but of His love. He starts His chastisement slow and increases it incrementally, so that He can use the smallest amount of discipline necessary to turn our hearts back to Him. If we will not turn back the hand of chastisement grows heavier and heavier, out of loving desire to see our repentance.

ii. "Blight is the work of the east wind that dries and scorches the grain prematurely so that it turns brown. Mildew is the product of parasitic worms which turn pale the tips of green grain." (Hubbard)

b. You were like a firebrand plucked from the burning; yet you have not returned to Me: God sees Israel as a glowing ember plucked from the fires of judgment, like the same judgment that consumed Sodom and Gomorrah. Even though God spared them, they did not respond in gratitude - they have not returned to God.

4. (12-13) God vows to perform what He has promised.

"Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!" For behold, He who forms mountains, and creates the wind, who declares to man what his thought is, and makes the morning darkness, who treads the high places of the earth; the LORD God of hosts is His name.

a. Prepare to meet your God: This is a sober warning, appropriate for all men at all times, because we never know when we will meet our God in eternity. Because we don't know when, we must always be prepared to meet our God - but this is especially true for those facing the judgment of God.

i. We can apply this text in three ways:

· Prepare to meet your God as a challenge

· Prepare to meet your God as an invitation

· Prepare to meet your God as a summons

ii. As a challenge, God invites His enemies to prepare to meet Him. A boxer prepares long and hard before stepping into the ring against a champion. If you are going to step into the ring with God, you had better prepare! "The prophet may be understood as in irony challenging the proud rebels to meet in arms the God whom they have despised. Let them prepare to fight it out with him whom they have made to be their enemy, and against whose laws they have so continually revolted." (Spurgeon)

iii. As an invitation, this is a blessing. The summons, "Prepare to meet your God" was nothing but a blessing to Adam. Ever since the fall it is our nature to hide from God, so the call "Prepare to meet your God" has a different sense entirely. Still, if we will come to God we must prepare ourselves.

iv. As a summons, we recognize that one day all will stand before God and give account. "Think awhile upon who it is that you have to meet! You must meet, your God - your God! That is, offended justice you must meet whose laws you have broken, whose penalties you have ridiculed; justice righteously indignant with its sword drawn you must confront. You must meet your God; that is, you must be examined, by unblinded omniscience. He who has seen your heart, and read your thoughts, and jotted down your affections, and remembered your idle words, you must meet him; and infinite discernment you must meet; those eyes that never yet were duped; the God who will see through the veils of hypocrisy and all the concealments of formality. There will be no making yourself out to be better than you are before him." (Spurgeon)

b. The LORD God of hosts is His name: God emphasizes the point by emphasizing Whom makes the point, a God we should never trifle with.

· He is the God of all creation (He who forms mountains, and creates the wind)

· He is the God who is absolutely sovereign over man (who declares to man what his thought is)

· He is the God with all power over nature (and makes the morning darkness)

· He is the God who rules above all (who treads the high places of the earth)

© 2001 David Guzik - No distribution beyond personal use without permission

Commentary -- Other

Evidence: Amo 4:6-10

At times, the power of hunger, thirst, pestilence and plague may not be enough to soften the hard hearts of wicked men.

Introduction / Outline

JFB: Amos (Book Introduction)

AMOS (meaning in Hebrew "a burden") was (Amo 1:1) a shepherd of Tekoa, a small town of Judah, six miles southeast from Beth-lehem, and twelve from Jerusalem, on the borders of the great desert (2Ch 20:20; compare 2Ch 11:6). The region being sandy was more fit for pastoral than for agricultural purposes. Amos therefore owned and tended flocks, and collected sycamore figs; not that the former was a menial office, kings themselves, as Mesha of Moab (2Ki 3:4), exercising it. Amos, however (from Amo 7:14-15), seems to have been of humble rank.

Though belonging to Judah, he was commissioned by God to exercise his prophetical function in Israel; as the latter kingdom abounded in impostors, and the prophets of God generally fled to Judah through fear of the kings of Israel, a true prophet from Judah was the more needed in it. His name is not to be confounded with that of Isaiah's father, Amoz.

The time of his prophesying was in the reigns of Uzziah king of Judea, and Jeroboam II, son of Joash, king of Israel (Amo 1:1), that is, in part of the time in which the two kings were contemporary; probably in Jeroboam's latter years, after that monarch had recovered from Syria "the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath to the sea of the plain" (2Ki 14:25-27); for Amos foretells that these same coasts, "from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness," should be the scene of Israel's being afflicted (Amo 6:14); also his references to the state of luxurious security then existing (Amo 6:1, Amo 6:4, Amo 6:13), and to the speedy termination of it by the Assyrian foe (Amo 1:5; Amo 3:12, Amo 3:15; Amo 5:27; Amo 8:2), point to the latter part of Jeroboam's reign, which terminated in 784 B.C., the twenty-seventh year of Uzziah's reign, which continued down to 759 B.C. He was contemporary with Hosea, only that the latter continued to prophesy in reigns subsequent to Uzziah (Hos 1:1); whereas Amos ceased to prophesy in the reign of that monarch. The scene of his ministry was Beth-el, where the idol calves were set up (Amo 7:10-13). There his prophecies roused Amaziah, the idol priest, to accuse him of conspiracy and to try to drive him back to Judah.

The first six chapters are without figure; the last three symbolical, but with the explanation subjoined. He first denounces the neighboring peoples, then the Jews, then Israel (from the third chapter to the end), closing with the promise or restoration under Messiah (Amo 9:11-15). His style is thought by JEROME to betray his humble origin; but though not sublime, it is regular, perspicuous, and energetic; his images are taken from the scenes in nature with which he was familiar; his rhythms are flowing, his parallelisms exact, and his descriptions minute and graphic. Some peculiar expressions occur: "cleanness of teeth," that is, want of bread (Amo 4:6); "the excellency of Jacob" (Amo 6:8; Amo 8:7); "the high places of Isaac" (Amo 7:9); "the house of Isaac" (Amo 7:16); "he that createth the wind" (Amo 4:13).

HENGSTENBERG draws an able argument for the genuineness of the Mosaic records from the evidence in Amos, that the existing institutions in Israel as well as Judah (excepting the calves of Jeroboam), were framed according to the Pentateuch rules.

Two quotations from Amos occur in the New Testament (compare Act 7:42-43, with Amo 5:25-26; and Act 15:16-17, with Amo 9:11).

PHILO, JOSEPHUS, MELITO'S catalogue, JEROME, JUSTIN MARTYR (Dialogue with Trypho, 22, quoting the fifth and six chapters of Amos as "one of the twelve minor prophets"), and the sixtieth canon of the Laodicean council support the canonicity of the book of Amos.

JFB: Amos (Outline)

• GOD'S JUDGMENTS ON SYRIA, PHILISTIA, TYRE, EDOM, AND AMMON. (Amo 1:1-15)
• CHARGES AGAINST MOAB, JUDAH, AND LASTLY ISRAEL, THE CHIEF SUBJECT OF AMOS' PROPHECIES. (Amos 2:1-16)
• GOD'S EXTRAORDINARY LOVE, BEING REPAID BY ISRAEL WITH INGRATITUDE, OF NECESSITY CALLS FOR JUDGMENTS, WHICH THE PROPHETS ANNOUNCE, NOT AT RANDOM, BUT BY GOD'S COMMISSION, WHICH THEY CANNOT BUT FULFIL. THE OPPRESSION PREVALENT IN ISRAEL WILL BRING DOWN RUIN ON ALL SAVE A SMALL REMNANT. (Amo 3:1-15)
• 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. (Amo 4:1-13)
• ELEGY OVER THE PROSTRATE KINGDOM: RENEWED EXHORTATIONS TO REPENTANCE: GOD DECLARES THAT THE COMING DAY OF JUDGMENT SHALL BE TERRIBLE TO THE SCORNERS WHO DESPISE IT: CEREMONIAL SERVICES ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE TO HIM WHERE TRUE PIETY EXISTS NOT: ISRAEL SHALL THEREFORE BE REMOVED FAR EASTWARD. (Amos 5:1-27)
• DENUNCIATION OF BOTH THE SISTER NATIONS (ESPECIALLY THEIR NOBLES) FOR WANTON SECURITY--ZION, AS WELL AS SAMARIA: THREAT OF THE EXILE: RUIN OF THEIR PALACES AND SLAUGHTER OF THE PEOPLE: THEIR PERVERSE INJUSTICE. (Amo 6:1-14)
• AMAZIAH'S CHARGE AGAINST AMOS: HIS DOOM FORETOLD. (Amo 7:10-17)
• VISION OF A BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT SYMBOLICAL OF ISRAEL'S END. RESUMING THE SERIES OF SYMBOLS INTERRUPTED BY AMAZIAH, AMOS ADDS A FOURTH. THE AVARICE OF THE OPPRESSORS OF THE POOR: THE OVERTHROW OF THE NATION: THE WISH FOR THE MEANS OF RELIGIOUS COUNSEL, WHEN THERE SHALL BE A FAMINE OF THE WORD. (Amo 8:1-14)
• FIFTH AND LAST VISION. (Amo 9:1-15) None can escape the coming judgment in any hiding-place: for God is omnipresent and irresistible (Amo 9:1-6). As a kingdom, Israel shall perish as if it never was in covenant with Him: but as individuals the house of Jacob shall not utterly perish, nay, not one of the least of the righteous shall fall, but only all the sinners (Amo 9:7-10). Restoration of the Jews finally to their own land after the re-establishment of the fallen tabernacle of David; consequent conversion of all the heathen (Amo 9:11-15).

TSK: Amos 4 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

Amo 4:1, He reproves Israel for oppression, Amo 4:4, for idolatry, Amo 4:6, and for their incorrigibleness.

Poole: Amos (Book Introduction)

THE ARGUMENT

IF we might be allowed to make a conjecture at the quality of our prophet’ s sermons by the signification of his name, we must conclude that they contain heavy tidings and grievous judgments coming upon them to whom he is sent to preach; Amos in the Hebrew coming from a word which signifies to burden, to lay a weight or load on one. But we have a surer rule to judge the contents of his prophecy by. He is by some ancient writers, erring in this point, said to be the father of Isaiah; but besides that Isaiah was contemporary with Amos, which fairly argues it unlikely that Isaiah should be Amos’ s son, Amoz the father of Isaiah is quite another name, different from Amos, both in letters wherewith each is spelt, and in signification also. And if Isaiah were of the royal line, (as some say he was,) nephew to either Amaziah or Uzziah by a brother, it cannot be conceived how Amos, a plain herdsman of Tekoa, should be his father. It is certain he was either by birth, or education, or employment, or in all these respects, of the tribe of Judah, and as certain that by an immediate call from God he was taken off the herdsman’ s work and made a prophet, Amo 7:14,15 . He did in deed, as he professed in word, come from the Lord, and in his name delivered his message to all those whom God sent him unto. And pursuant hereto he preacheth first against those nations who were borderers, and had been bitter, oppressive, and old adversaries to Israel and Judah, Amo 1:3 , to the end, and Amo 2:1-3 . By this express course, declaring future just executions upon Syria, Palestine, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab, the prophet doth much prevent the prejudices which Israel and Judah might have had against his person and doctrine. Now he may more freely and plainly reprove and threaten the sins of God’ s own people, since he hath so plainly reproved and threatened their enemies; and they who easily believed him a prophet in his predictions against foreigners, must in reason as easily believe him a prophet in his reproofs and predictions against themselves. He doth bestow the far greater part of his discourses on Israel, or the kingdom of the ten tribes, to whom he was principally sent; yet he doth prophesy against Judah also; and to both he is very sharp in his reproofs, impartial in his censures, earnest in his persuasions to repent, very full in his encouragements to this duty, and demonstratively evident in his charging sin upon them. He had Isaiah, Joel, and Hosea contemporary with him, though it appear not how long.

He is in many places sententious and concise, which makes the passages the more obscure. Though he do bring with him many things from his country employment in his reproofs, allusions, and arguments, yet fitted with admirable skill, and beautified with an unimitable eloquence, and fortified with that loftiness of style that proclaims itself to be from Him who gave man both judgment, fancy, and tongue, which is an intrinsic character of divinity in our prophet’ s writing. He was a person of most undaunted resolution, of a prudent conduct, and of spotless integrity, as appears by the contest he had with Amaziah chief of the priests of Beth-el, Amo 7:10 , &c.

He lived when Judah’ s affairs were tolerably well and prosperous, but when Israel’ s were in the highest meridian, when they thought themselves secure against all the dangers he foretold: Uzziah had pretty well recovered Judah, and settled it; Jeroboam had highly advanced Israel’ s fame, riches; and power. With their growth in these, sin grew as fast and as exorbitant, and called for judgments, which our prophet foretells very plainly in express words, Amo 7:11,17 , and in very significant hieroglyphics, Am 7 Am 8 Am 9 . He foretells the earthquake, Amo 1:1 ; an emblem of those civil dissensions which shook their foundations, and half ruined them before the Assyrian conquered and captivated them. Which miseries lasted through an interregnum of eleven years, say some; to be sure through the reign of Zachariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hoshea, in whose time all these miseries were swallowed up in a greater, their perpetual captivity, which came upon them about fifty-four or sixty-five years after the death of Jeroboam the Second, near to whose court and within their hearing Amos preached many, perhaps most of his sermons; and therefore you may observe his reproofs, threats, and predictions seem to be calculated for that court, which was highly guilty of the sins he reproved, and were called to repent of them, which because they did not, they did deeply suffer both in the civil wars under those four usurpers and conspirators, Shallum, Menahem, Pekah, and Hoshea, and most deeply in the Assyrian captivity. In the annotations you will find there is some reference to those times, with somewhat more particular application of the prophetic text to the circumstances of times he aimed at, than hath been by any learned pen I have happened to peruse; and would the brevity to which these annotations are bound have borne a larger account of those times, and a fuller accommodation of them to the prophetic discourses, I do not doubt but the truth of the prophet’ s charge, reproof, threats, and predictions against Israel would appear to every reader. Lastly, our prophet, as others, closeth the sad tragedy of this fleshly, sinning Israel with promise of a spiritual state under the Messiah, full of grace and peace.

Poole: Amos 4 (Chapter Introduction)

CHAPTER 4

Israel reproved for oppression, Amo 4:1-3 ; for idolatry, Amo 4:4,5 ; and for their incorrigibleness, Amo 4:6-13 .

This verse is an introduction to all that follows in this chapter.

MHCC: Amos (Book Introduction)

Amos was a herdsman, and engaged in agriculture. But the same Divine Spirit influenced Isaiah and Daniel in the court, and Amos in the sheep-folds, giving to each the powers and eloquence needful for them. He assures the twelve tribes of the destruction of the neighbouring nations; and as they at that time gave themselves up to wickedness and idolatry, he reproves the Jewish nation with severity; but describes the restoration of the church by the Messiah, extending to the latter days.

MHCC: Amos 4 (Chapter Introduction)

(Amo 4:1-5) Israel is reproved.

(Amo 4:6-13) Their impenitence shown.

Matthew Henry: Amos (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Prophecy of Amos

Though this prophet appeared a little before Isaiah, yet he was not, as some have mistaken, that Amos who was the father of Isaiah (Isa 1:1), for in the Hebrew their names are very different; their families too were of a different character, for Isaiah was a courtier, Amos a country-farmer. Amos signifies a burden, whence the Jews have a tradition that he was of a slow tongue and spoke with stammering lips; we may rather, in allusion to his name, say that his speech was weighty and his word the burden of the Lord. He was (as most think) of Judah, yet prophesied chiefly against Israel, and at Bethel, Amo 7:13. Some think his style savours of his extraction, and is more plain and rustic than that of some other of the prophets; I do not see it so; but it is plain that his matter agreed with that of his contemporary Hosea, that out of the mouth of these two witnesses the word might be established. It appears by his contest with Amaziah the priest of Bethel that he met with opposition in his work, but was a man of undaunted resolution in it, faithful and bold in reproving sin and denouncing the judgments of God for it, and pressing in his exhortations to repentance and reformation. He begins with threatenings against the neighbouring nations that were enemies to Israel, Amo 1:1-15 and 2. He then calls Israel to account, and judges them for their idolatry, their unworthy walking under the favours God had bestowed upon them, and their incorrigibleness under his judgments, Amo 3:1-15 and Amo 4:1-13. He calls them to repentance (ch. 5), rejecting their hypocritical sacrifices unless they did repent. He foretels the desolations that were coming upon them notwithstanding their security (Amo 6:1-14), some particular judgments (ch. 7), particularly on Amaziah; and, after other reproofs and threatenings (Amo 8:1-14 and Amo 9:1-15), concludes with a promise of the setting up of the Messiah's kingdom and the happiness of God's spiritual Israel therein, just as the prophecy of Joel concluded. These prophets, having opened the wound in their reproofs and threatenings, which show all wrong, in the promises of gospel-grace open the remedy, which alone will set all to rights.

Matthew Henry: Amos 4 (Chapter Introduction)

In this chapter, I. The oppressors in Israel are threatened for their oppression of the poor (Amo 4:1-3). II. The idolaters in Israel, being joined to idols, are given up to their own heart's lusts (Amo 4:4, Amo 4:5). III. All the sins of Israel are aggravated from their incorrigibleness in them, and their refusal to return and reform, notwithstanding the various rebukes of Providence which they had been under (Amo 4:6-11). IV. They are invited yet at length to humble themselves before God, since it is impossible for them to make their part good against him (Amo 4:12, Amo 4:13).

Constable: Amos (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Title and Writer

The title of the book comes from its writer. The prophet's name means "burden-bearer" or "load-carrier."

Amos was a sheepherder (Heb. noqed; cf. 2 Kings 3:4) or sheep breeder, and he described himself as a herdsman (Heb. boqer; 7:14). He was more than a shepherd (Heb. ro'ah). He evidently owned or managed large herds of sheep and or goats and was probably in charge of shepherds. Amos also described himself as a grower of sycamore figs (7:14). Sycamore fig trees are not true fig trees but are a variety of the mulberry family, which produces fig-like fruit. Each fruit had to be scratched or pierced to let the juice flow out so the "fig" could ripen. These trees grew in the tropical Jordan Valley and around the Dead Sea to a height of 25 to 50 feet and bore fruit three or four times a year. They did not grow as well in the higher elevations such as Tekoa, Amos' hometown, so the prophet appears to have farmed at a distance from his home as well as ranching. Tekoa stood 10 miles south of Jerusalem in Judah. Thus Amos seems to have been a prosperous and influential Judahite, but there is no indication that he was a priest or had any connection with the royal family or the ruling classes in his land. Amos' natural surroundings had a profound effect on him and his writing (cf. 1:2; 2:9; 3:4-5; 5:19-20, 24; 6:12; 7:1-6; 8:1; 9:3-15).

Date

Amos ministered during the reigns of King Jeroboam II of Israel (793-753 B.C.) and King Uzziah (Azariah) of Judah (792-740 B.C.), specifically two years before "the earthquake" (1:1). Zechariah also referred to a notable earthquake during the reign of Uzziah (Zech. 14:5). Josephus wrote that an earthquake occurred when Uzziah entered the temple and was struck with leprosy (2 Chron. 26:16-20).¹ Archaeological excavations at Hazor and Samaria point to evidence of a violent earthquake in Israel about 760 B.C.² So perhaps Amos ministered about 760 B.C. This date may account for the omission of the name of King Jotham who ruled as coregent with Uzziah from 750-740 B.C. Thus Amos was a contemporary of the other eighth-century prophets: Hosea, Jonah, Micah, and Isaiah.

Place of Composition

Since Amos lived in the Judean town of Tekoa, he was a prophet from the Southern Kingdom.

Audience and Purpose

Amos prophesied against the Northern Kingdom of Israel (1:1). Yahweh raised him up to announce judgment on Israel because of her covenant unfaithfulness and rebellion against His authority. Amos announced the destruction of the Northern Kingdom, but he also predicted that the Lord would preserve a remnant that was repentant. He would restore this remnant to political prominence and covenant blessing and, through them, draw all nations to Himself. Amos announced a warning to the residents of the Northern Kingdom, but he also held out hope.

Historical Background

These were times of political stability, material prosperity, and geographical expansion for both the Northern and the Southern Kingdoms (cf. 1:6; 6:2, 13; 2 Kings 14:23-29; 2 Chron. 26:1-15). Jeroboam II and Uzziah were two of the most competent and effective kings that their respective kingdoms enjoyed. They brought their nations to heights of success second only to those in Solomon's golden age.³ The Northern Kingdom was at the height of its power during Jeroboam II's reign. Aramea had not recovered from its defeat by Adad-Nirari III of Assyria in 802 B.C., and Assyria had not yet developed into the superpower that it became under Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727 B.C.).

"Commerce thrived (8:5), an upper class emerged (4:1-3), and expensive homes were built (3:15; 5:11; 6:4, 11). The rich enjoyed an indolent, indulgent lifestyle (6:1-6), while the poor became targets for legal and economic exploitation (2:6-7; 5:7, 10-13; 6:12; 8:4-6). Slavery for debt was easily accepted (2:6; 8:6). Standards of morality had sunk to a low ebb (2:7)."⁴

Religion flourished too. The Hebrews participated in the yearly festivals (4:4; 5:5; 8:3, 10) and offered their sacrifices enthusiastically (4:5; 5:21-23). They believed God was with them and considered themselves immune to disaster (5:14, 18-20; 6:1-3; 9:10). Yet they worshipped the native Canaanite deities along with Yahweh.

Unity

Almost all scholars agree that the Book of Amos was originally a single book that the prophet Amos wrote. Comparison with the writings of the other eighth-century prophets and the consistently vivid and forthright style of Amos make this conclusion virtually inescapable.⁵

Theology

Amos stressed the sovereignty of Yahweh over history. He controls the movements of peoples (9:7) and the order of nature (4:13; 5:8). The prophet also affirmed the ability of people to submit to or reject the Lord's authority. He reminded his hearers of Yahweh's election of Israel (3:2) but repudiated the popular idea of his day that God would not punish His people.

"Amos, more than any other prophet, urged the responsibility of elective privilege."⁶

Like many of the other prophets, Amos spoke of the day of the Lord. He saw it as a time when God would judge sin, even in His own people (5:18-20). Another day would come, however, when David's kingdom would be restored and would include both Jews and Gentiles (9:13-15).⁷

Message⁸

The Book of Amos is distinctive from the other prophetic books of the Old Testament in two respects.

First, the prophet Amos was not a prophet in the same sense that the other prophets were prophets. He was not recognized as a prophet among his contemporaries. He had not been to one of the schools of the prophets. He had not been discipled by another recognized prophet. He was what we would call today a "layman" and an untrained layman at that.

Second, the prophecy of Amos is not a prophecy in the same sense that the other prophetic books were prophecies. Amos' perspective was wider than most of the other prophets. One evidence of this is that he did not refer to God as the God of Israel, as the other prophets did. Instead he thought of Him and referred to Him as the God of the whole earth. Moreover, Amos grouped Judah and Israel with Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab. He saw Yahweh as sovereign over all these city-states and nations, not just over Judah and Israel primarily. Whereas Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel all recorded messages of judgment against foreign nations, they focused on Judah and Israel particularly in their books. Amos viewed Judah and Israel as two among many nations that God would judge for the same sins.

In Amos we see God as detached from the prophetic order and from every nation yet directing through a man uniquely chosen as His prophet and directing over the affairs of all nations.

There are at least three permanent values of the Book of Amos. It reveals the philosophy, the practice, and the promise of divine government.

Amos gives us the philosophy of the divine government in the comprehensiveness of its outlook. The prophet did not argue for God's universal sovereignty nor did he even affirm it. He assumed it and applied it. In particular, he explained the standard by which God exercises His universal sovereignty, the principle by which He rules, and the patience that marks His governing.

The standard by which God measures nations is their treatment of other nations. God would judge the Arameans because they were cruel to their neighbors. He would judge the Philistines because they bought and sold other human beings. The Phoenicians traded in human lives in spite of a covenant in which they pledged to do otherwise. The Edomites were unforgiving and took revenge. The Ammonites were cruel. The Moabites were violent and vindictive. The Judahites had despised the Lord's word regarding what their treatment of others should be. And the Israelites had oppressed the poor and needy even within their own borders. These are all expressions of violations of human rights.

The principle that lies behind this standard is that privilege brings responsibility. God's harshest judgment fell on His own people who had the most light. The pagan nations were guilty of violating human rights too, but their punishment would be less because they did not have the privilege of having God's revealed will as the Israelites did. We see the same principle in operation in Romans 1-3. All people are under divine wrath because everyone has failed to respond positively to the light we have. But those who have more light fall under severer judgment because they sin with a greater knowledge of God's will. Similarly, national privilege determines national responsibility.

The patience that marks God's sovereign governing of the world comes out clearly in Amos too. The phrase "for three transgressions, yes, for four" reminds us that God does not judge nations for only one transgression. Every transgression will receive punishment from God, but judgment does not fall immediately. God could have judged these nations much sooner than He did, but He was patient and waited until they had sinned repeatedly. In Genesis we read that "the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete" (Gen. 15:16). God waited to judge all these nations until they had amassed so much sin that He could wait no longer to judge them. Fortunately, God deals with us the same way, or we all would have died long ago.

If cruelty to other nations makes God angry, it is because His heart is set upon kindness. If oppression stirs up His wrath, it is because He desires people to live in peace. If violations of human rights call down His judgment, it is because He longs that people experience happiness and well-being. His sovereign government always moves toward the best conditions for humanity. He resists what mars those conditions. Amos closes with a picture of the world order that God desires and will bring to pass eventually.

The second permanent value of this book is its presentation of Israel as a case study of Yahweh's government. No nation had so much light as Israel or a closer relationship to God than Israel did (3:1-2, 7). But in Israel privilege had borne the fruit of sin and would end with judgment.

When God wanted to convict His people of their sins, he described the luxury and wantonness of Israel's women (4:1). John Ruskin, the English poet, claimed that war would cease when enough pure women demanded it. Amos pictured the depravity of the Israelites by describing the evil women of the nation promoting it. He also described it this way: 4:4. The Israelites were going to places of worship to engage in sinful rituals, not to worship. A modern equivalent would be, "Let's go to church to meet someone of the opposite sex that we can sin with."

Israel had sinned in failing to yield to Yahweh's chastisement (4:6, 8, 9, 10, 11). None of God's judgments on His people had moved them to repent. The Israelites who longed to see "the day of the Lord" failed to realize that it would be a day of judgment for them (5:18-20). Those of them who never gave "the day of the Lord" a thought and were at ease in Zion needed to realize that this day was coming.

The terrible descriptions of Israel's sins in this book appear all the worse because of Israel's privileged position. These were His chosen people. He did nothing without revealing it to them through His servants the prophets. Yet the Israelites were guilty of the sins of wanton womanhood, of refusal to submit to discipline, of professing a desire for God to act, and of indifference to the fact that He would act in judgment.

In five visions Amos pronounced judgment that would fall on the Israelites. These were the visions of the locusts, the fire, the plumb line, the basket of summer fruit, and the coming of Yahweh by way of the altar of judgment. In all of them Amos pictured divine judgment determined, temporarily restrained, and finally executed. These prophecies of coming judgment must have sounded strange to the Israelites who were then living lives of ease and material prosperity. After all, had not God said He would bless the godly with prosperity? How could Amos then say that the Israelites were such great sinners? Furthermore, Amos was a nobody in society, a despised shepherd, a rural dolt.

Because Israel's light had been clear, her judgment would be pervasive. She had failed to take advantage of her privileges and had lived selfishly. Consequently her ruin would be complete.

The third permanent value of this book is the promise of ultimate restoration that it contains at the very end. This restoration would come in three stages. First, there would be preliminary restoration. God would restore the Davidic dynasty to power (9:11). Then progressive restoration of the nation would follow (9:12-14). Finally, there would be permanent restoration (9:15).

Amos, then, reveals the sovereign government of the God of all the earth. We discover His philosophy of government, we see a case study of His government, and we learn of the outcome of His government in this book.

The message of Amos is that God blesses people so they can be channels of blessing to others, not so they may simply squander His blessings selfishly.

This message is applicable mainly to national life because national life is the primary focus of the revelation in Amos.

God still rules over all nations, not just His chosen people. He still opposes nations that violate human rights, and He will judge them. The old order may pass away with the turning of the pages of the calendar, but the divine order does not change. God remains the same. God's methods change, His requirements for His people change, His dispensations (household rules) change, but His underlying attitudes toward people do not change. Cruelty is as hateful to God today as it ever has been.

Another major lesson of Amos is that people who have the light of God's truth live with greater responsibility than those who live in darkness. The light exposes our sins, and when we see our sins we must humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God or we will experience His judgment. Christians have a greater responsibility to judge themselves that we be not judged than the unsaved. And we will be judged, not with separation from God eternally but with separation from much future blessing.

Amos charged Israel with injustice, avarice, oppression, immorality, profanity, blasphemy, and sacrilege: seven deadly sins. These same sins mark believers today. We are in danger of doing what the Israelites in Amos' day of material prosperity did. We can conclude that our prosperity is a reward from God, that He is blessing us for our goodness. All the while we are preparing ourselves for judgment. It is only as we turn from our sins in profound repentance that we can live. Yet if judgment comes, its purpose is not to destroy us but to restore us to Himself.

We must distinguish between secular nations and the church of Jesus Christ. The principles that Amos reveals are applicable to both groups. The nations with greater light have greater responsibility. The church has greater light and has greater responsibility. When nations fail to take advantage of their light they become degraded. When the church fails to take advantage of its light it becomes degraded.

These principles are also applicable to individuals, as I'm sure you have seen by now. God's people are greatly blessed people. Unfortunately many Christians conclude that because there is therefore now no condemnation in Christ Jesus there is also no accountability to Christ Jesus. We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ to receive payment for what we have done with the light that God has given us. This is an awesome thought that should sober and humble us every day we live. We need to prepare for our "day of the Lord," when we will see our Savior, stand before Him, and give an account of our stewardship to Him. Amos spoke to the Israelites as the people of God. We are the people of God in our day and need to heed his strong words of warning as well.

Constable: Amos (Outline)

Outline

I. Prologue 1:1-2

A. Introduction 1:1

B. Theme 1:2

II. Prophetic messages that Amos delivered 1:3-6:14

A. Oracles against nations 1:3-2:5

1. An oracle against Aram 1:3-5

2. An oracle against Philistia 1:6-8

3. An oracle against Phoenicia 1:9-10

4. An oracle against Edom 1:11-12

5. An oracle against Ammon 1:13-15

6. An oracle against Moab 2:1-3

7. An oracle against Judah 2:4-5

8. An oracle against Israel 2:6-16

B. Messages of judgment against Israel chs. 3-6

1. The first message on sins against God and man ch. 3

2. The second message on women, worship, and stubbornness ch. 4

3. The third message on injustice 5:1-17

4. The fourth message on unacceptable worship 5:18-27

5. The fifth message on complacency and pride ch. 6

III. Visions that Amos saw chs. 7-9

A. Three short visions of impending judgment 7:1-9

1. The swarming locusts 7:1-3

2. The devouring fire 7:4-6

3. The plumb line 7:7-9

B. An intervening incident 7:10-17

1. The challenge 7:10-13

2. The response 7:14-17

C. Two more visions of impending judgment chs. 8-9

1. The basket of summer fruit ch. 8

2. The Lord standing by the altar ch. 9

Constable: Amos

Amos

Bibliography

Alter, Robert. The Art of Biblical Poetry. New York: Basic, 1985.

Andersen, F. I., and D. N. Freedman. Amos. Anchor Bible series. New York: Doubleday, 1989.

Chisholm, Robert B., Jr. "Does God Change His Mind'?" Bibliotheca Sacra 152:608 (October-December 1995):387-99.

_____. "A Theology of the Minor Prophets." In A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, pp. 397-433. Edited by Roy B. Zuck. Chicago: Moody Press, 1991.

Constable, Thomas L. Talking to God: What the Bible Teaches about Prayer. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1995.

_____. "What Prayer Will and Will Not Change." In Essays in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost. Edited by Stanley D. Toussaint and Charles H. Dyer. Chicago: Moody Press, 1986.

Dyer, Charles H., and Eugene H. Merrill. The Old Testament Explorer. Nashville: Word Publishing, 2001.

Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land. Edited by Michael Avi-Yonah and E. Stern. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1978.

Finley, Thomas J. Joel, Amos, Obadiah. The Wycliffe Exegetical Commentary series. Chicago: Moody Press, 1990.

Hammershaimb, E. The Book of Amos: A Commentary. Oxford: Blackwell, 1970.

Hayes, J. H. Amos. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1988.

Hoffmon, Herbert B. "The Treaty Background of Hebrew Yada'." Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 181 (February 1966):31-37.

Hubbard, David A. Joel and Amos. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries series. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1989.

Josephus, Flavius. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by William Whiston. Antiquities of the Jews. London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1866.

Kassis, H. "Gath and the Structure of Philistine' Society." Journal of Biblical Literature 84 (1965):259-71.

Limburg, J. "Sevenfold Structures in the Book of Amos." Journal of Biblical Literature 106 (1987):217-22.

Mays, J. Amos: A Commentary. Old Testament Library series. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1969.

McComiskey, Thomas Edward. "Amos." In Daniel-Minor Prophets. Vol. 7 of The Expositor's Bible Commentary. 12 vols. Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein and Richard P. Polcyn. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1985.

Motyer, J. A. The Day of the Lion: The Message of Amos. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1974.

Munro, John "Prayer to a Sovereign God." Interest 56:2 (February 1990):20-21.

Niehaus, Jeff. "Amos." In The Minor Prophets: An Exegetical and Expository Commentary. 3 vols. Edited by Thomas Edward McComiskey. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1992.

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Smith, Billy K., and Frank S. Page. Amos, Obadiah, Jonah. The New American Commentary series. N.c.: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995.

Smith, G. Amos: A Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1989.

Stuart, Douglas. Hosea-Jonah. Word Biblical Commentary series. Waco: Word Books, 1987.

Sunukjian, Donald R. "Amos." In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, pp. 1425-52. Edited by John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, Victor Books, 1985.

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Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

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Haydock: Amos (Book Introduction)

THE PROPHECY OF AMOS.

INTRODUCTION.

Amos prophesied in Israel about the same time as Osee, and was called from following the cattle to denounce God's judgments to the people of Israel and the neighbouring nations, for their repeated crimes, in which they continued with repentance. (Challoner) --- The kingdom was then almost free from idolatry, except that of the calves, yet dissolute and flourishing under Jeroboam II. The prophet spoke at Bethel, (chap. vii.) till the idolatrous priest, Amasias, forced him to flee to Thecua, four leagues south of Jerusalem, where he continued to prophesy against the various nations of Damascus, Juda, &c., but particularly against Israel, chap. i., &c. How long he continued is uncertain. St. Jerome and others account his style rustic; but St. Augustine (Doct. iv. 7.) as good a judge, pronounces that it was eloquent, and like that of the other inspired writers, suited to the speakers. (Calmet) --- Amos means "one carrying," or "a people torn away." (St. Jerome in Joel.) (Haydock) --- He deals in metaphors agreeably to his pastoral education, but is profound in sense. (St. Jerome, ep. ad Paulin.) --- After denouncing judgments on different nations, he foretells the coming of Christ and abundance of grace. (Worthington)

Gill: Amos (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO AMOS

This book in the Hebrew Bibles is called "Sepher Amos", the Book of Amos; and, in the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions, the Prophecy of Amos. This is not the same person with the father of Isaiah, as some have ignorantly confounded them; for their names are wrote with different letters; besides, the father of Isaiah is thought to have been of the royal family, and a courtier; whereas this man was a country farmer and herdsman. His name signifies "burdened": the Jews ^a say he was so called, because burdened in his tongue, or had an impediment in his speech, and stammered; but rather because his prophecies were burdens to the people, such as they could not bear, being full of reproofs and threatenings; however, his prophecy in this respect agrees with his name. What time he lived may be learned from Amo 1:1; by which it appears that he was, contemporary with Isaiah and Hosea; but whether he lived and prophesied so long as they did is not certain. The author of Seder Olam Zuta ^b makes him to prophesy in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. R. Abraham Zacut ^c, and R. David Ganz ^d, place him later than Hosea, and prior to Isaiah; they say that Amos received the law from Hosea, and Isaiah from Amos. Mr. Whiston ^e makes him to begin to prophesy in the year of the world 3231 A.M. or 773 B.C.; and Mr. Bedford ^f earlier, in 802 B.C.; and, from some passages in his prophecy, he appears to be of the land of Judah; see Amo 1:1; though he prophesied in the land of Israel, and against the ten tribes chiefly; the occasion of which was, Jeroboam had been very successful and victorious, and the people under him enjoyed great plenty and prosperity, and upon this grew wanton, luxurious, and very sinful; wherefore this prophet was sent to reprove them for their sins, to exhort them to repentance, and threaten them with captivity, in case of impenitence; and to comfort the truly godly with promises of the Messiah's coming and kingdom. The authenticity of this book is not to be questioned, since many passages out of it were taken by following prophets, as the words in Amo 1:2, by Joel, Joe 3:16, and by Jeremiah, Jer 25:30; Amo 4:9, by Haggai, Hag 2:17; Amo 9:13, by Joel, Joe 3:18; and others are quoted by the writers of the New Testament as divinely inspired, as Amo 5:25, in Act 7:42; nor is there any room to doubt of his being the writer of this book, as is manifest of his speaking of himself as the first person in it; though Hobbes ^g says it does not appear. Some have thought that his language is rustic, suitable to his former character and employment; but certain it is there are masterly strokes and great beauties of eloquence in it; and which shows that it is more than human. According to some writers, he was often beat and buffeted by Amaziah, the priest of Bethel; and at last the son of the priest drove a nail into his temples, upon which he was carried alive into his own country, and there died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his ancestors at Tekoa ^h.

Gill: Amos 4 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO AMOS 4

In this chapter, the great ones, or the people of Israel, are threatened with calamities for their oppression of the poor, Amo 4:1; and in an ironic manner are reproved for their idolatry, Amo 4:4; then follows an enumeration of several judgments that had been upon them, yet had had no effect on them, to bring them to repentance, nor even mercies, Amo 4:6; and notwithstanding all this, in a wonderful gracious manner, they are called upon to prepare to meet their God, who is described by his power, greatness, and goodness, Amo 4:12.