"The striking feature of this chapter is its rapidity of movement leading to the gathering storm of invasion soon to engulf the capital and the land."150
6:1 The Lord called the Benjamites, Jeremiah's tribal kinsmen, to flee for safety from the coming invader from the north (cf. 4:5-6). Jerusalem stood on the southern border of Benjamin. Benjamin's tribal border was the Hinnom Valley, which was also the southern boundary of Jerusalem.
Tekoa, Amos' birthplace (Amos 1:1), was a Judean town about 10 miles south of Jerusalem, and Beth-hakkerem (lit. house of the vineyard) stood three miles south of Jerusalem. These representative villages needed to warn their inhabitants, with trumpets and signal fires, to flee in view of the destroyer's advance toward Jerusalem.151
6:2 The Lord would cut off Jerusalem, which He compared to an attractive and dainty young lady. Even though Jerusalem was attractive to the Lord, He would still bring destruction on her.
6:3 The enemy leaders and their soldiers would camp around Jerusalem like shepherds with their sheep (cf. 4:17; 12:10). Even though Jerusalem lay in a pleasant pastoral setting, its beauty would not deter the Lord from destroying her.
6:4-5 These enemies would encourage themselves to attack Judah's capital before they lost their opportunity. They would be so eager to destroy the city that they would even attack at night, a highly unusual procedure.
6:6 In attacking Jerusalem the enemy soldiers would be responding to the instructions of Yahweh of armies to cut down the trees around the city to make implements of war and to lay siege. Jerusalem was due for punishment because its people were responsible for so much social oppression.
6:7 The residents had an unusual ability to keep wickedness as fresh as wells kept water fresh (cf. Prov. 4:16). Wicked violence and destruction had resulted in all kinds of sickness and wounds.
6:8 These announcements were to function as a warning to the people of Judah who still had time to repent before the enemy from the north would descend. If they did not repent, the results would be alienation from God (in captivity), the desolation of their city and their lives, and the ruination of their land.
"We may be reminded of the care lavished in our own day on presenting and practising [sic] an alternative morality', and may be warned, with Jerusalem . . ."152
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