Amos 8 commentary

Amos saw a basket of summer fruit gathered, and ready to be eaten; which signified, that the people were ripe for destruction, that the year of God's patience was drawing towards a conclusion. Such summer fruits will not keep till winter, but must be used at once. Yet these judgments shall not draw from them any acknowledgement, either of God's righteousness or their own unrighteousness. Sinners put off repentance from day to day, because they think the Lord thus delays his judgments.

The rich and powerful of the land were the most guilty of oppression, as well as the foremost in idolatry. They were weary of the restraints of the sabbaths and the new moons, and wished them over, because no common work might be done therein. This is the character of many who are called Christians. The sabbath day and sabbath work are a burden to carnal hearts. It will either be profaned or be accounted a dull day. But can we spend our time better than in communion with God? When employed in religious services, they were thinking of marketings. They were weary of holy duties, because their worldly business stood still the while. Those are strangers to God, and enemies to themselves, who love market days better than sabbath days, who would rather be selling corn than worshipping God. They have no regard to man: those who have lost the savour of piety, will not long keep the sense of common honesty. They cheat those they deal with. They take advantage of their neighbour's ignorance or necessity, in a traffic which nearly concerns the labouring poor. Could we witness the fraud and covetousness, which, in such numerous forms, render trading an abomination to the Lord, we should not wonder to see many dealers backward in the service of God. But he who thus despises the poor, reproaches his Maker; as it regards Him, rich and poor meet together. Riches that are got by the ruin of the poor, will bring ruin on those that get them. God will remember their sin against them. This speaks the case of such unjust, unmerciful men, to be miserable indeed, miserable for ever. There shall be terror and desolation every where. It shall come upon them when they little think of it. Thus uncertain are all our creature-comforts and enjoyments, even life itself; in the midst of life we are in death. What will be the wailing in the bitter day which follows sinful and sensual pleasures!

Here was a token of God's highest displeasure. At any time, and most in a time of trouble, a famine of the word of God is the heaviest judgment. To many this is no affliction, yet some will feel it very much, and will travel far to hear a good sermon; they feel the loss of the mercies others foolishly sin away. But when God visits a backsliding church, their own plans and endeavours to find out a way of salvation, will stand them in no stead. And the most amiable and zealous would perish, for want of the water of life, which Christ only can bestow. Let us value our advantages, seek to profit by them, and fear sinning them away.

By these words or by this vision the Prophet confirms what we have already observed — that paternal chastisements would no longer be exercised towards the people of Israel. God indeed, as it is well known, had so treated that people, that he ever spared them even in their greatest calamities. It was with a suspended hand that God ever struck that people, until after many trials they at length seemed so refractory, as not to be benefited by such remedies. This subject then Amos now pursues: but a vision was shown to him to confirm more fully God’s judgment, or at least to produce a greater impression on the minds of the people.

God showed to him a Basket full of summer-fruit. By summer-fruit, I doubt not, he means a ripe punishment, as though he said, that the vices of the people had ripened, that vengeance could no longer be deferred: for an exposition of the vision immediately follows, when he says, that the end of the people had come, etc.; and this we have already explained in the third vision. But there is a similarity in the Hebrew words, which cannot be expressed either in Greek or Latin. קיץ, kits means a summer-fruit, קץ, kots, signifies an end: one letter only is inserted in the word, summer-fruit, which God showed in a basket; and then he adds that קץ, kots, the end had come. But as to the main point, we see that there is nothing ambiguous. We will now return to the first thing.

Thus God showed to me. There is no need of repeating what I have already discussed. The Prophet here prefaces, that he adduced nothing without authority, but only faithfully related what had been commanded him from above. And this ought to be carefully observed; for God ever so employed his Prophets, that he yet reserved for himself entire the right of teaching, and never transferred his own office to men, that is, as to the authority. Then he says, The Lord Jehovah showed to me, and, lo, a basket of summer-fruit. We may understand cherries by summer-fruit, and those fruits which have no solid vigor to continue long; but this is too refined. I take the simple meaning, that punishment had now become ripe; for the people had not repented, though they had been so often warned; it was then as it were summer. He showed to me a basket of summer-fruit. But as to God asking his Prophet what he saw, we have already explained the reason why it was done: it behaved the Prophet to be at first filled with astonishment, that the people might be made more attentive; for when we hear of a conference between God and the Prophet, our minds are awakened; inasmuch as it must immediately occur to us, that there is something worthy of being remembered. God then rouses in this manner the minds of his people. So we see there is nothing superfluous in this repetition.

Now follows the exposition of the vision, Jehovah said to me, Come has the end on my people Israel We perceive, then, the meaning of the Prophet to be, — that the people had hitherto been warned by moderate punishments; but that as they had become hardened, extreme vengeance was nigh at hand, when God would no longer perform the part of a father or of a physician, but would utterly destroy those whom he had long borne with. We indeed know that most grievous calamities had happened to the people of Israel, even before this time; but whenever God showed forbearance, he ever allured them to true penitence. Lest, then, they should promise such a treatment to themselves hereafter, and by self flatteries protract time, as hypocrites are wont to do, the Prophet declares here expressly, that the end had come; as though he said, “Your iniquity is ripe: now then gather the fruit; for ye cannot proceed farther, no, not even for one day. Fruit will indeed come to you of itself.” The end then is come, and I will no more add to pass by them. To pass by, as we have already explained, is to be referred to punishment. For why does God chastise his people, except that he is solicitous for their salvation? He says, then, that he would make an end, that he would not spend labor hereafter in correcting the people, for he saw that nothing availed. Hence, I will not pass by them, that is, I will execute my extreme vengeance: Il n’y faudra plus retourner, as we commonly say. It follows —

Amos 8:3-4

3. And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.

3. Et ululabunt cantica templi die illo, dicit Dominus Jehova: multum cadaver (hoc est, multa cadavera) in omni loco prosternentur cum silentio.

4. Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,

4. Audite hoc qui absorbetis pauperem et exterminatis inopes terrae.

The Prophet touches the Israelites here, in an indirect way, for taking such delight in their superstitions as to sing in their prosperity, as though God was favorable to them; for the unbelieving are wont to misconstrue both the hatred and the favor of God by the present appearance of things. When the Turks enjoy prosperity, they boast that God is on their side: we see also that the Papists draw the same conclusion. It is the disposition of men not to look so much on themselves as on external circumstances. When, therefore, God indulges them for a time, though they be more than usually wicked, they yet doubt not but that God is favorable to them. So the Sodomites, to the very time in which they were overwhelmed by sudden destruction, thought that they had peace with heaven, (Genesis 19:14): this also is the reason why Isaiah says, that the ungodly had made, as it were, a covenant with hell and death, (Isaiah 28:15) and we know what Christ says of the time of Noah, that they then heedlessly feasted and built sumptuous houses, (Matthew 24:38) Such carnal security has prevailed almost in all ages. But a special vice is here noticed by the Prophet, namely, that the people of Israel sang songs in their temples, as though they meant designedly to mock God: for the voices of the Prophets resounded daily, and uttered grievous and terrible threatening; but the people in the meantime sang in their temples. In the same way the Papists act in the present day; while they bellow and chant, they think that God is twice or three times pacified; and they also congratulate themselves in their temples, when they have everything prosperous. This abuse, then, is what the Prophet refers to when he says, Howlings shall be the songs of the temple For melody he mentions howling, as though he said, “God will turn your songs to lamentations, though they be now full of joy.”

He afterwards adds, For many a carcass shall be cast down in every place: but I prefer to render the word passively, “Cast down everywhere with silence shall be many carcases” The literal rendering of the verse seems to be this —

And they shall howl the songs of the temple: Many a dead body shall be in every place; — “Cast it away, be silent.”

The expressions are abrupt, but very striking. What would be commonly said is mentioned, “Cast it away,” etc. Newcome translates as follows: —

“There shall be many dead bodies in every place: And men shall say, Cast forth, be silent.”

Very tame is this, compared with the original literally rendered. To introduce, And men shall say, lessens the force of the sentence. — Ed. . By these words he intimates that there would be such a slaughter as would prevent them from burying the dead bodies. We have said in another place that the right of burial is commonly observed even by enemies; for it is more than hostility to rage against the dead: and all who wish not to be deemed wholly barbarous either bury their dead enemies, or permit them to be buried; and there is a sort of an understanding on this point among enemies, and the right of burial has been usually observed in all ages, and held sacred among all nations. When therefore dead bodies are thrown down in silence, it is an evidence of a most grievous calamity. We hence see why the Prophet distinctly expresses here, that many a dead body would be cast down in every place in silence, that is, that there would be no burying of the dead. But as we see men, though a hundred times proved guilty, yet quarreling with God, when he executes rather a grievous punishment, the Prophet now contends with the Israelites, and again repeats what we have before noticed, — that God did not deal cruelly with them, and that though he should consume and obliterate the whole people, it would yet be for just reasons, inasmuch as they had reached the very extremities of wickedness.

And he assails by name the princes of the people, Hear this, he says, ye who tread upon or swallow up the poor The Prophets, as we have already stated, did not without reason direct their discourses to the chief men, though the common people were nearly as much involved in the same guilt. It is certain that the state of the people of Israel was then so corrupt, that all, from the highest to the lowest, were become degenerated and none were free from blame. But as more guilt belongs always to leaders, this is the reason why the Prophets treated them with more sharpness and severity: for many of the common people go astray through thoughtlessness or ignorances or are led on by others, but they who govern, pervert what is just and right, and then become the originators of all kinds of licentiousness. It is no wonder then that the Lord by his Prophets inveighed so sharply against them; and this is now the object of the Prophet in saying, Hear this: for there is an emphasis in the expression, when he bids them to hear; it was either because they did not sufficiently observe their sins, and were wholly deaf, or because they in vain contended with God; for hypocrites think that by evasion they can escape judgment. Hear, he says, ye who devour the miserable, and destroy the poor of the land. We see here some difference marked, and that the Prophet does not generally and indiscriminately summon the common people and the princes to God’s tribunal; but turns his discourse to the princes only. It now follows —

Amos 8:5

5. Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

5. Dicendo, Quando transibit mensis, ut vendamus frumentum? et sabbathum, ut aperiamus (hoc est, depromamus) triticum, et attenuemus ephah? (hoc est, mensuram minuemus; scimus enim ephah fuisse communem mensuram: quando ergo minuemus mensuram,) et augemus שקל, siclum, et pervertamus stateras dolosas?

The Prophet goes on here with the same subject; for this could not apply to the whole people, but only to the plunderers who were able to oppress the miserable and the poor among the common people, and who had a great abundance of corn: the same we see at this day, — a few men in time of want have provisions hoarded up, so that they as it were put to death miserable men by reducing them to want. Since then the few rich held the whole people in a state of famine, the Prophet says here, “Do you think that God deals too rigidly or too cruelly with your inasmuch as ye have hitherto been killing men with misery and want?” Were any one to object, and say, that the slaughter which the Prophet has already threatened was to be common to the whole people, and that therefore it is now improperly stated, that the wrongs done to the people were brought on them by a few men: to this I answer, that there were other vices among the people which required to be corrected, and this we have already seen, and shall see again in other parts; but it was necessary to make a beginning with the proud men, who, relying on their own dignity, thought themselves exempt and free from the common lot. Hence it was necessary to close their mouths: and further, the Prophet did not spare others in their turn. But we see to what extent of mad folly haughty men, and such as possess worldly riches and powers would run, were not the Lord to restrain and check them. This is the reason why the Prophet now especially addresses them.

Ye therefore say, When will pass the month, that we may sell corn? Some take חדש, chedash, month, for the new-moon; and it is sometimes so taken and this interpretation is probable; for immediately follows the word, Sabbath. When then will pass the month, and when will pass Sabbath, that we may be able to sell our corn? As it was not lawful to carry on business either on the Sabbath or on the new-moon, whenever they rested but one day, they thought that so much time was lost to them; for we see that the avaricious grow weary, as their cupidity ever excites them, for they are like an oven: and since they are thus hot, if an hour is lost they think that a whole year has passed away; they calculate the very moments of time. “How is it,” they say, “there is no merchant coming? I have now rested one day, and I have not gained a farthing.” As then the avaricious are so extremely careful, it is probable that the Prophet here refers to this disease of the mind, as though he said, “You have no rest, no relaxation. God has commanded his people to rest on every new-moon; and his will also is, that you should abstain from every work on the seventh day: ye think it is time as lost, for ye get no gain.” But another exposition is equally probable, which is this, — that they expected corn to be every month dearer; as those robbers in our day gape for gain, who from every quarter heap together corn, and thus reduce us to want; they look forward, month after month, and think that some calamity may happen to increase the price of corn; frost or rain may come, some disaster may take place; when the spring passes away, there may come some hail or mildew; in short, they are, as it were, laying in wait for some evil. This meaning does not ill suit this place; at the same time they refer it to the intercalary month, which being an addition, prolongs time, so that the year becomes longer: and what follows, respecting the Sabbath corresponds well with this view; as the word is to be taken in another sense than of the seventh day, for we know that on every seventh year there was no sloughing, no cultivation of the land, among the Jews; and the corn was then dearer, when there was no crop. Thus then there was a prey as it were provided for the avaricious and the extortioners.

When then will pass the Sabbath, that we may open our storehouses? They closed their storehouses, until the whole year, without cultivation or produce or harvest, had passed away; and then they opened their storehouses, or at least it was the time when they in a great measure opened them. Since then they so cruelly dealt with the people, the Prophet justly reproves them, and shows that God did not too rigidly treat theme but recompensed them with such a reward as they merited. Other matters we shall defer to the next Lecture.

Prayer.

Grant, Almighty, that as thou ceases not daily to warn us in time to repent and anticipate thy judgment, — O grant, that we may not be so deaf and slow, as to delay until our vices be ripened, lest no remedy should remain for us; but, on the contrary, that being tamed and subdued by thy threatening, we may flee to thy mercy, and so consider thy judgments while at a distance, that we may not provoke thy wrath by our perverseness, but rather dispose thee to pardon by striving to be reconciled to thee in the name of Christ thy Son, and by doing this not only with the mouth and tongue, or by any other outward means, but also with a real feeling of heart and a life corresponding thereto, so that we may present ourselves in uprightness and sincerity, as thy children, that thou mayest also show thyself as a Father to us in the same Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.

Lecture Sixty-sixth

In my last Lecture I was under the necessity of breaking off the subject: the sixth verse, with the two preceding ones, must be connected together. The Prophet says

Amos 8:6

6. That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?

6. Ut emamus argento pauperes et inopem pro calceamentis, et quisquilias frumenti vendamus.

Here still he speaks of the avarice of the rich, who in time of scarcity held the poor subject to themselves and reduced them to slavery. He had spoken before of the Sabbaths, and he had spoken of deceitful balances; he now adds another kind of fraud, — that by selling the refuse of wheat, they bought for themselves the poor. We indeed know what is the influence of poverty and pressing want, when men are oppressed with famine; they would rather a hundred times sell their life, than not to rescue themselves even by an invaluable price: for what else is food but the support of life? Men therefore will ever value their life more than all other things. Hence the Prophet condemns this iniquity — that the rich gaped for such an opportunity. They saw that corn was high in price; “Now is the time for the poor to come into our possession, for we hold them as though they were ensnared; so then we can buy them for a pair of shoes.” But the other circumstance increases this iniquity, — that they sold the refuse of the wheat; and when they reduced to bondage the poor, they did not feed them; they mingled filth and offscourings with the wheat, as it is wont to be done; for we know that such robbers usually do this, when want presses upon the common people; they sell barley for wheat, and for barley they sell chaff and refuse. This kind of wrong is not new or unusual, as we learn from this passage. Now follows a denunciation of punishment —

Amos 8:7

7. The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.

7. Juravit Jehova per excellentiam Jacob, Si obliviscar unquam omnia opera eorum.

God, having made known the vices of the rich, now shows that he would be their judge and avenger: for were they only reproved, they would not have cared much, like the usurer mentioned by Horace, who said, “The people may hiss me, but I felicitate myself.” So also these robbers were wont to do, when they were filled: though the whole people exclaimed against them, though God thundered from heaven, they laughed everything to scorn; for they were utterly destitute of every shame; and they were also become hardened; and insatiable cupidity had so blinded and demented them, that they had cast aside every care for what was right and becoming. Since it was so, God now declares that they could not escape punishment; and that this threatening might more effectually penetrate into their hearts, the Prophet makes use of an oath in the name of God, Jehovah, he says, hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob

An old interpreter has rendered the words, “He has sworn against the pride of Jacob:” but he did not sufficiently consider the design of the Prophet; for he speaks not here of vice, but of that dignity which the Lord had conferred on the posterity of Abraham; for we have before seen this expression, ‘I abhor the excellency of Jacob.’ Some give this rendering, “I abhor the pride of Jacob,” as though God were speaking there of perverse haughtiness. But he, on the contrary, means, that the Israelites were deceived, for they thought themselves safe and secure, because they were introduced into great favor by a singular privilege. “This,” the Lord says, “will profit them nothing: I have hitherto been kind and bountiful to the children of Abraham; but I now abhor this whole dignity.” So also he says now in this place, Jehovah hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob. They were proud of their dignity which yet was the free gift of God, hence God interposes a form of oath, the fittest to reprove their presumption. Some at the same time give this translation, “By myself, (at least they give this explanation,) by myself have I sworn:” for God was the glory of Jacob. Others think that by this word, גאון, gaun, is designated the sanctuary; for this was the excellency of Jacob, because God had chosen it as a habitation for himself in the midst of his people: hence, also, He is often said to dwell between the cherubim; not that he was inclosed in the sanctuary, but because the people perceived there his presence, his favor, and his power. But I rather understand by the term, excellency, in this place, the adoption, by which God had separated for himself that people from the rest of the world. Sworn then hath Jehovah. How? By the excellency of Jacob: and thus he glances in a severe manner at the ingratitude of the people, as they did not own themselves to be in every respect bound to God; for they had been peculiarly chosen, when yet other nations in many things excelled them. It was doubtless an invaluable favor for that ignoble people to have been chosen to be God’s peculiar possession and heritage. Hence the Prophet now rightly introduces God as being angry; and the form of the oath is suited to set forth the people’s ingratitude: “What! do ye now rise up against me, and elevate your horns? By what right? Under what pretext? Who are ye? I chose you, and ye truly repay me with this reward, — that though ye owe me all things, ye seek to defraud me of my right. I therefore swear by the excellency of Jacob, — I swear by the benefits which I conferred on you, — that I will not allow that which is justly precious in my sight to be disgracefully profaned. Whatever then I have hitherto bestowed on you, I will return on your own heads, and, as ye deserve, ye shall miserably perish.” This is the meaning.

We hence see that the oath which the Prophet uses, ought to be applied to the present case. He says, I shall never forget all your works, that is, none of your works shall be passed by unpunished. For though conscience sometimes disturbs hypocrites yet they think that many things may be concealed; and if the hundredth part, or at farthest the tenth, must be accounted for, they think this to be quite enough: “Why! God may perhaps observe this or that, but many faults will escape him.” Since then hypocrites thus heedlessly deceive themselves, the Prophet says, “Nothing can ever be hid from my sight; nay, as I now know all their works, I will show that all their sins are recorded in my books, in my memory, so that all things shall at last be called to an account.” It now follows —

Amos 8:8

8. Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.

8. Annon super hoc tumultuabitur terra, et lugebit quicunque habitat in ea? Et ascendet quasi flumen tota (vel, elevabitur,) et profligabitur et submergetur quasi a fluvio AEgypti.

He confirms what the last verse contains in other words: and the question is emphatical, for it is a double affirmation. A question, we know, is usually put, when there is no measure of doubt on the subject. God then asks here as of a thing certain, how they could remain in safety, who had so perverted every thing right and just, who had violated all equity, who were influenced by no feelings of humanity, — how could such continue safe? It was impossible. We hence see why the Prophet here uses a question; it was, that he might more fully confirm what he declares.

Shall not the land, he says, make a tumult? Shake or move is the most current meaning of the word, and the most suitable to this place. Newcome renders it, “be shaken;” Henderson, “tremble;” and Grotius, “be moved.” — Ed. when these disturb all order, when they mingle, as the proverb is, heaven and earth together, can the earth remain quiet under such a violent confusion? when all reason and equity is confounded, how, he says, can the land do otherwise than make a tumult? And though the Prophet ascribes not here either clamor or speech to the land; it is yet a sort of personification, when he says that the earth must necessarily make a tumult, while it sustains such inhabitants; for between them there was no agreement. Since then their way of living was extremely turbulent, the land itself must necessarily be agitated.

He afterwards adds, And mourn shall every one who dwells in it He now shows that the inhabitants of the earth shall feel that commotion of which he predicts: for the earth, ceasing to fulfill its offices, constrains its inhabitants to lament and mourn. And then there is another metaphor which sets forth the moving of the earth, that it will rise as a river to destroy men with a deluge. Many render what follows, “It shall be driven away and closed up like the river of Egypt.” But after the Prophet has spoken of inundation of the earth, he turns his discourse to the men whom this inundation would drown and swallow up. Hence, the real sense is, that their habitations would be destroyed, as by a deep gulf, in a way similar to the Nile, which, by overflowing the whole country, seems to make a sea of what had been inhabited. As the Prophet’s words lead us as by the hand, I wonder how those skillful in the Hebrew language could have blended things so different, for they give this explanation, “The land shall be raised up, as a river, and then it shall be destroyed and driven away;” and they refer this to the land; and then, “it shall be sunk down:” this also they apply to the land; except that some give this rendering, “It shall discharge itself like the river of Egypt.” But I translate otherwise, “It shall heave up whole as a river, and shall be driven away, and shall be immersed as by the river of Egypt.” It shall heave up, he says, that is, the land as a river; so that there will be no habitation for men: “I have given this land to my people that they might live in it; but the land itself shall heave up as a river; there shall be an inundation of the whole land.” And then when he says, It shall be driven away and sunk, this ought not to be referred to the land itself, but to the inhabitants or to the people. A different view is given by Newcome and also by Henderson. Newcome translates thus, —

And shall not all of it rise up as the river, And be driven out of its place and sunk down as the river of Egypt?

Henderson renders the lines in the same sense, though in different words, —

Shall not all of it rise like the river? Shall it not be driven and subside Like the river of Egypt?

The question is unnecessarily retained, borrowed from the first line of the verse. It is seldom, if ever, that this is the case in Hebrew; it is not consistent with the simplicity of the language. It is evidently the earthquake that is here compared to the rising and subsiding of a river. I would therefore render the whole verse thus, —

Shall not for this the land shake, And every inhabitant in it mourn? For heave up as a river shall the whole of it, And it shall be agitated and subside like the river of Egypt.

Here is the heaving, the agitation, and the subsidence of the earth in an earthquake. — Ed.

He had said before, כאר, kar, as a river; but now he says, כיאור, kiaur, which I explain as meaning, as by the river of Egypt. The Nile, we know, overflows annually and covers the whole plain of Egypt. The Prophet therefore borrowed a similitude from the Nile; and he says, that such would be God’s vengeance, that the land would be like a river, and its dwellings would be immersed and carried away, or annihilated: for when there is no surface of land, it seems to have been cleared away. So then he says now, It shall be driven away, It shall be sunk. This is the simple explanation; and ע, oin, is to be understood; for שקע, shiko, is to sink or to cover. Here, ה, he is only put, but ע, oin, is to be understood, and there is also a double reading pointed out. He means evidently the Keri, the marginal reading. — Ed. We now then perceive the Prophet’s meaning. But it follows —

Amos 8:9

9. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:

9. Et accidet die illa, inquit Dominus Jehova, ut occumbere faciam (vel, descendere faciam) solem in meridie, et obtenebrescere faciam terram in die lucido.

The Prophet speaks here metaphorically of the punishments which were then to the people nigh at hand: and as prosperity and success deceived the Israelites, the Prophet makes use of this significative mode of speaking: “Ye congratulate yourselves on account of your wealth and other things which delight you, as though God could not turn light into darkness; and as God spares you, ye think that it will ever be the same with you; but God can, he says, turn light into darkness: a dark night therefore will overtake you even at mid-day.” We now understand why the Prophet employed this figurative expression, — that God would obscure the sun, or cause it to go down, and would on a clear day send darkness to obscure the earth. It was not, it is certain, the eclipse of the sun; and the Prophet did not mean this. But these figurative expressions must be first noticed, and then we must see what they import.

Were any one disposed to lay-hold on what is literal and to cleave to it, his notions would be gross and insipid, not only with regard to the writings of the Prophets, but also with regard to all other writings; for there is no language which has not its figurative expressions. There is then in this passage a remarkably significative mode of speaking, — that God would make the sun to go down or to become cloudy at mid-day. But we must especially notice the design of the Prophet, which was to show, that the Israelites trusting in their prosperity, thought themselves to be beyond the reach of danger; hence their security and hence their torpor, and at length their perverseness and their contempt of God: since then the Prophet saw that they abused the benefits of God, he says, “What! the Lord indeed has caused your sun to rise; but cannot he make it to set, yea, even at mid-day? Ye now exult in its light; but God will suddenly and unexpectedly send darkness to cover your heads.” There is then no reason for hypocrites to flatter themselves, when God smiles on them and treats them indulgently; for in this manner he invites them to repentance by the sweetness of his goodness, as Paul says in the second chapter to the Romans. But when he sees them stubbornly wanton, then he turns his benefits into punishments. This then is what the Prophet means: “God,” he says, “will make the sun to set at mid-day, and will darken the clear day.” Let us go on —

Amos 8:10

10. And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

10. Et convertam dies festos vestros in luctum, et omnia cantica vestra in lamentum; et ascendere faciam super omnia dorsa (vel, super omnes lumbos) saccum, et super omne caput calvitium; et ponam eam quasi luctum (vel potius, quasi in luctu) unigeniti, et posteritatem ejus quasi in die amaritudinis.

The Prophet pursues the same subject; but he omits the figurative mode which he had before adopted. He therefore denounces vengeance more openly, — that God would turn their festal-days into mourning, and their songs into lamentation. This was designedly mentioned; for the Israelites, we know, flattered themselves on account of their ceremonies by which at the same time they more and more provoked God’s displeasure: for the worship of God, which they pretended to perform, was mere superstition, and was therefore a profanation of true religion. Though then they thus brought on themselves God’s judgment by their wicked ceremonies, they yet thought that they were sufficiently disguised; for as Jeremiah says, ceremonies are to hypocrites the dens of robbers, (Jeremiah 7:10,11.) So here the Prophet speaks expressly of festal-days and of songs, — “Think ye that I am pacified on your feast-days, when ye offer sacrifices to me, or rather to idols under my name; and think ye that I am delighted with your songs? these things are so regarded by me, that they the more excite my wrath. Your festal-days then will I turn to mourning, and your songs to lamentation. At the same time, the Prophet threatens generally what we have before noticed, — that there would be mourning among the whole people for having too long abused the forbearance of God; I will then turn your joy into mourning. This is the sum of the whole. We have already shown why he names feast-days and songs, and that is, because they thought them to be expiations to turn aside God’s vengeance, when yet they were fans by which they kindled more and more the fire of his displeasure.

He afterwards adds, I will make to come up on all backs the sackcloth, and on every head baldness. These are various modes of speaking, which refer to the same thing: for they were wont to put on sackcloth and they were wont to shave their heads when in grief and mourning. The Prophet then means, that there would be extreme sorrow among the people, that having cast away all delights, they would be constrained to give up themselves entirely to weeping, lamentation, and grief. I will then make to come up on all loins the sackcloth, that is, I will make each one to put off all valuable and soft clothing and to put on sackcloth; and also to shave their heads, and even to tear off their hair, as they were wont to do. We indeed know that the orientals were more disposed to adopt external tokens of sorrow than we are. It was in truth the levity of that country that accounts for their playing the part of actors in mourning; and from this practice of mourning our Prophet borrowed his mode of speaking.

He afterwards subjoins, I will set her (he speaks of the Israelites under the name of land) in mourning as for an only begotten This similitude occurs also in another place, ‘They shall mourn as for an only-begotten,’ says Zechariah 12; so also in other places; so that there is no need of a long explanation. For when one has many children and one dies, he patiently bears his death; but when any one is bereaved of an only-begotten, there is no end nor moderation to his grief; for there is no comfort remaining. This is the reason why the Prophet says, that there would be grief, such as that which is felt for an only-begotten.

And he shows that these calamities would not be for a short time only, Her posterity, he says, shall be as in the day of bitterness Both this and the former line are rendered differently by Newcome, more consistently with the words of the original —

And I will make it as a mourning for an only son, And the end thereof as a day of bitterness.

The pronoun “it,” and also “thereof,” is the feminine ה: Newcome refers it to הדברה, this matter, or this event, understood: or in case ארף, land, be the antecedent, he thinks that כאבל, “as a mourning,” should be rendered participially, as “one who mourns.” Either of these constructions may suit the original; but another seems preferable. The antecedent to “it appears to be אבל, “mourning,” in the first line of the verse. Our own version is no doubt the correct one, and not that which Calvin adopts; only the last line may be better rendered thus, as Junius and Tremelius do —

“And the end of it as that of the bitterest day.”

— Ed. For hypocrites drive away, or at least moderate, their fear of punishment by imagining that God will not be so severe and rigid but for a short time, — “O! it cannot be God will for long punish our sins; but it will be like mist which soon passes away.” Thus hypocrites felicitate themselves. Then the Prophet does not without reason subjoin this second clause, that their posterity shall be as in the day of bitterness. Hence when they shall think themselves freed from all evils, then new ones shall succeed, so that their posterity shall even doubly grieve; for they shall feel more bitterness than their fathers. It now follows —

Amos 8:11-12

11. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:

11. Ecce dies veniunt, dicit Jehova, quibus mittam famem in terram, non famem panis, neque sitim aquarum, sed audiendi verba Jehovae:

12. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it

12. Et errabunt a mari usque ad mare, et a septentrione usque ad orientem discurrent ad quaerendum verbum Jehova, et non invenient.

Here now the Prophet fulminates, for he denounces not temporal punishments, but final destruction, and what proves to be an evidence of reprobation, and that is, that God would deprive the Israelites of every light of truth, so that they would wander as the blind in the dark. It is indeed certain, that they had been before this time bereaved of sound doctrine; for falsehoods and superstitions prevailed among them; and we have seen that in the land of Israel the true and faithful servants of God suffered cruel tyranny. But yet God restrained the people, as it were, against their will; when they fled away from him, and withdrew themselves from under his government, he still goaded them, and tried as by force to restore them to the way of safety. God thus contended with the wickedness of the people for many years, to the time of our Prophet, yea, until the ten tribes were banished; for these, we know, were led to exile first, and at length the kingdom of Israel was abolished; but the Lord ceased not to stretch forth his hand. Now when he saw that the labor of his servants was vain and useless, when he saw that no fruit proceeded from his word, when he saw that his name was profaned and his kindness trodden under foot, he denounced final vengeance, as though he said, “I am now broken down with weariness, I have hitherto borne with your cries, and though by many kinds of punishment I have endeavored to restore you, I have yet observed a moderate course, that there might not be wanting some remedy for you. It has not, therefore, been my fault that your diseases have not been healed; for I have often sent Prophets to draw you to repentance, but without any success. I will now then take away my word from you.” But as celestial doctrine is the spiritual food of the soul, the Prophet rightly adopts this metaphor, that the Lord would send a famine. This figure, then is borrowed from the efficacy and nature of God’s word: for to what purpose does God send to us Prophets and teachers, but to feed us with spiritual food? As he sustains our bodies by bread and water, or wine, and other aliments, so also he nourishes our souls and sustains our spiritual life by his word. Since, then, spiritual doctrine is our spiritual aliment, the Prophet very properly says, that there would come a famine.

I will then send a famine, not of bread or of water, but of hearing the word of God. The antithesis amplifies or exaggerates the severity of the punishment, as though he had said, that it would be endurable to wander in hunger and thirst, and to seek roots on mountains, and to seek water in distant rivers: but a bodily famine, he says, is not what shall be grievous to them, — what then? They shall be in hunger and thirst, and shall seek the word of God, and nowhere find it. But that we may better understand the meaning of the Prophet, we must notice what Paul says, — that we are fed by the Lord as by the head of a family, when the word is offered to us, (Titus 1:3) for teachers go not forth of themselves, but when they are sent from above. As then the head of a family provides meat and sustenance for his children and servants, so also the Lord supplies us daily with spiritual food by true and faithful teachers, for they are as it were his hands. Whenever then pure doctrine is offered to us, let us know that the teachers who speak and instruct us by their ministrations are, as it were, the hand of God, who sets food before us, as the head of a family is wont to do to his children: this is one thing. And certainly since the Lord cares for our bodies, we must also know that our souls are not neglected by him: and further, since the earth produces not corn and other things of itself, but God’s blessing is the source of all fruitfulness and abundance, is not his word a much more precious food? Shall we then say that it comes to us by chance? It is hence no wonder that the Prophet sets here the deprivation of sound doctrine among God’s judgments; as though he said, “Whenever men are faithfully taught, it is a proof of God’s singular kindness, and a testimony of his paternal care. As God then has hitherto discharged towards you the office of the kindest father of a family, so now he will deprive you of meat and drink, that is, those which are spiritual.” Now, in the second place, we must observe, that when we abuse God’s bounty, our ingratitude deserves this recompense, that want should teach us that God ought not to have been despised in his benefits. This is generally true: for when we intemperately indulge in luxury when God gives us abundance of bread and wine, we fully deserve that this intemperance and excess should be cured by famine and want. But bread and wine are of no great value, and soon pass away: when therefore we abuse celestial doctrine, which is far more precious than all earthly things, what punishment does not such willfulness deserve? It is therefore no wonder that God should take away his word from all ungrateful and profane men, when he sees it treated with mockery or disdain: and this truth ought to be carefully considered by us at this day; for we see with how little reverence the greater part of men receive the celestial doctrine, which at this time is so bountifully offered to us. God has indeed in our age opened the wonderful treasures of his paternal bounty in restoring to us the light of truth. What fear there is now? What religion? Some scoff, some disdain, some indeed profess to receive what is said, but they pass it by negligently, being occupied with the cares and concerns of this world, and some furiously oppose, as the Papists do. Since then the perverseness or the wickedness, or the carelessness of the world, is so great, what can we expect, but that the Lord will send a much thicker darkness than that in which we have been before immersed, and suffer us to go astray and wander here and there in hunger and thirst? If then we fear God, this punishment, or rather the denunciation of this punishment, ought ever to be before our eyes. And the antithesis also, as it is very important should be carefully considered; for the Prophet by the comparison increases the punishment: it shall not, he says, be the want of meat and drink, for such a divine visitation would be more tolerable; but it shall be a spiritual famine. Inasmuch then as we are too much entangled by our flesh, these words ought to arouse us, that we may more attentively reflect on this dreadful punishment, and learn to fear the famine or want of the soul more than that of our bodies. When the sterility of the land threatens us with famine, we are all anxiety, and no day passes, in which this anxious question does not ten times occur to us, — “What will become of us? We now suffer from famine and want, and we are, as yet, distant from the harvest three or four months.” All feel anxious, and in the meantime we are not touched by any concern when the Lord threatens us with spiritual want. Since then we are so disposed to be overanxious for this frail life, it is the more necessary for us to take notice at the comparison mentioned by our Prophet.

But it may be here asked, Why does he say that they should be so famished as to run here and there, and wander from sea to sea, from the south even to the east, since this ought to be counted as one of God’s favors; for what more grievous thing can happen to us, than that the Lord should render us stupid and unconcerned? But when we are touched with some desire for sound doctrine, it evidently appears that there is some religion in us; we are not destitute of the Spirit of God, though destitute of the outward medium: and then comes what Christ says,

‘Knock, and it shall be opened to you; seek, and ye shall find,’ (Matthew 7:7)

Therefore this denunciation of the Prophet seems not, it is said, so severe and dreadful. But we must observe, that the Prophet does not speak here strictly of famine, as though he said, that the Israelites would feel the want of God’s word, that they would really look for it, that they would sincerely seek it, but that they would perceive by the punishment itself, that nothing is more to be dreaded than to be deprived of the spiritual food of the soul. An example of this is found in Esau: when he saw that he had lost his birth-right, he cried and howled. He did not do this either from a right feeling, or because he had returned to a sound mind; but he was urged on by despair only: and then he sent forth lamentations and howlings, as though he were a wild beast. An anxiety like this is what the Prophet describes here. We hence learn, that the reprobate, when they see themselves deprived of God’s favors, are not really moved, so that they repent, but only feel strong agonies, so that they torment themselves without any benefit, and do not turn themselves to God.

What then is this to seek? We must notice what he said before — that they shall wander from sea to sea, and then, that they shall run here and there. When the faithful perceive any token of God’s wrath, they immediately conclude and clearly see, that there is no remedy but to retake themselves directly to God: but the ungodly, what do they do? They disquiet themselves, and make a great noise. It is then this empty and false feeling of which the Prophet speaks. Now then the question is answered. But we must at the same time observe, what the best way is to recover the favor of God, when we are deprived of it; and it is this, — to consider our state, and to return to him under a due consciousness of God’s judgment, and to seek to be reconciled to him. Thus will he restore what he has taken away. But if our obstinacy be like that of the Israelites, God will deprive us of his benefits, and not only those which are necessary to support our present life, but also of the spiritual food of the soul: then in vain will our howlings rend the air, for he will not give us an upright spirit to return to him; but we shall in vain bite the bridle, we shall in vain torment ourselves: for he will not suffer us to come where we ought, that is, he will not lead us to true repentance nor to a genuine calling on him, but we shall pine away in our evils without any remedy.

Prayer.

Grant, Almighty God, that as thou continues to recall us to thyself, and though thou sees us to be alienated from thee, thou yet dost extend thy hand to us, and often exhort and stimulate us by holy admonitions, and even frighten us by punishments, that we may not run headlong to our own ruin, — O grant, that we may not be deaf to admonitions so holy and gracious, nor be hardened against thy threatening, but that we may become instantly submissive, and also return to the right way and constantly proceed in it, and follow one vocation through our whole life, as long as thou continues it to us, until we at length reach the mark which is set before us, even until we be gathered into thy celestial kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Lecture Sixty-seventh

Amos 8:13-14

13. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.

13. In die illa deficient virgines decorae et adolescentes prae siti.

14. They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

14. Jurantes in peccato Samariae, et qui dicunt, Vivet via Barsaba; et cadent et non resurgent amplius.

The Prophet, having threatened spiritual famine, now adds, that the people would in every respect be barren and destitute of every good: for I take not thirst here in the same sense as before; but that they should be dried up through the want of all things. It is indeed the worst deprivation when men are parched up with thirst; and this is what the Prophet threatens here. A country may suffer from want of provision, while there is water enough to drink; but when not even this remains, it is an evidence of a heavier and of almost the extreme curse of God. We now perceive what the Prophet meant, which was this, — that when God should take away his word, by which the souls of men are nourished up to eternal life, the Israelites would be then in want also of all blessings, so that they would not only be without bread, but also without water; and he mentions a circumstance which would greatly aggravate the evil, Faint, he says, shall the fair virgins and the youth in their vigor It seems unnatural, that those who are vigorous, and can run to get supply for their wants, should faint: but the Prophet, as I have said, wished to show that there would be no escape, but that God would distress the strongest, when he sent such a famine, and with it the want also of drink.

He afterwards mentions the reason why the Lord would inflict such punishments on his people; it was, because they had prostituted themselves to wicked superstitions; They swear, he says, by the sin of Samaria; they say, Live does thy God, Dan; Live does the way of Beersheba Some understand “sin” here metaphorically, (as it is taken also in many other places,) as meaning sin-offerings, which are called by the Hebrews אשמות, ashimut, and by the Latins piacula — expiations: but this exposition is too refined. The Prophet then speaks only of the idols of Israelites: and they are called wickedness or sin, because superstitious men, we know, delight in their own devices. He therefore calls an idol sin by way of reproach, though they gave it the honorable name of a god. They swear, he says, in or by the sin of Samaria He calls it the sin of Samaria, for thence arose all their corruptions, it being the royal residence and the chief city of the whole country. Since then superstition proceeded from thence, the Prophet does not without reason say that all the idolatry, throughout the whole land, was the sin of Samaria; for he regarded the source where impiety originated.

And he afterwards explains himself by saying, Live does thy God, Dan; and, Live does the way of Beersheba: for we know that temples were raised both in Dan and in Beersheba. He then subjoins two forms of an oath, but for this end, — to show the character of the sin of Samaria, which he mentions. They swear then by the gods of Samaria, who were really detestable; for there is no greater atrocity in the sight of God than idolatry: but he afterwards adds, that they were gods who were worshipped at Dan and at Beersheba. What some say of the word דרך, darek, that it means pilgrimage or the way that leads there, is frivolous and puerile; for the Prophet, no doubt, used a common expression. He therefore calls custom “the way of Beersheba”, such as then was by common consent receded and approved. They then who swear by these fictitious forms of worship shall be parched, or pine away, with thirst

He then adds, They shall fall, and rise again no more; that is, their stroke shall be incurable, for God has hitherto employed moderate punishments, which could not heal them, as they had been obdurate in their evils. The Prophet then declares now that there would be no more any prospect of a remedy for them, and that the wound which God would inflict would be fatal, without any hope of being healed. This is the meaning. Let us now proceed —

Chapter 9

Amos 9:1

1. I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.

1. Vidi Dominum stantem super altare, et dixit, Percute superliminare et coommovebunter postes, et affliget (vel, afflige, in modo imperativo) in capite omnes, et novissimum ipsorum (vel, posteritatem) gladio occidam; non effuget ex ipsis fugiens, neque evadet ex ipsis qui evadit.

CHAPTER 8

Am 8:1-14. 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.

1. summer fruit--Hebrew, kitz. In Am 8:2 "end" is in Hebrew, keetz. The similarity of sounds implies that, as the summer is the end of the year and the time of the ripeness of fruits, so Israel is ripe for her last punishment, ending her national existence. As the fruit is plucked when ripe from the tree, so Israel from her land.

2. end--(Eze 7:2, 6).

3. songs of ... temple--(Am 5:23). The joyous hymns in the temple of Judah (or rather, in the Beth-el "royal temple," Am 7:13; for the allusion is to Israel, not Judah, throughout this chapter) shall be changed into "howlings." Grotius translates, "palace"; compare Am 6:5, as to the songs there. But Am 5:23, and Am 7:13, favor English Version.

they shall cast them forth with silence--not as the Margin, "be silent." It is an adverb, "silently." There shall be such great slaughter as even to prevent the bodies being buried [Calvin]. There shall be none of the usual professional mourners (Am 5:16), but the bodies will be cast out in silence. Perhaps also is meant that terror, both of God (compare Am 6:10) and of the foe, shall close their lips.

4. Hear--The nobles needed to be urged thus, as hating to hear reproof.

swallow up the needy--or, "gape after," that is, pant for their goods; so the word is used, Job 7:2, Margin.

to make the poor ... to fail--"that they (themselves) may be placed alone in the midst of the earth" (Is 5:8).

5. So greedy are they of unjust gain that they cannot spare a single day, however sacred, from pursuing it. They are strangers to God and enemies to themselves, who love market days better than sabbath days; and they who have lost piety will not long keep honesty. The new moons (Nu 10:10) and sabbaths were to be kept without working or trading (Ne 10:31).

set forth wheat--literally, "open out" stores of wheat for sale.

ephah--containing three seahs, or above three pecks.

making ... small--making it below the just weight to purchasers.

shekel great--taking from purchasers a greater weight of money than was due. Shekels used to be weighed out in payments (Ge 23:16). Thus they committed a double fraud against the law (De 25:13, 14).

6. buy ... poor for silver ... pair of shoes--that is, that we may compel the needy for money, or any other thing of however little worth, to sell themselves to us as bondmen, in defiance of Le 25:39; the very thing which brings down God's judgment (Am 2:6).

sell the refuse of ... wheat--which contains no nutriment, but which the poor eat at a low price, being unable to pay for flour.

7. Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob--that is, by Himself, in whom Jacob's seed glory [Maurer]. Rather, by the spiritual privileges of Israel, the adoption as His peculiar people [Calvin], the temple, and its Shekinah symbol of His presence. Compare Am 6:8, where it means Jehovah's temple (compare Am 4:2).

never forget--not pass by without punishing (Am 8:2; Ho 8:13; 9:9).

8. the land ... rise up wholly as a flood--The land will, as it were, be wholly turned into a flooding river (a flood being the image of overwhelming calamity, Da 9:26).

cast out and drowned, &c.--swept away and overwhelmed, as the land adjoining the Nile is by it, when flooding (Am 9:5). The Nile rises generally twenty feet. The waters then "cast out" mire and dirt (Is 57:20).

9. "Darkness" made to rise "at noon" is the emblem of great calamities (Jr 15:9; Eze 32:7-10).

10. baldness--a sign of mourning (Is 15:2; Jr 48:37; Eze 7:18).

I will make it as ... mourning of an only son--"it," that is, "the earth" (Am 8:9). I will reduce the land to such a state that there shall be the same occasion for mourning as when parents mourn for an only son (Jr 6:26; Zec 12:10).

11. famine of ... hearing the words of the Lord--a just retribution on those who now will not hear the Lord's prophets, nay even try to drive them away, as Amaziah did (Am 7:12); they shall look in vain, in their distress, for divine counsel, such as the prophets now offer (Eze 7:26; Mi 3:7). Compare as to the Jews' rejection of Messiah, and their consequent rejection by Him (Mt 21:43); and their desire for Messiah too late (Lu 17:22; Joh 7:34; 8:21). So, the prodigal when he had sojourned awhile in the "far-off country, began to be in want" in the "mighty famine" which arose (Lu 15:14; compare 1Sa 3:1; 7:2). It is remarkable that the Jews' religion is almost the only one that could be abolished against the will of the people themselves, on account of its being dependent on a particular place, namely, the temple. When that was destroyed, the Mosaic ritual, which could not exist without it, necessarily ceased. Providence designed it, that, as the law gave way to the Gospel, so all men should perceive it was so, in spite of the Jews' obstinate rejection of the Gospel.

12. they shall wander from sea to sea--that is, from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean, from east to west.

from ... north ... to ... east--where we might expect "from north to south." But so alienated was Israel from Judah, that no Israelite even then would think of repairing southward, that is, to Jerusalem for religious information. The circuit is traced as in Nu 34:3, &c., except that the south is omitted. Their "seeking the word of the Lord" would not be from a sincere desire to obey God, but under the pressure of punishment.

13. faint for thirst--namely, thirst for hearing the words of the Lord, being destitute of all other comfort. If even the young and strong faint, how much more the infirm (Is 40:30, 31)!

14. swear by the sin of Samaria--namely, the calves (De 9:21; Ho 4:15). "Swear by" means to worship (Psa 63:11).

The manner--that is, as "the way" is used (Psa 139:24; Ac 9:2), the mode of worship.

Thy god, O Dan--the other golden calf at Dan (1Ki 22:26-30).

liveth ... liveth--rather, "May thy god ... live ... may the manner ... live." Or, "As (surely as) thy god, O Dan, liveth." This is their formula when they swear; not "May Jehovah live!" or, "As Jehovah liveth!"

A basket of summer fruit - As summer fruit was not proper for preserving, but must be eaten as soon as gathered, so the Lord intimates by this symbol that the kingdom of Israel was now ripe for destruction, and that punishment must descend upon it without delay. Some think the prophet means the fruits at the end of autumn. And as after the autumn no fruit could be expected, so Israel's summer is gone by, her autumn is ended, and she shall yield no more fruit. Or, the autumn of her iniquity is come, the measure is filled up, and now she shall gather the fruit of her sin in the abundance of her punishment.

A basket of summer fruit - כלוב קיץ kelub kayits, the end is come - בא הקץ ba hakkets: here is a paronomasia or play upon the words kayits, summer fruit, and kets, the end, both coming from similar roots. See the note on Eze 7:2 (note), where there is a similar play on the same word.

I will not again pass by them any more - I will be no longer their Guardian.

The songs of the temple - Instead of שירות shiroth, songs, Houbigant reads שורות shoroth, the singing women; and Newcome follows him: "And the singing women of the palace shall howl in that day." Instead of joyous songs, they shall have nothing but lamentation.

They shall cast them forth with silence - Every place shall be filled with the dead, and a dreadful silence shall reign universally; the few that remain being afraid either to speak or complain, or even to chant a funeral dirge for the most respectable of the dead.

Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy - Ye that bruise the poor; exact from them, and tread them under foot.

When will the new moon be gone - This was kept as a kind of holy day, not by Divine command, but by custom. The Sabbath was strictly holy; and yet so covetous were they that they grudged to give to God and their own souls this seventh portion of time! But bad and execrable as they were, they neither set forth their corn, nor their wheat, nor any other kind of merchandise, on the Sabbath. They were saints then, when compared to multitudes called Christians, who keep their shops either partially or entirely open on the Lord's day, and buy and sell without any scruples of conscience. Conscience! alas! they have none; it is seared as with a hot iron. The strong man armed, in them, is quiet, for all his goods are in peace.

Making the ephah small, and the shekel great - Giving short measure, and taking full price; or, buying with a heavy weight, and selling with one that was light.

Falsifying the balances - Having one scale light, and the other weighty; one end of the beam long, and the other short. A few months ago I detected a knave with such balances; with a slip of his finger along the beam he altered the center, which made three ounces short weight in every pound. He did it so dexterously, that though I knew he was cheating, or, as the prophet expresses it, was falsifying the balances by deceit, it was some time before I could detect the fraud, and not till I had been several times cheated by this accomplished knave. So we find that though the knaves of ancient Israel are dead, they have left their successors behind them.

That we may buy the poor for silver - Buying their services for such a time, with just money enough to clear them from other creditors.

And the needy for a pair of shoes - See Amo 2:6.

And sell the refuse of the wheat! - Selling bad wheat and damaged flour to poor people as good, knowing that such cannot afford to prosecute them.

By the excellency of Jacob - By the state of eminence to which he had raised the descendants of Jacob; or, by the excellent One of Jacob, that is, Himself. The meaning is: "As surely as I have raised you to such a state of eminence, so surely will I punish you in proportion to your advantages and your crimes."

Shall not the land tremble for this - It is supposed that an earthquake is here intended, and that the rising up and subsiding as a flood refers to that heaving motion that takes place in an earthquake, and which the prophet here compares to the overflowing and subsiding of the waters of the Nile. But it may refer to commotions among the people.

I will cause the sun to go down at noon - This may either refer to that darkness which often precedes and accompanies earthquakes, or to an eclipse. Abp. Usher has shown that about eleven years after Amos prophesied there were two great eclipses of the sun; one at the feast of tabernacles, and the other some time before the passover. The prophet may refer to the darkness occasioned by those eclipses; yet I rather think the whole may refer to the earthquake.

I will turn your feasts into mourning - See on Amo 8:3 (note).

A bitter day - A time of grievous calamity.

A famine in the land - The most grievous of all famines, a famine of the words of Jehovah; a time in which no prophet should appear, no spiritual counsellor, no faithful reprover, none any longer who would point out the way of salvation, or would assure them of the mercy of God on their repentance and return to him. This is the severest of God's judgments on this side the worm that never dieth, and the fire that is never quenched.

They shall wander front sea to sea - From the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea or from west to east, and from north to south, to seek the word of the Lord; to find a prophet, or any person authorized by God to show them the end of their calamities. In this state they shall continue, because they have rejected Him who is the bread of life.

By the sin of Samaria - Baal, who was worshipped here.

Thy god, O Dan - The golden calf, or ox, the representative of the Egyptian god Apis, or Osiris.

The manner of Beer-sheba - The worship, or object of worship. Another of the golden calves which Jeroboam had set up there. The word דרך derech, way, is here taken for the object and mode of worship; see Act 19:9, where way is taken for the creed and form of Divine worship as practiced by the followers of Christ, and by which they were distinguished from the Jews. See also Act 9:2.

The end - Of God's patience towards Israel, the end of their ripening, they are now fully ripe, fit to be gathered. Pass by them - God had with admirable patience spared, but now he will no more pardon or spare.

With silence - So great will be the cruelty of the enemy, that they dare not bury them, or if they do, it must be undiscerned.

To fail - Either to root them out, or to enslave them.

When - Ye that could wish there were nothing to interrupt your marketing, that look on solemn times of worship as burdensome, such was the first day of every month, and the weekly sabbath. Small - So the ephah being too little, the poor buyer had not his due. The shekel great - They weighed the money which they received, and had no more justice, than to make their shekel weight greater than the standard; so the poor were twice oppressed, had less than was their right, and paid more than they ought to pay.

That we may buy - They would have new moons and sabbaths over, that they might go to market to buy the poor. And when these poor owed but for a very little commodity, as suppose a pair of shoes, these merciless men would take the advantage against them, and make them sell themselves to pay the debt. The refuse - This was another kind of oppression, corrupted wares, sold to those that were necessitous.

Hath sworn - By himself. Forget - Suffer to pass unpunished.

The land - The people of it. For this - This that you have done, and this that God will do. And it - The judgment, the displeasure of God, shall rise and grow like a mighty wasting flood. It - The land. Drowned - As Egypt by the overflowing of the Nile.

At noon - So Israel's sun did as at noon set under the dark cloud of conspiracies and civil wars by Shallum, Menahem, Pekah, and Hosea, 'till the midnight darkness drew on by Pul, Tiglath - Pilneser, and Salmaneser. Darken - Bring a thick cloud of troubles and afflictions. In the clear day - When they think all is safe, sure, and well settled.

Upon all loins - All sorts of persons shall put on mourning. Baldness - Shaving the head and beard was a sign of the greatest sadness. A bitter day - A bitter day, which you shall wish you had never seen, shall succeed your dark night.

Shall wander - Search all places for a prophet or preacher, from the Mid - land sea to the dead sea, they shall search all corners for a prophet.

They - Who sacrifice to and swear by the calves at Dan and Beth - el. By the sin - Who say the idol at Dan is the true and living God. The manner - The idol which is worshipped at Beersheba.

1 THus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me, And behold a basket b of summer fruit .

Vid. chap. 7. ver. 1. let. b. c. and ver. 4. and ver. 7. a hook say some, with which the gatherer might either pull down the bough, or pull off the ripe Fruit; or a basket into which the ripe fruit gathered was put to be carryed away.

Not the early ripe fruit, but that which as it needed, so had the whole Summers heat to ripen it, and was gathered in at the end of the Summer.

2 And he said, Amos, what seest thou ? And I said, A basket of summer-fruit . Then said the LORD unto me , The end is come upon my people Israel, I will not again pass by them any more .

The like Question you have, cap. 7. ver. 8. which see in let. d. e.

Vid. ver. 1. let. b. e.

The meaning of this Hieroglyphick as not very plain in it self, the Lord doth here explain it in the following words,

Of Gods patience towards Israel, of their peace, growth, and glory, the end of their ripening, they are now as fruit fully ripe, in the end of the year sit to be gathered,

So they were once, so they boast themselves, so the Nations about them account Israel to be the people of God.

Vid. chap. 7. ver. 7. let. h. God had with admirable patience spared and tried, but now he will with just severity punish, neither pardon, nor spare.

3 And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day , saith the Lord GOD , there shall be many dead bodies in every place , they shall cast them forth with silence .

Which were composed by choicest wits, and set to sweetest Tunes, and chanted out by most skilful singers to the best musical instruments,

either to take in Iudah, and foretel the desolation of their Temple, or else by an Ironie, the Idol Temples, or else of the Palace, as the word in the Hebr. All Court mirth and jollity, Balls and Musick entertainments,

shall howl, Hebr. be turned into the hideous out-cries of undone and despairing men,

when God shall execute his Judgments threatned as he did begin on the Death of Ieroboam, and continued that day of vengeance till Salmaneser finished the work in the ruine of Samaria and its Captivity.

This added to assure Israel, that what Amos did foretel, should be accomplisht, for God spake it.

So there were when Shallum slew Zacharie, so there were when Menahem slew Shallum, when he came with his Army against Samaria, when he ript up the women with child in Tiphsah. 2 Kings 15.16. and when other usurpers prest through blood and treason to the Crown, beside the howlings when Pul, Tiglath-Pilneser, and Salmaneser cruelly wasted all

In Cities, Towns, and Country, in Palaces, and Temples too, in all which, the bloody effects of Enemies Swords, the wastes of Famine and Pestilence should be seen,

Who howl, who see this,

either shall secretly bury them, so some, or to rid themselves of that trouble, shall cast them out wherever they can, with silence, that none may observe them; so great calamitous mortality, that the living suffice not to bury the dead, or so great cruelty by the Enemy used against them, that they dare not bury them, or if they do, it must be undiscerned, see chap. 6. ver. 10.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 letter]owl.; Heb. be silent.

4 Hear this , O ye that swallow up the needy , even to make the poor of the land to fail .

Though the Prophet had several times told them what were the sins for which God would thus punish Israel, yet on a repeated threat he repeateth the rehearsal of the sins which draw down these judgments on their▪ heads, so here, attend, and consider it

greedily and cruelly devour, that do like the greater fish swallow up the lesser fry: In this one word the Prophet includeth all the methods of their cruel oppression, wasting the poor;

Such as were objects of your mercy, had you been just and honest, as well as rich and great.

Either to root them out, or to enslave them while their necessities force them to sell themselves for bread.

5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone , that we may sell corn? and the sabbath that we may set forth wheat , making the ephah small , and the shekel great , and falsifying the balances by deceit .

Ye that could wish there were nothing to interrupt your Marketting, your irreligious impatience, and your eagerness after the world; look on solemn times of Divine Worship as very burthensom, such was the first day of every Moneth, and the weekly sabbath.

No servile work might be done on new Moons, no Markets kept, or Corn brought forth publickly to be sold.

They were also bound very Religiously to observe the Sabbath, and on that day they might not buy or sell, now they are weary of the Sabbath, as of the new Moon, and on the same account with it over,; here was irreligious gaping after gain.

The Ephah was a measure for dry things, and contain'd about half bushel and one pottle English measure. Now these covetous Corn-Merchants measured the Corn they sold by an Ephah that was too little, the poor Buyer had not his due.

They weighed the Money which they received, and these rich men had no more pity and justice, than to make their shekel weight greater than the Standard; so the poor were twice oppressed in the same way, had less than was their right, and paid more than they ought to pay; and thus they undid the poor, and eat him up.

Deceitfully pervert the ballances that the Money or Shekel weighed, though of full weight, yet appeared too light on the ballance, and they who paid it, were forced to add more silver to it.

Marginal references: Heb. open.; Mich. 6.10.; Heb. perverting the ballances of deceit. Hos. 12.7.

6 That we may buy the poor for silver , and the needy for a pair of shoes , yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat.

Either it speaks the aim of these men in oppressing the poor thus, that they might at last buy their persons for Servants and Drudges, or else it speaks the reason why they would have new Moons and Sabbaths over, that they might to Market to buy the poor.

i. e. a little silver, at undervalue, as Amos. 2.6.

This explains the former, and shews us that these cruel oppressours lay in wait for the needy to buy them for a very trifle, when these poor owed but for a very little and cheap Commodity, as suppose a pair of shoes, these merciless men would take the advantage against them, and make them sell themselves to pay the Debt. All which practices are most directly against the Law of God.

That which is fitter for hogs to mousle, or for horses to eat, the poor must at dear rate either buy or starve, and this another kind of oppression, corrupted Wares at excessive rates, sold to those that were necessitous.

Marginal references: chap. [illegible: 2 letters]

7 The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob , Surely I will never forget any of their works.

Who changeth not, whose words and purposes are immutably true and stedfast, hath often told you, that unless you repent, he will punish for your sins

now he hath sworn it, and sends you word by me, that he hath in most solemn and irrevocable manner determined, publisht, and expresly declared that he will visit all your sins upon you

by himself, for God cannot swear by any greater, and he is called the excellency of Jacob, Psal. 47.4.

If Hebr. If I am a God, I will remember and punish,

or let pass unpunisht, I will never remit the punishment by an act of pardon, nor ever omit to punish by an act of forgetfulness,

Not one of all these their abominable injustices, and irreligion, not one of these cruelties.

Marginal references: chap▪ [illegible: 2 letters]

8 Shall not the land tremble for this , and every one mourn that dwelleth therein ? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood, and it shall be cast out, and drowned ▪ as by the flood of Egypt.

Either literally, are not such sins and judgments enough to shake the very foundations of the Earth? Or, metonymically the land for the people of it, as after in the verse they that dwell therein.

This that you have done O house of Israel i[illegible: 1 letter] sinning, and this that God will do in punishing, enough to melt the earth, as Psal. 46.6.

Since every one hath sinned too much, and every one shall suffer in this approaching calamity, every one at the news may well mourn, and lament,

In the Land of Israel,

or by an interrogation shall it not, i. e. shall not the judgment the invading Troops of Assyria, the displeasure of God, rise and grow as a mighty wasting flood? or else thus the whole Land shall rise up, sob'd in these judgments, it shall seem to swell and grow greater ready like an hydropick to burst asunder, or else 'tis an Hypallage, the Land shall rise up, i. e. The flood shall rise over the Land, or which I rather incline to, the whole judgment shall rise as a flood.

The Land, the State, People, and what they have shall be as in a Shipwrack, or mighty flood which breaks all down before it be tossed in the Surges and Waves,

and at last by the continuance of this Tempest drowned all as the overflowing of Nilus doth drown all the plains of Egypt.

Marginal references: chap. [illegible: 2 letters]

9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD , that I will cause the sun to go down at noon , and I will darken the earth in the clear day .

Most certainly 'twill be,

when God begins to execute these his just and severe judgments on the Ten Tribes.

The great, just, holy, and terrible God who is provoked by these sins, and hath denounced these judgments, my hand shall be evident in it,

literally say some but erroneously, by Sun I understand rather the setled state of their prosperity under their present Government in the house of Iehu, or it may refer particularly to their King and Court, which Ieroboam at his death left like the Sun at Noon in the height of their Glory, as all know, who know the History of those times.

So Israels Sun did as at Noon set under the dark Cloud of home bred Conspiracies and Civil Wars by Shallum, Menahem, Pekah, and Hoshea till the midnight darkness drew on by Pul, Tiglath Pilneser, and Salmaneser.

Bring a thick cloud of Troubles and Afflictions.

The common people, the whole Body of the Nation, so the Sun speaks the Royalty, Nobility, and great ones of this Kingdom by an allusion well known in Scripture, and the Earth speaks the common sort of people, and all are here threatned.

When they did think (as in Ieroboam's time) all was safe, sure, and well setled, far from the night of sorrow and trouble, then will God bring all this he threatneth upon them.

10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning , and all your songs into lamentation , and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins and baldness upon every head , and I will make it as the mourning of an only son , and the end thereof as a bitter day .

Religious, though Idolatrous in your Temples, Vide ver. 3. let. † and k. and l. and your ordinary civil feasts in your Palaces.

See ver. 3. let. l.

This ingemination doth assure the thing, and forebode the sadness of their state.

As all inwardly shall be sadness, so all that appears outwardly shall speak their sorrow and sadness.

All sorts of persons should put on this mourning, and gird it close to their loins that it might afflict them the more, a custom very general in those times and places.

Partly pulling off the hair of the head through anguish, or shaving the head and beard in sign of greatest sadness as the Eastern people did, Vid. Mic. 1.16.

This is accounted the greatest mourning, and seems proverbially to express such mourning, Ier. 6.26. and Zech. 12.10. which see; so God will afflict this people with greatest sorrows, and fill them with greatest mourning.

You may hope these troubles will over, and come to an end, but that will be little to your comfort.

A bitter day, which ye[illegible: 1 letter] shall wish you had never seen, shall succeed your dark night, as indeed it doth to this day.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 letter]sa. 15.2. [illegible: 1 word] 48.37. [illegible: 1 word] 7.18.

11 Behold the dayes come, saith the Lord GOD , that I will send a famine in the land , not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water , but of hearing the word of the LORD.

Note well what now I shall declare to you, and consider it.

Surely, speedily, and according to the threats of God.

By a signal hand of Divine displeasure it shall appear to be from God, that such a famine cometh upon them of Israel.

A Spiritual Famine joyn'd with a corporal Famine, their bodies were pin'd with Famine, destitute of bread and water; and this God sent too, but the Famine of the Soul is worse and more grievous,

Either the written word which Israel had among them till their Captivity, but afterwards should ever want both it, and those who should interpret it to them, or else the word of Prophesie, now they despise it, though they have it, but then they shall desire it, and have it not. They shall hunt after Prophets, to tell them when their troubles shall end, though now they hate Prophets who warn them, that their Troubles might not begin: Now Israel despiseth a Prophets Counsel, then they shall hunt for it, but not have a Prophet to give them counsel, as Psal. 74.9.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 letter] Sam. 3.1.

12 And they shall wander from sea to sea , and from the north even to the east , they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it .

Search all places for a Prophet or a Preacher, from the Syrian or Midland Sea to that of Tiberias, to the Dead Sea, and to the Red Sea.

That mountainous tract, whether persecuted Elijah fled, and perhaps other Prophets in like Circumstances retired, proverbially they shall search all Corners for a Prophet.

Shall diligently and speedily on every report that a Prophet is, on hear-says in such or such a place, hasten thither as Ahab in his search for Elijah, 1 Kings. 18.10.

hoping to hear some good news of an end of their miseries from God by a Prophet.

They persecuted, and slew such as foretold the beginning of this misery, and now 'tis come, they shall neither hear the news, nor see the hopes of an end. God did tell them it would be utter ruine, and no Prophet of God can tell them any better news.

13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst

It is probable these in their strength and vigour would seek earnestly to know what end they might expect, whether they should out-live this famine of the word, and the famine of bread and water, but both should faint with thirst and hunger, neither finding the word of the Lord for their comfort, they should faint with despair, nor finding bread and water, should faint and dye with weakness, so Israel should be extinguisht.

14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say , Thy God, O Dan, liveth , and, The manner of Beersheba liveth, even they shall fall , and never rise up again .

Who now do as formerly they have done, trust in sacrifice to, and swear by; who are obstinate Idolaters, and trust to those lies.

That which was the sin, the occasion of the sin of Samaria. The Calves at Dan and Bethel.

Think, profess, and swear too that

the Idol at Dan is the true and living God.

The Idols at Beersheba to which the zealous, mad, and bigotted Idolaters in Israel made their Pilgrimages

be consumed by Famine, Sword, and Captivity,

Never return out of Captivity, nor recover of this Consumption.

Marginal references: Hos. 4.15.; Deut. 9.21.

The Ripeness of Israel for Judgment - Amo 8:1-14

Under the symbol of a basket filled with ripe fruit, the Lord shows the prophet that Israel is ripe for judgment (Amo 8:1-3); whereupon Amos, explaining the meaning of this vision, announces to the unrighteous magnates of the nation the changing of their joyful feasts into days of mourning, as the punishment from God for their unrighteousness (Amo 8:4-10), and sets before them a time when those who now despise the word of God will sigh in vain in their extremity for a word of the Lord (Amo 8:11-14).

Amo 8:1-3

Vision of a Basket of Ripe Fruit. - Amo 8:1. “Thus did the Lord Jehovah show me: and behold a basket with ripe fruit. Amo 8:2. And He said, What seest thou, Amos? And I said, A basket of ripe fruit. Then Jehovah said to me, The end is come to my people Israel; I will not pass by them any more. Amo 8:3. And the songs of the palace will yell in that day, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah: corpses in multitude; in every place hath He cast them forth: Hush!” כּלוּב from כּלך, to lay hold of, to grasp, lit., a receiver, here a basket (of basket-work), in Jer 5:27 a bird-cage. קיץ: summer-fruit (see at 2Sa 16:1); in Isa 16:9; Isa 28:4, the gathering of fruit, hence ripe fruit. The basket of ripe fruit (qayits) is thus explained by the Lord: the end (qēts) is come to my people (cf. Eze 7:6). Consequently the basket of ripe fruit is a figurative representation of the nation that is now ripe for judgment, although qēts, the end, does not denote its ripeness for judgment, but its destruction, and the word qēts is simply chosen to form a paronomasia with qayits. לא אוסיף וגו as in Amo 7:8. All the joy shall be turned into mourning. the thought is not that the temple-singing to the praise of God (Amo 5:23) would be turned into yelling, but that the songs of joy (Amo 6:5; 2Sa 19:36) would be turned into yells, i.e., into sounds of lamentation (cf. Amo 8:10 and 1 Maccabees 9:41), namely, because of the multitude of the dead which lay upon the ground on every side. השׁליך is not impersonal, in the sense of “which men are no longer able to bury on account of their great number, and therefore cast away in quiet places on every side;” but Jehovah is to be regarded as the subject, viz., which God has laid prostrate, or cast to the ground on every side. For the adverbial use of הס cannot be established. The word is an interjection here, as in Amo 6:10; and the exclamation, Hush! is not a sign of gloomy despair, but an admonition to bow beneath the overwhelming severity of the judgment of God, as in Zep 1:7 (cf. Hab 2:20 and Zec 2:13).

Amo 8:4-6

To this vision the prophet attaches the last admonition to the rich and powerful men of the nation, to observe the threatening of the Lord before it is too late, impressing upon them the terrible severity of the judgment. Amo 8:4. “Hear this, ye that gape for the poor, and to destroy the meek of the earth, Amo 8:5. Saying, When is the new moon over, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may open wheat, to make the ephah small, and the shekel great, and to falsify the scale of deceit? Amo 8:6. To buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and the refuse of the corn will we sell.” The persons addressed are the השּׁאפים אביון, i.e., not those who snort at the poor man, to frighten him away from any further pursuit of his rights (Baur), but, according to Amo 2:6-7, those who greedily pant for the poor man, who try to swallow him (Hitzig). This is affirmed in the second clause of the verse, in which שׁאפים is to be repeated in thought before להשׁבּית: they gape to destroy the quiet in the land (ענוי־ארץ = ענוים, in Amo 2:7), “namely by grasping all property for themselves, Job 22:8; Isa 5:8” (Hitzig). Amo 8:5 and Amo 8:6 show how they expect to accomplish their purpose. Like covetous usurers, they cannot even wait for the end of the feast-days to pursue their trade still further. Chōdēsh, the new moon, was a holiday on which all trade was suspended, just as it was on the Sabbath (see at Num 28:11 and 2Ki 4:23). השׁבּיר שׁבר, to sell corn, as in Gen 41:57. פּתח בּר, to open up corn, i.e., to open the granaries (cf. Gen 41:56). In doing so, they wanted to cheat the poor by small measure (ephah), and by making the shekel great, i.e., by increasing the price, which was to be weighed out to them; also by false scales (‛ivvēth, to pervert, or falsify the scale of deceit, i.e., the scale used for cheating), and by bad corn (mappal, waste or refuse); that in this way they might make the poor man so poor, that he would either be obliged to sell himself to them from want and distress (Lev 25:39), or be handed over to the creditor by the court of justice, because he was no longer able to pay for a pair of shoes, i.e., the very smallest debt (cf. Amo 2:6).

Amo 8:7-8

Such wickedness as this would be severely punished by the Lord. Amo 8:7. “Jehovah hath sworn by the pride of Jacob, Verily I will not forget all their deeds for ever. Amo 8:8. Shall the earth not tremble for this, and every inhabitants upon it mourn? and all of it rises like the Nile, and heaves and sinks like the Nile of Egypt.” The pride of Jacob is Jehovah, as in Hos 5:5 and Hos 7:10. Jehovah swears by the pride of Jacob, as He does by His holiness in Amo 4:2, or by His soul in Amo 6:8, i.e., as He who is the pride and glory of Israel: i.e., as truly as He is so, will He and must He punish such acts as these. By overlooking such sins, or leaving them unpunished, He would deny His glory in Israel. שׁכח, to forget a sin, i.e., to leave it unpunished. In Amo 8:8 the negative question is an expression denoting strong assurance. “For this” is generally supposed to refer to the sins; but this is a mistake, as the previous verse alludes not to the sins themselves, but to the punishment of them; and the solemn oath of Jehovah does not contain so subordinate and casual a thought, that we can pass over Amo 8:7, and take על זאת as referring back to Amo 8:4-6. It rather refers to the substance of the oath, i.e., to the punishment of the sins which the Lord announces with a solemn oath. This will be so terrible that the earth will quake, and be resolved, as it were, into its primeval condition of chaos. Râgaz, to tremble, or, when applied to the earth, to quake, does not mean to shudder, or to be shocked, as Rosenmüller explains it after Jer 2:12. Still less can the idea of the earth rearing and rising up in a stormy manner to cast them off, which Hitzig supports, be proved to be a biblical idea from Isa 24:20. The thought is rather that, under the weight of the judgment, the earth will quake, and all its inhabitants will be thrown into mourning, as we may clearly see from the parallel passage in Amo 9:5. In Amo 8:8 this figure is carried out still further, and the whole earth is represented as being turned into a sea, heaving and falling in a tempestuous manner, just as in the case of the flood. כּלּהּ, the totality of the earth, the entire globe, will rise, and swell and fall like waters lashed into a storm. This rising and falling of the earth is compared to the rising and sinking of the Nile. According to the Parallel passage in Amo 9:5,  כּאר  is a defective form for  כּיאר,  just as  בּוּל  is for  יבוּל  in Job 40:20, and it is still further defined by the expression  כּיאור מצרים,  which follows. All the ancient versions have taken it as יאור, and many of the Hebrew codd. (in Kennicott and De Rossi) have this reading. Nigrash, to be excited, a term applied to the stormy sea (Isa 57:20). נשׁקה is a softened form for נשׁקעה, as is shown by שׁקעה in Amo 9:5.

Amo 8:9-10 “And it will come to pass on that day, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, I cause the sun to set at noon, and make it dark to the earth in clear day. Amo 8:10. And turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation: and bring mourning clothes upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and make it like mourning for an only one, and the end thereof like a bitter day.” The effect of the divine judgment upon the Israelites is depicted here. Just as the wicked overturn the moral order of the universe, so will the Lord, with His judgment, break through the order of nature, cause the sun to go down at noon, and envelope the earth in darkness in clear day. The words of the ninth verse are not founded upon the idea of an eclipse of the sun, though Michaelis and Hitzig not only assume that they are, but actually attempt to determine the time of its occurrence. An eclipse of the sun is not the setting of the sun (כּוא). But to any man the sun sets at noon, when he is suddenly snatched away by death, in the very midst of his life. And this also applies to a nation when it is suddenly destroyed in the midst of its earthly prosperity. But it has a still wider application. When the Lord shall come to judgment, at a time when the world, in its self-security, looketh not for Him (cf. Mat 24:37.), this earth’s sun will set at noon, and the earth be covered with darkness in bright daylight. And every judgment that falls upon an ungodly people or kingdom, as the ages roll away, is a harbinger of the approach of the final judgment. Amo 8:10. When the judgment shall burst upon Israel, then will all the joyous feasts give way to mourning and lamentation (compare Amo 8:3 and Amo 5:16; Hos 2:13). On the shaving of a bald place as a sign of mourning, see Isa 3:24. This mourning will be very deep, like the mourning for the death of an only son (cf. Jer 6:26 and Zec 12:10). The suffix in שׂמתּיה (I make it) does not refer to אבל (mourning), but to all that has been previously mentioned as done upon that day, to their weeping and lamenting (Hitzig). אחריתהּ, the end thereof, namely, of this mourning and lamentation, will be a bitter day (כ is caph verit.; see at Joe 1:15). This implies that the judgment will not be a passing one, but will continue.

Amo 8:11-12

And at that time the light and comfort of the word of God will also fail them. Amo 8:11. “Behold, days come, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, that I send a hungering into the land, not a hungering for bread nor a thirst for water, but to hear the words of Jehovah. Amo 8:12. And they will reel from sea to sea; and from the north, and even to the east, they sweep round to seek the word of Jehovah, and will not find it.” The bitterness of the time of punishment is increased by the fact that the Lord will then withdrawn His word from them, i.e., the light of His revelation. They who will not now hear His word, as proclaimed by the prophets, will then cherish the greatest longing for it. Such hunger and thirst will be awakened by the distress and affliction that will come upon them. The intensity of this desire is depicted in Amo 8:12. They reel (נוּע as in Amo 4:8) from the sea to the sea; that is to say, not “from the Dead Sea in the east to the Mediterranean in the west,” for Joe 2:20 and Zec 14:8 are not cases in point, as the two seas are defined there by distinct epithets; but as in Psa 72:8 and Zec 9:10, according to which the meaning is, from the sea to where the sea occurs again, at the other end of the world, “the sea being taken as the boundary of the earth” (Hupfeld). The other clause, “from the north even to the east,” contains an abridged expression for “from north to south and from west to east,” i.e., to every quarter of the globe.

Amo 8:13-14 “In that day will the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst. Amo 8:14. They who swear by the guilt of Samaria, and say, By the life of thy God, O Dan! and by the life of the way to Beersheba; and will fall, and not rise again.” Those who now stand in all the fullest and freshest vigour of life, will succumb to this hunger and thirst. The virgins and young men are individualized, as comprising that portion of the nation which possessed the vigorous fulness of youth. עלף, to be enveloped in night, to sink into a swoon, hithp. to hide one’s self, to faint away. הנּשׁבּעים refers to the young men and virgins; and inasmuch as they represent the most vigorous portion of the nation, to the nation as a whole. If the strongest succumb to the thirst, how much more the weak! 'Ashmath Shōmerōn, the guilt of Samaria, is the golden calf at Bethel, the principal idol of the kingdom of Israel, which is named after the capital Samaria (compare Deu 9:21, “the sin of Israel”), not the Asherah which was still standing in Samaria in the reign of Jehoahaz (2Ki 13:6); for apart from the question whether it was there in the time of Jeroboam, this is at variance with the second clause, in which the manner of their swearing is given, - namely, by the life of the god at Dan, that is to say, the golden calf that was there; so that the guilt of Samaria can only have been the golden calf at Bethel, the national sanctuary of the ten tribes (cf. Amo 4:4; Amo 5:5). The way to Beersheba is mentioned, instead of the worship, for the sake of which the pilgrimage to Beersheba was made. This worship, again, was not a purely heathen worship, but an idolatrous worship of Jehovah (see Amo 5:5). The fulfilment of these threats commenced with the destruction of the kingdom of Israel, and the carrying away of the ten tribes into exile in Assyria, and continues to this day in the case of that portion of the Israelitish nation which is still looking for the Messiah, the prophet promised by Moses, and looking in vain, because they will not hearken to the preaching of the gospel concerning the Messiah, who appeared as Jesus. Destruction of the Sinful Kingdom, and Establishment of the New Kingdom of God - Amo 9:1-15

The prophet sees the Lord standing by the altar, and giving command to overthrow the temple, that the whole nation may be buried beneath the ruins (Amo 9:1). Should any one escape, the Lord will pursue him everywhere, and overtake and destroy him (Amo 9:2-4); for He is the Almighty God, and the Judge of the world (Amo 9:5 and Amo 9:6); and Israel has become like the heathen, so that it deserves no sparing. Nevertheless it shall not be utterly destroyed, but simply sifted, and the sinful mass be slain (Amo 9:7-10). Then will the fallen tabernacle of David be raised up again, and the kingdom of God be glorified by the reception of all nations (Amo 9:12), and richly blessed with the fulness of the gifts of divine grace (Amo 9:13, Amo 9:14), and never destroyed again (Amo 9:15). As the chapter gives the final development of the judgment threatened in the preceding one, so is it also closely attached in form to ch. 7 and Amo 8:1-14, commencing with a vision just as they do. But whilst the preceding visions simply indicate the judgment which is to fall upon the sinful nation, and are introduced with the words, “The Lord showed me” (Amo 7:1, Amo 7:4, Amo 7:7; Amo 8:1), this closing vision shows the Lord engaged in the execution of the judgment, and commences accordingly with the words, “I saw the Lord standing,” etc.

The Vision of Summer Fruit. (b. c. 785.)

1 Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit. 2 And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. 3 And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God : there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.

The great reason why sinners defer their repentance de die in diem—from day to day, is because they think God thus defers his judgments, and there is no song wherewith they so effectually sing themselves asleep as that, My Lord delays his coming; and therefore God, by his prophets, frequently represents to Israel the day of his wrath not only as just and certain, but as very near and hastening on apace; so he does in these verses.

I. The approach of the threatened ruin is represented by a basket of summer-fruit which Amos saw in vision; for the Lord showed it to him (v. 1) and obliged him to take notice of it (v. 2): Amos, what seest thou? Note, It concerns us to enquire whether we do indeed see that which God has been pleased to show us, and hear what he has been pleased to say to us; for many a thing God speaks, God shows once, yea twice, and men perceive it not. Are we in the midst of the visions of the Almighty? Let us consider what we see. He saw a basket of summer-fruit gathered and ready to be eaten, which signified, 1. That they were ripe for destruction, rotten ripe, and it was time for God to put in the sickle of his judgments and to cut them off; nay, the thing was in effect done already, and they lay ready to be eaten up. 2. That the year of God's patience was drawing towards a conclusion; it was autumn with them, and their year would quickly have its period in a dismal winter. 3. Those we call summer-fruits that will not keep till winter, but must be used immediately, an emblem of this people, that had nothing solid or consistent in them.

II. The intent and meaning of this vision is no more than this: It signifies that the end has come upon my people Israel. The word that signifies the end is ketz, which is of near affinity with kitz, the word used for summer-fruit. God has long spared them, and borne with them, but now his patience is tired out; they are indeed his people Israel, but their end, that latter end they have been so often reminded of, but have so long forgotten, has now come. Note, If sinners do not make an end of sin, God will make an end of them, yea though they be his people Israel. What was said ch. vii. 8 is here repeated as God's determined resolution, I will not again pass by them any more; they shall not be connived at as they have been, nor the judgment coming turned away.

III. The consequence of this shall be a universal desolation (v. 3): When the end shall come sorrow and death shall ride in triumph; they are accustomed to go together, and shall at length go away together, when in heaven there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, Rev. xxi. 4. But here in a sinful world, in a sinful nation, 1. Sorrow reigns, reigns to such a degree that the songs of the temple shall be howlings—the songs of God's temple at Jerusalem, or rather of their idol-temples, where they used, when, in honour of the golden calves, they had eaten and drunk, to rise up to play. They were perhaps wanton profane songs; and it is certain that sooner or later those will be turned into howlings. Or, if they had a sound and show of piety and religion, yet, not coming from the heart, nor being sung to the glory of God, he valued them not, but would justly turn them into howlings. Note, Mourning will follow sinful mirth, yea, and sacred mirth too, it if be not sincere. And, when God's judgments are abroad, they will soon turn the greatest joy into the greatest heaviness, the temple-songs, which used to sound so pleasantly, not only into sighs and groans, but into loud howlings, which sound dismally. They shall come to the temple, and, finding that in ruins, there they shall howl most bitterly. 2. Death reigns, reigns to such a degree that there shall be dead bodies, many dead bodies in every place (Ps. cx. 6), slain by sword or pestilence, so many that the survivors shall not bury them with the usual pomp and solemnity of funerals; they shall not so much as have the bell tolled, but they shall cast them forth with silence, shall bury them in the dead of the night, and charge all about them to be silent and to take notice of it, either because they have not wherewithal to bear the charges of a funeral, or because, the killing disease being infectious, none will come near them, or for fear the enemy should be provoked, if they should be known to lament their slain. Or they shall charge themselves and one another silently to submit to the hand of God in these desolating judgments, and not to repine and quarrel with him. Or it may be taken not for a patient, but a sullen silence; their hearts shall be hardened, and all these judgments shall not extort from them one word of acknowledgment either of God's righteousness or their own unrighteousness.

The Sin and Doom of Oppressors. (b. c. 785.)

4 Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, 5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? 6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat? 7 The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works. 8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt. 9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God , that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day: 10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

God is here contending with proud oppressors, and showing them,

I. The heinousness of the sin they were guilty of; in short, they had the character of the unjust judge (Luke xviii. 2) that neither feared God nor regarded man.

1. Observe them in their devotions, and you will say, "They had no reverence for God." Bad as they are, they do indeed keep up a show and form of godliness; they observe the sabbath and the new moon; they put some difference between those days and other days, but they were soon weary of them, and had no affection at all to them, for their hearts were wholly set upon the world and the things of it. It is a sad character which this gives of them, that they said, When will the sabbath be gone, that we may sell corn? Yet is still the character of many that are called Christians. (1.) They were weary of sabbath days. "When will they be gone?" They were weary of the restraints of the sabbaths and the new-moons, and wished them over because they might do no servile work therein. They were weary of the work or business of the sabbaths and new-moons, snuffed at it (Mal. i. 13), and were, as Doeg, detained before the Lord (1 Sam. xxi. 7); they would rather have been any where else than about God's altars. Note, Sabbath days and sabbath work are a burden to carnal hearts, that are always afraid of doing too much for God and eternity. Can we spend our time better than in communication with God? And how much time do we spend pleasantly with the world? Will not the sabbath be gone before we have done the work of it and reaped the gains of it? Why then should we be in such haste to part with it? (2.) They were fond of market-days: they longed to be selling corn and setting forth wheat. When they were employed in religious services they were thinking of their marketings; their hearts went after their covetousness (Ezek. xxxiii. 31), and thus made my Father's house a house of merchandise, nay, a den of thieves. They were weary of holy duties because their worldly business stood still the while; in this they were as in their element, but in God's sanctuary as a fish upon dry ground. Note, Those are strangers to God, and enemies to themselves, that love market days better than sabbath days, that would rather be selling corn than worshipping God.

2. Observe them in their conversations, and you will see they have no regard to man; and this commonly follows upon the former; those that have lost the savour of piety will not long retain the sense of common honesty. They neither do justly nor love mercy. (1.) They cheat those they deal with. When they sell their corn they impose upon the buyer, both in giving out the goods and in receiving the money for them. They measure him the corn by their own measure, and pretend to give him what he agreed for, but they make the ephah small. The measure is scanty, and not statute-measure, and so they wrong him that way. When they receive his money they must weigh fit in their own scales, by their own weights, and the shekel they weigh by is above standard: They make the shekel great, so that the money, being found too light, must have more added to it; and so they cheat that way too, and this under colour and pretence of exactness in doing justice. By such wicked practices as these men show such a greediness of the world, such a love of themselves, such a contempt of mankind in general, of the particular persons they deal with, and of the sacred laws of justice, as prove them to have in their hearts neither the fear nor the love of that God who has so plainly said that false weights and balances are an abomination to him. Another instance of their fraudulent dealing is that they sell the refuse of the wheat, and, taking advantage of their neighbour's ignorance or necessity, make them take it at the same price at which they sell the finest of the wheat. (2.) They are barbarous and unmerciful to the poor: They swallow up the needy, and make the poor of the land to fail. [1.] They valued themselves so much on their wealth that they looked upon all that were poor with the highest contempt imaginable; they hated them, could not endure them, but abandoned them, and therefore did what they could to make them cease, not by relieving them to make them cease to be poor, but by banishing and destroying them to make them cease to be, or at least to be in their land. But he who thus reproaches the poor despises his Maker, in whose hands rich and poor meet together. [2.] They were so eager to increase their wealth, and make it more, that they robbed the poor to enrich themselves; and they fastened upon the poor, to make a prey of them, because they were not able to obtain any redress nor to resist or revenge the violence of their oppressors. Those riches that are got by the ruin of the poor will bring ruin on those that get them. They swallowed up the poor by making them hard bargains, and cheating them in those bargains; for therefore they falsify the balances by deceit, not only that they may enrich themselves, may have money at command, and so may have every thing else (as they think) at command too, but that they may impoverish those about them, and bring them so low that they may force them to become slaves to them, and so, having drained them of every thing else, they may have their labour for nothing, or next to nothing. Thus they buy the poor for silver; they bring them and their children into bondage, because they have not wherewithal to pay for the corn they have bought; see Neh. v. 2-5. And there were so many that they were reduced to this extremity that the price was very low; and the oppressors had beaten it down so that you might buy a poor man to be your slave for a pair of shoes. Property was first invaded and then liberty; it is the method of oppressors first to make men beggars and then to make them their vassals. Thus is the dignity of the human nature lost in the misery of those that are trampled on and the tenderness of it in the sin of those that trample on them.

II. The grievousness of the punishment that shall be inflicted on them for this sin. When the poor are injured they will cry unto God, and he will hear their cry, and reckon with those that are injurious to them, for, they being his receivers, he takes the wrongs done to them as done to himself, Exod. xxii. 23, 24.

1. God will remember their sin against them: He has sworn by the excellency of Jacob (v. 7), by himself, for he can swear by no greater; and who but he is the glory and magnificence of Jacob? He has sworn by those tokens of his presence with them, and his favour to them, which they had profaned and abused, and had done what they could to make them detestable to him; for he is said (ch. vi. 8) to abhor the excellency of Jacob. He swears in his wrath, swears by his own name, that name which was so well known and was so great in Israel. He swears, Surely I will never forget any of their works, but upon all occasions they shall be remembered against them, for more is implied than is expressed. I will never forget them is as much as to say, I will never forgive them; and then it proclaims the case of these unjust unmerciful men to be miserable indeed, eternally miserable; woe, and a thousand woes, to that man that is cut off by an oath of God from all benefit by pardoning mercy; and those have reason to fear judgment without mercy that have shown no mercy.

2. He will bring utter ruin and confusion upon them. It is here described largely, and in a great variety of emphatic expressions, that, if possible, they might be frightened into a sincere repentance and reformation. (1.) There shall be a universal terror and consternation: Shall not the land tremble for this (v. 8), this land, out of which you thought to drive the poor? Shall not every one mourn that dwells therein? Certainly he shall. Note, Those that will not tremble and mourn as they ought for national sins shall be made to tremble and mourn for national judgments; those that look without concern upon the sins of the oppressors, which should make them tremble, and upon the miseries of the oppressed, which should them mourn, God will find out a way to make them tremble at the fury of those that oppress them and mourn for their own losses and sufferings by it. (2.) There shall be a universal deluge and desolation. When God comes forth against them the waters of trouble and calamity shall rise up wholly as a flood, that swells, when it is dammed up, and soon overflows its banks. Every thing shall make against them. That with which they thought to check the progress of God's judgments shall but make them rise the higher. Judgments shall force their way as the breaking forth of waters. The whole land shall be cast out, and drowned, and laid under water, as the land of Egypt is every year by the overflowing of its river Nile. Or the expressions may allude to some former judgments of God. Their ruin shall rise up wholly as a flood, as Noah's flood, which overwhelmed the whole world, so shall this the whole land; and the land shall be cast out, and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt, as Pharaoh and his Egyptians were buried in the Red Sea, which was to them the flood of Egypt, both which judgments, as this which is here threatened, were the punishment of violence and oppression, which the Lord is the avenger of.

3. It shall surprise them, and come upon them when they little think of it (v. 9): "I will cause the sun to go down at noon, when it is in its full strength and lustre, at their noon, when they promise themselves a long afternoon, and think they have at least half a day good before them. The earth shall be darkened in the clear day, when every thing looks pleasant and hopeful." Thus uncertain are all our creature-comforts and enjoyments, even life itself; the highest degree of health and prosperity often proves the next degree to sickness and adversity; Job's sun went down at noon; many are taken away in the midst of their days, and their sun goes down at noon. In the midst of life we are in death. Thus terrible are the judgments of God to those that sleep in security; they are to them as the sun's going down at noon; the less they are expected the more confounding they are. When they cry Peace and safety then sudden destruction comes, comes as a snare, Luke xxi. 35.

4. It shall change their note, and mar all their mirth (v. 10): I will turn your feasts into mourning, as (v. 3) the songs of the temple into howlings. Note, The end of the sinner's mirth and jollity is heaviness. As to the upright there arises light in the darkness, which gives them the oil of joy for mourning, so on the wicked there falls darkness in the midst of light, which turns their laughter into mourning, their joy into heaviness. So great, so general, shall the desolation be, that sackcloth shall be brought upon all loins, and baldness upon every head, instead of the well-set hair and the rich garments they used to wear. The mourning at that day shall be as mourning for an only son, which denotes the most bitter and lasting lamentation. But are there then no hopes that when things are at the worst they will mend, and that at evening time it will yet be light? No, even the end thereof shall be as a bitter day, a day of bitter mourning; that state of impenitent sinners grows worse and worse, and the last of all will be the worst of all. This shall you have at my hand, you shall lie down in sorrow.

Spiritual Famine Threatened; Judgments Threatened. (b. c. 785.)

11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God , that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord : 12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord , and shall not find it. 13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst. 14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

In these verses is threatened,

I. A general judgment of spiritual famine coming upon the whole land, a famine of the word of God, the failing of oracles and the scarcity of good preaching. This is spoken of as a thing at some distance: The days come, they will come hereafter, when another kind of darkness shall come upon that land of light. When Amos prophesied, and for a considerable time after, they had great plenty of prophets, abundant opportunities of hearing the word of God, in season and out of season; they had precept upon precept and line upon line; prophecy was their daily bread; and it is probable that they surfeited upon it, as Israel on the manna, and therefore God threatens that hereafter he will deprive them of this privilege. Probably in the land of Israel there were not so many prophets, about the time that their destruction came upon them, as there were in the land of Judah; and when the ten tribes went into captivity they saw not their signs, there were no more any prophets, none to show them how long, Ps. lxxiv. 9. The Jewish church, after Malachi, had no prophets for many ages; and some think this threatening looks further yet, to the blindness which has in part happened to Israel in the days of the Messiah, and the veil that is on the heart of the unbelieving Jews. They reject the gospel, and the ministers of it that God sends to them, and covet to have prophets of their own, as their fathers had, but they shall have none, the kingdom of God being taken from them and given to another people. Observe here,

1. What the judgment itself is that is threatened. It is a famine, a scarcity, not of bread and water (which are the necessary support of the body, and the want of which is very grievous), but a much sorer judgment than that, even a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. There shall be no congregations for ministers to preach to, nor any ministers to preach, nor any instructions and abilities given to those that do set up for preachers, to fit them for their work. The word of the Lord shall be precious and scarce; there shall be no vision, 1 Sam. iii. 1. They shall have the written word, Bibles to read, but no ministers to explain and apply it to them, the water in the well, but nothing to draw with. It is a gracious promise (Isa. xxx. 20) that though they have a scarcity of bread they shall have plenty of the means of grace. God will give them the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but their eyes shall see their teachers; and it was a common saying among the Puritans that brown bread and the gospel are good fare. But it is here a threatening that on the contrary they should have plenty enough of bread and water, and yet their teachers should be removed. Now, (1.) This was the departure of a great part of their glory from their land. This made their nation great and high, that to them were committed the oracles of God; but, when these were taken from them, their beauty was stained and their honour laid in the dust. (2.) This was a token of God's highest displeasure against them. Surely he was angry indeed with them when he would no more speak to them as he had done, and had abandoned them to ruin when he would no more afford them the means of bringing them to repentance. (3.) This made all the other calamities that were upon them truly melancholy, that they had no prophets to instruct and comfort them from the word of God, nor to give them any hopeful prospect. We should say at any time, and shall say in a time of trouble, that a famine of the word of God is the sorest famine, the heaviest judgment.

2. What will be the effect of this (v. 12): They shall wander from sea to sea, from the sea of Tiberias to the Great Sea, from one border of the country to another, to see if God will send them prophets, either by sea or land, from other countries; since they have none among themselves, they shall go from the north to the east; when they are disappointed in one place they shall try another, and shall run to and fro, as men at a loss, and in a hot pursuit to seek the word of the Lord, to enquire if there be any prophets, any prophecy, any message from God, but they shall not find it. (1.) Though to many this is no affliction at all, yet some will be very sensible of it as a great grievance, and will gladly travel far to hear a good sermon; but they shall sensibly feel the loss of those mercies which others have foolishly sinned away. (2.) Even those that slighted prophets when they had them shall wish for them as Saul did for Samuel, when they are deprived of them. Many never know the worth of mercies till they feel the want of them. Or it may be meant thus, Though they should thus wander from sea to sea, in quest of the word of God, yet shall they not find it. Note, The means of grace are moveable things; and the candlestick, when we think it stands most firmly, may be removed out of its place (Rev. ii. 5); and those that now slight the days of the son of man may wish in vain to see them. And in the day of this famine the fair virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst (v. 13); those who, one would think, could well enough have borne the toil, shall sink under it. The Jewish churches, and the masters of their synagogues, some take to be meant by the virgins and the young men; these shall lose the word of the Lord, and the benefit of divine revelation, and shall faint away for want of it, shall lose all their strength and beauty. Those that trust in their own merit and righteousness, and think they have no need of Christ, others take to be meant by the fair virgins and the choice young men; they shall faint for thirst, when those that hunger and thirst after the righteousness of Christ shall be abundantly satisfied and filled.

II. The particular destruction of those that were ringleaders in idolatry, v. 14. Observe, 1. The sin they are charged with: They swear by the sin of Samaria, that is, by the god of Samaria, the idol that was worshipped at Bethel, not far off from Samaria. Thus did they glory in their shame, and swear by them as their god which was their iniquity, thinking that could help them which would certainly ruin them, and giving the highest honour to that which they should have looked upon with the utmost abhorrence and detestation. They say, Thy god, O Dan! liveth; that was the other golden calf, a dumb deal idol, and yet caressed and complimented as if it had been the living and true God. They say, The manner, or way, of Beer-sheba liveth; they swore by the religion of Beer-sheba, the way and manner of worship used there, which they looked upon as sacred, and therefore swore by and appealed to as a judge of controversy. Thus the papists swear by the mass, as the manner of Beer-sheba. 2. The destruction they are threatened with. Those who thus give that honour to idols which is due to God alone will find that the God they affront is thereby made their enemy, so that they shall fall, and the gods they serve cannot stand their friends, so that they shall never rise again. They will find that God is jealous and will resent the indignity done him, and that he will be victorious and it is to no purpose to contend with him.

CHAP. VIII.

Verſe 1. THus hath the Lord God ſhewed unto me,] viz. in this fourth viſion, whereby (for better aſſurance, and to ſhake them out of their deſperate ſecurity) Iſraels utter ruine is again foretold, by a lively type, which is here, 1. propounded; 2. expounded, verſe 3, 5. that he may run that readeth it, and none may fall, but with open eyes.Hab. 2.2.

And behold a basket] made up haply in the form of a dog, as the word Calub ſeemeth to import.

of Summer-fruits,] Heb. of Summer; that is, of that which the ſummer affordeth: toward the end of it eſpecially, when fruits ripen, and even fall into the hand of the gatherer. The ſummer it ſelf hath its denomination from a root that ſignifieth to awaken: Schindler. Pagnin. becauſe then the fruits and flowers, that ſeemed to be aſleep all winter-long, do awake, as it were, and ſhew themſelves.

Verſe 2. Amos, what ſeeſt thou?] This the Lord asketh, to ſtir up attention and affection in the Prophet; who might haply need as much to be arrouſed, as Zachary in like caſe did, chap. 4.1. with whom it fared as with a drowſie perſon, who though awaked and ſet to work, is ready to ſleep at it.

and I ſaid, A basket of Summer-fruit,] Apples, ſaith Jerome, figs, ſay others: and why not as well grapes ripened in the Summer-ſun-ſhine?Rev. 14.20. & 19.15. Whereby the Holy Ghoſt in the Revelation, deſcribeth ſuch as are ready ripe for the wine-preſſe of Gods wrath? Nahum compareth them to ſtubble, laid out in the Sun a-drying, that it may burn the better, [non-Latin text not transcribed] Nah. 1.10.

The end is come upon my people,] An elegancy in the Originall beyond Engliſhing: the Latine Interpreters have (ſome of them) aſſayed the like, but they fall farre ſhort of it. The Old Teſtament is full of ſuch Agnominations: and God ſeemeth delighted with them. See Jer. 1.11, 12. & 48.2. & 47.43, 44. Lam. 3.47. Amos 5.5. Mic. 1.10, 14. Zeph. 2.4. Exod. 2.10. Gen. 3.20. & 4.1, 25. & 5.29. & 17.5. & 21.5, 6, &c. There is a pedantique ſtile, and a majeſtick: an effeminate eloquence, and a manly. This latter is lawfull, and may very well become the man of God; who yet muſt not wit-wanton it in weightieſt matters; but ſhun thoſe more gay and lighter flaſhes, and flouriſhes, wherewith the emptieſt Celles affect to bee moſt fraught: as they, who for want of wares in their ſhops, ſet up painted blocks to fill up vacant ſhelves, as One well expreſſeth it.

The end is come upon my people,] Exitus & exitium. As the ſummer is the end of the yeer, and the time of ripening fruits: ſo, now that this people are ripe for ruine, An end is come, is come, is eome, it watcheth for them, behold it is come, Ezek. 7.6, 7. even the preciſe time and terme of their finall overthrow.

I will not again paſſe by them any more.] See chap. 7.8. God can paſſe by, that is, pardon his people better then any other, Mic. 7.18.Epheſ. 6. (like as they that are born of God, and partake of the Divine nature, can bear wrongs beſt of any: compell them to go a mile, they'l be content, if it may do good, to go two: yea as farre as the ſhoos of the preparation of the Goſpel of peace will carry them.) But as the Saints of God may not be therefore injured (which was Iulians jearing cruelty) becauſe they are meek: ſo muſt not God be preſumed upon and provoked; becauſe he is mercifull. There is mercy with him, that he may be feared, ſaith the Pſalmiſt: for abuſed mercy turneth into fury: and opportunities of grace are oft ſo headlong, that if once paſt, they are irrecoverable. Wo be to that people, or perſon, to whom God ſhall ſay, I will not again paſſe by you any more.

Verſe 3. And the ſongs of the temple ſhall be howlings,] Heb. ſhall howle, ſhall be turned into the black-ſantis, as they call it, (cantus in planctum laetitia in lachrymas) ſuch as I hate, chap. 5.23. and feel it grating mine ears, as an harmonia diſcors.

there ſhall bee many dead bodies in every place.] Either through peſtilence, or ſword. Others read it thus. In every place it ſhall bee ſaid, Proijce, ſile, Out with them, Make no words: an earneſt Apoſiopeſis (See chap. 6.10. with the Note.) q. d. Patiently acquieſce in the juſt judgement of ſo mighty a God. Or, throw theſe dead bodies into pits, and ſay nothing: leſt we be ſequeſtred as unclean by the law. It is no ſmall miſery to be under hard and heavy croſſes, and yet to be forced to diſſemble and ſuppreſſe them; to bite in pain, and to diſgeſt grief, as horſes do their choler, by biting on the bridle. I was dumb with ſilence, ſaith David, I held my peace even from good, that is, from juſt defence, but my ſorrow was ſtirred thereby; my ſore was exulcerate, renewed, (as the Greek there ſaith) and increaſed, Pſal. 39.2. Give ſorrow a vent, and it will wear away.

Verſe 4. Hear this, ye that ſwallow up the needy,] that ſoop them up, as drink, (our word ſoop, ſeems to come of the Hebrew Shaaph) that would make but a breakfaſt, nay but a bit of them: that would ſwallow them at once down their wide gullets, and do, for that purpoſe, pant and even faint, as well-nigh windleſſe, after them, to devour them. Hence they are called, Man-eaters, Cannibals, Pſal. 14.4. See chap. 2.7. with the Note.

even to make the poor of the land to fail.] Heb. the meek of the land. Poverty ſhould meeken and tame mens ſpirits: howbeit ſome are humbled, but not humble: low, but not lowly. Thoſe that are both, are oft oppreſſed by the Great Ones of the earth: and even devoured, as the leſſer fiſh are by the bigger. Ye have condemned and killed the juſt, ſaith St. Iames to the wicked rich men of his time, and he doth not reſiſt you, chap. 5.6. He onely committeth his cauſe to him that judgeth righteouſly, 1 Pet. 2.23. and indeed he need do no more then ſo: for God is the poor-mans king, as James the fifth of Scotland was termed for his charity: yea, he is the worlds refuge, Awlen Penaugh, as the great Turk vaingloriouſly ſtileth himſelf, and would have the world to take notice, that ſuch poor people as lament to him, ſhall be relieved by him, although his miniſters fail them, or abuſe them, through their injuſtice, to make the poor of the land fail. For the oppreſſion of the poor, for the ſighing of the needy, now will I ariſe, ſaith the Lord. I will ſet him in ſafety from him that puffeth at him, Pſal. 12.5. Neither doth God ſay it onely, (though that were ſufficient) but ſwear it too in this chapter, yea in this text (the two next following verſes are put in as by a parentheſis) and theſe Cormorants are called upon to hear it, and not to paſſe it by with a deaf ear, tanquam monſtra marina, as ſuch kind of creatures uſe to do.

Verſe 5. Saying, when will the New-moon be gone, &c.] O, what a wearineſſe it is I and ye have ſnuffed at it, Mal. 1.13. See the Note there. This ye have ſaid, or thought at leaſt: and God knoweth the language of your hearts. He preſſeth upon no man; neither will he accept of that ſervice that is preſſed, out of people, as verjuice out of a crab. All his ſaints are free-hearted Pſal. 110.3. all his ſouldiers volunteeres: The ſabbath they call Deſiderium dierum. they welcome the ſabbath, as that holy man did, who went forth to meet and ſalute it with Veni ſponſa mea, Come my ſweet ſpouſe, I have dearely longed for thee. They alſo paſſe it over with ſingular delight, Eſay. 58.13. walking into Chriſts garden of ſpirituall duties, whereof there is ſo great variety for the good ſoule to breath it ſelf in and not be ſated:Cant. 2. and then are taken into Chriſts wine-cellar, 1 Cor. 2. and (after an holy manner) inebriated with divine conſolations: ſuch as the cock on the dunghil knowes not, ſuch as paſs all carnall mens underſtanding. They find no more relliſh in holy dayes and duties, then they do in the white of an egge or in a dry chip: the work they do at ſuch times, for faſhion-ſake or feare of law &c. is dead work, as the Apoſtle calleth it: they ſit in the ſtocks when they are at prayers, and come out of the Church when the tedious ſermon runs ſomewhat beyond the houre, as priſoners do out of a jayle &c. they cannot tell how to weare out the ſabbath, which therefore they wiſh over, and conſtantly violate either by corporall labour, or elſe (which is as bad, or worſe) by ſpirituall idleneſſe. Full ill would theſe men addere de profano ad ſacrum, (as the Jewes ſay we ſhould do,)Buxtorf. Synag. Jud. pronouncing thoſe happy, that begin the ſabbath with thoſe of Tiberias, and end it with thoſe of Tſepphore (the former began it ſooner then others, the later continued it longer. Full ill would they have liked our King Edgars law,Act. & Mon. that Sunday ſhould be ſolemnized from Saturday nine of the clock till Munday morning. Full loth would theſe men be to beg Davids office out of his hand, of being a doore-keeper in Gods houſe: that is, to be firſt in and laſt out. And what would they do to keep an everlaſting ſabbath in heaven, that are ſo troubled, and even tired out with ſo ſhort an attendance on the Lords-day: not without a world of wilfull diſtractions, ſuch as ſpoyle and fly-blow their performances, ſo that they ſtink in the noſtrils of the Almighty.

and the ſabbath] Not the ſabbath of the ſeventh yeare (called Shemittah Remiſſion Levit. 25.) as ſome would have it meant: but the weekly ſabbath, which the unrighteous Mammoniſts here cry out of, as if on that day the Sun proceeded a flower pace then on others; and they greatly grutcht lucellum ſuum Dei cultui cedere that God ſhould be ſerved, to their diſadvantage. Their fingers therefore itch to be ſetting out corn: and they as dearely deſire it as David did once to come and appeare before the Lord.O rus, quand[illegible: 1 letter] te aſpiciam? Horat. As He had his, when ſhall I come, by way of wiſh Pſal. 42.3. ſo they had their When ſhall we fell corn? when ſhall we ſet forth wheat? Surely as Davids ſoule longed ſore to go forth unto Abſalom 2 Sam. 13.39. ſo that he could have found in his heart, but for ſtark ſhame, to have gone himſelf and fetched him home: ſo was it with theſe gripple corn-maſters, theſe frumenti corraſores & veluti corroſores Prov. 11.26. They had a good mind to have been doing on the New-moones and ſabbaths,Exod. 20.8. & 34, 21. Lev. 23.3. Neh. 10.32. & 13.15. &c. Num. 10.1. 2 Sam. 20.5. but that they were flatly forbidden by the law, made on purpoſe for theſe lawleſſe and diſobedient, 1 Tim. 1.9. theſe maſterleſs monſters, theſe yokeleſs Belialiſts, to be to them as chaines and ſhackles, to confine them (as Solomons command did Shimei, that they may not leape over the pale after profit and pleaſure, or if they do, they may dye for it,) Eſay 66.23. it is prophecyed that, in the reſtitution of the church from one new-moon to another, and from one ſabbath to another (as oft as they come) without tire-ſomeneſſe, all fleſh ſhall come to worſhip before the Lord, they ſhall call the ſabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, Eſay. 58.13. be rapt and raviſhed in ſpirit Rev. 1.10. be in the feare of the Lord and in the comfort of the holy Ghoſt all the day long, Epiſt. 3. ad Magneſ. [non-Latin text not transcribed], as Ignatius hath it. Sabbatize ſpiritually, rejoycing in divine meditations. This well practiſed would take men off from the worlds taſteleſſe fooleries (as his mouth will not water after homely proviſions, that hath lately taſted of delicate ſuſtenance) It would alſo bleſſedly free them from thoſe many fooliſh and hurtfull luſts 1 Tim. 6.9. thoſe heavy ſorrowes and ſelf-created miſeries, wherewith covetous caytiffes pierce them ſelves thorough, gall and gore-their own hearts and trouble their own houſes verſe. 10. taking no more reſt, then if upon a rack, or bed of thornes.

making the Ephah ſmall and the ſhekel great] Selling by ſmall meaſures, but for great rates: which was directly againſt the law Deut. 25.13, 14. and that golden Rule of right, the ſtandard of equity, the royall law of liberty Mat. 7.12. Whatſoever ye would that men ſhould do to you, do ye even ſo to them; for this is the Law and the Prophets: this is the ſum of what they have ſaid, for duties of the ſecond table.

and falſifying the balances by deceit] Heb. preverting the ballances of deceit, that is (by a metonymie as Job. 22.6.) making thoſe that were right, deceitfull. See Prov. 20.10, 23. with the Notes there. Such falſifiers are counted no better then Canaanites Hoſ. 12.7. and ſhall have ſmall joy of their curſed hoards of evill gotten goods.

Verſe 6. That we may buy the poore for ſilver &c.] Thus the poore alwayes pay for it: the modeſt and mild poore, eſpecially as ver. 4. Hence Poore and afflicted are put for one and the ſame Zeph. 3.12. and to want, and to be abaſed Philip. 4.12. they that want ſhall be ſure to be abaſed and abuſed by the wretched rich, who will ever go over the hedge where it is loweſt, and catch the poore by drawing him into the nets Pſal. 10.9. that is into their debts, bonds, and mortgages, and at length making ſuch their bondmen, by abuſe of that permiſſion Lev. 25.39. See chap. 2.3.

yea and ſell the refuſe of the wheat] Quiſquilias, the husks, more fit for pigs or poultrey; hardly mans meate, and yet held good enough for the poore:deciduum p[illegible: 3 letters] gamenta, the offall. although their fleſh was as the fleſh of their brethren, and their children, as their children Neh. 5.5. however they uſed them. How farr were theſe rich wretches from conſidering the poore as Davids bleſſed man Pſal. 41.1. and as Dr. Taylour the Martyr did; whoſe cuſtome was once in a fortnight at leaſt to go to poore mens houſes, look into their cupbords, ſee how they fared, and what they lacked:Act. & Mon. that he might either make or procure them a ſupply from ſuch as were better able?

Verſe 7. The Lord hath ſworn by the excellency of Jacob] i. e. by himſelf the matter of Jacobs chief boaſting, there being no God like unto their God (their enemies themſelves being judges Deut. 32.31.) neither any nation ſo great as to have God ſo nigh unto them as Iſrael had, in all things that they called upon him for, Deut. 4.7. So that this oath of God grates upon their Ingratitude for ſuch imparallel priviledges, and it is uttered in great wrath, as appeareth by the following angry Apoſiopeſis (wherein the Apodoſis is not ſet down but underſtood.)

If I ever forget any of their workes] forget to puniſh them. Theſe oaths cum reticentia are very dreadfull.Pſal. 95. Take heed leſt by ſtubbornneſſe we provoke God to ſweare in his wrath that we ſhall not enter into his neſt. Take heed leſt a promiſe of entring being left us, and a profer made us, we ſhould ſeem to come ſhort of it,Heb. 4.1. [non-Latin text not transcribed] to come lag or late, a day after the faire, an houre after the feaſt. God is now more quick and peremptory then ever in rejecting men that neglect ſo great ſalvation Heb. 2.3. the time is ſhorter, he will not wait ſo long as he was wont to do.Mar. 16.16. He that beleeveth and is baptized ſhall be ſaved: he that beleeveth not, ſhall be damned. Surely God will finiſh the work, and cut it ſhort in righteouſneſſe: Rom. 9.28. becauſe a ſhort work will he make in the earth. The time is ſhort, ſaith the Apoſtle 1 Cor. [non-Latin text not transcribed] 7.29. a metaphor (ſay ſome) from a piece of cloth rolled up, only a little left at the end. Let us therefore feare (as the ſame Apoſtle inferreth upon the conſideration of Gods oath Heb. 3.18. with 4.1.) and let our feare not weaken but waken our diligence in well-doing, leſt he ſweare and repent not, leſt be come to a reſolution and decree (Gods oath is nothing elſe but his inviolable and invariable decree) to caſt us off, as he did Saul, for his wilfull diſobedience 1 Sam. 15. Saul lived long after his utter rejection, and men could ſee no alteration in his outward condition: but God had ſworn, as here, never to forget any of his works. Now ſaith Samuel to him (and it is fearefull) the Eternity of Iſrael (the Excellency of Jacob) will not lie, nor repent: for he is not a man that he ſhould repent. 1 Sam. 15.29. Do not think this a caſe that ſeldome comes: it is done every day upon ſome or other, ſaith a great Divine: but woe be to that man upon whom it is done: it had been much better for him that he had not been born, Mat. 26.24. Oh conſider this all ye that forget God. leſt he ſwear by his excellency, Surely I will never forget any of your works.

Verſe 8. Shall not the land tremble for this?] q. d. So great are the oppreſſions here exerciſed, that the very axletree of the earth is even ready to crack under them. Amaziah, that hedge-prieſt of Bethel, had ſaid of our Prophet, that the land was not able to beare all his words, chap. 7.10. but Amoz more truely affirmeth, that the land trembled under their many and mighty ſins, and could beare them no longer: the earth-quake fell out about this time Am. 1.1. and it was a juſt wonder, that the earth had not opened her wide mouth, and ſwallowed them all up quick into hell as Numb. 16.31, 32.Called therefore [non-Latin text not transcribed]. and as it did a great part of the city of Antioch Anno. 527. for their horrible hereſies and blaſphemies there held and broached by her biſhops.

and every one mourn] i. e. ſmart, till they mourn. Nationall ſins bring nationall plagues. The Hebrewes hold that there is not a worſe ſin then Oppreſſion: St. James ſaith, that it it cryes to heaven, and entreth into the eares of the Lord of ſabbath Jam. 5.4. who will not fa[illegible: 1 letter]le to heare, for the is gracious Exod. 22.

and it ſhall riſe up wholy as a ſlood] i. e. The land ſhall riſe up, ſhall ſeem to do ſo, when it is ſloated and over-covered with water: as the ſluggards field is ſaid to riſe up or aſcend with thornes, that is to be overgrown therewith. Here then is threatened an overflowing ſcourge, an univerſall deſtruction covering the face of the countrey, as Nilus doth a great part of the land of Egypt every yeare, leaving much mud behind it: whereof ſee Pliny and other Authours. Mercer thinks the words would be beſt read by interrogation, as the former, thus, and ſhall it not riſe up wholy as a flood? q. d. ſhall it not be turned into a large lake, as once Sodom and her ſiſters were for like cruelties to the poore? Ezech. 16.

Verſe 9. And it ſhall come to paſſe in that day &c.] Here the Lord threateneth (ſaith Mr. Diodate) to encumber the land with horrible and mournfull calamities, when it ſhall be leaſt thought of. Earthquakes, inundations, ſuddaine and dreadfull darkneſſes are ſure effects and ſignes of Gods heavy diſpleaſure againſt mens ſins Pſal. 18.8, 12.Lively. Mat. 24. Luk. 21. Jocl. 2.10. as Another noteth. See a like text, Jer. 15.8, 9. and promiſe contrary to this threat Job. 18.5, 6.

I will cauſe the ſun to go down at noon] A ſuddain change, as was at Sodom: the Sun was faire riſen upon it that very day that it was deſtroyed in, Gen. 19.23, 24. as at Babylon, when ſurprized by Cyrus, they could not at firſt beleeve their own calamity: as it was with Jeruſalem often, and ſhall be with Rome Rev. 18.7, 8. She ſaith in her heart, I ſhall ſee no ſorrow. Therefore ſhall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine &c. to confute their fond conceit of an eternall Empire. For when they ſhall ſay Peace and ſafety, then ſhall ſudden deſtruction come upon them, as travaile upon a woman with child, and they ſhall not eſcape, 1 Theſ. 5.3. Philoſophers ſay, that before a ſnow, the weather will be warmiſh: when the wind lies, the great raine falles: and the faire weather made before him, till the inſtant that he was drowned in the ſea. Nebuchadnezzar, Herod, and other tyrants were ſmitten in the height of their pride, and ruffe of their iollity. Jeruſalem had three yeares great plenty before her laſt deſtruction, of which ſome interpret this Text. Thoſe ſeven once flouriſhing Churches of Aſia, how glorious and reſplendent were they till they had ſinned away their light? The ſame might be ſaid of many others: and who knowes how ſoon it may be ſaid alſo of us? who knowes whether we be not even now, upon the very Tropikes and turning-points of time? Surely Gods patience towards us quò diuturnior eò minacior, the longer it laſteth the more evill is toward us, if we abuſe it. If in a land of light we love darkneſſe better then light, we may ſoon have enough of it. Solem in Britannia non occidere nec reſurgere retulii Tacitus. In vit. Agricol. Tacitus telleth us that at ſome time of the yeare, the Sun ſeemeth neither to riſe nor fall in this country: but ſo lightly to paſs from us in the night, that you can ſcarce diſcern day from night. Of England for this many yeares it may be ſaid, as Solinus doth of the Rhodes, Polyhiſtor. that it is ſemper in Sole ſita ever in the Sun. How long it ſhall be ſo, He alone knowes that knowes all. Walk whiles ye have the light: and pray that God would diſcloud theſe gloomy dayes with the beames of his mercy, and not cauſe our Sun to go down at noon, nor our land to be darkened in the clear day. Oh ſtop this Sun of righteouſneſſe poſting (as it may ſeem) from us (when the blind man cried luſtily, Jeſus though journying ſtood ſtill) ſtay him by your importunities, as thoſe two did at Emaus and ſay, Veſpera jam venit; nobiſcum, Chriſte maneto, Extingui lucem nec patiare tuam.

Verſe 10. And I will turn your feaſts into mourning] Whether your idolatrous feaſts and temple-muſick whereby you vainely conceit to be ſecured from danger, ſaying, Is not the Lord amongſt us? what evill can come unto us. Or your common feaſts, whereat you have ſongs to cheer you up, and ſo to put ſorrow from your hearts, and evill from your fleſh, nouriſhing your ſelves as in a day of ſlaughter, or good cheer Jam. 5.5. All ſhall be turned into mourning, funerall mourning, ſee ver. 3.

and I will bring up ſack-cloth upon all loynes] for a token of your great grief, as the cuſtome then was, and is ſtill for mourning-weedes. The Hebew word ſack is the ſame in almoſt all languages: which ſheweth that the Hebrew is the mother of all the reſt, ſaith Mercer.

and baldneſſe upon every head] you ſhall pull off your haire for grief; Or, becauſe they had learned of the Heathens their neighbours, in token of lamentation, to ſhave their heades Ezech. 7.18. Jer. 48.37. and beards too Iſa. 15.2. which yet was forbidden them to do, Lev. 19.27. and 21, 9. unleſſe it were to ſhew their ſorrow for ſin Eſa. 22.12.

and I will make it as the mourning of an only ſon] which was very bitter Jer. 6.26. Zech. 12.10. The loſſe of a loving yoke fellow is more grievous then that of a ſon: but to father and mother together nothing more bitter then luctuoſa foecunditas (Laeta's caſe in Hierome) to bury many children, and eſpecially to bury all in One.

and the end thereof as a bitter day] Thereof, that is, either of that land, or of that lamentation, there ſhall be bitterneſſe in the end. So the Poet Nunc & amara dies, & noctis amarior umbra eſt;Tioul. lib: 2. Omnia jam triſti tempora felle madent. How could it be otherwiſe then extream bitter with this people, when heaven and earth conſpired to puniſh them? neither had they the good word of God (called the word of his patience, Rev. 3.10. written on purpoſe that we through patience and comfort of the ſcriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4. that out of thoſe breaſts of conſolation we might ſuck and be ſatisfied, Eſa. 66.11.) to ſuccour them and keep from ſwooning Pſal. 119.92. And this was the greateſt plague of all the reſt: and is therefore reſerved to the laſt place, deterrima tanquam colophon, as a moſt ſad cataſtrophe.

Verſe 11. Behold the dayes come] Behold it; for it is a juſt wonder: the Lord createth a new thing in the earth, when Iſrael ſhould want the word; Iſrael to whom were committed the oracles of God, Iſrael to whom God had ſpoken by the mouth of his holy Prophets, which had been ſince the world began,Luc. 1.70. in a ſweet ſucceſſion: See my True treaſure pag. 3.4. He made known his wayes to Moſes, his acts and monuments to the children of Iſrael.Pſal. 103.7. Yet even theſe who had the cornu-copia of Gods word ſhall now ſuffer a famine of it: they ſhall have cauſe to [illegible: 1 letter]ry out, We ſee not our ſignes, there is no more any Prophet, neither is there amongſt us any that knoweth how long, Pſal. 74.9. the word of God ſhall be pretious, 1 Sam. 3. and they ſhall be hard put to't to come by it; Amaziah and his complices ſhall not need to pack away the Prophets, as chap. 7.12. and to bid them go preach elſewhere: the law ſhall be no more, the Prophets alſo ſhall find no viſion from the Lord Lam. 2.9.

that I will ſend a famine in the land] Heb. I will let it out (ſc. out of my treaſury of plagues where I have it ready, and deſirous to be a broad) and turn it looſe, [non-Latin text not transcribed] Septuag. which before I kept up, as a wild beaſt, that it might not hurt nor deſtroy in all mine holy mountaine: now it ſhall out amongſt you, and the devill with it, Rev. 12.12. with hell at the heeles of it.

not a famine of bread] though that's very grievous, Lam. 1.11, 19. and 2.12, 20. and 4.4, 9. and 5.16. and puts people to many hard ſtraits and extremities (as were eaſie to inſtance) even to the eating of one another.

nor a thirſt for water] a torment more intolerable then the former. Lyſimachus to ſave his life parted with his kingdom for a draught of water.

But of hearing the word of the Lord,] which is pabulum animae the ſouls proper food, ſuch as ſhe cannot live without: but when God ſeeth his oracles vilipended and lying under the table, 'tis juſt with him to call to the enemy to take away. It was ſo with thoſe ſeven churches of Aſia among many others; as alſo with thoſe of Africa that vaſt Continent (thrice as large as Europe) in all which there is not any region intirely poſſeſſed by Chriſtians, but the kingdom of Habaſſia: for as for the large region of Nubia, which had from the Apoſtles time (as 'tis thought) profeſſed the Chriſtian faith, it hath again above an hundred yeers ſince forſaken it, and embraced inſtead of it, partly Mahumetaniſme, and partly Idolatry; and that by the moſt miſerable occaſion that might be, viz. famine of the word of God, for lack of Miniſters. For, as Alvarez hath recorded, at his being at the king of Habaſſia's court,Hiſt. Ethiop. cap. 37. there were Ambaſſadours out of Nubia, to intreat him for a ſupply of miniſters to inſtruct their nation, and to repair Chriſtianity, gone to ruine amongſt them; but they were rejected.

Verſe 12. And they ſhall wander from ſea to ſea,] Trouble themſelves to no purpoſe, take pains (as Eſau did for veniſon, but loſt his labour) run to all coaſts and quarters to ſeek the word of the Lord.

and ſhall not find it] And why, they deſpiſed it when it was in their power; they rejected the counſel of God againſt themſelves with thoſe Lawyers, Luk. 7.30. He would have gathered them, but they would not be gathered; he would have purged them, but they would not be purged; Ezek. 24.13, 14. they are therefore miſerable by their own election: as Saul was, who ſlighted Samuel whiles he was alive, and would have been full glad of his counſel when he was dead. He that would not once worſhip God in Samuel, worſhips at length Samuel in Satan; and no marvel. Satan was now become his refuge, and preacheth his funeral: his Ʋrim now was darkneſſe, his Prophet a ghoſt: O woful condition. But what ſhould a parent do when the child loaths and ſpils his victuals? ſnatch it from him, and lay it out of his reach. Samaria felt this worſer famine, when carried captive eſpecially: ſo did Jeruſalem, after Malachi, whoſe prophecy the Jews fitly call Chathimath Chazon the ſealing up of viſion. Bath Chol, or the Eccho from heaven they had now and then after this time, Mat. 2.17. Joh. 12.28 they had alſo the writings of Moſes, and the Prophets interpreted after a ſort by the Scribes and Phariſees, whom (whiles they ſat cloſe in Moſes chair, and kept it warm) men were bound to to hear, Mat. 23.2, 3. which becauſe Dives did not, he ſuffered hunger and thirſt in hell for ever, Luk. 16.24. And had he been granted the liberty of hearing again upon earth but one more ſermon, how farre would not he gladly have gone for it? and how, as for life, would he have liſtned to it? But this could not poſſibly be, for out of hell there is no redemption, Pſal. 49.8, 9. and when the night of death once comes, men can work no more. Night is a time not of doing work, but of receiving wages; up therefore and be doing, whiles it is yet day, Joh. 12.35, 36. ſeek ye the Lord while he may be found, Eſay 55.6. ſeek him ſeaſonably, ſeek him ſeriouſly: Then ſhall ye ſeek me and find me, when ye ſhall ſearch for me with all your heart, Jer. 29.13. That was a diſmall doom that our Saviour paſſed upon thoſe ſtiffe-necked Jewes and uncircumciſed in heart and ears, (as Saint Steven rightly ſtiles them, Act. 7.51.) that were as good at reſiſting the Holy-Ghoſt as ever their fathers had been before them. Ye ſhall ſeek me, and yet ſhall die in your ſinnes: whither I go ye cannot come, Joh. 8.21. Ye ſhall wander up and down for meat, making a noiſe like an hungry dog, and grudge that ye be not ſatisfied, Pſal. 59.14, 15. Do not the miſerable Jewes do ſo all the world over to this day, expecting their Meſſias? quem tantis ululatibus expoſcunt, throwing open their windows to behold him, and praying for the rebuilding of their Temple thus, Templum tuum brevi, valde citò, Buxtorf. Synag. Ind. cap. 13. valde citò, in diebus noſtris citiſſimè, nunc aediſica templum tuum brevi, &c. Merciful God, great God, bountiful God, beautiful God, ſweet God, mighty God, thou God of the Jewes, now build thy Temple, do it ſhortly, ſuddenly, quickly, very quickly, very quickly, very quickly, even in our dayes, now, this day before the next, &c. Ah poor creatures! they would not, when time was, know in that their day the things which belonged to their peace; therefore to this day they are hid from their eyes, and wrath is come upon them to the utmoſt.Luk. 19.42. Alterius perditio tua ſit cautio, Let their harmes be our warning, not to ſtand out the day of grace, not to ſurfeit of the word, leſt we ſuffer a famine of it; not to retain the ſnuffes of our ſinnes, leſt they dim our candleſtick: a removal whereof, except we repent, may be as certainly foreſeen and foretold, as if viſions and letters were ſent us from heaven, as once to Epheſus telling them ſo, Rev. 2.5. And indeed it hath been the opinion, and is ſtill the fear of ſome not unconſiderable Divines, that Antichriſt, before his abolition, ſhall once again overflow the whole face of the Weſt, and ſuppreſſe the whole proteſtant Churches. Now if ever this come to paſſe, (as juſtly we may fear it will) what may we thank but our deteſtable lukewarmneſſe and loathing of the heavenly Manna, our not receiving the love of the truth, that we might be ſaved? for which cauſe if God ſhall ſend us ſtrong deluſions,2 Theſſ. 2.10, 1[illegible: 1 letter]. even the efficacy of errour, that we ſhould believe a lie, that being infatuated we ſhould be ſeduced, and being ſeduced be damned, as Auſtin gloſſeth that text, whom can we blame for it?

Verſe 13. In that day ſhall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirſt,] When God depriveth a people of his Ordinances, and ſo withdraweth his gracious preſence from them, what wonder though temporal judgements come ruſhing in as by a ſluce? Perſecute and take him, (ſaid Davids enemies) for God hath forſaken him, and there is none to deliver him, Pſal. 71.11. The Philiſtins are upon me, ſaith Saul, for God hath forſaken me. Behold, I am caſt out from thy preſence, ſaid Cain (that is, from my fathers houſe where thine ordinances are adminiſtred) and therefore every one that findeth me ſhall ſlay me, Gen. 4.14. In that day of the want of the word, in the day of ſpiritual famine and thirſt, behold aliud ex alio malum, another thirſt ſhall ſeiſe upon the choyceſt and faireſt; as flies ſettle upon the ſweeteſt perfumes, when they are cold, and corrupt them.

Shall the fair virgins] whom all men favour for their comelineſſe, [non-Latin text not transcribed], beauty is of it ſelf lovely and attractive, it needeth no letters of commendations: but God is no reſpecter of perſons, and beauty abuſed is like a fair houſe with an ill inhabitant, ſaid Diogenes: like a jewel of gold in a ſwines ſnout, ſaid Solomon, Prov. 11.22. Some are Helena's without, but Hecuba's within, painted ſepulchres, Egyptian temples; like Aurelia Oreſtilla, of whom Saluſt ſaith, that ſhe had nothing in her praiſe-worthy but her beauty: Fair ſhe was and fooliſh, not [non-Latin text not transcribed], beautiful and wiſe, as it is reported of Aſpaſia Cyrus his concubine.Athenaeus. Now theſe fair maids, together with the choice young men, beſt able to endure thirſt a long ſeaſon,

ſhall faint for thirſt,] Heb. ſhall be over-covered with grief, ſhall be troubled and perplexed, ſhall faint and ſwoon, ſhall find by experience that all fleſh is graſſe, and the glory thereof as the flower of the field, that even the youths ſhall faint and be weary, and the young men ſhall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord ſhall renew their ſtrength, they ſhall mount up with wings as Eagles, they ſhall run and not be weary, and they ſhall walk and not faint. Eſa. 40.30, 31.

Verſe 14. They that ſwear by the ſin of Samaria] i. e. by the calfe ſet up at Bethel, not farre from Samaria. This calfe is called the ſin or guilt of Samaria, Eſa. 40.6, 7. to ſhew the abomination of it; for which cauſe alſo Paul cals it ſinful ſin, Rom. 7.13. as not finding for it a worſe Epithite: and Antichriſt for like cauſe he calleth That man of ſin, 2 Theſſ. 2, 3. to note him Merum ſcelus, ſaith Beza, meerly made up of ſin. Now to ſwear by this of Samaria, was to deifie it: to ſwear by any thing beſides the true God, is to forſake him, Jer. 5.7. which is an hateful wickedneſſe, Jer. 2.12, 13. as in Papiſts who familiarly ſwear by their Hee-Saints, and She-Saints; and ſo ſacrilegiouſly transferre upon the creature that which pertaineth to God alone.

and ſay, Thy god, O Dan, liveth,] God onely liveth, to ſpeak properly, 1 Tim. 6.17. but to ſay that Dan's Deunculus lived, (being no better then a dumb and dead idol) and to ſweat by the life of it,Spec. Eur[illegible: 1 letter]p. (as the Spaniards do now in the pride of their Monarchy, by the life of their king) this is horrible impiety. As for that of Abigail to David, 1 Sam. 25.26. Now therefore my Lord, as the Lord liveth, and as thy ſoul liveth, the former was an oath, the latter was not an oath, but an aſſeveration or obteſtation onely, conjoyned with an oath.

and the manner of Beerſheba liveth] that is, the formes and rites of worſhipping in Beerſheba (another neſt of idolatry, Chap. 5.5. and Hoſ. 10.13.) as the Chaldee paraphraſeth it. Durandus hath written the Romiſh Ritual, the way of worſhip uſed in that Synagogue of Satan: Mercer rendreth it, Vivet peregrinatio Beerſeba, the way or paſſage of Beerſeba liveth. Beerſeba had an idol, and was the way to Dan and Bethel: hence this ſuperſtitious oath drawn out to the full length, By the ſin of Samaria, by the god of Dan, and by the manner of Beerſheba: like as the great Turk Mahomet promiſing his ſouldiers the ſpoyle of Conſtantinople for three dayes together, if they could win it, for confirmation of his oath ſolemnly ſwore by the immortal God, and by the four hundred Prophets, by Mahomet, by his fathers ſoul, by his own children,Turk. hiſt. 345. and by the ſword wherewith he was girt, faithfully to perform whatſoever he had to them in his proclamation promiſed.

even they ſhall fall and never riſe up again] Fall, fatally, ferally, irrecoverably, as old Eli did when his neck was broken, but firſt his heart. The ten tribes for their idolatry and contempt of the word never returned out of captivity. From the famine foretold what could follow but irreparable ruine, though for a time they might flouriſh, See Prov. 29.1. with the note. Of that ſpiritual famine let us be moſt impatient, and ſay as Luther did, I would not live in Paradiſe without the word: but with it I could make a ſhift to live in hell it ſelf.