Matthew Poole and continuators on Amos 8

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.