John Trapp on Amos 1:3

Verſe 3. For three tranſgreſſions of Damaſcus and for four,] For their ſeven, that is, ſeverall ſinnes, not a few: for their many and bony provocations, for their progreſſe in ſinne, without mean, or meaſure. The Jews here note, that for three faults God will pardon a man, but let him beware of the fourth: God will not alwayes ſerve man for a ſinning-ſtock, but break off his abuſed patience, and proceed to puniſhment. Lo all theſe things worketh God twice and thrice with man, Iob 33.29. but let him not thereupon grow over-bold: leſt he pay for his preſumption. Sin iterated is greatly aggravated; as cyphers added increaſe the ſumme: and though it may ſleep a long time, yet it is but as a ſleeping-debt not called for of many yeers, required at length: as Sauls ſinne in ſlaying the Gibeonites, was not puniſhed till fourty yeers after: as Ioabs killing of Abner, ſlept all Davids dayes, &c. Now, leſt Iſrael looking upon Syria yet flouriſhing, ſhould promiſe themſelves like impunity, they are here thus threatned.

I will not turn away the puniſhment thereof,] but pay them home for the new and the old; yea, for the old by occaſion of the new; for their obſtinate and incurable wickedneſſe, I will puniſh them ſeven times more, and ſeven times more, and ſeven to that, Lev. 26.24. &c. and ſo hang them up, as it were, in gibbers, for a warning to Iſrael, that they may waſh their feet in the blood of theſe Heathens, and redeem their own ſorrows.

becauſe they have threſhed Gileaed,] i. e. the Gileadites whom they had taken captive, and thus cruelly intreated. See 2 King. 13.7. and 10.32. where it appeareth, that all this was done, not without the Lord: which yet is no excuſe to Hazaels cruelty. That Conquerours were wont to uſe this kinde of torment and puniſhment, ſee 2 Sam. 12.31. But that David ſhould do ſo, is ſome wonder: hee was hardly recovered of his late foul fall: and thence haply, ſo much harſhneſſe. Certain it is, that the mercifull God abhorreth cruelty toward his creature; and ſeverely puniſheth it: ſuch as was this of Hazael toward Iſrael, foretold by Eliſha, 2 King. 8.12. and afterwards of Ptolomie Lathurus King of Egypt, who ſlew 30000. Jews at once: and forced the reſt to eat up their dead carcaſſes.Joſeph. So that barbarous Duke of Alva, roſted ſome of his priſoners to death, ſtarved others, and that even after quarter: ſaying, though he promiſed to give them their lives,Hiſt. of Netherl. Grimſt. he did not promiſe to finde them meat. Dio telleth us of the Jews that dwelt about Cyrene, in the dayes of Trajan; that they ſlaughtered a great ſort of Romans and Greeks after a miſerable manner; ſawing them down the middle from the crown of the head, tearing their fleſh with their teeth, ſmearing themſelves with their blood,Eio in vit[illegible: 1 letter] Trajan. and wearing their skins for coverings, &c. ſo that 200000 people periſhed there: and beſides in Egypt, and Cyprus, 240000, by the like abhorrid cruelty, and about the ſame time, by the ſame hands. Beware of men, Mat. 10.