John Trapp on Amos 7:1

CHAP. VII.

Verſe 1. THus hath the Lord God ſhewed unto me,] ſc. in a Propheticall viſion: this being the firſt of thoſe five that follow, to the end of the Propheſie: all foretelling the evils that ſhould befall this people, to whom Amos is again ſent, as Ahijah was to Jeroboams wife with heavie tidings, and as Ezekiel was afterwards to his rebellious countreymen, with a roul written full of lamentations, and mourning, and woe. Ezech. 2.10.

and behold he formed graſhoppers,] Or, locuſts, fore-runners of famine, Joel 1.4. (See the Note there) or, (as ſome will) of the Aſſyrians, whom the divine juſtice made a ſcorpion to Iſrael, as Iſrael had been a ſcourge to Judah. When the Iſraelites were in their flouriſh, as the graſſe or wheat is in the beginning of the ſhooting up of the latter groweth, they had been firſt mowed by Benhadad, king of Syria: but, growing up again under Jeroboam their king, they were devoured by Pul and his Army, as by ſo many greedy locuſts.

In the beginning of the ſhooting up of the latter growth,] For in thoſe fat and fertile countreys they uſed Luxuriem ſegetum tener â depaſcere in herba.Virg. Georg. 1. Now if the latter growth were eaten up too, what elſe could follow but extreme famine?

It was the latter growth after the kings mowings.] Or, ſheep-ſhearings, as ſome read it: but the former is better: and Diodate here noteth, that it is thought that the kings did take the firſt crop, in eſum & uſum jumentorum, to keep their warre horſes, and for other ſervices: leaving the latter mowings for other cattle, who were taught to ſay, After your Majeſtie, is good manners.