Amos 5:16

Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus,.... The connection of these words is not with those that immediately precede, but with the whole context; seeing neither promises nor

Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas!

The prophet foreseeing their obstinacy in their sins, and their refusing to obey his counsel from the Lord, doth proceed to denounce judgment against them. The Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus: that there might be no doubt made of the truth of the prophet’ s words, he doth in most solemn manner attest it to be from the Lord; and that he might awake them to repentance and humiliation, he proclaims the majesty and power of God who calls them to it. Wailing; lamentations uttered in words and gestures, , shall every where be seen and heard in the broad streets of your cities, as when the Assyrians prevailed and cut off the forces of Israel, besieged and took their strong holds. Shall be in all streets of great towns or cities. They shall say in all the highways, abroad in the country, and on the road, all shall cry out, as undone, dispirited, and hopeless men, Alas! alas! They shall call the husbandman to mourning: this sort of men are little used to such ceremonies of mourning, but now such shall their state be, that they shall be called upon; Leave your toil, betake yourselves to public mourning. And such as are skilful of lamentation; and to make all sound doleful, call in those whose art lieth in acting the part of mourners, and can move hardest hearts to lament and bewail. See these ,18 Matthew 9:23.

Amos 5:16 Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing [shall be] in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.Ver. 16. Therefore the Lord God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus] Therefore? wherefore? because neither promises of mercy nor menaces of misery will work upon you, stand forth, and hear your doom, your sentence of condemnation; and it beginneth, as is usual, In nomine Dei: In the name of God, neither can you say, as that martyr did, when wrongfully sentenced, ye begin in a wrong name. To assure the matter, the prophet here heapeth up three majestic names of God; that they might tremble and turn, considering the greatness of him with whom they here have to do, being "glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders," Exodus 15:11. Wailing shall be in all streets, &c.] A general outcry, as once in Egypt, when in every house there was a dead corpse; or, as at the taking and sacking of Troy there was “ Luctus ubique, pavor, et plurima morris imago ” ( Virg.). And they shall say in all the highways, Alas, alas] Man is a creature apt to overly grieve for crosses, and to fill the air with moans and complaints of his misery. The Latin word Aeger, for a sick person, is judged to come from Aι, αι, the doleful expression of his grief. The Greek word ουαι is as much as ουκαει, Not ever. We are soon weary of suffering, and would fain see an end of it; and therefore cry out for help. The Hebrew word here used, He, He, is the same with our Oh, Oh; it is dolentis particula, it is eiulantis, the broken speech of one in great dolour and durance. Nature need not to be taught to tell her own tale when in distress, then men are apt to be eloquent even beyond truth; they add, they multiply, they rise in their discourse, like him in the poet, I am thrice miserable, nay, ten times, nay, a hundred, ten hundred times: τριςκακοδαιμων, καιτετρακιςκαιμυριακις (Aristoph.): whereas they should correct their excessive complaints with that other, οιμοιτιδοιμοιο, Alas, alas. But why alas? Nothing hath befallen us but what is human, common to men and our betters, 1 Corinthians 10:13. And they shall call the husbandman to mourning] For the marring of his grain by the enemy, or by the vermin. Others read it thus, The husbandman shall send for those that are skilful in lamentation to mourning and wailing. And such as are skilful of lamentation] An ordinary practice in those eastern parts (as now also in Ireland) to hire artificial mourners at funerals to sing doleful ditties. Ut qui conducti plorant in funere. See Jeremiah 9:17 Matthew 9:23. Of the lawfulness of this custom the prophet speaketh not.

(16) Therefore.—Probably a pause occurs here, for once more the words of the prophet assume a more mournful tone. “Therefore” points back to the transgressions condemned in Amos 5:11-13. On the Divine name “Lord of hosts,” see note on Hosea 12:5, and Oehler, Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, §§ 194-8. It is a grand phrase to denote the antithesis. between “the Portion of Jacob,” and all heathen deities. The “streets” are the open wide squares near the gates, and the “highways” are more properly the narrow alleys of the crowded cities of the Easu. The word for wailing (mispçd) denotes properly the beating of the breast, the Oriental symptom of grief. The calling of the husbandman from his agricultural pursuits to lamentation is an indication that the disaster was universal. Those “skilled in wailing” were generally, and are still, women who tear their hair and dress, throw dust over the head, and utter the monotonous wail and piercing cry of distress. The last clause should properly be inverted, And wailing to such as are skilful of lamentation. (Ecclesiastes 12:5; Jeremiah 9:17-19. Pass through thee.—Properly through the midst of thee. Whenever Jehovah is said to pass through a land or a city, heavy punishment is intended. (Comp. Exodus 12:12.) The reference to the “vineyards” adds to the terror of the picture.

Verse 16. They shall call the husbandman to mourning] Because the crops have failed, and the ground has been tilled in vain. Such as are skilful of lamentation] See Clarke on Jeremiah 9:17.

16–17. But Amos sees that his exhortation will not be listened to, and again therefore he draws a dark picture of the future to which the nation is hastening: so great will be the slaughter wrought by the foe (cf. Amos 5:27; Amos 2:14-16, Amos 4:2-3, &c.), that universal lamentation will prevail throughout the land.

Therefore the Lord, the God of Hosts, the Lord - For the third time in these three last verses Amos again reminds them, by whose authority he speaks, His who had revealed Himself as “I am,” the