Amos 6:14

But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the Lord, the God of hosts,.... The Assyrian nation, under its king, Shalmaneser; who invaded Israel, came up to Samaria,

But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness.

But; notwithstanding all your boasts and carnal confidences. Behold; observe and weigh well what is said. ir will raise up; awaken, call together, strengthen, succeed, and prosper in the attempt against you. A nation; Pul hath, and Tiglath-pileser hath, or now doth, afflict and break you, but Shalmaneser shall utterly destroy you; if his strength were not enough of itself, mine arm should strengthen him to bring all your hopes to nought. O house of Israel; kingdom of the ten tribes. Saith the Lord the God of hosts; who doth what he saith, who commands and it is done, whom none can resist. They, the Assyrians and their confederates, shall afflict you; distress you and press you hard on all sides, it shall be a great and a universal oppression of you. From the entering in of Hemath, a city of Syria bordering on the land of Israel north-east, and was an inlet into Syria from the north of Canaan, unto the river of the wilderness, which is Sichor, in the most south-west parts of Canaan towards Egypt. So all your country, Judah and all, shall be oppressed by that nation which I will raise and strengthen against you.

Amos 6:14 But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness.Ver. 14. But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, &c.] Which shall be a cooler to your courage, a rebater to your swelth, a means to take you a link lower, and to stain the glory of your pride. I tell you not what a nation it is, that you may imagine the worst; but you will find their quiver is an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men, and no less merciless, Jeremiah 5:16-17. And they shall afflict you (or crush you) from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness] From one end of your land to the other; that as ye have filled it from corner to corner with your uncleannesses, Ezra 9:11, so there may pass over it an overflowing scourge to wash the foul face of it, as once the old world. Hamath was before noted to be Antiochia, which was one of the bounds of the land of Israel to the north-east. The river of the wilderness] Is elsewhere called the river of Egypt, as some will have it: see Numbers 34:5; Numbers 34:8 Deuteronomy 3:17 Joshua 13:3; Joshua 15:47, where the wilderness was, Joe 1:20. I cannot but concur with Kimchi, who by the river of the valleys here understandeth the Dead Sea, comparing this text with 2 Kings 14:25 Deuteronomy 3:17, it being common in Scripture to call lakes and great rivers by the name of seas, Luke 5:1 cf. Numbers 34:11. The Dead Sea also is in human authors called the lake Asphaltites, the lake of Palestina, of Sodom, &c. It lieth to the south-west; and is elsewhere made the bound of the promised land, Numbers 34:3 Joshua 15:2.

(14) From . . . unto.—The entire limits of the kingdom of Israel after the victories of Jeroboam II. were, according to 2 Kings 14:25, identical with the region which is here threatened with invasion, i.e., extending from the mouth of the Orontes valley (comp. Numbers 34:8; Joshua 13:5) to the Wady el Ahsa, the southern boundary of Moab. (Comp. Isaiah 15:7, where the Hebrew name appears under a slightly different form, implying “torrent of the poplars.”)

Verse 14. I will raise up against you a nation] The Assyrians under Pul, Tiglath-pileser, and Shalmaneser, who subdued the Israelites at various times, and at last carried them away captive in the days of Hosea, the last king of Israel in Samaria. From the entering in of Hamath (on the north) unto the river of the wilderness.] Besor, which empties itself into the sea, not far from Gaza, and was in the southern part of the tribe of Simeon.

14. But] For,—justifying the low estimate of their power, expressed in Amos 6:13. raise up] not absolutely, as Amos 2:11 (for the Assyrians had long existed as a nation), but against you, i.e. as your adversaries. As in Habakkuk 1:6 (of the Chaldaeans) the term is used of the unconscious instruments of Providence: cf. 1 Kings 11:14; 1 Kings 11:23; also Isaiah 10:5. (The Hebrew words in Exodus 9:16, and in Isaiah 41:2; Isaiah 41:25; Isaiah 45:13 are both different: in Ex. made thee to stand, i. e. to endure; in Is. stirred up, i.e. impelled into activity, as Isaiah 13:17.) Properly, am raising up: cf. Amos 7:8; and on Joe 2:19. God of hosts] the title designates Jehovah appropriately, as one able to wield the powers of the world: cf. Amos 5:27, and p. 232. afflict] or oppress,—often used of oppression by a foreign power (Exodus 3:9; Judges 4:3; Judges 6:9 &c.). Lit. to crush (Numbers 22:25). from the entering in of Hamath unto the wβdy of the ‘Arβbβh] i.e. over the whole extent of territory which had been recently recovered from Israel by Jeroboam II., who (2 Kings 14:25) “restored the border of Israel from the entering in of Hamath unto the sea of the ‘Arαbah.” The “entering in of Hamath,” as was observed on Amos 6:2, marks the furthest limit of Israelitish territory on the north. The ‘Arαbah (comp. Deuteronomy 1:1 R.V. marg.) is the deep depression, varying from 2 to 14 miles across, through which the Jordan flows, and in which the Dead Sea lies (hence one of its Biblical names, the “sea of the ‘Arαbah,” Deuteronomy 3:17; Deuteronomy 4:49, Joshua 3:16; Joshua 12:3), and which is prolonged southwards to the Gulf of ‘Aḳ ?abah. At present, the northern part of this valley is called el-Ghτr, i.e. the Hollow, or Depression, the ancient name being limited to the part between the S. end of the Dead Sea, and the Gulf of ‘Aḳ ?abah, the “Wβdy el-‘Arγbah.” See further the writer’s Commentary on Deut., p. 3, with the references. The “Wβdy” (see on Amos 5:24) of the ‘Arαbah intended, can be identified only by conjecture; but it must, it seems, have been some fairly well-known Wβdy, and one also that might naturally be adopted as a boundary; hence it is generally supposed, with much plausibility, to have been the Wβdy el-Aḥ ?sβ, which, flowing down from the south-east, enters the ‘Arαbah about 3 miles S. of the Dead Sea, and then, turning northwards, runs straight into the lower end of the Dead Sea. The stream, which is a considerable one, divides now the district of Kerak from that of Jebal (Gebal, Psalms 83:7, the ancient Gebalene), which would correspond, respectively, to the ancient Moab, and the N. part of Edom.

But - (For,) - it was a non-thing, a nonexistent thing, a phantom, whereat they rejoiced; “for behold I raise up a nation.” God is said to “raise up,” when, by His Providence or His grace, He calls

14. But — Better, R.V., “For.” Behold, I will — See on Amos 2:13. Raise up — As an agent to execute judgment (Habakkuk 1:6). A nation — See at the close of comment on Amos 2:16.