Amos 7:9

And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate,.... Such as the ten tribes of Israel, who descended from Isaac, built at Beersheba, in imitation of Isaac, and pleading his example; who worshipped

And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. And the high places - dedicated to idols. Of Isaac.

The high places; the temples on high mountains built to idols, or for the worship of God, though he forbade them. Of Isaac: the father is here named, but his children are intended, all the seed of Isaac. I cannot, though some do, think the prophet alludes to Isaac’ s being offered upon a high mountain. Shall be desolate; shall be rased to the foundation, or left to moulder and fall with length of time, and assaults of storms and weather. The sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste: this explains the former, and, speaking after the custom of those times, the prophet calls the idol temples sanctuaries, whether in Dan and Beth-el or elsewhere. I will rise; God will, but not immediately, rise up: he will stir up some or other to do what he threatens. Against the house of Jeroboam; in the days of Zachariah, (son of Jeroboam,) murdered by Shallum. With the sword, first of a conspirator, Shallum, next of civil war.

Amos 7:9 And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.Ver. 9. And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate] The Edomites also came of Isaac; but by a synecdoche the Israelites only are here, and Amos 7:16, to be understood. Like as elsewhere Heber is put for the Israelites only, Numbers 24:24, and Joseph for Ephraim, Revelation 7:8. Some think that the high places of Isaac are here mentioned to show that they were erected by the people in an apish imitation, either of Beersheba, where Isaac worshipped, or of Mount Moriah, where Isaac should have been offered: and that Isaac is here written with sin, and not tsadi, to show that God held himself not adored, but derided by those high places of derision, or those ridiculous altars, which therefore he threateneth to desolate and lay waste. And I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword] As a prelude to the utter extermination of all by the Assyrians. See this fulfilled, 2 Kings 15:10; 2 Kings 17:5-6; Jeroboam was very prosperous and victorious; yet designed to destruction. It is said of wicked men, that foenea quadam felicitate temporaliter floreant, they flourish today as grass, and tomorrow are cast into the oven, Matthew 6:30 : and as the metal whereof men make glass is nearest melting when it shineth brightest, so are graceless persons nearest destruction when at greatest lustre. The Turks, observing that few of their viziers die in their beds, have this proverb among them, that the greatest man is but as a statue of glass. A figure by which a more comprehensive term is used for a less comprehensive or vica versa; as whole for part or part for whole, genus for species or species for genus, etc. ŒD

(9) High places of Isaac.—The name Isaac is here spelt somewhat differently in the Hebrew from the form we have in Genesis. The LXX. misunderstand the word, and render “altars of laughter,” in accordance with the etymological sense of the proper name. The residents in the neighbourhood of Beersheba may have boasted of the favour or honour belonging to them, as occupying the home of Isaac and the birthplace of Jacob. Will rise against.—This dreadful doom fell on the house of Jeroboam, and was the prelude of the final destruction of the nations by Shalmaneser IV., in 721 (2 Kings 15:10).

Verse 9. And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate] Their total destruction is at hand. The high place of Isaac was Beer-sheba, where Isaac had built an altar to the Lord, Genesis 26:25. This high place, which had been abused to idolatrous uses, was demolished by Josiah, king of Judah, as we read in 2Kg 23:8, for he defiled all the high places from Geba to Beersheba. I will rise against the house of Jeroboam] The Lord had promised to Jehu, the ancestor of Jeroboam, that his family should sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation. Zechariah, the son of Jeroboam, was the fourth in order after Jehu; and on him the threatening in this verse fell; for he was murdered by Shallum after he had reigned six months, and in him the family became extinct. See 2Kg 10:30; 2Kg 15:8-10.

9. high places] local sanctuaries, usually situated on eminences (1 Kings 14:23; 2 Kings 17:10 f.), a little outside the towns to which they belonged (cf. 1 Samuel 9:12; 1 Samuel 9:14; 1 Samuel 9:19; 1 Samuel 9:25; 1 Samuel 10:5), sometimes, where no natural eminence was available, erected, it is probable, upon artificial mounds (cf. Jeremiah 7:31; 2 Kings 17:9). The custom of worshipping at such spots was borrowed, as seems evident (cf. Deuteronomy 12:2), from the Canaanites: it also prevailed in Moab (Isaiah 15:2; Isaiah 16:12 : Mesha also, in his Inscription, Isaiah 50:3, tells us that he had “made a high-place” for his god Chemosh). The sanctuaries in question consisted of a “house,” or shrine (1 Kings 12:31; 1 Kings 13:32), with an altar, and were served by priests (1 Kings 12:31-33; 1 Kings 13:33; 2 Kings 23:9): they are often alluded to as popular places of sacrifice, especially during the period of the monarchy (1 Sam. ll. cc.; 1 Kings 22:43; 2 Kings 12:3; 2 Kings 14:4; 2 Kings 15:4, &c.). Worship at such local sanctuaries, down to the 7th cent. b.c., in so far as it was not contaminated with heathen elements, was regarded as quite regular (comp. Exodus 20:24; 1 Samuel 9:13, where Samuel presides at and blesses the sacrifice at such a bâmâh; 1 Kings 3:4; 1 Kings 18:30); but under the centralizing influence of Deuteronomy, a change came in, and it was treated as illegitimate. The compiler of the Book of Kings, in his condemnation of the worship at the high-places, reflects the Deuteronomic standpoint. Amos, in so far as he refers to the bâmôth with disparagement, does so, not on account of their conflicting with the Deuteronomic law of the single sanctuary, but on account of the unspiritual character of the worship carried on at them. Comp. Nowack, Heb. Arch. ii. 12–14. Isaac] As in Amos 7:16, a poetic synonym of Israel (not so elsewhere). and I will rise, &c.] For the expression, cf. Isaiah 30:2; for the thought, Hosea 1:4, where the same dissatisfaction with the dynasty of Jehu finds expression. with the sword] Jehovah’s agent, then, will be the army of an invader, the nation, viz., whom in Amos 6:14 He says that He will “raise up” against Israel.

The high places of Isaac - He probably calls the ten tribes by the name of Isaac, as well as of Israel, in order to contrast their deeds with the blameless, gentle piety of Isaac, as well as the much-tried faithfulness of Israel.

7-9. The master builder with the plumb line. The third vision differs from the preceding two in that it does not bring to view the judgment itself but Jehovah decreeing the same.