Amos 8:14

They that swear by the sin of Samaria,.... The calf at Bethel, which was near Samaria, and which the Samaritans worshipped; and was set up by their kings, and the worship of it encouraged by their

They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

They that swear by; who now do, as formerly they have done, trust in, sacrifice to, and swear by; who are obstinate idolaters, and trust to those lies. The sin, that which was the sin, the occasion of the sin, of Samaria, the calves at Dan and Beth-el. And say, think, profess, and swear too, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; the idol at Dan is the true and living God. The manner of, the idols at, Beer-sheba, to which the zealous, mad, and bigoted idolaters in Israel made their pilgrimages. They shall fall, be consumed by famine, sword, and captivity, and never rise up again; never return out of captivity, nor recover of this consumption.

Amos 8:14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.Ver. 14. They that swear by the sin of Samaria] i.e. By the calf set up at Bethel, not far from Samaria. This calf is called the sin, or guilt, of Samaria, to show the abomination of it; for which cause also Paul calls it sinful sin, Romans 7:13, as not finding for it a worse epithet; and antichrist for like cause he calleth "that man of sin," 2 Thessalonians 2:3, to note him merum scelus, pure wickedness, saith Beza, merely made up of sin. Now, to swear by this of Samaria was to deify it; to swear by anything besides the true God is to forsake him, Jeremiah 5:7, which is a hateful wickedness, Jeremiah 2:12-13; as in Papists who familiarly swear by their he-saints and she-saints, and so sacrilegiously transfer upon the creature that which pertaineth to God alone. And say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth] God only liveth, to speak properly, 1 Timothy 6:17, but to say that Dan’ s Deunculus lived (being no better than a dumb and dead idol), and to swear by the life of it (as the Spaniards do now in the pride of their monarchy, by the life of their king), this is horrible impiety. As for that of Abigail to David, 1 Samuel 25:26, "Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth," the former was an oath, the latter was not an oath, but an asseveration or obtestation only, conjoined with an oath. And, The manner of Beersheba liveth] That is, the forms and rites of worshipping in Beersheba (another nest of idolatry, Amos 5:5 Hosea 10:13), as the Chaldee paraphraseth it. Durandus hath written, the Romish ritual, the way of worship used in that synagogue of Satan: Mercer rendereth it, Vivit peregrinatio Beersheba, the way or passage of Beersheba liveth. Beersheba had an idol, and was the way to Dan and Bethel; hence this superstitious oath drawn out to the full length, By the sin of Samaria, by the god of Dan, and by the manner of Beersheba: like as the Great Turk, Mahomet, promising his soldiers the spoil of Constantinople for three days together, if they could win it, for confirmation of his oath solemnly swore by the immortal God, and by the four hundred prophets, by Mahomet, by his father’ s soul, by his own children, and by the sword wherewith he was girt, faithfully to perform whatsoever he had to them in his proclamation promised. Even they shall fall, and never rise up again] Fall fatally, ferally, irrecoverably, as old Eli did when his neck was broken, but first his heart. The ten tribes, for their idolatry and contempt of the word, never returned out of captivity. From the famine foretold what could follow but irreparable ruin, though for a time they might flourish? see Proverbs 29:1.

(14) Thy God, O Dan, liveth.—Translate, By the life of thy God, O Dan, and by the life of the way of Beersheba. On such forms of oath, see Note on Amos 6:8. The “way of Beersheba” was the ritual practised at Beersheba, another mode of designating the deity himself (probably Baal).[18] So LXX. Similarly the “sin of Samaria” means the golden calf that was worshipped there (Hosea 8:5). The supposition of Hitzig and Duhm (followed by W. R. Smith) that it refere to the Asherah worship (2 Kings 13:6) is not so probable. [18] From chap. 5:5 we infer that Beersheba, lying far south on the borders of Judah (twenty-five geographical miles south of Hebron), was a famous religious centre, so that inhabitants of the northern kingdom were in the habit of “crossing the frontier” in order to pay their vows, or enquire at this high place.

Verse 14. By the sin of Samaria] Baal, who was worshipped here. Thy god, O Dan] The golden calf, or ox, the representative of the Egyptian god Apis, or Osiris. The manner of Beer-sheba] The worship, or object of worship. Another of the golden calves which Jeroboam had set up there. The word דרך derech, way, is here taken for the object and mode of worship; see Acts 19:9, where way is taken for the creed and form of Divine worship as practiced by the followers of Christ, and by which they were distinguished from the Jews. See also Acts 9:2.

14. They that swear …; even they shall fall] better, Who swear (connecting with Amos 8:13) …; and they shall fall &c. swear by the Guilt of Samaria] Men swear by that which they revere: the Israelite was commanded to swear by Jehovah (Deuteronomy 6:13; Deuteronomy 10:20); and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 4:2; Jeremiah 12:16) promises a blessing upon those who swear by Him faithfully. Idolatrous Israelites swore by “not-gods” (Jeremiah 5:7), or by Baal (Jeremiah 12:16), or Milcom (Zephaniah 1:5), &c. The ‘Guilt of Samaria’ is probably the calf at Beth-el, which Hosea alludes to ironically as unworthy of the Israelites’ regard (Hosea 8:5-6, Hosea 10:5): the golden calf which Aaron made is called “your sin” (Deuteronomy 9:21). Others suppose that the reference is to the Ashιrah which was made by Ahab in Samaria, and which still stood there, at least in the days of Jehoahaz (2 Kings 13:6)[193]. The Ashιrah (cf. Exodus 34:13, R.V. marg.) was a post or pole, regarded seemingly as the representative of the sacred tree, planted in the ground beside an altar, and venerated as a sacred symbol (see further W. R. Smith, Relig. of the Semites, p. 171 ff. (ed. 2, p. 187 ff.); D.B[194][195], s.v.; or the writer’s Commentary on Deuteronomy 16:21). [193] So W. R. Smith, Proph., p. 140. Stade and Oort even suppose that guilt (ΰωξϊ) is an error for Ashιrah (ΰωψϊ). [194] .B. … Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, ed. 1, or (from A to J) ed. 2. [195] … Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, ed. 1, or (from A to J) ed. 2.and say, (As) thy God, O Dan, liveth] The formula of an oath: cf. the common (As) Jehovah liveth (1 Samuel 14:39 &c.). Here the reference is to the calf set up by Jeroboam I. (1 Kings 12:29) at Dan, in the far North of Israel (now Tel el-Ḳ ?aḍ ?i), near the foot of Hermon, and not far from the principal source of the Jordan. and, (As) the way of Beer-sheba liveth] For Beer-sheba, see on Amos 5:5. The expression is an unusual one; and it has been doubted whether the text is correct. But probably the reference is to the road taken by the pilgrims to Beer-sheba, which must have been a clearly-marked, much frequented route[196] and which, being regarded by the worshippers as unalterable and permanent, might not unnaturally form the object appealed to in an oath. “Strange as it may appear to us to speak of the life of the lifeless, this often happens among the Semites. To-day Arabs “swear wa hyβt, ‘by the life of,’ even of things inanimate; ‘By the life of this fire, or of this coffee’ ” (Doughty, Arabia Deserta, i. 269). And as Amos here tells us that the Israelite pilgrims swore by the way to Beer-sheba, so do the Moslems affirm their oaths by the sacred way to Mecca[197]” (G. A. Smith, p. 186). Others understand ‘way’ in the sense of usage, cult.

Who swear - Literally, “the swearing,” they who habitually swear. He assigns, at the end, the ground of all this misery, the forsaking of God.

11-14. Some effects of the judgment. In the agony and despair of the judgment people will hunger and thirst for the word of Jehovah, but they will not find it.