Amos 8:2

And he said, Amos, what seest thou?.... To quicken his attention, who might disregard it as a common thing; and in order to lead him into the design of it, and show him what it was an emblem of: and

And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. The end is come - (Ezekiel 7:2; Ezekiel 7:6).

Amos, what seest thou? the like question you have , which see. A basket of summer fruit: see . Then said the Lord unto me: the meaning of this hieroglyphic not being very plain in itself, the Lord doth here explain it in the following words. The end of God’ s patience towards Israel, of their peace, growth, and glory; the end of their ripening, they are now as fruit fully ripe, in the end of the year, fit to be gathered. My people Israel; so they were once, so they boast themselves, so the nations about them account Israel to be the people of God. I will not again pass by them any more: see . God had with admirable patience spared and tried, but now he will with just severity punish, neither pardon nor spare.

Amos 8:2 And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.Ver. 2. Amos, what seest thou?] This the Lord asketh, to stir up attention and affection in the prophet; who might haply need as much to be aroused, as Zechariah in like case did, Amos 4:1, with whom it fared as with a drowsy person, who though awaked and set to work, is ready to sleep at it. And I said, A basket of summer fruit] Apples, saith Jerome; figs, say others; and why not as well grapes ripened in the summer sunshine? Whereby the Holy Ghost in the Revelation, Revelation 14:20; Revelation 19:15, describeth such as are ready ripe for the wine-press of God’ s wrath? Nahum compareth them to stubble, laid out in the sun drying, that it may burn the better, Nahum 1:10. The end is come upon my people] An elegance in the original beyond translation into English: ÷õ ÷éõ, the Latin interpreters have (some of them) assayed the like, but they fall far short of it. The Old Testament is full of such surnames; and God seemeth delighted with them. See Jeremiah 1:11-12; Jeremiah 48:2; Jeremiah 49:23-24 Lamentations 3:47 Amos 5:5 Micah 1:10; Micah 1:14 Zephaniah 2:5 Exodus 2:10 Genesis 3:20; Genesis 4:1; Genesis 4:25; Genesis 5:29; Genesis 17:5; Genesis 21:5-6, &c. There is a pedantic style and a majestic; an effeminate eloquence and a manly. This latter is lawful, and may very well become the man of God; who yet must not wit-wanton it in weightiest matters; but shun those more gay and lighter flashes and flourishes, wherewith the emptiest cells affect to be most fraught; as they, who for want of wares in their shops, set up painted blocks to fill up vacant shelves, as one well expresseth it. The end is come upon my people] Exitus et exitium. As the summer is the end of the year and the time of ripening fruits; so, now that this people are ripe for ruin, "An end is come, is come, is come: it watcheth for them; behold, it is come," Ezekiel 7:6-7, even the precise time and term of their final overthrow. I will not again pass by them any more] See Amos 7:1-17 Amos 8:1-14. God can pass by, that is, pardon, his people better than any other, Micah 7:18 (like as they that are born of God, and partake of the Divine nature, can bear wrongs best of any; compel them to go a mile they will be content, if it may do good, to go two; yea, as far as the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace will carry them). But as the saints of God may not be therefore injured (which was Julian’ s jeering cruelty) because they are meek: so must not God be presumed upon and provoked because he is merciful.

(1, 2) The visions are resumed as though the priest at Bethel had trembled at the presence of Amos, and had ceased to persecute him. There is a remarkable play of words, qaits being the Hebrew for “summer fruit,” and qêts for “end.” It is harvest time, the end of the agricultural year. Israel is ripe for his final doom, that shall sweep down like a scythe. For “pass by” see on Amos 7:8.

Verse 2. A basket of summer fruit] כלוב קיץ kelub kayits; the end is come - בא הקץ ba hakkets: here is a paronomasia or play upon the words kayits, summer fruit, and kets, the end, both coming from similar roots. See Clarke on Ezekiel 7:2, where there is a similar play on the same word. I will not again pass by them any more.] I will be no longer their Guardian.

2. The question is asked for the same purpose as in Amos 7:8. The end] Amos answers, “A basket of ḳ ?aitz”: Jehovah replies, “Ḳ ?êtz—an ‘end’—is come upon my people Israel.” The last vision had declared that the approaching judgement was certain; this, that it was final, and also close at hand. I will not again pardon it any more] The same words as Amos 7:8.

THE BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT, Amos 8:1-3.Under the figure of a basket filled with ripe fruit Jehovah shows the prophet that Israel is ripe for judgment.