Amos 2

6. Israel. The prophet having threatened the neighboring nations and Judah for their sins, now addresses the kingdom of Israel, and dilates upon their transgressions. Four kinds are enumerated: injustice, hardness of heart toward the poor, incest, luxury combined with idolatry. B. C.

6-8. Last of all is Israel, the northern kingdom, to whom especially the prophet Amos was sent. It is remarkable that their chief sins, as here developed, lay in the line of immoralities against their fellow-men; the violation of natural rights, the oppression of the poor and dishonoring the law of chastity. This Book of Amos discloses startling facts in respect to the luxury of the wealthy, and their oppression of the poor. “They sold the righteous for silver;” good men, bearing God’s image, and beloved of him for their moral integrity, they sold for paltry silver! They “sold the poor for a pair of shoes,” so cheap did they hold personal liberty and the rights of manhood! H. C.

The particular sins for which the Israelites are threatened with punishment were their notorious cruelty and oppression in the corrupt administration of justice; their covetousness, in perverting justice for the most paltry recompense; their licentious and incestuous commerce. Danaeus.

9. And I—I destroyed the Amorite. This is the preface to an enumeration of the signal favors conferred upon Israel, requited by the transgressions just mentioned. The Amorite, as being the most powerful of the Canaanite nations, stood for all. So in the next verse Canaan is called the land of the Amorite. Thus in Egyptian inscriptions of early date. In the narrowest sense the name belongs to the dwellers on the mountainous country west of the Dead Sea. Two emblems are used to represent the majestic bearing of the Amorite, as well as his strength—the cedar and the oak. The name for the latter in Hebrew is expressive of strength. The prophet Ezekiel (31) represents the glory of Assyria under imagery supplied by the cedar. And often elsewhere the same tree is the favorite symbol of stateliness and dignity. The Israelites in their own estimation were as grasshoppers (Num. 13:33). It was not then by their own strength that they prevailed. It was God Himself who hewed down their gigantic foes, and destroyed them root and branch. B. C.

11. The order of prophets seems not to have been specially provided for in the Mosaic institutes, but sprang up under the law of demand—the exigencies of later times. For the order of Nazarites, however, special provision was made. (See Num. 6.) The persons composing this order were often set apart from their birth—e.g., Samson and Samuel. They were to abstain sacredly and specially from wine and from everything else that could intoxicate, standing as living witnesses to the value of temperance and a perpetual protest against self-indulgence. It was truly a favor to the people that the Lord took His prophets and Nazarites from their own sons.

12. “Ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink,” seducing them into the violation of their vows, and thus paralyzing their influence. “Ye forbid the prophets to prophesy.” In some cases they persecuted, imprisoned and murdered God’s prophets, to suppress their testimony. Such a people must be fast filling up the measure of their iniquities. H. C.

13. Its meaning may be conveyed by, I feel pressed or straitened. In the wilderness the Almighty appeared to His people, saying, “Thou hast seen how the Lord thy God bare thee as a man doth bear his son” (Deut. 1:31). With the like condescension He here speaks: Behold, I, even I, feel the pressure of your sins, as the cart that is full of sheaves (full as it can hold is the meaning of the idiom) feels its heavy load. Similar is the language used by God in Isaiah, “Thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities” (43:24; cf. 1:14; 7:13; Mal. 2:17). B. C.

14. Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, etc. That is, God shall render ineffectual all their resources and methods of escape; whether they be natural, as swiftness of foot and strength of body, or acquired by industry, diligence and wit, as power and authority among others, skill in battle, or riches and horses trained for war. Hence appears the vanity of all human devices set up in opposition to the judgments of God. Nothing but God’s mercy can deliver us from His justice; and that mercy is to be obtained only by true repentance through the promises of God in Christ Jesus. Danaeus.