Amos 1

Amos 1:12

12. — I will send a fire &c.] Nebuchadnezzar subduced the Edomites, Jer. xxv. 9. 21; xxvii. 3. 6. Judas Maccabeus obtained a great victory over them, 1 Mac. v. 3; probably after they had left the Nabatheans in consequence of a sedition, and had settled to the south of Judah: for it seems that the Babylonian conquests had compelled them to take refuge in that part of Arabia. Afterwards Hyrcanus reduced them under subjection, and permitted them to remain in their country, on condition that they conformed to the Jewish laws: see the note on Obad. ver. 2. Teman and Bozrah were cities of Idumea. Abp. Newcome.

Amos 1:13

13. — of the children of Ammon.] Hazel king of Syria grievously afflicted the Israelites that lay eastward of Jordan, particularly the Gileadites; see 2 Kings x. 33. The low condition to which these countries were reduced, might probably encourage the Ammonites to possess themselves of Gilead, which lay near their own borders, and to destroy the inhabitants in the cruel manner here described. Compare Jer. xlix. 1; Zeph. ii. 8; Hos. xiii. 16. W. Lowth. The histories of those times, transmitted down to us, are so concise, that we often want information concerning the particular facts alluded to. Abp. Newcome.

Amos 1:14

14. — Rabbah.] This was the capital city of the Ammonites, who were conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, Jer. xxvii. 5, 6. Abp. Newcome. — with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind:] The destructions of war are often compared to the devastations caused by whirlwinds and tempests: see Isa. v. 26; Jer. xxv. 32; Dan. xi. 40: Zech. ix. 14. W. Lowth. Chap. II. ver. 1. — Moab.] As Moab and Ammon were nearly related, and bordered upon each other, so they are usually joined together in the theatres of the Prophets: see Jer. xlviii, xlix; Ezek. xxv. 1—8; Zeph. ii. 8. W. Lowth. For the origin of these two people, see Gen. xix. 37, 38. Their country lay to the east of the Dead sea. Abp. Newcome. — because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:] That is, into ashes, out of contempt and inhumamity. This is in all probability to be looked on as a distinct fact from that related in 2 Kings iii. 27, the circumstances being so widely different. Kirioth was the chief city of Moab. Dr. Wells.