Amos 2

Amos 2:9-16

In this chapter we have, 1. God’s controversy with Moab, ver. 1—3. 2. His quarrel with Judah, ver. 4. 5. 3. His charge against Israel, to which all that goes before is but an introduction. Observa, (1.) The son they are charged with; injustice, oppression, whereof, ver. 6—8. (2.) The appearances of their sons, the temporal and spiritual movies God had destroyed upon them, for which they had made him such ungrateful enemies, ver. 9—12. (3.) God’s complaint of them for their sons, ver. 13. and his threatening of their ruin, and their utter inability to prevent it, ver. 14—16.

1. THUS faith the LORD, for three transgressions of Moab, and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof: because he burnt the bones of the king of Edom into time. 2. But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kirioth, and Moab shall die with tumult, with throating, and with the sound of the trumpet. 3. And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will stay all the princes thereof with him, faith the LORD. 4. Thus faith the LORD, for three transgressions of Judah, and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof: because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies candid them to err, after the which their fathers have walked. 5. But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem. 6. Thus faith the LORD, For three transgressions of Israel, and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof: because they hold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of fours. 7. That pain after the dult of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name. 8. And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge, by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.

c. 1—8. God’s controversy still proceeds.

1. With Moab. Their multiplied transgressions called for vengeance, and one peculiarly heinous is noted. Because he burnt the bones of the king of Edom into time, probably in revenge; for the distress to which the king of Edom had reduced him, 2 Kings iii. 26—27. he some time after seized the person of the king of Edom, and burnt him alive; or having ravaged the country, dug up his bones out of his grave, and burnt them to time; for which inhumanity God threatens to punish him with an invading foe, who with all the horrid din of war should seize his cities and palaces, murder the inhabitants, and cut off all the princes and judges of Moab, which was done by Nebuchadnezzar a few years after the destruction of Jerusalem.

2. Judah is brought to the bar: alike in his wrath heathen nations, and therefore alike in punishment. Many were her transgressions; but the root of all, and the most criminal, is her revolt from God, that God the nations around her never knew: they despised God’s love, and kept not his commandments, rejecting his worship, and disobedient to his holy will; and their lies caused them to err; their idols, their false prophets, the lying vanities on which they routed, and the lying visions in which they believed, as their fathers had done before them, the measure of whole iniquities they filled up. Justly therefore is the fire of wrath kindled, and ready to devour the palaces of Jerusalem, Jer. iii. 13. Note, If other sinners must perish, a profane surely will fall under double vengeance.

3. Israel brings up the rear; last in judgment, not least in punishment. The crimes of this people were peculiarly aggravated by their relation to God, and therefore are more particularly inflicted upon.

(1.) Their persecution of justice; before their corrupt judges, the bribe, not the truth, carried the cause, and the meanest gratifications influenced their decisions, c. 6.

(2.) Their oppression of the poor; the very pittance they possessed, their rulers, as greedy cormorants, panted after; or they wanted to drag them through the dult, to gratify their pride and cruelty; and because they were meet and patient, the more infidently they trumpted upon, or plundered them, which was a great aggravation of the wickedness.

(3.) Their abominable impurities, even incelt itself, c. 7. for where the reins are once cast upon the neck of lawless appetite, men are hurried into excelses that at first they would have started at with horror: and such wickedness in God’s professing

Or young woman, a East. xxii. 17. Or such as they have done, or mulled.

Before Christ 1897.

people, could not but greatly preclude his holy name, and give abundant cause to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.

4. Their impiety and idolatry. They lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, which, according to the law, should have been restored before sun-setting, Exod. xxii. 26. but they carried them into their idol-temples, and either slept there on them all night, in honour of their deities, or regaled themselves there on the sacrifices they had offered, whilst the poor were pining in want and nakedness; and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God, as if their idolatry could centre for their injustice, and the price of blood would be an acceptable offering. For such transgressions, no marvel God threatens, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, ver. 4.

b Num. xxii. 54. Chord. 10. 55. Jud. xxv. 8. 7 Num. xii. 28. 12. 53. 6 Ill. v. 64. Mal. iv. 1. 1 Exod. xii. 10. Mic. vi. 4. 4 Num. vi. 2. 6 Ill. xvi. 10. Inv. 8. 21. Chap. vii. 12. 13. Mic. v. 8. 5 Or I will jure your place, as a cart full of Slavers podiat. 7 Ill. v. 14. 2 Chap. 8. 4 Pl. Saml. 1. 2 Heb. Mei God, or life. 7 Pl. xxxiii. 21. 8 Heb. Arming of the heart,

9. ¶ Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, which bright was like the bright of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks, yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath. 10. Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. 11. And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? faith the LORD. 12. But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, laying, Prophecy not. 13. Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves. 14. Therefore the flight shall perish from the twists, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself. 15. Neither shall he stand that handlem the bow, and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself, neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself. 16. And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, faith the LORD.

The safe ingratitude of Israel was among their blacked crimes.

1. God reminds them of what he had done for them. He had destroyed the Amorites before them, though so warlike and mighty a people, had cut them off root and branch, and given them their land for a possession, v. 9. He had brought them marvellously from the iron bondage in Egypt, had led and fed them in the wilderness by continual miracles, v. 10. He had honoured them with peculiar marks of favour, raising up their sons for prophets, from Moles to that time, and their pavey men for Nazarites, as Samson, Samuel, and others, whose holy abstinence and self-denial should have taught them to imitate such gracious examples. Is it not thus, O ye children of Israel, faith the Lord? The facts were notorious beyond contradiction. Note, (1.) Faithful ministers are the greatest blessings to a nation, and not to have prosted by their labours, will one day bring a heavy reckoning. (2.) When in the heat of youth the power of divine grace is seen effectually refraining, to corrupt appetite, and purifying the heart, such examples are peculiarly striking.

2. He upbraids them with what they had done against him. They gave the Nazarites wine to drink, enticing or threatening them into a compliance, and commanded the prophets, young, Prophecy not; whilst the people turned a deaf ear to them, the rulers and priests persecuted, and endeavoured to silence them, chap. vii. 12, 13. Thefe, and the like abominations, were as a heavy burden which the Lord was weary to bear. I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves; though some read this as a threatening, I will press your place as a cart full of flowers preach, intimating the distress which should be brought upon them in the siege of Samaria. Note, (1.) The devil and his agents are very busy to draw off the minds of young men from divine things, and they triumph if they can succeed in the debauch of a Nazarite. (2.) They who hate the truth, and exert their power to suppress it, shall shortly answer for it at their peril. (3.) Though God’s patience bears long with sinners, he will not bear always; the day of recompense will come, when he will ease him of his adversaries, 1la. 1. 24.

3. Judgment is pronounced upon them for their sins. He will load them with his wrath, who have burdened him with their iniquities. The Affyrian, the rod of his anger, shall come, and fight or resistance will be alike in vain: the mighty shall fall, and the twists be overtaken by their twister purifiers. The most courageous warriors shall flee naked, calling away their armour, and confuting only how they may escape; and this is confirmed by this faith the Lord, whose denunciations shall have a true accomplishment. Note, The sinner in the day of God will find his case desperate, unable to endure, or escape from the wrath he hath provoked.