Amos 8

Amos 8:1-3

would have been made to their affectionate friend, and faithful (proven), but let not the hell of men be surprised at the belief ingratitude they meet with.

1. Amaziah, the proof of Bethel, or prince, the chief ruler perhaps both in ecclesiastical and civil affairs, could not bear the threatening of the prophet, and therefore transmits to court an association against him as a traitor against the nation; as one that fowed sedition among the people, and spirited them up to murder the king: So that if timely care was not taken, the land would not be able to bear his words: either they would brood a revolt, or the country was so exasperated against him, that he would infirmate nothing could be a more popular act than to silence or punish him. For that Amos faith, Yershoam shall die by thy sword, and Israel shall surely be led many captive use of their own land; which was partly false, and partly true. Israel’s ruin indeed the prophet foretold; but Amaziah supposes the circumstance of Amos’s intercession, and his declarations that their repentance would prevent the judgment. As for Jershoam’s death, the prophet said no such thing: the threatening was against his house, not himself, v. 9. but this was easily prevented. Note, (1.) Apollate priests are the bitterest perfections of the true prophets. (2.) It is a common method with designing men to represent the faithful as seditious, and troubles of the land, that in fact they are the best friends of it. (3.) They who bear testimony for God against men’s sins, may expect to meet with the most malicious infirmations against them, and to have their words often tortured to a meaning of which they never dreamt.

2. Amas ab endeavours to drive Amos out of the country. What answer he received from court is not said; it should seem not one to favourable as he expected; and therefore to be rid of him at any rate, by pretending regard for his safety, which he infirmates would be in danger, he advises him to quit Bethel, and fly to Judah, where he would be better received and rewarded; judging from his own case that Amos prophesied for bread, v. 12. which at Bethel he would never get. Besides, the place was improper; it was the king’s chapel, and court, where his plain speaking could not fail of being disagreeable, court-pleading requiring soft words, and smooth prophecies; nor could he think of making converts there, where the current ran in fitting against him, and would the more endanger his safety, the more he attempted to oppose it. Note, (1.) False and faithful prophets measure the faithful by themselves, and think their only motive is that filthy lucre and worldly efferent which they adore. (2.) A zealous active minister is a burdening of those in the eyes of the lazy and negligent, especially when he happens to be in a public situation, where his conduct more glaringly reflects on theirs, and therefore by fair means or foul they will strive to get rid of him.

3. Amos answers this wicked priest with the decadence which became his office, and as one not to be intimidated by danger from the discharge of his duty. As for himself, he was not descended from a prophet, or bred up in their schools; but was an herding, and a gatherer of humane-fruit, to serve his family; or cattle; and from this employment the Lord called him to go and prophesy unto Israel. His divine malfeas therefore authorized him; he dared not desert his poft, since he was sent thither of God; and as he had been accustomed to hard fare, he was the better prepared to meet with any hardships in the course of his mindery; though they who dared oppose and oppose him should suffer for it, and Amaziah, who had forbid him to prophesy, among the first. His wife shall become an barish, and her wickedness reflect infamy on him: his children shall fall by the sword of an enemy, and his eyes shall behold it; his cellars shall be divided among the conquerors, and himself forever those molten, to die a wretched captive in a polluted land; and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land, as he would for fatally wretched. Note, (1.) God often chases word and unlikely infirmity; but whom he sends he will both qualify them for their office, and strengthen them to discharge it faithfully. (2.) Prosecution of God’s prophets shall shortly meet their fearful doom. (3.) It is in vain to attempt silencing those whom God hath commanded to speak. (4.) God’s word will surely take place, whatever opposition sinners may make against it.

C H A P. VIII.

Sincil times are here attended with favourful times, so naughty is the connexion between them; it is threatened again and again that their laughter shall be turned into mourning. 1. By the usians of a barber, of humane fruit is signified the halining on of their own, ver. 1—3. 2. Oppressors are here called to an account for their abiding of the poor, and their defraudism is foretold, ver. 4—10. 3. A favour of the word of God is here made the punishment of a people that go a suburing after other gods; ver. 11—14.

1. THUS hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me, and behold, a basket of summer-fruit. 2. And he said, Amos, what ieeft 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. 3. And ’the songs of the temple? shall be howlings in that day, faith the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place,’ they shall cast them forth with silence.

The prophet is called upon to attend to another vision, and lo! a basket of summer-fruit stood before him, an emblem of that people ripe for defraudism, and ready to be devoured by their enemies.

1. Their end is come; they have been suffered like fruit to grow till they were fully ripe, and now are to be spared no longer. God’s patience is wearied out, and their ruin resolved. Though God bears long, the impenitent lions’s fate will come at last.

2. Their ruin will be terrible. The kings of the temple shall be howlings in that day, faith the Lord God; the places where their idols praises rebounded, now shall be filled with throats and groans; and there shall be many dead bodies in every place, faith by the sword, the famine, or the pettiferous: they shall cast them forth in silence; without any funeral solemnity, or exorbitant of grief, as if the dead were happier than the living; or suddenly submitting, because they cannot help themselves; or holding others he silent, and not take the lead notice of what might dishearten the besieged, or encourage their enemies. Note, (1.) Sinful mirth will end in bitter mourning. (2.) God’s judgments do often but harden the hearts of the impenitent.

3. ¶ Hear this, O ye that ‘fwallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, 5. Saying, ‘when will the new-moon be gone, that we may fell corn?’ and the Sabbath, that we may be forth wheat, ‘making the ephah small, and the thekel great, and + falsifying the balances by deceit? 6. That ‘we may buy the poor for livery, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and fell the refuse of the wheat? 7. The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works. 8. Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, ‘as by the flood of Egypt. 9. And it shall come to pass in that day, faith the Lord GOD, that ‘I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day. 10. And ‘I will turn your feafts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation, and ‘I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head, and ‘I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

Amos 8:4-10

A people whose iniquities were so flagrant may expect the judgment they have provoked.

1. Their sins were heinous. They jewellery up the needy, by oppression and injustice; even to make the poor of the land to fail, starving them for want of necessary food. So all sizzled were they to covetoufnefs, that, though they kept up the form of religion, they were tired and weary of the fervor, longing for the sacred hours of the Sabbath and new moons to be gone, that they might resume their work and merchandise, which met with this unwelcome interruption, v. 5. nor did they make any conscience how they got their wealth, so they did but get it. They sold by a small measure, making the ephah small; but, when they received money, they would use their own weights, making the thekel great, refusing to take it unless it weighed more than it ought; and falsified the balances by deceit, that so the scale might always hang in their favour; and by such fraudulent practices they so impoverished their poor neighbours, that they were forced to tell themselves to their oppressive matters; they buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, to such necessities were they reduced; yea, and fell the refuse of the wheat, making them take the corn that was not fit for bread, and exacting their own price for it. Note, (1.) Covetoufnefs is deli-tute of all bowels and mercies. (2.) To a worldly man the Sabbath is an irksome day; and, when he is employed in religious duties, his heart goeth after his covetoufnefs; and even on his knees the thoughts of business thrull out the thoughts of God. (3.) He who is deli-tute of true piety can never be an honest man.

2. Their ruin is sure and terrible, confirmed by the oath of the unchangeable God, who faith, Surely I will never forget any of their works, but remember them in terrible judgment: they shewed no money, and they shall find none. And wo to the miserable sinner that is under such a curse! Shall not the land tremble for this? as weary to bear such miscreants upon it, and ready to swallow them up by an earthquake, for days, t. 1. and every one mourn that dwelleth therein, shocked at this inhumanity, or confounded at the judgments sent upon the transgressors;

it shall rise up wholly as a flood, the calamity overwhelming the land, as Egypt was covered with the overflowing of the Nile, v. 8. And it shall come to pay in that day, faith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day; in the midst of their prosperity their whole kingdom, with the princes and nobles, shall be destroyed suddenly and unexpectedly: or when these oppressors were in the midst of life and prosperity, death should at a stroke close their eyes in darkness, and send them to the grave. And I will turn your fingers into mourning, and all your fingers into lamentation; when their enemies destroyed, their country defolate, themselves captives, every sound of joy would be banished, and with every oppressive sign of bitter woe they would bewail their hopeless miseries, as the mourning of an only sun, and the end thereof as a bitter day, on prospect remaining of the removal of these calamities. Note, (1.) Riches got by rapine, will in the end bring ruin. (2.) They who will not tremble for the sins of the land, shall be made to tremble when the threatened judgment comes. (3.) However high the oppressor may be feared, the flood of God’s wrath shall overwhelm him. (4.) The honor’s wrath will end in mourning, and God sometimes is pleased to arrest him in the midst of his career of prosperity, and by a sudden stroke to feed him into darkness.

11. Behold, the days come, faith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thrift for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. 12. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it. 13. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thrift. 14. They that I swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth, and the manner of Beer-theba liveth, even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

Amos 8:11-14

We have had before heavy temporal judgments denounced, but here,

1. A Spiritual judgment is threatened; a famine, not of broad use of water, but of hearing the words of the Lord; from the time of their last captivity, no more prophets shall appear to them; having rejected God and his Christ, in vain will they seek for prophets of their own, v. 12. and pine away in their iniquities, v. 13. rejected and deftitute, as they are this day. Note, (1.) The word of God is the food of immortal souls; they must perish from whom it is withdrawn. (2.) They who have abused the means of grace they have enjoyed, are justly punished by having them removed. (3.) Among the heaviest curfew of God upon a place or nature, is the taking from them the light of truth, and abandoning them to the blindness and hardness of their own hearts.

2. The ringleaders in idolatry are doomed to destruction. They that favour by the sin of Samaria, impious and profane, givying in their shame, and swearing by their idols which they should have detected, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth, and the manner of Beer-theba liveth; making their adjudgments by the hasty deities there placed, and the worship performed to them; even they shall fall, and never rise up again, driven into a captivity from which they never have returned, and it is to be feared, perishing there also eternally in their impenitence.