Amos 1

I herdmen. More properly, shepherds or sheep-breeders.

Tekoa. Now Tekua, situated on an elevated hill five miles south of Bethlehem. “The slopes on which Amos herded his cattle show the mass of desert hills with their tops below the spectator, and therefore displaying every meteoric effect in a way they would not have done had he been obliged to look up to them. . . . No one can read his book without feeling that he haunted heights, and lived in the face of very wide horizons.” (G. A. Smith, Historical Geog. of the Holy Land, 1894, p. 315.)

the earthquake. As Jeroboam II died in the fifteenth year of Uzziah’s reign, this earthquake could not have happened later than the seventeenth year of Uzziah. Palestine is subject to such convulsions; but this was peculiarly awful, so that it was known as “the earthquake,” and is alluded to again in Zech. xiv. 5.

2 will roar, etc. The words are taken from Joel (iii. 16). The metaphor probably refers to the roar of the lion: cp. iii. 8.

Carmel. “Carmel by the sea” (see Isa. xxxv. 2; Jer. xlvi. 18), the promontory at the mouth of the Kishon, which has always been celebrated for the luxuriance of its woods and herbage (ix. 3, and note). There was another Carmel, Josh. xv. 55.

3. For three transgressions . . . and (“yea,” R.V.) for four. Because of its multiplied or repeated transgressions. This expression is repeated at the commencement of each of the following denunciations; and then one offence on the part of each of the guilty nations is specified as being peculiarly aggravated.

I will not turn away, etc. Or, “I will not reverse it”; i.e. the decree of punishment.

Gilead. “Gilead” here signifies the tribes east of the Jordan: see 2 Kings x. 32; xiii. 3, 7, where both Hazael and his son Ben-hadad are mentioned, and their cruel oppression is described as “threshing.”

5 the bar. That is, the fortifications.

the plain of Aven. “Aven,” or “On,” is the Egyptian name for the city of the sun, Heliopolis (see Gen. xii. 45; Ezek. xxx. 17), and the name is here used for the Syrian Heliopolis, the celebrated city of Baalbek, which lay in the Bukáa or valley (Cœle-Syria) between Lebanon and Hermon.

the house of Eden. “Beth-eden,” the house of pleasure, is probably the name of a royal residence in the mountains of Lebanon, called by Ptolemy (v. 15) “Paradise.”

Kir. See note on 2 Kings xvi. 9.

6. Gaza. Gaza was the most important city of the Philistines. The old site has long been forsaken, but the modern town is still large and populous. It was taken from the Turks by the British forces during the Great War of 1914-1919. The other ancient Philistine cities are now small villages; and the exact site of Gath is not known: see note on Isa. xiv. 29.

the whole captivity. They swept off all that were within their reach. This is probably the invasion which is recorded in 2 Chron. xxi. 16, 17.

9 the brotherly covenant. The covenant which had subsisted between David and Solomon and the king of Tyre: see 2 Sam. v. 11; 1 Kings v. 12; ix. 11.

11 transgressions of Edom. See notes on 2 Sam. viii. 13; Isa. xxxiv.; Obadiah 10.

12 palaces of Bozrah. See notes on Jer. xlix. 7; Isa. xxxiv. 6.

13. That they might enlarge their border. The Ammonites aimed utterly to exterminate the Israelites, that they might extend their own territory.

14. I will kindle a fire, etc. See note on Jer. xlix. 2.