Amos 3

2 therefore I will punish (visit) you. Because they had enjoyed remarkable Divine favours and sinned against special obligations.

3. Can (shall) two walk together, etc.? The point of the question is that Judah, having ceased to “agree” with God, can no longer expect His favour and help. “Think not to have God with thee unless thou art with God” (Pusey).

4. Will a lion roar, etc.? The lion roars, when eager for his prey, or when exulting over it. He does not roar in the forest, or cry (grow!) in his den without

X cause; so God does not threaten and punish where there is no sin.

5. Shall [one] take up a snare from the earth, etc. ? Rather, as R.V., “Shall a snare spring up from the ground, and have taken nothing at all?” The emblems, taken from rural life, convey the same general meaning: no effect without a cause.

6 and the people not be afraid. It was no vain alarm which the prophets were sounding in the ears of their countrymen; and, whoever might be the instruments, God was the author of the chastisement.

Shall there be evil, etc. ? The word “evil” here means calamity, as in Gen. xix. 10. “Evil which is sin, the Lord hath not done; evil which is punishment for sin, the Lord bringeth” (Augustine, quoted by Pusey).

7 but He revealeth, etc. Before God inflicts His strokes, He mercifully warns men by His prophets.

9 in the palaces at Ashdod, etc. Or, “upon the palaces,” etc., making proclamation from the flat roofs, and summoning the heathen nations (Philistines and Egyptians) to note the humiliation of Israel: cp. 2 Sam. i. 20. For “Ashdod” the Septuagint has “of the Assyrians.”

12. Two legs, or a piece of an ear. No more than the mere fragments of God’s flock shall be left, to show how they have been devoured.

That dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus [in] a couch. This should be translated, “That sit in Samaria in the corner (i.e., the place of honour) of a sofa, and in the damask of a couch”; referring to the luxurious habits of the people: cp. R.V.

13 in the house of Jacob. Rather, “against the house of Jacob.”

15 the winter with the summer house, etc. Descriptive of extreme domestic luxury. “So wealthy were they,” writes Jerome, “as to possess two sorts of houses, the ‘winter house’ being turned to the south, the ‘summer house’ to the north, so that, according to the variety of the seasons, they might temper to them the heat and cold.” The “houses of ivory” were houses decorated or panelled with ivory.