View Amos 5 in the note window.
The deplorable condition of Israel, ver. 1 - 3.
An exhortation to seek God, ver. 4 - 15.
Judgments denounced, ver. 16 - 20.
Notwithstanding their outward services, ver. 21 - 27.
2: The virgin - So she was, when first espoused to God.
Upon her land - Broken to pieces upon her own land, and so left
as a broken vessel.
3: By a thousand - That sent out one thousand soldiers.
An hundred - Shall lose nine parts of them.
4: Ye shall live - It shall be well with you.
5: Seek not - Consult not, worship not the idol at Bethel, Gilgal,
or Beersheba.
6: The house of Joseph - The kingdom of the ten tribes, the
chief whereof was Ephraim, the son of Joseph. In Beth - el - If once
this fire breaks out, all your idols in Beth - el shall not be able
to quench it.
7: Ye - Rulers and judges. Judgment - The righteous sentence of
the law. To wormwood - Proverbially understood; bitterness, injustice
and oppression. Leave off - Make to cease in your courts of judicature.
8: The seven stars - A constellation, whose rising about September
was usually accompanied with sweet showers. Orion - Which arising about
November brings usually cold, rains and frosts intermixt very seasonable
for the earth. The shadow of the earth - The greatest adversity into as
great prosperity. Dark with might - Changes prosperity into adversity.
That calleth - Commands the vapour to ascend, which he turns into rain;
and then pours from the clouds to make the earth fruitful.
9: The strong - The mighty, victorious and insolent.
Shall come - Shall rally and form a siege against their besiegers.
10: They - The judges and people. In the gate - Where judges sat,
and where the prophets many times delivered their message.
11: Your treading - You utterly oppress the helpless.
Ye take - Ye extort from the poor great quantities of wheat,
on which he should live.
12: In the gate - In their courts of justice.
13: Shall keep silence - Be forced to it. Evil - Both for the
sinfulness of it, and for the troubles, wars, and captivity now at hand.
14: With you - To bless and save you yet.
15: The evil - All evil among the people, and yourselves.
Love - Commend, encourage, defend: let your heart be toward good
things, and good men. Remnant - What the invasions of enemies,
or the civil wars have spared, and left in Samaria and Israel.
16: Therefore - The prophet foreseeing their obstinacy, proceeds to
denounce judgment against them. The husbandman - This sort of men are
little used to such ceremonies of mourning, but now such also shall be
called upon; leave your toil, betake yourselves to publick mourning.
17: Vineyards - In these places were usually the greatest joy.
Pass through - To punish all every where.
18: That desire - Scoffingly, not believing any such day would come.
To what end - What do you think to get by it? Is darkness - All
adversity, black and doleful. Not light - No joy, or comfort an it.
19: And a bear - You may escape one, but shall fall in another
calamity. Into the house - At home you may hope for safety, but there
other kind of mischief shall meet you.
21: I hate - Impure and unholy as they are. Will not smell - A
savour, of rest or delight, I will not accept and be pleased with.
23: Thy songs - Used in their sacrifices, and solemn feasts; herein
they imitated the temple - worship, but all was unpleasing to the Lord.
Will not hear - Not with delight and acceptance. Thy viols - This one
kind of musical instrument is put for all the rest.
24: Let judgment - Let justice be administered constantly.
Righteousness - Equity. Stream - Bearing down all that opposes it.
25: Have ye - Their fathers and they, tho' at so great a distance
of time, are one people, and so the prophet considers them.
Unto me - Was it to me, or to your idols, that you offered, even in
the wilderness?
26: Ye have borne - Ye carried along with you in the wilderness;
the shrine, or canopy in which the image was placed.
Moloch - The great idol of the Ammonites. Chiun - Another idol.
27: Therefore - For all your idolatry and other sins, in which you
have obstinately continued.
