View Amos 9 in the note window.
Judgments are threatened upon all, but the remnant, ver. 1 - 10.
Mercy is promised, ver. 11 - 14.
1: The altar - Of burnt - offering before the temple at Jerusalem,
this altar and temple Israel had forsaken, and set up others against
it; and here God in his jealousy appears prepared to take vengeance.
Possibly it may intimate his future departure from Judah too.
There Ezekiel, (Eze 9:2), saw the slaughter - men stand.
The door - The door of the gate that led into the priests court.
And cut them - Wound deep, the people who were visionally represented
as standing in the court of the temple.
2: Hell - The center of the earth, or the depth of hell.
3: The serpent - The crocodile or shark.
4: Set my eyes - I will perpetually watch over them.
5: Toucheth - He needs not take great pains therein, a touch of his
finger will do this. Shall melt - As snow before the sun.
6: His stories - The celestial orbs one over another, as so many
stories in an high and stately palace. And he hath founded his troop
in the earth: all the creatures, which are one army, one body; so
closely are they connected, and so harmoniously do they all act for the
accomplishing of their creator's purposes. Calleth for the waters - Either
in judgment to drown, or in mercy to give rain.
7: The Arabians - A wild, thievish, and servile nation.
Have not I brought - And whereas you boast my kindness to you, bringing
you out of Egypt, and thereupon conclude, God cannot leave you whom
he hath so redeemed; you argue amiss, for this aggravates your sin.
From Kir - Conquered by some potent enemies, and sent away to Kir, a
country of Media, yet at last delivered. Should these nations,
argue themselves to be out of danger of divine justice, because
I had done this for them.
8: The sinful kingdom - Every sinful kingdom.
9: The least grain - Though tumbled and tossed with the great
violence, yet the smallest, good grain, shall not be lost or destroyed.
10: All the sinners - The great, notorious sinners.
The evil - Is far off, we shall die first, and be safe in the grave.
11: In that day - In the set time which I have fixt.
Raise up - Bring back out of captivity, and re - establish in their
own land, the house of David, and those that adhere to his family.
Fallen - By the revolt of the ten tribes. The breaches - Which are in
it by that long division.
12: They - Literally the Jews. Possess - Both the lands of
Edom, and some of the posterity of Edom; these as servants, the
other as their propriety. The remnant - Left by Nebuchadnezzar.
All the heathen - That is, round about. That doth this - But this
is also a prophecy of setting up the kingdom of the Messiah, and
bringing in the Gentiles.
13: Behold the days come - Here is another promise literally of
abundant plenty to the returned captives, and mystically of abundant
grace poured forth in gospel - days. The plowman - Who breaks up the
ground, and prepares it for sowing, shall be ready to tread on the
heels of the reaper who shall have a harvest so large, that before
he can gather it all in, it shall be time to plow the ground again.
The treader of grapes - So great shall their vintage be that e'er the
treaders of grapes can have finished their work, the seeds - man shall
be sowing his seed against the next season. Shall drop - The vineyards
shall be so fruitful, and new wine so plentiful as if it ran down from
the mountains. Shall melt - Or, as if whole hills were melted into such
liquors. If any object, it never was so: I answer, the sins of the
returned captives prevented these blessings, which are promised under
a tacit condition.
15: Pulled up - On condition that they seek the Lord. This was on
God's part with admirable constancy performed through six hundred years,
perhaps the longest time of freedom from captivity they ever knew.
