{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"AMO","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Amos","commonName":"Amos","introduction":"AMOS (meaning in Hebrew \"a burden\") was (Amo 1:1) a shepherd of Tekoa, a small town of Judah, six miles southeast from Beth-lehem, and twelve from Jerusalem, on the borders of the great desert (Ch2 20:20; compare Ch2 11:6). The region being sandy was more fit for pastoral than for agricultural purposes. Amos therefore owned and tended flocks, and collected sycamore figs; not that the former was a menial office, kings themselves, as Mesha of Moab (Kg2 3:4), exercising it. Amos, however (from Amo 7:14-15), seems to have been of humble rank.\n\nThough belonging to Judah, he was commissioned by God to exercise his prophetical function in Israel; as the latter kingdom abounded in impostors, and the prophets of God generally fled to Judah through fear of the kings of Israel, a true prophet from Judah was the more needed in it. His name is not to be confounded with that of Isaiah's father, Amoz.\n\nThe time of his prophesying was in the reigns of Uzziah king of Judea, and Jeroboam II, son of Joash, king of Israel (Amo 1:1), that is, in part of the time in which the two kings were contemporary; probably in Jeroboam's latter years, after that monarch had recovered from Syria \"the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath to the sea of the plain\" (Kg2 14:25-27); for Amos foretells that these same coasts, \"from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness,\" should be the scene of Israel's being afflicted (Amo 6:14); also his references to the state of luxurious security then existing (Amo 6:1, Amo 6:4, Amo 6:13), and to the speedy termination of it by the Assyrian foe (Amo 1:5; Amo 3:12, Amo 3:15; Amo 5:27; Amo 8:2), point to the latter part of Jeroboam's reign, which terminated in 784 B.C., the twenty-seventh year of Uzziah's reign, which continued down to 759 B.C. He was contemporary with Hosea, only that the latter continued to prophesy in reigns subsequent to Uzziah (Hos 1:1); whereas Amos ceased to prophesy in the reign of that monarch. The scene of his ministry was Beth-el, where the idol calves were set up (Amo 7:10-13). There his prophecies roused Amaziah, the idol priest, to accuse him of conspiracy and to try to drive him back to Judah.\n\nThe first six chapters are without figure; the last three symbolical, but with the explanation subjoined. He first denounces the neighboring peoples, then the Jews, then Israel (from the third chapter to the end), closing with the promise or restoration under Messiah (Amo 9:11-15). His style is thought by JEROME to betray his humble origin; but though not sublime, it is regular, perspicuous, and energetic; his images are taken from the scenes in nature with which he was familiar; his rhythms are flowing, his parallelisms exact, and his descriptions minute and graphic. Some peculiar expressions occur: \"cleanness of teeth,\" that is, want of bread (Amo 4:6); \"the excellency of Jacob\" (Amo 6:8; Amo 8:7); \"the high places of Isaac\" (Amo 7:9); \"the house of Isaac\" (Amo 7:16); \"he that createth the wind\" (Amo 4:13).\n\nHENGSTENBERG draws an able argument for the genuineness of the Mosaic records from the evidence in Amos, that the existing institutions in Israel as well as Judah (excepting the calves of Jeroboam), were framed according to the Pentateuch rules.\n\nTwo quotations from Amos occur in the New Testament (compare Act 7:42-43, with Amo 5:25-26; and Act 15:16-17, with Amo 9:11).\n\nPHILO, JOSEPHUS, MELITO'S catalogue, JEROME, JUSTIN MARTYR (Dialogue with Trypho, 22, quoting the fifth and six chapters of Amos as \"one of the twelve minor prophets\"), and the sixtieth canon of the Laodicean council support the canonicity of the book of Amos. \n\n\n\nNext: Amos Chapter 1\n\n","order":30,"numberOfChapters":9,"sha256":"2747ae6a0927cdcd6de6d9736a1e183554e6f56c835022bc1dceb22c58813f10","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/AMO/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"AMO","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":9,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/AMO/9.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"AMO","chapter":9},"totalNumberOfVerses":132},"chapter":{"number":2,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Kirioth--the chief city of Moab, called also Kir-Moab (Isa 15:1). The form is plural here, as including both the acropolis and town itself (see Jer 48:24, Jer 48:41, Margin). \n\ndie with tumult--that is, amid the tumult of battle (Hos 10:14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["the judge--the chief magistrate, the supreme source of justice. \"King\" not being used, it seems likely a change of government had before this time substituted for kings, supreme judges.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["From foreign kingdoms he passes to Judah and Israel, lest it should be said, he was strenuous in denouncing sins abroad, but connived at those of his own nation. Judah's guilt differs from that of all the others, in that it was directly against God, not merely against man. Also because Judah's sin was wilful and wittingly against light and knowledge. \n\nlaw--the Mosaic code in general. \n\ncommandments--or statutes, the ceremonies and civil laws. \n\ntheir lies--their lying idols (Psa 40:4; Jer 16:19), from which they drew false hopes. The order is to be observed. The Jews first cast off the divine law, then fall into lying errors; God thus visiting them with a righteous retribution (Rom 1:25-26, Rom 1:28; Th2 2:11-12). The pretext of a good intention is hereby refuted: the \"lies\" that mislead them are \"their (own) lies\" [CALVIN]. \n\nafter . . . which their fathers . . . walked--We are not to follow the fathers in error, but must follow the word of God alone. It was an aggravation of the Jews' sin that it was not confined to preceding generations; the sins of the sons rivalled those of their fathers (Mat 23:32; Act 7:51) [CALVIN].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["a fire--Nebuchadnezzar.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Israel--the ten tribes, the main subject of Amos' prophecies. \n\nsold the righteous--Israel's judges for a bribe are induced to condemn in judgment him who has a righteous cause; in violation of Deu 16:19. \n\nthe poor for a pair of shoes--literally, \"sandals\" of wood, secured on the foot by leather straps; less valuable than shoes. Compare the same phrase, for \"the most paltry bribe,\" Amo 8:6; Eze 13:19; Joe 3:3. They were not driven by poverty to such a sin; beginning with suffering themselves to be tempted by a large bribe, they at last are so reckless of all shame as to prostitute justice for the merest trifle. Amos convicts them of injustice, incestuous unchastity, and oppression first, as these were so notorious that they could not deny them, before he proceeds to reprove their contempt of God, which they would have denied on the ground that they worshipped God in the form of the calves.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["pant after . . . dust of . . . earth on . . . head of . . . poor--that is, eagerly thirst for this object, by their oppression to prostrate the poor so as to cast the dust on their heads in mourning on the earth (compare Sa2 1:2; Job 2:12; Eze 27:30). \n\nturn aside . . . way of . . . meek--pervert their cause (Amo 5:12; Job 24:4 [GROTIUS]; Isa 10:2). \n\na man and his father--a crime \"not so much as named among the Gentiles\" (Co1 5:1). When God's people sin in the face of light, they often fall lower than even those who know not God. \n\ngo in unto the same maid--from Amo 2:8 it seems likely \"the damsel\" meant is one of the prostitutes attached to the idol Astarte's temple: prostitution being part of her filthy worship. \n\nto profane my . . . name--Israel in such abominations, as it were, designedly seeks to insult God.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["lay themselves . . . upon clothes laid to pledge--the outer garment, which Exo 22:25-27 ordered to be restored to the poor man before sunset, as being his only covering. It aggravated the crime that they lay on these clothes in an idol temple. \n\nby every altar--They partook in a recumbent posture of their idolatrous feasts; the ancients being in the habit of reclining at full length in eating, the upper part of the body resting on the left elbow, not sitting as we do. \n\ndrink . . . wine of the condemned--that is, wine bought with the money of those whom they unjustly fined.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Yet--My former benefits to you heighten your ingratitude. \n\nthe Amorite--the most powerful of all the Canaanite nations, and therefore put for them all (Gen 15:16; Gen 48:22; Deu 1:20; Jos 7:7). \n\nheight . . . like . . . cedars-- (Num 13:32-33). \n\ndestroyed his fruit . . . above . . . roots . . . beneath--that is, destroyed him utterly (Job 18:16; Eze 17:9; Mal 4:1).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["brought you up from . . . Egypt--\"brought up\" is the phrase, as Egypt was low and flat, and Canaan hilly. \n\nto possess the land of the Amorite--The Amorites strictly occupied both sides of the Jordan and the mountains afterward possessed by Judah; but they here, as in Amo 2:9, stand for all the Canaanites. God kept Israel forty years in the wilderness, which tended to discipline them in His statutes, so as to be the better fitted for entering on the possession of Canaan.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["Additional obligations under which Israel lay to God; the prophets and Nazarites, appointed by Him, to furnish religious instruction and examples of holy self-restraint. \n\nof your young men--It was a specimen of Israel's highly favored state, that, of the class most addicted to pleasures, God chose those who by a solemn vow bound themselves to abstinence from all produce of the vine, and from all ceremonial and moral defilement. The Nazarite was not to shave (Num 6:2, &c.). God left nothing undone to secure the purity of their worship and their faithfulness to it (Lam 4:7). The same comes from a Hebrew root, nazar, \"to set apart.\" Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist were Nazarites. \n\nIs it not even thus--Will any of you dare to deny it is so?\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["Ye so despised these My favors, as to tempt the Nazarite to break his vow; and forbade the prophets prophesying (Isa 30:10). So Amaziah forbade Amos (Amo 7:12-14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["I am pressed under you--so CALVIN (Compare Isa 1:14). The Margin translates actively, \"I will depress your place,\" that is, \"I will make it narrow,\" a metaphor for afflicting a people; the opposite of enlarging, that is, relieving (Psa 4:1; Pro 4:12). MAURER translates, \"I will press you down\" (not as Margin, \"your place\"; so the Hebrew, Job 40:12; or Amo 2:7 in Hebrew text). Amos, as a shepherd, appropriately draws his similes from rustic scenes.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["flight shall perish from . . . swift--Even the swift shall not be able to escape. \n\nstrong shall not strengthen his force--that is, shall not be able to use his strength. \n\nhimself--literally, \"his life.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["flee . . . naked--If any escape, it must be with the loss of accoutrements, and all that would impede rapid flight. They must be content with saving their life alone.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Amos Chapter 3\n\n"]}],"introduction":"CHARGES AGAINST MOAB, JUDAH, AND LASTLY ISRAEL, THE CHIEF SUBJECT OF AMOS' PROPHECIES. (Amos 2:1-16)\n\nburned . . . bones of . . . king of Edom into lime--When Jehoram of Israel, Jehoshaphat of Judah, and the king of Edom, combined against Mesha king of Moab, the latter failing in battle to break through to the king of Edom, took the oldest son of the latter and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall (Kg2 3:27) [MICHAELIS]. Thus, \"king of Edom\" is taken as the heir to the throne of Edom. But \"his son\" is rather the king of Moab's own son, whom the father offered to Molech [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 9.3]. Thus the reference here in Amos is not to that fact, but to the revenge which probably the king of Moab took on the king of Edom, when the forces of Israel and Judah had retired after their successful campaign against Moab, leaving Edom without allies. The Hebrew tradition is that Moab in revenge tore from their grave and burned the bones of the king of Edom, the ally of Jehoram and Jehoshaphat, who was already buried. Probably the \"burning of the bones\" means, \"he burned the king of Edom alive, reducing his very bones to lime\" [MAURER].\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/AMO/2.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"AMO","chapter":2},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/AMO/3.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"AMO","chapter":3},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/AMO/1.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"AMO","chapter":1},"numberOfVerses":14}