{"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":6,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Calneh--on the east bank of the Tigris. Once powerful, but recently subjugated by Assyria (Isa 10:9; about 794 B.C.). \n\nHameth--subjugated by Jeroboam II (Kg2 14:25). Also by Assyria subsequently (Kg2 18:34). Compare Amo 6:14. \n\nGath--subjugated by Uzziah (Ch2 26:6). \n\nbe they better--no. Their so recent subjugation renders it needless for Me to tell you they are not. And yet they once were; still they could not defend themselves against the enemy. How vain, then, your secure confidence in the strength of Mounts Zion and Samaria! He takes cities respectively east, north, south, and west of Israel (compare Nah 3:8).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["Ye persuade yourselves that \"the evil day\" foretold by the prophets is \"far off,\" though they declare it near (Eze 12:22, Eze 12:27). Ye in your imagination put it far off, and therefore bring near violent oppression, suffering it to sit enthroned, as it were, among you (Psa 94:20). The notion of judgment being far off has always been an incentive to the sinner's recklessness of living (Ecc 8:12-13; Mat 24:48). Yet that very recklessness brings near the evil day which he puts far off. \"Ye bring on fever by your intemperance, and yet would put it far off\" [CALVIN].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["(See Amo 2:8). \n\nbeds of ivory--that is, adorned, or inlaid, with ivory (Amo 3:15). \n\nstretch themselves--in luxurious self-indulgence. \n\nlambs out of the flock--picked out as the choicest, for their owners selfish gratification.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["chant--literally, \"mark distinct sounds and tones.\" \n\nviol--the lyre, or lute. \n\ninvent . . . instruments . . . like David--They fancy they equal David in musical skill (Ch1 23:5; Neh 12:36). They defend their luxurious passion for music by his example: forgetting that he pursued this study when at peace and free from danger, and that for the praise of God; but they pursue for their own self-gratification, and that when God is angry and ruin is imminent.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["drink . . . in bowls--in the large vessels or basins in which wine was mixed; not satisfied with the smaller cups from which it was ordinarily drunk, after having been poured from the large mixer. \n\nchief ointments--that is, the most costly: not for health or cleanliness, but wanton luxury. \n\nnot grieved for the affliction of Joseph--literally, \"the breach,\" that is, the national wound or calamity (Psa 60:2; Eze 34:4) of the house of Joseph (Amo 5:6); resembling in this the heartlessness of their forefathers, the sons of Jacob, towards Joseph, \"eating bread\" while their brother lay in the pit, and then selling him to Ishmaelites.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Therefore . . . shall they go captive with the first--As they were first among the people in rank (Amo 6:1), and anointed themselves \"with the chief ointments\" (Amo 6:6), so shall they be among the foremost in going into captivity. \n\nbanquet--literally, the \"merry-making shout of revellers\"; from an Arabic root, \"to cry out.\" In the Hebrew, marzeach; here, there is an allusion to mizraqu, \"bowls\" (Amo 6:6). \n\nthem that stretched themselves--on luxurious couches (Amo 6:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["the excellency of Jacob-- (Psa 47:4). The sanctuary which was the great glory of the covenant-people [VATABLUS], (Eze 24:21). The priesthood, and kingdom, and dignity, conferred on them by God. These, saith God, are of no account in My eyes towards averting punishment [CALVIN]. \n\nhate his palaces--as being the storehouses of \"robbery\" (Amo 3:10, Amo 3:15). How sad a change from God's love of Zion's gates (Psa 87:2) and palaces (Psa 48:3, Psa 48:13), owing to the people's sin! \n\nthe city--collectively: both Zion and Samaria (Amo 6:1). \n\nall that is therein--literally, \"its fulness\"; the multitude of men and of riches in it (compare Psa 24:1).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["If as many as ten (Lev 26:26; Zac 8:23) remain in a house (a rare case, and only in the scattered villages, as there will be scarcely a house in which the enemy will leave any), they shall all, to a man, die of the plague, a frequent concomitant of war in the East (Jer 24:10; Jer 44:13; Eze 6:11).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["a man's uncle--The nearest relatives had the duty of burying the dead (Gen 25:9; Gen 35:29; Jdg 16:31). No nearer relative was left of this man than an uncle. \n\nand he that burneth him--the uncle, who is also at the same time the one that burneth him (one of the \"ten,\" Amo 6:9). Burial was the usual Hebrew mode of disposing of their dead. But in cases of necessity, as when the men of Jabesh-gilead took the bodies of Saul and his three sons from the walls of Beth-shan and burned them to save them from being insulted by the Philistines, burning was practised. So in this case, to prevent contagion. \n\nthe bones--that is, the dead body (Gen 50:25). Perhaps here there is an allusion in the phrase to the emaciated condition of the body, which was little else but skin and bones. \n\nsay unto him that is by the sides of the house--that is, to the only one left of the ten in the interior of the house [MAURER] (compare Note, see on Isa 14:13). \n\nHold thy tongue . . . we may not . . . mention . . . the Lord--After receiving the reply, that none is left besides the one addressed, when the man outside fancies the man still surviving inside to be on the point, as was customary, of expressing devout gratitude to God who spared him, the man outside interrupts him, \"Hold thy tongue! for there is not now cause for mentioning with praise (Jos 23:7) the name of Jehovah\"; for thou also must die; as all the ten are to die to the last man (Amo 6:9; compare Amo 8:3). Formerly ye boasted in the name of Jehovah, as if ye were His peculiar people; now ye shall be silent and shudder at His name, as hostile to you, and as one from whom ye wish to be hidden (Rev 6:16), [CALVIN].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["commandeth, and he will smite--His word of command, when once given, cannot but be fulfilled (Isa 55:11). His mere word is enough to smite with destruction. \n\ngreat house . . . little house--He will spare none, great or small (Amo 3:15). JEROME interprets \"the great house\" as Israel, and \"the small house\" as Judah: the former being reduced to branches or ruins, literally, \"small drops\"; the latter, though injured with \"clefts\" or rents, which threaten its fall, yet still permitted to stand.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["In turning \"judgment (justice) into gall (poison), and . . . righteousness into hemlock\" (or wormwood, bitter and noxious), ye act as perversely as if one were to make \"horses run upon the rock\" or to \"plough with oxen there\" [MAURER]. As horses and oxen are useless on a rock, so ye are incapable of fulfilling justice [GROTIUS]. Ye impede the course of God's benefits, because ye are as it were a hard rock on which His favor cannot run. \"Those that will not be tilled as fields, shall be abandoned as rocks\" [CALVIN].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["rejoice in a thing of naught--that is, in your vain and fleeting riches. \n\nHave we not taken to us horns--that is, acquired power, so as to conquer our neighbors (Kg2 14:25). Horns are the Hebrew symbol of power, being the instrument of strength in many animals (Psa 75:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["from the entering in of Hamath--the point of entrance for an invading army (as Assyria) into Israel from the north; specified here, as Hamath had been just before subjugated by Jeroboam II (Amo 6:2). Do not glory in your recently acquired city, for it shall be the starting-point for the foe to afflict you. How sad the contrast to the feast of Solomon attended by a congregation from this same Hamath, the most northern boundary of Israel, to the Nile, the river of Egypt, the most southern boundary! \n\nunto the river of the wilderness--that is, to Kedron, which empties itself into the north bay of the Dead Sea below Jericho (Ch2 28:15), the southern boundary of the ten tribes (Kg2 14:25, \"from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain\") [MAURER]. To the river Nile, which skirts the Arabian wilderness and separates Egypt from Canaan [GROTIUS]. If this verse includes Judah, as well as Israel (compare Amo 6:1, \"Zion\" and \"Samaria\"), GROTIUS' view is correct; and it agrees with Kg1 8:65.\n\nThe seventh, eighth, and ninth chapters contain VISIONS, WITH THEIR EXPLANATIONS. The seventh chapter consists of two parts. First (Amo 7:1-9): PROPHECIES ILLUSTRATED BY THREE SYMBOLS: (1) A vision of grasshoppers or young locusts, which devour the grass, but are removed at Amos' entreaty; (2) Fire drying up even the deep, and withering part of the land, but removed at Amos' entreaty; (3) A plumb-line to mark the buildings for destruction. Secondly (Amo 7:10-17): NARRATIVE OF AMAZIAH'S INTERRUPTION OF AMOS IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE FOREGOING PROPHECIES, AND PREDICTION OF HIS DOOM.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Amos Chapter 7\n\n"]}],"introduction":"DENUNCIATION OF BOTH THE SISTER NATIONS (ESPECIALLY THEIR NOBLES) FOR WANTON SECURITY--ZION, AS WELL AS SAMARIA: THREAT OF THE EXILE: RUIN OF THEIR PALACES AND SLAUGHTER OF THE PEOPLE: THEIR PERVERSE INJUSTICE. (Amo 6:1-14)\n\nnamed chief of the nations--that is, you nobles, so eminent in influence, that your names are celebrated among the chief nations [LUDOVICUS DE DIEU]. Hebrew, \"Men designated by name among the first-fruits of the nations,\" that is, men of note in Israel, the people chosen by God as first of the nations (Exo 19:5; compare Num 24:20) [PISCATOR]. \n\nto whom . . . Israel came--that is, the princes to whom the Israelites used to repair for the decision of controversies, recognizing their authority [MAURER]. I prefer to refer \"which\" to the antecedent \"Zion\" and \"Samaria\"; these were esteemed \"chief\" strongholds among the heathen nations \"to whom . . . Israel came\" when it entered Canaan; Amo 6:2 accords with this.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/AMO/6.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"AMO","chapter":6},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/AMO/7.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"AMO","chapter":7},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/AMO/5.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"AMO","chapter":5},"numberOfVerses":13}