{"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":8,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["end-- (Eze 7:2, Eze 7:6).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["songs of . . . temple-- (Amo 5:23). The joyous hymns in the temple of Judah (or rather, in the Beth-el \"royal temple,\" Amo 7:13; for the allusion is to Israel, not Judah, throughout this chapter) shall be changed into \"howlings.\" GROTIUS translates, \"palace\"; compare Amo 6:5, as to the songs there. But Amo 5:23, and Amo 7:13, favor English Version. \n\nthey shall cast them forth with silence--not as the Margin, \"be silent.\" It is an adverb, \"silently.\" There shall be such great slaughter as even to prevent the bodies being buried [CALVIN]. There shall be none of the usual professional mourners (Amo 5:16), but the bodies will be cast out in silence. Perhaps also is meant that terror, both of God (compare Amo 6:10) and of the foe, shall close their lips.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["Hear--The nobles needed to be urged thus, as hating to hear reproof. \n\nswallow up the needy--or, \"gape after,\" that is, pant for their goods; so the word is used, Job 7:2, Margin. \n\nto make the poor . . . to fail--\"that they (themselves) may be placed alone in the midst of the earth\" (Isa 5:8).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["So greedy are they of unjust gain that they cannot spare a single day, however sacred, from pursuing it. They are strangers to God and enemies to themselves, who love market days better than sabbath days; and they who have lost piety will not long keep honesty. The new-2moons (Num 10:10) and sabbaths were to be kept without working or trading (Neh 10:31). \n\nset forth wheat--literally, \"open out\" stores of wheat for sale. \n\nephah--containing three seahs, or above three pecks. \n\nmaking . . . small--making it below the just weight to purchasers. \n\nshekel great--taking from purchasers a greater weight of money than was due. Shekels used to be weighed out in payments (Gen 23:16). Thus they committed a double fraud against the law (Deu 25:13-14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["buy . . . poor for silver . . . pair of shoes--that is, that we may compel the needy for money, or any other thing of however little worth, to sell themselves to us as bondmen, in defiance of Lev 25:39; the very thing which brings down God's judgment (Amo 2:6). \n\nsell the refuse of . . . wheat--which contains no nutriment, but which the poor eat at a low price, being unable to pay for flour.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob--that is by Himself, in whom Jacob's seed glory [MAURER]. Rather, by the spiritual privileges of Israel, the adoption as His peculiar people [CALVIN], the temple, and its Shekinah symbol of His presence. Compare Amo 6:8, where it means Jehovah's temple (compare Amo 4:2). \n\nnever forget--not pass by without punishing (Amo 8:2; Hos 8:13; Hos 9:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["the land . . . rise up wholly as a flood--The land will, as it were, be wholly turned into a flooding river (a flood being the image of overwhelming calamity, Dan 9:26). \n\ncast out and drowned, &c.--swept away and overwhelmed, as the land adjoining the Nile is by it, when flooding (Amo 9:5). The Nile rises generally twenty feet. The waters then \"cast out\" mire and dirt (Isa 57:20).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["\"Darkness\" made to rise \"at noon\" is the emblem of great calamities (Jer 15:9; Eze 32:7-10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["baldness--a sign of mourning (Isa 15:2; Jer 48:37; Eze 7:18). \n\nI will make it as . . . mourning of an only son--\"it,\" that is, \"the earth\" (Amo 8:9). I will reduce the land to such a state that there shall be the same occasion for mourning as when parents mourn for an only son (Jer 6:26; Zac 12:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["famine of . . . hearing the words of the Lord--a just retribution on those who now will not hear the Lord's prophets, nay even try to drive them away, as Amaziah did (Amo 7:12); they shall look in vain, in their distress, for divine counsel, such as the prophets now offer (Eze 7:26; Mic 3:7). Compare as to the Jews' rejection of Messiah, and their consequent rejection by Him (Mat 21:43); and their desire for Messiah too late (Luk 17:22; Joh 7:34; Joh 8:21). So, the prodigal when he had sojourned awhile in the \"far-off country, began to be in want\" in the \"mighty famine\" which arose (Luk 15:14; compare Sa1 3:1; Sa1 7:2). It is remarkable that the Jews' religion is almost the only one that could be abolished against the will of the people themselves, on account of its being dependent on a particular place, namely, the temple. When that was destroyed, the Mosaic ritual, which could not exist without it, necessarily ceased. Providence designed it, that, as the law gave way to the Gospel, so all men should perceive it was so, in spite of the Jews' obstinate rejection of the Gospel.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["they shall wander from sea to sea--that is, from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean, from east to west. \n\nfrom . . . north . . . to . . . east--where we might expect \"from north to south.\" But so alienated was Israel from Judah, that no Israelite even then would think of repairing southward, that is, to Jerusalem for religious information. The circuit is traced as in Num 34:3, &c., except that the south is omitted. Their \"seeking the word of the Lord\" would not be from a sincere desire to obey God, but under the pressure of punishment.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["faint for thirst--namely, thirst for hearing the words of the Lord, being destitute of all other comfort. If even the young and strong faint, how much more the infirm (Isa 40:30-31)!\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["swear by the sin of Samaria--namely, the calves (Deu 9:21; Hos 4:15). \"Swear by\" means to worship (Psa 63:11). \n\nThe manner--that is, as \"the way\" is used (Psa 139:24; Act 9:2), the mode of worship. \n\nThy god, O Dan--the other golden calf at Dan (Kg1 22:26-30). \n\nliveth . . . liveth--rather, \"May thy god . . . live . . . may the manner . . . live.\" Or, \"As (surely as) thy god, O Dan, liveth.\" This is their formula when they swear; not \"May Jehovah live!\" or, \"As Jehovah liveth!\"\n\n\n\n\nNext: Amos Chapter 9\n\n"]}],"introduction":"VISION OF A BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT SYMBOLICAL OF ISRAEL'S END. RESUMING THE SERIES OF SYMBOLS INTERRUPTED BY AMAZIAH, AMOS ADDS A FOURTH. THE AVARICE OF THE OPPRESSORS OF THE POOR: THE OVERTHROW OF THE NATION: THE WISH FOR THE MEANS OF RELIGIOUS COUNSEL, WHEN THERE SHALL BE A FAMINE OF THE WORD. (Amo 8:1-14)\n\nsummer fruit--Hebrew, kitz. In Amo 8:2 \"end\" is in Hebrew, keetz. The similarity of sounds implies that, as the summer is the end of the year and the time of the ripeness of fruits, so Israel is ripe for her last punishment, ending her national existence. As the fruit is plucked when ripe from the tree, so Israel from her land.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/AMO/8.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"AMO","chapter":8},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/AMO/9.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"AMO","chapter":9},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/AMO/7.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"AMO","chapter":7},"numberOfVerses":13}