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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
A M O S.
CHAP. I.
In this chapter we have,
I. The general title of this prophecy
(ver. 1),
with the general scope of it,
II. God’s particular controversy with Syria
(ver. 3-5),
with Palestine
(ver. 6-8),
with Tyre
(ver. 9, 10),
with Edom
(ver. 11, 12),
and with Ammon
(ver. 13-15),
for their cruelty to his people and the many injuries they had done
them. This explains God’s pleading with the nations,
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1 The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which
he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and
in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two
years before the earthquake.
2 And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his
voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall
mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.
Here is,
I. The general character of this prophecy. It consists of the words
which the prophet saw. Are words to be seen? Yes, God’s words are;
the apostles speak of the word of life, which they had not only
heard, but which they had seen with their eyes, which they
had looked upon, and which their hands had handled
(1 John i. 1),
such a real substantial thing is the word of God. The prophet saw these
words, that is,
1. They were revealed to him in a vision, as John is said to see
the voice that spoke to him,
2. That which was foretold by them was to him as certain as if he had
seen it with his bodily eyes. It intimates how strong he was in that
faith which is the evidence of things not seen.
II. The person by whom this prophecy was sent–Amos, who was among
the herdmen of Tekoa, and was one of them. Some think he was a rich
dealer in cattle; the word is used concerning the king of Moab
He was a sheep-master); it is probable that he got money by that
business, and yet he must quit it, to follow God as a prophet. Others
think he was a poor keeper of cattle, for we find
that he was withal a gatherer of wild figs, a poor employment by
which we may suppose he could but just get his bread, and that God took
him, as he did David, from following the flock, and Elisha from
following the plough. Many were trained up for great employments, in
the quiet, innocent, contemplative business of shepherds. When God
would send a prophet to reprove and warn his people, he employed a
shepherd, a herdsman, to do it; for they had made themselves as the
horse and mule that have no understanding, nay, worse than the
ox that knows his owner. God sometimes chooses the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise,
1 Cor. i. 27.
Note, Those whom God has endued with abilities for his service ought
not to be despised nor laid aside for the meanness either of their
origin or of their beginnings. Though Amos himself is not ashamed to
own that he was a herdsman, yet others ought not to upbraid him with it
nor think the worse of him for it.
III. The persons concerned in the prophecy of this book; it is
concerning Israel, the ten tribes, who were now ripened
in sin and ripening apace for ruin. God has raised them up prophets
among themselves
(ch. ii. 11),
but they regarded them not; therefore God sends them one from Tekoa, in
the land of Judah, that, coming from another country, he might be the
more valued, and perhaps he was the rather sent out of his own country
because there he was despised for his having been a herdsman. See
IV. The time when these prophecies were delivered.
1. The book is dated, as laws used to be, by the reigns of the kings
under whom the prophet prophesied. It was in the days of Uzziah king
of Judah, when the affairs of that kingdom went very well, and of
Jeroboam the second kind of Israel, when the affairs of that kingdom
went pretty well; yet then they must both be told both of the sins they
were guilty of and of the judgments that were coming upon them for
those sins, that they might not with the present gleam of prosperity
flatter themselves either into an opinion of their innocence or a
confidence of their perpetual security.
2. It is dated by a particular event to which is prophecy had a
reference; it was two years before the earthquake, that
earthquake which is mentioned to have been in the days of Uzziah
(Zech. xiv. 5),
which put the nation into a dreadful fright, for it is there said, They
fled before it. But how could they flee from it? Some conjecture
that this earthquake was at the time of Isaiah’s vision, when the
posts of the door were moved,
Isa. vi. 4.
The tradition of the Jews is that it happened just at the time when
Uzziah presumptuously invaded the priest’s office and went in to burn
incense,
Josephus mentions this earthquake, Antiq. 9.225, and says, “By
it half of a mountain was removed and carried to a plain four furlongs
off; and it spoiled the king’s gardens.” God by this prophet gave
warning of it two years before, that God by it would shake down
their houses,
V. The introduction to these prophecies, containing the general scope
of them
(v. 2):
The Lord will roar from Zion. His threatenings by his prophets,
and the executions of those threatenings in his providence, will be as
terrible as the roaring of a lion is to the shepherds and their flocks.
Amos here speaks the same language with his contemporaries, Hosea
and Joel,
The lion roars before he tears; God gives warning before he strikes.
Observe,
1. Whence this warning comes–from Zion and Jerusalem, from the
oracles of God there delivered; for by them is they servant
warned,
Ps. xix. 11.
Our God, whose special residence is there, will issue out warrants,
given at that court, as it were, for the executing of judgments
on the land. See
In Zion was the mercy-seat; thence the Lord roars, intimating that
God’s acts of justice are consistent with mercy, allayed and mitigated
by mercy, nay, as they are warnings, they are really acts of mercy. We
are chastened, that we may be not be condemned.
2. What effect the warning has: The habitations of the shepherds
mourn, either because they fear the roaring lion or because they
feel what is signified by that comparison, the consequences of a
great drought
(ch. iv. 7),
which made the top of Carmel (of the most fruitful fields) to
wither and become a desert,
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3 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus,
and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof;
because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of
iron:
4 But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall
devour the palaces of Benhadad.
5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the
inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the
sceptre from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall go
into captivity unto Kir, saith the LORD.
6 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Gaza, and
for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because
they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver them
up to Edom:
7 But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall
devour the palaces thereof:
8 And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that
holdeth the sceptre from Ashkelon, and I will turn mine hand
against Ekron: and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,
saith the Lord GOD.
9 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Tyrus, and
for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because
they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not
the brotherly covenant:
10 But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, which shall
devour the palaces thereof.
11 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Edom, and
for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because
he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all
pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath
for ever:
12 But I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the
palaces of Bozrah.
13 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of the
children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the
punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with
child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border:
14 But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall
devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle,
with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind:
15 And their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes
together, saith the LORD.
What the Lord says here may be explained by what he says
Thus said the Lord, against all my evil neighbours that touch the
inheritance of my people Israel, Behold, I will pluck them out.
Damascus was a near neighbour to Israel on the north, Tyre and Gaza on
the west, Edom on the south, Ammon and (in the next chapter) Moab on
the east; and all of them had been, one time, one way, or other,
pricking briers and grieving thorns to Israel, evil neighbours
to them; and, because God espouses his people’s cause, he there calls
them his evil neighbours, and here comes forth to reckon with
them. The method is taken in dealing with each of them is, in part, the
same, and therefore we put them together, and yet in each there is
something peculiar.
I. Let us see what is repeated, both by way of charge and by way of
sentence, concerning them all. The controversy God has with each of
them is prefaced with, Thus said the Lord, Jehovah the God of
Israel. Though those nations will not worship him as their God, yet
they shall be made to know that they are accountable to him as their
Judge. The God of Israel is the God of the whole earth, and has
something to say to them that shall make them tremble. Against them the
Lord roars out of Zion. And before God, by the prophet,
threatens Israel and Judah, he denounces judgments against those
nations whom he made use of as scourges to them for their being so,
which might serve for a check to their pride and insolence and a relief
to his people under their dejections; for hereby they might see that
God had not quitted his interest in them, and therefore might hope they
had not lost their interest in him. Now as to all these nations here
arraigned,
1. The indictment drawn up against them all is thus far the same,
(1.) That they are charged in general with three transgressions, and
with four, that is, with many transgressions (as by one or two we
mean a few, so by three or four we mean many, as in Latin a man
that is very happy is said to be terque quarterque beatus–three and
four times happy); or with three and four, that is, with
seven transgressions, a number of perfection, intimating that they have
filled up the measure of their iniquities, and are ripe for
ruin; or with three (that is, a variety of sins) and with a
fourth especially, which is specified concerning each of them,
though the other three are not, as
where we read of three things, yea, four, generally one seems to
be more especially intended.
(2.) That the particular sin which is fastened upon as the fourth, and
which alone is specified, is the sin of persecution: it is some
mischief or other done to the people of God that is particularly
charged upon every one of them, for persecution is the measure-filling
sin of any people, and it is this sin that will be particularly
reckoned for–I was hungry, and you gave me no meat; much more
if it may be said, I was hungry, and you took my meat from
me.
2. The judgment given against them all is thus far the same,
(1.) That, their sin having risen to such a height, God will not
turn away the punishment thereof. Though he has granted them a long
reprieve, and has often turned away their punishment, yet now he
will turn it away no longer, but justice shall take its course. “I
will not revoke it (so some read it); I will not recall the
voice which has gone forth from Zion to Jerusalem
(v. 2),
speaking death and terror to the sinful nations.” It is an irrevocable
sentence. God has spoken it, and he will not call it back.
Note, Though God bear long, he will not bear always, with those that
provoke him; and, when the decree brings forth, it will bring up.
(2.) That God will kindle a fire among them; this is said
concerning all these evil neighbours,
v. 4, 7, 10, 12, 14.
God will send a fire into their cities. When fires are kindled
that lay cities, towns, and houses in ashes, whether designedly or
casually, God must be acknowledged in it; they are of his sending. Sin
stirs up the fire of his jealousy, and that kindles other fires.
II. Let us see what is mentioned, both by way of charge and by way of
sentence, that is peculiar to each of them, that every one may take his
portion.
1. Concerning Damascus, the head-city of Syria, a kingdom that was
often vexatious to Israel.
(1.) The peculiar sin of Damascus was using the Gileadites barbarously:
They threshed Gilead with threshing-instruments of iron
(v. 3),
which may be understood literally of their putting to the torture, or
to cruel deaths, the inhabitants of Gilead whom they got into their
hands, as David put the Ammonites under saws and harrows
2 Sam. xii. 31.
We read with what inhumanity Hazael king of Syria prosecuted his wars
with Israel
he dashed their children, and ripped up their women with
child; and see what desolations he made in their land,
Or it may be taken figuratively, for his laying the country waste, and
this very similitude is used in the history of it.
He destroyed them, and made them like the dust by threshing.
Note, Men often do that unjustly and wickedly, and shall be severely
reckoned with for it, which yet God just permits them to do. The church
is called God’s threshing, and the corn of his floor
(Isa. xxi. 10);
but if men make it their threshing, and the chaff of their floor, they
shall be sure to hear of it.
(2.) The peculiar punishment of Damascus is
[1.] That the fire which shall be sent shall fasten upon the court in
the first place, not on the chief city, nor the country towns, but on
the house of Hazael, which he built; and it shall devour the
palaces of Ben-hadad, the royal palaces inhabited by the kings of
Syria, many of whom were of that name. Note, Even royal palaces are no
defence against the judgments of God, though ever so richly furnished,
though ever so strongly fortified.
[2.] That the enemy shall force his way into the city
(v. 5):
I will break the bar of Damascus, and then the gate flies open.
Or it may be understood figuratively: all that which is depended upon
as the strength and safety of that great city shall fail, and prove
insufficient. When God’s judgments come with commission it is in vain
to think of turning them out.
[3.] That the people shall be destroyed with the sword: I will cut
off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, the valley of
idolatry, for the gods of the Syrians were gods of the
valleys
were worshipped in valleys; as the idols of Israel were worshipped on
the hills; him also that holdeth the sceptre of power, some
petty king or other that used to boast of the sceptre he held from
Beth-Eden, the house of pleasure. Both those that were given to
idolatry and those that were given to sensuality should be cut off
together.
[4.] That the body of the nation shall be carried off. The people
shall go into captivity unto Kir, which was in the country of the
Medes. We find this fulfilled
about fifty years after this, when the king of Assyria went up
against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it
captive to Kir, and slew Rezin, at the instigation of Ahaz king of
Judah.
2. Concerning Gaza, a city of the Philistines, and now the metropolis
of that country.
(1.) The peculiar sin of the Philistines was carrying away captive
the whole captivity, either of Israel or Judah, which some think
refers to that inroad made upon Jehoram when they took away all the
king’s sons and all his substance
or, perhaps, it refers to their seizing those that fled to them for
shelter when Sennacherib invaded Judah, and selling them to the
Grecians
or (as here) to the Edomites, who were always sworn enemies to the
people of God. They spared none, but carried off all they could lay
their hands on, designing, if possible, to cut off the name of
Israel,
Ps. lxxxiii. 4-7.
(2.) The peculiar punishment of the Philistines is that the fire which
God will send shall devour the palaces of Gaza, and that the
inhabitants of the other cities of the Philistines, Ashdod (or
Azotus), Ashkelon, and Ekron, shall all be cut off, and God will
make as thorough work with them in their ruin as they would have made
with God’s people when they carried away the whole captivity; for even
the remnant of them shall perish,
v. 8.
Note, God will make a full end of those that think to make a full end
of his church and people.
3. Concerning Tyre, that famous city of wealth and strength, that was
itself a kingdom,
v. 9.
(1.) The peculiar sin of Tyre is delivering up the whole captivity
to Edom, that is, selling to the Edomites those of Israel that fled
to them for shelter, or in any way fell into their hands; not caring
what hardships they put upon them, so that they could but make gain of
them to themselves. Herein they forgot the brotherly covenant,
the league that was between Solomon and Hiram king of Tyre
which was intimate that Hiram called Solomon his brother,
1 Kings ix. 13.
Note, It is a great aggravation of enmity and malice when it is the
violation of friendship and of a brotherly covenant.
(2.) Here is nothing peculiar in the punishment of Tyrus but that
the palaces thereof shall be devoured, which was done
when Nebuchadnezzar took it after thirteen years’ siege. Their
merchants were all princes, and their private houses were as palaces;
but the fire shall make no more of them than of cottages.
4. Concerning Edom, the posterity of Esau.
(1.) Their peculiar sin was an unmerciful, unwearied, pursuit of the
people of God, and their taking all advantages against them to do them
a mischief,
He did pursue his brother with the sword, not only of old, when
the king of Edom took up arms to oppose the children of Israel’s
passage through his border
(Num. xx. 18),
but ever since upon all occasions; they had not strength and courage
enough to face them in the field of battle, but, whenever any other
enemy had put Judah or Israel to flight, then the Edomites set in with
the pursuers, fell upon the rear, slew those that were half dead
already, and (as is usual with cowards when they have an enemy at an
advantage) they did cast off all pity. Those that are least
courageous are commonly most cruel. Edom was so; his malice
destroyed his compassion (so the word is); he stripped himself
of the tenderness of a man, and put on the fierceness of a beast of
prey; and, as such a one, he did tear, his anger did tear
perpetually. His cruelty was insatiable, and he never knew when he
had sucked enough of the blood of Israel, but, like the horse-leech,
still cried, Give, give. Nay, he kept his wrath for ever;
when he wanted objects of his wrath, and opportunity to show it, yet he
kept it in reserve (it rested in his bosom), he rolled it under
his tongue as a sweet morsel, and had it ready to spit in the face of
Israel upon the next occasion. Cursed be such cruel wrath, and anger so
fierce, so outrageous, which makes men like the devil, who
continually seeks to devour, and unlike to God, who keeps not
his anger for ever. Edom’s malice was unnatural, for thus he
pursued his brother, whom he ought to have protected: it was
hereditary, as if it had been entailed upon the family ever since Esau
hated Jacob, and time itself could not wear it out, no, nor the
brotherly conduct of Israel towards them
(Deut. ii. 4),
and the express law given to Israel
Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite, for he is thy brother.
(2.) Here is nothing peculiar in their punishment; but
(v. 12)
a fire shall be sent to devour their palaces. Note, The
fire of our anger against our brethren kindles the fire of God’s anger
against us.
5. Concerning the Ammonites,
(1.) See how violently the fire of their anger turned against the
people of God; they not only triumphed in their calamities (as we find,
but they did themselves use them barbarously; they ripped up the
women with child of Gilead, a piece of cruelty the very mention of
which strikes a horror upon one’s mind; one would think it is not
possible that any of the human race should be so inhuman. Hazael was
guilty of it,
It was done not only in a brutish rage, which falls without
consideration upon all that comes before it, but with a devilish design
to extirpate the race of Israel by killing not only all that were born,
but all that were to be born, worse than Egyptian cruelty. It was
that they might enlarge their border, that they might make the
land of Gilead their own, and there might be none to lay claim to it or
given them any disturbance in the possession of it. We find
that the Ammonites inherited Gad (that is, Gilead) under
pretence that Israel had no sons, no heirs. We know how heavy the doom
of those was, and how heinous their crime, who said, This is the
heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours by
occupancy. See what cruelty covetousness is the cause of, and what
horrid practices those are often put upon that are greedy to enlarge
their own border.
(2.) See how violently the fire of God’s anger burned against them;
shall not God visit for these things done to any of mankind,
especially when they are done to his own people? Shall not his soul
be avenged on such a nation as this? No doubt, it shall. The fire
shall be kindled with shouting in the day of battle, that is,
war shall kindle the fire; it shall be a fire accompanied with the
sword, or a roaring fire, which shall make a noise like that of
soldiers ready to engage, and it shall be as a tempest in the
day of the whirlwind, which comes swiftly, furiously, and bears
down all before it. Or this tempest and whirlwind shall be as bellows
to the fire, to make it burn the stronger, and spread the further. It
is particularly threatened that their king and his princes shall go
together into captivity, carried away by the king of Babylon, not
long after Judah was. See what changes God’s providence often makes
with men, or rather their own sin; kings become captives, and princes
prisoners. Milchom shall go into captivity; some understand it
of the god of the Ammonites, whom they called Moloch–a king. He,
and his princes, and his priests that attended him, shall to
into captivity; their idol shall be so far from protecting them
that it shall itself go into captivity with them. Note, Those who by
violence and fraud seek to enlarge their own border will justly be
expelled and excluded their own border; nor is it strange if those who
make no conscience of invading the rights of others be able to make no
resistance against those who invade theirs.
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