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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
A M O S.
CHAP. IX.
In this chapter we have,
I. Judgment threatened, which the sinners shall not escape
(ver. 1-4),
which an almighty power shall inflict
(ver. 5, 6),
which the people of Israel have deserved as a sinful people
(ver. 7, 8);
and yet it shall not be the utter ruin of their nation
(ver. 8),
for a remnant of good people shall escape,
But the wicked ones shall perish,
II. Mercy promised, which was to be bestowed in the latter days
(ver. 11-15),
as appears by the application of it to the days of the Messiah,
And with those comfortable promises, after all the foregoing rebukes
and threatenings, the book concludes.
| The Certainty of the Sinner’s Doom. | B. C. 784. |
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1 I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite
the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in
the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the
sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that
escapeth of them shall not be delivered.
2 Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them;
though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:
3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will
search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my
sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the
serpent, and he shall bite them:
4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies,
thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I
will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.
5 And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and
it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it
shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by
the flood of Egypt.
6 It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven, and hath
founded his troop in the earth; he that calleth for the waters of
the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The
LORD is his name.
7 Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O
children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel
out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and
the Syrians from Kir?
8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful
kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth;
saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith
the LORD.
9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel
among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall
not the least grain fall upon the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which
say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
We have here the justice of God passing sentence upon a provoking
people; and observe,
I. With what solemnity the sentence is passed. The prophet saw in
vision the Lord standing upon the altar
(v. 1),
the altar of burnt-offerings; for the Lord has a sacrifice, and
multitudes must fall as victims to his justice. He is removed from the
mercy-seat between the cherubim, and stands upon the
altar, the judgment-seat, on which the fire of God used to
fall, to devour the sacrifices. He stands upon the altar, to
show that the ground of his controversy with this people was their
profanation of his holy things; here he stands to avenge the quarrel of
his altar, as also to signify that the sin of the house of Israel, like
that of the house of Eli, shall not be purged with sacrifice nor
offering forever,
1 Sam. iii. 14.
He stands on the altar, to prohibit sacrifice. Now the order given is,
Smite the lintel of the door of the temple, the chapiter, smite
it with such a blow that the posts may shake, and cut
them, wound them in the head, all of them; break down the
doors of God’s house, or of the courts of his house, in token of this,
that he is going out from it, and forsaking it, and then all judgments
are breaking in upon it. Or it signifies the destruction of those in
the first place that should be as the door-posts to the nation for its
defence, so that, they being broken down, it becomes as a city
without gates and bars. “Smite the king, who is as the lintel of
the door, that the princes, who are as the posts, may shake;
cut them in the head, cleave them down, all of them, as wood
for the fire; and I will slay the last of them, the posterity of
them, them and their families, or the least of them, them and
all that are employed under them; or, I will slay them all, them
and all that remain of them, till it comes to the last man; the
slaughter shall be general.” There is no living for those on whom God
has said, I will slay them, no standing before his sword.
II. What effectual care is taken that none shall escape the execution
of this sentence. This is enlarged upon here, and is intended for
warning to all that provoke the Lord to jealousy. Let sinners
read it, and tremble; as there is no fighting it out with God, so there
is no fleeing from him. His judgments, when they come with commission,
as they will overpower the strongest that think to outface them, so
they will overtake the swiftest that think to out-run them,
v. 2.
Those of them that flee, and take to their heels, shall soon be out of
breath, and shall not flee away out of the reach of danger; for, as
sometimes the wicked flee when none pursues, so he cannot flee
away when God pursues, though he would fain flee out of his
hand. Nay, he that escapes of them, that thinks he has
gained his point, shall not be delivered. Evil pursues sinners,
and will arrest them. This is here enlarged upon by showing that
wherever sinners flee for shelter from God’s justice, it will overtake
them, and the shelter will prove but a refuge of lies. What
David says of the ubiquity of God’s presence
Ps. cxxxix. 7-10)
is here said of the extent of God’s power and justice.
(1.) Hell itself, though it has its name in English from its being
hilled, or covered over, or hidden, cannot hide
them
(v. 2):
“Though they dig into hell, into the centre of the earth, or the
darkest recesses of it, yet thence shall my hand take them, and
bring them forth to be made public monuments of divine justice.” The
grave is a hiding-place to the righteous from the malice of the world
(Job iii. 17),
but it shall be no hiding-place to the righteous from the justice of
God; thence God’s hands shall take them, when they shall rise in the
great day to everlasting shame and contempt.
(2.) Heaven, though it has its name from being heaved, or lifted
up, shall not put them out of reach of God’s judgments; as hell cannot
hide them, so heaven will not. Though they climb up to heaven in
their conceit, yet thence will I bring them down. Those whom God
brings to heaven by his grace shall never be brought down; but those
who climb thither themselves, by their own presumption, and confidence
in themselves, will be brought down and filled with shame.
(3.) The top of Carmel, one of the highest parts of the dust of
the world in that country, shall not protect them: “Though they hide
themselves there, where they imagine nobody will look for them,
I will search, and take them out thence; neither the thickest
bushes, nor the darkest caves, in the top of Carmel, will serve
to hide them.”
(4.) The bottom of the sea shall not serve to conceal them;
though they think to hide themselves there, even there the judgments of
God shall find them out, and lay hold on them: Thence will I command
the serpent, and he shall bite them, the crooked serpent,
even the dragon that is in the sea,
Isa. xxvii. 1.
They shall find their plague and death where they hope to find shelter
and protection; diving will stand them in no more stead than climbing.
(5.) Remote countries will not befriend them, nor shall less judgments
excuse them from greater
(v. 4):
Thought they go into captivity before their enemies, who carry
them to places at a great distance, and mingle them with their own
people, among whom they seem to be lost, yet that shall not serve their
turn: Thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them,
the sword of the enemy, or one another’s sword. When God judges he
will overcome. That which binds on all this, makes their escape
impossible and their ruin inevitable, is that God will set his eyes
upon them for evil, and not for good. His eyes are in every place,
are upon all men and upon all the ways of men, upon some for good, to
show himself strong on their behalf, but upon others for evil,
to take notice of their sins
and take all opportunities of punishing them for their sins.
Their case is truly miserable who have the providence of God:
and all the dispensations of it, against them, working for their
hurt.
3. What a great and mighty God he is that passes this sentence upon
them, and will take the executing of it into his own hands.
Threatenings are more or less formidable according to the power of him
that threatens. We laugh at impotent wrath; but the wrath of God is not
so; it is omnipotent wrath. Who knows the power of it? What he
had before said he would do
is here repeated, that he would make the land melt and tremble,
and all that dwell therein mourn, that the judgment should
rise up wholly like a flood, and the country should be
drowned, and laid under water, as by the flood of Egypt,
v. 5.
But is he able to make his words good? Yes, certainly he is; he does
but touch the land and it melts, touch the mountains and
they smoke; he can do it with the greatest ease, for,
(1.) He is the Lord God of hosts, who undertakes to do it, the
God who has all the power in his hand, and all creatures at his beck
and call, who having made them all, and given them their several
capacities, makes what use he pleases of them and all their powers.
Very miserable is the case of those who have the Lord of hosts against
them, for they have hosts against them, the whole creation at war with
them.
(2.) He is the Creator and governor of the upper world: It is he
that builds his stories in the heavens, the celestial orbs, or
spheres, one over another, as so many stories in a high and stately
palace. They are his, for he built them at first, when he said, Let
there be a firmament, and he made the firmament; and he builds them
still, is continually building them, not that they need repair, but by
his providence he still upholds them; his power is the pillars of
heaven, by which it is borne up. Now he that has the command of those
stories is certainly to be feared, for thence, as from a castle, he can
fire upon his enemies, or cast upon them great hailstones, as on the
Canaanites, or make the stars in their courses, the furniture of those
stories, to fight against them, as against Sisera.
(3.) He has the management and command of this lower world too, in
which we dwell, the terraqueous globe, both earth and
sea, so that, which way soever his enemies think to make their
escape, he will meet them, or to make opposition, he will match them.
Do they think to make a land-fight of it? He has founded his troop
in the earth, his troop of guards, which he has at command, and
makes use of for the protection of his subjects and the punishment of
his enemies. All the creatures on earth make one bundle (as the margin
reads it), one bundle of arrows, out of which he takes what he pleases
to discharge against the persecutors,
They are all one army, one body, so closely are they
connected, and so harmoniously and so much in concert do they act for
the accomplishing of their Creator’s purposes. Do they think to make a
sea-fight of it? He will be too hard for them there, for he has the
waters of the sea at command; even its waves, the most tumultuous
rebellious waters, do obey him. He calls for the waters of the
sea in the course of his common providence, causes vapours to
ascend out of it, and pours them out in showers, the small
rain and the great rain of his strength, upon the face of the
earth; this was mentioned before as a reason why we should seek
the Lord
(ch. v. 8)
and make him our friend, as it is here made a reason why we should fear
him and dread having him for our enemy.
4. How justly God passes this sentence upon the people of Israel. He
does not destroy them by an act of sovereignty, but by an act of
righteousness; for
(v. 8),
it is a sinful kingdom, and the eyes of the Lord are upon
it, discovering it to be so; he sees the great sinfulness of it, and
therefore he will destroy it from off the face of the earth.
Note, When those kingdoms that in name and profession were holy
kingdoms, and kingdoms of priests, as Israel was, become sinful
kingdoms, no other can be expected than that they should be cut off and
abandoned. Let sinful kingdoms, and sinful families, and sinful persons
too, see the eyes of the Lord upon them, observing all their
wickedness, and reserving the notice of it for the day of reckoning and
recompence. This being a sinful kingdom, see how light God makes of it,
v. 7.
(1.) Of the relation wherein he stood to it: Are you not as children
of Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? A sad change! Children
of Israel become as children of the Ethiopians!
[1.] They were so in themselves; that was their sin. It is a thing to
be greatly lamented that the children of Israel often become as
children of the Ethiopians; this children of godly parents degenerate,
and become the reverse of those that went before them. Those that were
well-educated, and trained up in the knowledge and fear of God, and set
out well, and promised fair, throw off their profession and become as
bad as the worst. How has the gold become dim!
[2.] The were so in God’s account, and that was their punishment. He
valued them no more, though they were children of Israel, than if they
had been children of the Ethiopians. We read of one in the title
of
that was Cush (an Ethiopian, as some understand it) and
yet a Benjamite. Those that by birth and profession are children of
Israel, if they degenerate, and become wicked and vile, are to God no
more than children of the Ethiopians. This is an intimation of the
rejection of the unbelieving Jews in the days of the Messiah; because
they embraced not the doctrine of Christ, the kingdom of God was taken
from them, they were unchurched, and cast out of covenant, became as
children of the Ethiopians, and are so to this day. And it is true of
those that are called Christians, but do no live up to their name and
profession, that rest in the form of piety, but live under the power of
reigning iniquity, that they are to God as children of the Ethiopians;
he rejects them, and their services.
(2.) See how light he makes of the favours he had conferred upon them;
they thought he would not, he could not, cast them off, and put them
upon a level with other nations, because he had done that for them
which he had not done for other nations, whereby they thought he was
bound to them, so as never to leave them. “No,” says he, “The favours
shown to you are not so distinguishing as you think they are: Have I
not brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt?” It is true I have;
but I have also brought the Philistines from Caphtor, or
Cappadocia, where they were natives, or captives, or both; they
are called the remnant of the country of Caphtor
and the Philistim are joined with the Caphtorim,
In like manner the Syrians were brought up from Kir when they had been
carried away thither,
Note, If God’s Israel lose the peculiarity of their holiness, they lose
the peculiarity of their privileges; and what was designed as a favour
of special grace shall be set in another light, shall have its property
altered, and shall become an act of common providence; if
professors liken themselves to the world, God will level them with the
world. And, if we live not up to the obligation of God’s mercies, we
forfeit the honour and comfort of them.
5. How graciously God will separate between the precious and the vile
in the day of retribution. Though the wicked Israelites shall be as the
wicked Ethiopians, and their being called Israelites shall stand them
in no stead, yet the pious Israelites shall not be as the wicked
ones; no, the Judge of all the earth will do right, more right
than to slay the righteous with the wicked,
Gen. xviii. 25.
His eyes are upon the sinful kingdom, to spy out those in it who
preserve their integrity and swim against the stream, who sigh and cry
for the abominations of their land, and they shall be marked for
preservation, so that the destruction shall not be total: I will not
utterly destroy the house of Jacob, not ruin them by wholesale and
in the gross, good and bad together, but I will distinguish, as becomes
a righteous judge. The house of Israel shall be sifted as corn is
sifted; they shall be greatly hurried, and shaken, and tossed, but
still in the hands of God, in both his hands, as the sieve in the hands
of him that sifts
(v. 9):
I will sift the house of Israel among all nations. Wherever they
are shaken and scattered, God will have his eye upon them, and will
take care to separate between the corn and chaff, which was the thing
he designed in sifting them.
(1.) The righteous ones among them, that are as the solid wheat, shall
none of them perish; they shall be delivered either from or through the
common calamities of the kingdom; not the least grain shall fall on
the earth, so as to be lost and forgotten–not the least
stone (so the word is), for the good corn is weighty as a stone
in comparison with that which we call light corn. Note, Whatever
shakings there may be in the world, God does and will effectually
provide that none who are truly his shall be truly miserable.
(2.) The wicked ones among them who are hardened in their sins shall
all of them perish,
See what a height of impiety they have come to: They say, The evil
shall not overtake nor prevent us. They think they are innocent,
and do not deserve punishment, or that the profession they make of
relation to God will be their exemption and security from punishment,
or that they shall be able to make their part good against the
judgments of God, that they shall flee so swiftly from them that they
shall not overtake them, or guard so carefully against them that they
shall not prevent or surprise them. Note, Hope of impunity is the
deceitful refuge of the impenitent. But see what it will come to at
last: All the sinners that thus flatter themselves, and affront
God, shall die by the sword, the sword of war, which to them
shall be the sword of divine vengeance; yea, though they be the
sinners of my people, for their profession shall not be their
protection. Note, Evil is often nearest those that put it at the
greatest distance from them.
| Promises of Mercy. | B. C. 784. |
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11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is
fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up
his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the
heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth
this.
13 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman
shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that
soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the
hills shall melt.
14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel,
and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and
they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they
shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no
more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them,
saith the LORD thy God.
To him to whom all the prophets bear witness this prophet, here in the
close, bears his testimony, and speaks of that day, those days
that shall come, in which God will do great things for his church, by
the setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah, for the rejecting of
which the rejection of the Jews was foretold in the
The promise here is said to agree to the planting of the Christian
church, and in that to be fulfilled,
It is promised,
I. That in the Messiah the kingdom of David shall be restored
(v. 11);
the tabernacle of David it is called, that is, his house and
family, which, though great and fixed, yet, in comparison with the
kingdom of heaven, was mean and movable as a tabernacle. The church
militant, in its present state, dwelling as in shepherds’ tents to
feed, as in soldiers’ tents to fight, is the tabernacle of
David. God’s tabernacle is called the tabernacle of David because
David desired and chose to dwell in God’s tabernacle for ever,
Ps. lxi. 4.
Now,
1. These tabernacles had fallen an gone to decay, the royal family was
so impoverished, its power abridged, its honour stained, and laid in
the dust; for many of that race degenerated, and in the captivity it
lost the imperial dignity. Sore breaches were made upon it, and at
length it was laid in ruins. So it was with the church of the Jews; in
the latter days of it its glory departed; it was like a tabernacle
broken down and brought to ruin, in respect both of purity and of
prosperity.
2. By Jesus Christ these tabernacles were raised and rebuilt. In him
God’s covenant with David had its accomplishment; and the glory of that
house, which was not only sullied, but quite sunk, revived again; the
breaches of it were closed and its ruins raised up, as
in the days of old; nay, the spiritual glory of the family of
Christ far exceeded the temporal glory of the family of David when it
was at its height. In him also God’s covenant with Israel had its
accomplishment, and in the gospel-church the tabernacle of God was set
up among men again, and raised up out of the ruins of the Jewish state.
This is quoted in the first council at Jerusalem as referring to the
calling in of the Gentiles and God’s taking out of them a people for
his name. Note, While the world stands God will have a church in
it, and, if it be fallen down in one place and among one people, it
shall be raised up elsewhere.
II. That that kingdom shall be enlarged, and the territories of it
shall extend far, by the accession of many countries to it
(v. 12),
that the house of David may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all
the heathen, that is, that Christ may have them given him for his
inheritance, even the uttermost parts of the earth for his
possession,
Ps. ii. 8.
Those that had been strangers and enemies shall become willing faithful
subjects to the Son of David, shall be added to the church, or
those of them that are called by my name, saith the Lord, that
is, that belong to the election of grace and are ordained to eternal
life
for it is true of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews that the
election hath obtained and the rest were blinded,
Rom. xi. 7.
Christ died to gather together in one the children of God that were
scattered abroad, here said to be those that were called by his
name. The promise is to all that are afar off, even as
many of them as the Lord our God shall call,
Acts ii. 39.
St. James expounds this as a promise that the residue of men should
seek after the Lord, even all the Gentiles upon whom my name is
called. But may the promise be depended upon? Yes, the Lord says
this, who does this, who can do it, who has determined to do it, the
power of whose grace is engaged for the doing of it, and with whom
saying and doing are not two things, as they are with us.
III. That in the kingdom of the Messiah there shall be great plenty, an
abundance of all good things that the country produces
(v. 13):
The ploughman shall overtake the reaper, that is, there shall be
such a plentiful harvest every year, and so much corn to be gathered
in, that it shall last all summer, even till autumn, when it is time to
begin to plough again; and in like manner the vintage shall continue
till seed-time, and there shall be such abundance of grapes that even
the mountains shall drop new wine into the vessels of the
grape-gatherers, and the hills that were dry and barren shall be
moistened and shall melt with the fatness or mellowness
(as we call it) of the soil. Compare this with
This must certainly be understood of the abundance of spiritual
blessings in heavenly things, which all those are, and shall be,
blessed with, who are in sincerity added to Christ and his church; they
shall be abundantly replenished with the goodness of God’s house, with
the graces and comforts of his Spirit; they shall have bread, the bread
of life, to strengthen their hearts, and the wine of divine
consolations to make them glad-meat indeed and drink
indeed–all the benefit that comes to the souls of men from the
word and Spirit of God. These had been long confined to the vineyard of
the Jewish church; divine revelation, and the power that attended it,
were to be found only within that enclosure; but in gospel-times the
mountains and hills of the Gentile world shall be enriched with these
privileges by the gospel of Christ preached, and professed, and
received in the power of it. When great multitudes were converted to
the faith of Christ, and nations were born at once, when the preachers
of the gospel were always caused to triumph in the success of
their preaching, then the ploughman overtook the reaper; and
when, the Gentile churches were enriched in all utterance, and in
all knowledge, and all manner of spiritual gifts
(1 Cor. i. 5),
then the mountains dropped sweet wine.
IV. That the kingdom of the Messiah shall be well peopled; as the
country shall be replenished, so shall the cities be; there shall be
mouths for this meat,
Those that were carried captives shall be brought back out of their
captivity; their enemies shall not be able to detain them in the land
of their captivity, nor shall they themselves incline to settle in it,
but the remnant shall return, and shall build the waste cities and
inhabit them, shall form themselves into Christian churches and set
up pure doctrine, worship, and discipline among them, according to the
gospel charter, by which Christ’s cities are incorporated; and they
shall enjoy the benefit and comfort thereof; they shall plant
vineyards, and make gardens. Though the mountains and hills
drop wine, and the privileges of the gospel-church are laid in common,
yet they shall enclose for themselves, not to monopolize these
privileges, to the exclusion of others, but to appropriate and improve
these privileges, in communion with others, and they shall drink the
wine, and eat the fruit, of their own vineyards and
gardens; for those that take pains in religion, as men must do
about their vineyards and gardens, shall have both the pleasure and
profit of it. The bringing again of the captivity of
God’s Israel, which is here promised, may refer to the cancelling of
the ceremonial law, which had been long to God’s Israel as a yoke of
bondage, and the investing of them in the liberty wherewith Christ
came to make his church free,
V. That the kingdom of the Messiah shall take such deep rooting in the
world as never to be rooted out of it
(v. 15):
I will plant them upon their land. God’s spiritual Israel shall
be planted by the right hand of God himself upon the land assigned
them, and they shall no more be pulled up out of it, as the old
Jewish church was. God will preserve them from throwing themselves out
of it by a total apostasy, and will preserve them from being thrown out
of it by malice of their enemies; the church may be corrupted, but
shall not quite forsake God, may be persecuted, but shall not quite be
forsaken of God, so that the gates of hell, neither with their
temptations nor with their terrors, shall prevail against it. Two
things secure the perpetuity of the church:–
1. God’s grants to it: It is the land which I have given them;
and God will confirm and maintain his own grants. The part he has given
to his people is that good part which shall never be taken from them;
he will not revoke his grant, and all the powers of earth and hell
shall not invalidate it.
2. Its interest in him: He is the Lord thy God, who has said
it, and will make it good, thine, O Israel! who shall reign
for ever as thine unto all generations. And because he lives
the church shall live also.
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