Amos 7:14
Ver. 14. Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah,.... With much freedom, boldness, and intrepidity, and yet with modesty and humility; not at all moved by his frowns or his flattery:
I [was] no prophet, neither [was] I a prophet's son: he was not a prophet originally, or from his youth, as Kimchi; he was not born and bred one; neither his father was a prophet, by whom he could get any instructions in the mystery of prophesying; nor was he a disciple of any of the prophets, or brought up in any of their schools as some were; he was no prophet till the Lord called him immediately, at once, from his secular employment to this office; and therefore did not take it up to get a livelihood by Jarchi and Aben Ezra interpret it, that he was not one of the false prophets that prophesied for hire, and took a reward:
but I [was] an herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit; that is, originally: this was the employment he was brought up in from his youth, and was in it when he was called to be a prophet; he looked after cattle, both great and small; and at a certain time of the year used, to gather sycamore fruit, which was a kind of figs; and by, its name had the resemblance both of figs and mulberries. Some take it to be what were called Egyptian figs; these he gathered, either for the use of his masters, or for food for himself, or for the cattle, or both: or he was an "opener" of them, as the Septuagint; he cut, them, and made incisions in them; for, as Pliny {l}, Dioscorides {m}, and Theophrastus {n} observe, this fruit must be cut or scratched, either with the nail, or with iron, or it will not ripen; but, four days after being scratched or cut, will become ripe. Mr. Norden {o}, a late traveller in Egypt, has given us a very particular account of this tree and its fruit.
"This sycamore (he says) is of the height of a beech, and bears its fruit in a manner quite different from other trees; it has them on the trunk itself, which shoots out little sprigs in form of grape stalks; at the end of which grow the fruit close to one another, almost like bunches of grapes. The tree is always green, and bears fruit several times in the year, without observing any certain seasons: for I have seen (says he) some sycamores that have given fruit two months after others. The fruit has the figure and smell of real figs, but is inferior to them in the taste, having a disgusting sweetness. Its colour is a yellow, inclining to an ochre, shadowed by a flesh colour. In the inside it resembles the common figs, excepting that it has a blackish colouring with yellow spots. This sort of tree is pretty common in Egypt; the people for the greater part live upon its fruit, and think themselves well regaled when they have a piece of bread, a couple of sycamore figs, and a pitcher filled with water from the Nile.''
This account in several things agrees with what Pliny {p} and Solinus {q} relate of this tree and its fruit; very likely there might be many of these trees in Judea; there seem to have been great numbers of them in Solomon's time, 1Ki 10:27; and perhaps it was one of these that Zacchaeus climbed, in order to see Christ, Lu 19:4; for this sort of trees delight in vales and plains, such as were the plains of Jericho; and in the Talmud {r} we read of sycamore trees in Jericho; and of the men of Jericho allowing the branches of them to be cut down for sacred uses. These also grew in lower Galilee, but not in upper Galilee; and that they were frequent in the land of Israel appears from the rules the Misnic doctors {s} give about the planting, and cutting them down; and in the opening of these trees, and making incisions in them, and in gathering the fruit of them, Amos might be concerned. Kimchi and Ben Melech say the word signifies to "mix", and that his business was to mix these together with other fruit. Aben Ezra observes, that in the Arabic language it signifies to dry; and then his work was, after he had gathered them, to lay them a drying. Some render the word a "searcher" {t} of them; as if his employment was to look out for them, and seek them where they were to be got: however, be this as it will, the prophet suggests that he had been used to a low life, and to mean fare, with which he was contented, and did not take up this business of prophesying for bread, and could return to his former employment without any regret, to get a maintenance, if so was the will of God. The Targum gives it a different sense,"for I am a master of cattle, and have sycamores in the fields;''and so Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, represent him as suggesting that he was rich, and had no need of bread to be given him, or to prophesy for that.{l} Nat. Hist. l. 13. c. 7. {m} L. 1. c. 143. {n} Hist. l. 4. c. 2. {o} Travels in Egypt and Nubis, vol. 1. p. 79, 80. {p} Nat. Hist. l. 13. c. 7. {q} Polyhistor. c. 45. {r} T. Bab Pesachim, fol. 56. 1. & 57. 1. & Menachot, fol. 71. 1. {s} Misn. Shevath, c. 9. sect. 2. & Bava Bathra, c. 2. sect. 7. {t} olzb "disquirens", Montanus, Vatablus; "perquirens", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Burkius. So R. Sol. Urbin Ohel Moed, fol. 31. 2. Amos 7:15Ver. 15. And the Lord took me as I followed the flock,.... Or "from behind" it {u}; a description of a shepherd, such an one Amos was, and in this employ when the Lord called him, and took him to be a prophet; he did not seek after it, nor did he take this honour to himself; by which it appears that his mission was divine, and that he did not enter on this work with lucrative views: thus God took David in a like state of life, and made him king of Israel; and Elisha from the plough, and made him a prophet: and Christ several of his disciples from being fishermen, and made them fishers of men, or ministers of the word; and so their call appeared more clear and manifest;and the Lord said unto me; in a vision or dream by night; or by an articulate voice he heard; or by an impulse upon his spirit, which comes from the Spirit of God:go, prophesy unto my people Israel; for so they were by profession, and notwithstanding their apostasy; as yet they were not tallied "Loammi", Ho 1:9; to these the prophet was bid to go out of the land of Judea, where he was a herdsman, and prophesy in the name of the Lord to them; wherefore what he did was in obedience to the command of God, and he did but his duty; and what he in this verse and Am 7:14 declares, is a sufficient vindication of himself, his character, and conduct; and having done this, he has something to say to the priest, as follows.{u} Nau yrtam "de post pecus", Montanus; "de post gregem", Vatablus; "a post gregem", Liveleus. Amos 7:16Ver. 16. Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord,.... Which I have from him concerning thee, and which he has pronounced upon thee and thy family:thou sayest, prophesy not against Israel; when God has bid me prophesy:and drop not [thy word] against the house of Isaac; say nothing against it, though in ever so soft and gentle a manner: it designs the same thing as before, only in different words; and is a prohibition of the prophet to prophesy against the ten tribes that descended from Isaac, in the line of Jacob. So the Targum paraphrases it,"thou shalt not teach against the house of Isaac;''or deliver out any prophecy or doctrine that is against them, or threatens them with any calamity. Jarchi says the phrase is expressive of prophecy; see De 32:2. Amos 7:17Ver. 17. Therefore thus saith the Lord,.... For withstanding the prophet of the Lord, and forbidding him to speak in his name against the idolatry of Israel, as well as for his own idolatry:thy wife shall be an harlot in the city: either of Bethel or Samaria; either through force, being ravished by the soldiers upon taking and plundering the city; so Theodoret and others: or rather of choice; either, through poverty, to get bread, or through a vicious inclination, and that in a public manner: the meaning is, that she should be a common strumpet; which must be a great affliction to him, and a just punishment for his idolatry, or spiritual adultery; this must be before the siege and taking of Samaria, since by that time the priest's wife would be too old to be used as a harlot:and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword; either of Shallum, who smote Zachariah the son of Jeroboam with the sword, before the people, and very probably many of his friends with him, among whom this family was; or of Menahem, who slew Shallum, and destroyed many places that opened not to him, with their inhabitants, and ripped up the women with child; or in the after invasions by Pul, Tiglathpileser, and Shalmaneser, 2Ki 15:10;and thy land shall be divided by line; either the whole land of Israel be lived in, or the land that was in the possession of this priest, and was his own property; this should be measured with a line, and be parted among foreigners, that should invade the land, and subdue it; a just punishment of the sins he had been guilty of, in getting large possessions in an ill manner:and thou shall die in a polluted land; not in his own land, reckoned holy, but in a Heathen land, which was accounted defiled, because the inhabitants of it were uncircumcised and idolaters, and he was no better; perhaps the land of Assyria, whither he might with others be carried captive; or some other land he was forced to flee into:and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land; as he had before prophesied, and here confirms it; and which was fulfilled in the times of Hoshea king of Israel, by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, 2Ki 17:6.
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