The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 5

nnd on tl11lt fe.oo which overlooks the Plain threw off his n.llegin.nce (1 Kings xi. 28, of Aero ou the north, e.nd that of Esdre.elon etc.), n.nd seized Dn.mnscus, which hnd been towards the south-elUlt. There is no special tributary to David (2 S11m. viii. 5). The excellency in Oarmel 11t the present day, history of the wnrs carried on by Syria whatever ma, be SR id of Sharon. Its name, ngn.inst the Jews mny be read in the sacred Kurmul, or ·Kerm-el, signifies 'the vine- books (see 1 Kings xv. 19, etc.; 2 Chron. vard of God; ' but its vineyards have all xvi. 2, etc. ; l Kings xx. ; xxii. ; 2 Kings disappeared. It we.s a glorious mountain, vii. ; ix. H, eto. ; x. 82, eto. ; xii. 18 ; xiii. however, and II prominent le.ndme.rk ; M• 5, 25; 2 Chron. xxiv. 23, etc.; 2 Kings xiv. :lDrding to Jeremiah (xlvi. 18), Carmel 28). I will not turn awe.y the punishment wa.s a resort of herdsmen. Amos says, • The thereof. So in the following strophes. habitations of the shepherds shall mouru, Litero.lly, I will not reverse it. Amos does nnd the top of Carmel sb11.ll wither,' in the not expressly say what; but he means the time of the threatened judgment, aud this sentence or judgment (comp. Numb. xxiii. implies that its pastures were not ordinarily 20, "I cannot reverse it," where the same liable to wither. This may, in part, have word is used). The Lo.tin Vulga.te gives, been occasioned by the heavy dews which Non convertam eum, i.e. Damascum, which its lofty elevation, so near the sea, ea.uses to Kuabenbo.uer explains, "I will not avert distil nightly upon its thirsty head. I found its destruction, will not turn it ashle from it quite green and flowery in midsummer. its downward course." The LXX. renders, It was a noble pasture-field, and, in refer- Ou1< l,.,ro<rTpa,P11<roµ.a, alm$v, "I will not turn ence to that characteristic, Micah utters his away from it," i.e., as explained by Theo- sweet prayer, ' Feed thy people with thy doret, " I will no longer disregard its sine:'' rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell Because they have threshed Gilead. Thie solitarily in the wood, in the midst of is the culminating offence of the Syrians. Carmel ; let them feed in Be.she.n and The word rendered "threshing-instrument" Gilead, as in the days of old.'" (charutz) signifies a kind of corn-drag Vers. 3-5.-Before announcing the judg- me.de of heavy planks fastened together and armed beneath with sharp stones. or iron ment on Israel, Amos procle.ims the punish- points. This machine, weighted with the ment on neighbouring heathen ne.tione for driver who sat or stood upon it, was drawn their injurious treatment of the ohoeen by oxen over the corn (comp. Isa. xxviii. people, thus showing God's care for his 27; xli. 15). A representation of it is elect, and leading them to fear vengeance given by Smith, 'Diet. of Bible,' i. 31, and Kitto, • Cyclop.,' i. 86. Such an instrument, for their o= greater sins towards him. set with sharp :flints in rows, was to be The order observed in denouncing these seen in the Indian and Colonial Exhibition nations is not geographical, but is regulated of the year 1886, in the Cyprus department. by the nature of ea.eh people's rele.tion to Another kind of instrument (moreg) is thus Israel, and the degree in which they have described by Jerome: "Est autem genus plaustri, quod rotis subter ferreis o.tque sinned against her. The denunciation be- dente.tis volvitur, ut exoussis frumentis gins with Syria, her hitherto most oppres- stipulam in areis oontera.t, et in oibos ju- sive enemy, and the least akin. mentorum propter fceni sterilita.tem paleo.s Ver. 3.-For three transgressions of comminuat." Such an implement wo.s used Dame.sous, a.nd for four. This form of ex- in the in:fliotion of capital punishment by pression is repeated in each of the following David (2 Sam. xii. 31; oomp. Prov. xx. 26). strophes, and some critics have taken the Gikad is. here put for e.ll the country east terms literally, and have tried to identify of Jordan (Josh. xxii. 9). The oruel treat- that particular number of transgressions ment referred to in the text occurred in the iu each case ; but tb is is trifling. The time of Hazael during the reign of Jehu phrase and others similar to it a.re not un- (2 Kings x. 32, eto. ; comp. xiii. 7). The common, and are used to signify a great Septuagint has, "Because with iron se.ws number, the last-mentioned being supposed they sawed asunder women with child." to fill up the measure and make it overflow. This is doubtless e. reminiscence of Elisha's Thus Job v. J9, "He shall deliver thee in words to Ha.zael (2 Kings viii. 12). six troubles, yea, in seven there shall no Ver. 4.-Fire. Material :fire, though else- evil touch tbee" ( comp. Job xxxiii. 29 ; where the term is used metaphorically for Prov. xxx. 15, 18, 21 ; Eccles. xi. 2). So war and its evils (comp. Numb, xxi. 28; Hom., 'Od.,' v. 306, Tpi<rµ,&.ca.pu '1avaol 1<al Ps. lxxviii. 63; Jer. ~viiL 45). This pas• .-erp&.c,s: and Virg., '1En.,' i. 94, "0 terque sage of Amos, combined with ver. 14, is quaterque beati;" comp. Hor., ' Carm.,' i. quoted by Jeremiah (xlix. 27), where he is :n. 13. Damascus had been an active pronouncing the dooin of Do.mnscus. Ho1110 enemy of Israel since the time that lkzon of Hazael . . . palaoea of BeDhadad. The OB, I. 1-15,] THE BOOK OF AMO& a two expressions are parallel, or they may hitherto been common in these regions. signify the family of Hazael, and Damascus Xir he.s been identified with the country on itself with its magnificent royal palaces. the banks of the river Kar, which flows into '!'hero were three kings of Syria named the Araxes on ihe south-west of the Caspian,_ Benhadad. The first of the name mo.de Sea.. It forms part; of the territory known alliance with Asa, aud fought eucceesfully as Transcaucaaia. From this region the against Baoaha (1 Kings xv. 20); Benhadad Syrians originally emigrated (eh. ix. 7), e.nd II. was the contemporary of Ahab, and back to this land a. large body were carried carried on war for many years with the when Tigla.th-Pileser, some fifty years later, northern kingdom (1 Kings xx.). He was killed Rezin a.nd sacked Damascus, as re- murdered either by Hazael or his servants lated in 2 Kings xvi. 9. Saith the Lord. (2 Kings viii. 15). Benhadad III., the son Tuis is the solemn confirmation of the of Haze.cl, we.s e. monarch of sme.11 e.bility, prophet's announcement, e.nd recurs in vers. and Syria under his swe.y sank into insigni- 8, 15 and eh. ii. 3. fice.nce (2 Kings xiii. 4, etc.; xiv. 27; xv. Vera. 6-8.-The jnclgment on Philiatia. 17). All this happened before the time of Ver. 6.--Gaza. is here used as the repre- Amoa, who probe.bly refers to a.II the kings sentative of the five cities of the Philistines. of that name, Benhade.d, "Son of the Sun," Three others a.re mentioned in ver. 8, Gath being the title of the dynasty. being omitted as having long lost its im- Ver. 5.-The bar which secured the gate portance, if not already destroyed (comp. of the city (1 Kings iv.13; Jer. li. 30; Nab. 2 Chron. xxvL 6; J er. xxv. 20; Zeph. ii. 4, iii. 13). Breaking the bar is equivalent to where see note; Zech. h:. 5, 6). Gaza., laying the place open to the enemy. ~ro1!1 moclern G-uzzeh, wa..s the most southern city the plain of Aven; Vulgate, de campo idoli; of Philistia in the immediate neighbour- Hebrew, bikath-Aven; Septuagint, '" 1reSfou hood of the desert. (For a description of the •,n.,; better, from the valley of Aven, or Plain of Philiatia, see Sir 0. Warren, vanity, perhaps so called analogously with • Survey Memoirs,' volume on J ernsalem, p. Hosea's naming Bethel, Betha'Den, •• Honse of 436.) The whole captivity; Hebrew, "an God" and " House of vanity" (Hos. v. 8). entire captivity,'' the whole people, so that Robinson (' Bibl. Res.,' 677) and Pusey refer neither age nor sex was spared. A similar the name to e. valley between Lebanon and complaint is made in Joel ill. 4, 6. What Antilibanus, a continuation of the Arabe.h, the LXX. mean by their rendering here and still ea.lied Bukaa, in the middle of which ver. 9, a.ixµa.71.c.,a-/a.v Tov ~a.71."'~"• it is very stood Baalbec, "the Temple of the sun hard to say. Probe.hly they punctuated the of the valley,'' called Heliopolia by Greek word translated "perfect" ( shelemah) she- and Roman writers (see 'Classical Museum,' lomoh, making "Solomon" stand for his iii. 136). The LXX. renders•• On" in Gen. people Israel. Cyril supposes that the re- xli. 45 by " Heliopolis; " and On and Baal ference is to cities which Solomon estab- heiug both titles of the sun, and indeed lished among neighbouring nations ; these synonymous, the introduction of" On" into hud now been destroyed or seized. The this p11Ssage may be accounted for. Bim event referred to may be the invasion of that holdeth the sceptre. The king and Judah by Philistines and Arabians in the princes, as ver. 8. :From the house of Eden; time of Joram, mentioned in 2 Chron. xxi. Hebrew, Beth-Eden, "House of delight;" 16, etc., and in which it is possible that a Vulgate, de domo volup!atis; Septuagint, I~ compact was made that the captive Judmans lI.vSpwv Xa.ppd.v, "out of the men ofCh11.rran." should be delivered to their bitterest enemies, This last rendering arises from considering the Edomitea. One would rather have ex- that the reference was to the Eden of Gen. ii., pected o. reference to some evil inflicted on which the translators placed in the region of Israel (as in nr. 3) instead of an injury Haran. The place in the text Keil sup- done to Judah. poses to be the Paradisus of the Greeks, Ver. 7.-A. fire. Ee.oh guilty city ia to whioh Ptolemy (v. 15. 20) locates south- have its own special punishment, though east of Laodicea. Schrader suggests a probably the calamity of each is common to place on the banks of the middle Euphrates all. Gaza wna conquered by Sennacherib between Bl\lis and Biredschich called Bit- whoo he invaded Judml\ in the time of .Adini in inscriptions of Asurnasirhabal Hezekiah, by Phara.oh-Neoho (Jer. xlvii. 1), and Salmanassur II. But this seems to be and by Alexander the Groat, who spent a. wrong locality (see 'Die Keilinschriften,' more than two months in its siege (Josephus, p. 327). The passage means that e.11 the ' Ant.,' xi. 8. 4; Arrian., ii. 27 ; see note on inhabitants of valley and city. king nnd Zeph. ii. 4). poosant, shall be out off. Shall go into Ver. 8,-Aahdod, "the Waster," lu,d. captivity. The word implies that the lo.nd Esdud, or Shdood (co.lied Azotus in Act~ shall be "stripped" or "bared" of its in- viii. 40), o.nd still a. lurgo villa.go, lay about habitants. Wholesalo deportlltion hod not thirty-Ii ve miles uorth of Go.za., three miles 4 THE BOOK OF AMOS. [os. 1. 1-16.