that like will be the punishment of like. It reappears in the gospel dictum, "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." Not only will sin be punished, it will all be punished, and punished fully. When God's last word has been spoken, the criminal shall be even as his victim, and be God's enemy besides. Vere. 9, 10.-The woe against Tyre. Tyre stands for Phcenicia, of which it was the capital. It was a renowned and very ancient city. Greatest, richest, proudest, and most luxurious, perhaps, of all the cities of its time, it passed through vicissitudes which were equally beyond the common lot. As with most ancient capitals, there were points at which its path and that of Israel crossed, involving that there should be corresponding points where they would recross, and on these the prophet has intently fixed his eye. Of the denunciation against it observe- I. IT BTh"NED m CHARACTER. The Phamicians were e. commercial people, and theirs was a commercial sin. "They delivered up the whole captivity to Edom." They did not make war, nor take prisoners, but they traded in them as slaves-bought them probably from the Syrians and sold them to the Ionians (" Grecians," Joel iii. 6). For this their woe is denounced; and thus early was branded with condemnation "the wild and guilty phantasy that man can hold a property in man." The image of God is not a thing to be trafficked in. "The law" is against men-stealers (1 'l'im. i. 10) among other criminals. A man's liberty is precious to him next to life itself. Slavery is the intolerable theft of his manhood and moral agency, and is contrary to the entire spirit of the Bible. Il. IT BINNED AGAmsT A COVENANT. This was no doubt the covenant between Hiram and Solomon (1 Kings v. 12). It was a covenant of peace, of which the trading in Hebrew captives was a flagrant violation. Thi8 circumstance mnde the detestable traffic doubly guilty. It was two sins in one-perjury added on to oppression. And nil Christian sin is iu this respect its counterpart. The believer is in covenant with God. He has said, "This God is my God for ever and ever,'' etc. Any after-sin is, therefore, a breach both of God's Law and his own vow. The believing sinner has broken through more restraints and violated more laws than the unbelieving, and so is double-dyed in guilt. The difficulty of bringing such to repentnnce again (Heb. vi. 4-6) is no doubt closely connected with this fact. III. 'l'HE FORGOTTEN COVENANT WAS A DROTHEBLY COVENANT. This circumstanco aggravated the guilt of the violation. Ties are strong in proportion as they are amicable. The electric core of friendship in the cable of a mutual tie gives it a character o.11 its own. The breaking of it means to both parties more of change and loss in proportion as this core is relatively large. The Phcenicio-Israelitish covenant wns brotherly: 1. In its origin. It was the outcome of brotherly feeling nnd affection previously existing. "Hiram," we read, "was ever a lover of David" (1 Kings v. 1), and in token of it ho had voluntarily sent materials and workmen, and had built him n house (2 Sam. v. 11). And the feeling was evidently transferred to Solomon. Hirnm and he were on such cordial terms that he asked for, and Hiram readily sent him, skilful Sidonian woodmen to hew trees, and an accomplished Tyrian graver to act as foreman over his own workmen in carving, engraving, embroidery, and doing other cunning work for the temple (2 Chron. ii. 3-16). Solomon in turn gave Hiram wheat and oil in liberal meaRure for provisioning his house, and the outcome of these cordial relations was thnt "they two made a league together" (1 Kingsv.11, 12), the brotherly covenant referred to. The covenant was brotherly also: 2. In its w<Yrking. It was renewed from time to time with various additions, and was long kept by both partie8. Israel never made wnr against Tyre, nor broke the letter or spirit or their fraternal league. The henrtless sin of Tyre was, therefore, not only a violation of the covenant provisions, but of the H THE BOOK OF A.MOS. [on, 1. 1-15.
intimate and cordial relations which it both expressed and fostered. It was a sin against both vows and close relations, and put on thus an aspect of double criminality. 3. The covenant had even a religious aspect. Hiram grounds the good will and l).elp, extended to Solomon, on the facts that the people he ruled and the house he was g<ling to build were God's, as well as on the facf that he had a special gift of wisdom from above (2 Chron. ii. 11, 12). His covenant was thus made with Israel as God's people, and in testimony of his belief in Jehovah as the true God, and his desire to advance his glory. This fact adds much to the significance and solemnity of the covenant, and so of the breach of it. What is done in God's name and as an act of homage to him is done uuder the highest sanctions possible. The commonest act is glorified, the smallest act becomes great in the greatness of its underlying principle. And as' is the doing so is the undoing. The higher the promiser has risen, the lower has the violator fallen. Tyre's sin implied and sealed a large amount of previous deterioration, and so the more emphatically sealed her doom.