The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 25

later (2 Kings viii. 20). The sacrilegiollS tices. From this error the Israelites wen, act was meant to redound to the disgrace of never weaned till their return from the Israel. penal Captivity. Ver. 2.-Eirioth; ciUes, a.nd so taken as Ver. 5.-The destruction of Jerusalem by an appellative by the Septuagint transla- the Che.ldee.ns is here briefly foretold ( J er. tors, ,.;;;, ..-oXeow a~..-,js: but it is doubtless :xvii. 27; Hos. viii. 14; 2 Kings xxv. 9, 10). a proper name of one of the chief Moabite Vere. 6-16.-§ 3. Summona and general towns(Jer. xlviii. 24, 41). Keil, after Burok- hardt, identifies it with the decayed town denunciation of Israel for injustice, oruelty, of Kereyat, or Korriat; others, with Ar, or incest, luxury, and idolatry. Kir, ihe old capital (Isa. xv. 1). 'l'he plural Ver. 6.-They sold the righteous tor termination of tile word, like Athenm, Thebm, silver. The first charge age.inst Israel is etc., may denote a double city-upper and perversion of justice. The judges took lower, or old and new. Moab sh&ll die. The bribes and condemned the righteous, i.e. nation is personified. With tumult; caused the man whose ea.use was good. Pusey hy war (comp. Jer. xlviii. 45, and the pro- thinks that the literal selling of debtors phecy of Balaam, Numb. xxiv. 17). Sep- by creditors, contrary to the Law (Exod. tuagint, i, a.Sv11ap.(q., "in weakness." With :xxi. 7; Lev. xxv. 39; Neh. v. 5), is meant shoo.ting. Omitted by the Vulgate (see on (comp. eh. viii. 6 and Matt. xviii. 25). eh. i. 14). Trumpet ( eh. iii. 6; J er. iv. 19). The needy for a pair of shoes. For the Trochon cites Virgil, 'lEneid,' ii. 313, very smallest bribe they betray the ea.use " Exoritur clamorque virum clangorque of the poor (comp. Ezek. xiii. 19); though, tubarum," "Rises the shout of men and as sandals were sometimes of very oostly trumpets' blare." materials (Oant. vii. l ; Ezek. xvi. 10; Ver. 3.-The judge; a'hophet, probably Judith xvi. 9), the expression might mean here a synonym for " king" ( comp. Micah that they sold justice to obtain an article v. 1). It implies the chief magistrate, like of luxury. But the form of expression is the Carthaginian sufes, which is the same opposed to this interpretation. word. There is no ground for deducing, Ver. 7.-That pant after the dust of the e.e Hitzig ancl Ewald do, from the use of earth on the head of the poor. This is the this form that Moe.b had no king at this second ch1uge-oppression of the poor. The time. The country was conquered by the obscure expression in the text is capable of Cho.ldeans, and thenceforward sank into two explanations. Hitzig, Pusey, Trochon, insignificance (Jer. xlviii.; Ezek. xxv. assume that its meaning is that in their S-11). avarice and cupidity the usurers or tyran- nous rich men grudge even the dust which Vere. 4, 5.-§ 2. Judah is summoned to the poor man strews upon his head in token judgment, the propluit thus paBBing from of his sorrow e.t being brought to so low a alien nations, through the most fafJoured state. But this seems unnatural and far. people, to Israel, the subject of his propluicy. fetched, and scal'cely in harmony with the simple style of Amos. The other explana- Ver. 4.-They have despised the Law of tion, supported by Kimchi, Schegg, Keil, and the Lord. The other nations a.re denounced Knabenbe.uer, is preferable. These oppres- for their offences against God's people; sol's desire eagerly to see the poor crushed Judah is sentenced for her offences against to the earth, or so miserable e.s to scatter God himself. The former likewise had dust on their heads (comp. 1 Sam. iv. 12; offended against the law of conscience, 2 Sam. i. 2; Job ii. 12). The poor (dal, not natural religion ; the latter age.inst the the same word as in ver. 6); depressed, o.e written Law, revealed religion. By thus brought low in condition. The Septuagint denouncing Judah, Amos shows his perfect joins this with the previous clo.use, "And impartiality. The Law, Torah, is the the poor for sandals, the thiugs that tread general name for the whole body of precepts on the dust of the earth, and smote on the and commandments, clmqqim, moral and heads of the needy." The Vulgate gives, ceremonial. Their lies ; Vulgate, idola sua, Qui conterunt super pulverem terrm capita which is the sense, though not the transla- pauperum, "Who bruise the heads of tbe tion, of the word. l<lols are so ea.lied as poor on the dust of the earth." Turn aside being nonentities in themselves, and deceiv- the wsy of the meek. They thwart and ing those who trust in them. "We know," hinder their path of life, and force them into "nys St. Paul (l Cur. viii. 4), "that an idol crooked and evil ways. 01· wag, according is nothing in the world." The Septuagint to Kimchi, may mean "judicial process," ns gives, .,-1,, µ.cl...-a,a au..-wv & brol11<Ta11, "their Prov. xvii. 23. This gives to the cluuse vain things which they made." Their much the same meaning as ver. 6. Tl~ fathers have walked. 1'hi.s is the usual cx- meek are those who uro lowly and unassum- prcssiuu for ailacbwent io idolatrous pmc- ing (see note on Zeph. ii. 8). And a ma11 OH, n, 1-18,] THE BOOK 01!' A.MO& 25