signally favoured by God, separate from meaning," I will press you with the full force otber nations, and bound to be a holy of war, as a loaded wain preases the earth over people? Taking the genernl import of the which it passes." The sense of the English p!lSsage and the signification of the word Version is that God is burdened o.nd wearied "Nazarite," the LXX. renders, ,is &-y,a<Tµ&v, with theil' sins, as Isa. xliii. 24; Me.I. ii. 17. "I took. . . . and of your young men for The verb, being hiphil, is an objection to oonsecra.tion." this explauo.tion. The comparison of the Ver. 12.-Ye gave the Nua.rites wine to we.in id very no.ture.l in the mouth of the drink. Far from profiting by their example, shepherd Amoe. or acl.-nowledging the grace of God dis- Ver. 14.-In this and the two following played in their holy lives, ye tried to get verses Amos indiviilualizee the" pressure" rid of tbeir testimony by seducing or that awe.its them, when every means of forcing them to break their vow. Prophesy resistance and escape shall fail. The flight not. Israel was impatient of the continued shall perish from the swift. The swift of e:fforts of the prophets to warn and to win; foot shall have no time or way to flee (Jer. anil, unmindful of the fact that the man of xxv. 85; xlvi. 6). Ewald, Pusey, Go.ndell, for God had a message which he was bound to " flight " render "place of flight, refuge," deliver (comp. Jer. xx. 9; 1 Car. ix. 16), as Job xi. 20; Ps. cxlii. 5; Septuagint, tbiB ungrateful nation systematically tried •/nry-f, : Vulgate, fuga. Shall not strengthen to silence the voices which were a et.anding his force. The strong man she.JI not be rebuke to them. Thus Amos himself was able to collect or put forth his strength to treated (eh. vii. 10, etc.). (For proof of o.ny good purpose ( comp. Prov. xxiv. 5; this opposition, see 1 Kings xiii. 4 ; xviii. N ah. ii. I). Neither shall . . . himself. 10, etc.; xix. 2; u:ii. 26, 27: 2 Kings vi. Some of the Greek mo.nuscripte omit this 81 ; 2 Chron. xxv. 15, 16 ; and comp. Isa. clause. Deliver himself occurs three times xxx. 10, etc. : Micah ii. 6 ; Matt. xxiii. 87. -a kind of solemn refrain. Vere. 18--16 threa.ten severe punishment Ver. 15.-Sto.nd (Jer. xlvi. 21; No.h. ii. 8). The skilled archer shall not stand for the sins mentioned above. firm. That handleth the bow (Jer. xlvi. 9). Ver. 18.-:Behold, I am pressed under Ver. 16.-He that is courageous among you ; Septuagint, ,cvl\.(c,, v,ro,c&,-., iµwv, " I the mighty; literally, the strong in his heart; roll under you;'' Vulgate, stridebo suhter i.e. the bravest hero. The LXX. takes the '108; Syrie.c, as Anglican; Hitzig, "I make words differently, 'O ,cpa,-a,bs ou µ'iJ •O,,l,cr.. it totter beneath you, as a cart tottereth; " T'i/v ,cap Slav auToii lv 6v<Ta<TTda1s, "The strong Ewald, Keil. "I will press you down, as the shall not find his heart (confidence) in cart presseth;" Baur, Pusey, "I straiten my- powers." Naked. Casting away heavy gar- 11elf under yon, es a cart is straitened;" Re- ments and wee.pons and whatever might vised Version," I will press you in your place, hiuder flight (comp. Mark xiv. 52; John xxi. es a earl presseth." The .translation of Keil, 7). Virgil, 'Georg.,' i 299, "N udus am, wl;rich is that of Gesenius, is most suitable, sere nudue."
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-3.-Tne woe against Moab. Much that has been said of Ammon applies equally to Moe.b. The two nations had close relations and affinities, and in Scripture are generally mentioned together. Both were mildly treated by lsl'ael (Dent. ii. 9, 19) as long as such treatment was possible. Yet were they at one in an implacable hatred c,f her, and a national policy of outrage towards her. A spring re.id into Hebrew territory seems to have been an established Moabitish institution (2 Kings xiii. 20, literally, "were wont to come"). Again, Moab adopted the novel and unlikely expedient of employing a prophet of God to curse his own people (Numb. x.xiii. 7). Of the comprehensive and thorough character of the national hatred, which these doings revtal, we have evidence in the passage before us. !. THE NATIONAL BATES OF MOAD WERE DETERMINED DY 1TB BATE 011' !SBA.EL. "It has burned the bones of the King of Edom." The particular occasion referred to here is not known. But the events that led up to it are briefly recorded. Moab was for some time tributary to Israel, and rebelled against it in the reign of Jehoram (2 Kings iii. 1, 4, 5). In the repressive war that followed, Jehoram was joined by the King of Judah and the King of Edom, then probably a tributary of J ude.h (2 Kings viii. 20). This war, the only one in which Edom and Moab came into conflict, exasperated Moab against it even more fiercely than against Israel itself (2 Kings iii. 26, 27). The OIi, II. 1-16.] THE BOOK OF AMOS. 27