The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 84

majore vicJerot po.rte contritos." :roraaken is best to take the last mem her of the IMID- upon her land; better, she shall be dashed tenoe thas: "and it (the fire) devour." upon her own land; lier own soil sho.11 wit- The house of Joseph. Ephraim, I.e. the ness her ruin-tho.t soil which wns "virgin," kingdom of Israel, of wliich Ephraim was u11conquered, and her own possession. the dietingnishing tribe. In Bethel; or, for Ver. 8,-The vindication of the prophet's Bethel. The LXX., paraphrasing, ho.s, T,; lo.mont, The oity_that went out by a thou- rlf1trp 'ltTpaf,>.., " for the house of Israel." sand. Septuagint and Vulgate," from whioh Ver. 7.-The prophet brings out the con- wcut forth tliouso.nds," or, "e. thouso.nd ; " trast between Israel's more.I corruption o.nd i.e. which coulrl send out e. thousand warriors God's omnipotence.· Ye who tll1'D jndgmcnt to the fight. In such e. city only a tenth of to wormwood. As Jerome put..• it," Conver- the inhabitants sho.11 remain; and this shall tcrnnt dnlcecJincm jadicii in absinthii ama- happen to small 'cities as well as great. ritudinem," " They turned the sweetness of Ver. 4.-The more formal proof that Isre.el judgment into the bitterness of absinth,. has merited her punishment here begins. (comp. eh. vi. 12). Who make jad,g'lllent In calling her to repentance the prophet the occasion of the bitterest injustice. There <iontro.sts God's requirements with her actual is no syntactico.l connection between this conduct. Seek ye me, and ye she.II live. verse and the lo.et, but virtually we may Two imperatives:" Seek me, and (so)live;" append it to "seek the Lord." It would duty and its reward. "Seek me in the sound in people's eara ea a reminiscence ,appointed way, and ye ehall be saved from of Dent. nix. 18, 20. The LXX. reads, ,de•truction " ( collip. Gen. xlii. 18). 6 rouiv dr i!,j,or 1tplµ.a, " that execnteth Ver. 5.-Bethel . . , Oilge.l The scenes judgment in the height," referring the sen- -of idolatrous worship, where wes no true tence to the Lord, or else ta.king laanah, seeking of God (see note on eh. iv. 4). " wormwood," in a metaphorical sense, as Beersheba. A spot about fifty miles south- elsewhere they translate it by uvd1'1<1J, .,.,,,pia, south-west of Jerusalem, the site of which o86v1J (Dent. nix. 18; Prov. v. 4; Jer. ix. hits never been lost, and is marked to this 15; xxiii. 15). The no.me "wormwood" is -day by seven much-frequented wells. As applied to all the plants of the genas that being one of the holy pluces celebrated in grew in Palestine the tttste of which wo.s the history of the po.trio.robs (Gen. xxi. 81, proverbially bitter. A.nd leave off righteons- :38; xxvL 28, etc. i xlvi. 1), it ho.d become a neH in the earth ; rather, ea.it dow1• tihri ne of idolatrous worship, to which the righteousnu, to the earth (o.s Isa. xxviii 2), Israelites resorted, though it lo.y fnr out of despise it and tro.mple it underfoot (comp. their territory (comp. eh. viii. 14). Gilge.I Dan. viii. 12). This is Israel's pmctice ; she.II surely go into oo.ptivity. Th ere is in and yet God, as the next verse shows, is -the Hebrew e. play on the words here and almighty, and has power to punish. Right- fo the following clause (Hag-gilgal galoh eou1171ea1 includes all transactions between _yigleh), which commentators have pe.ro.lleled man and man. The LXX. (still referring with such expressions o.s, Capua capietur, the eubjeot to the Lord), 1<al 811<a.,o,rvV1Jv ••s ·Oremona cremabitur, Paria perira, " London -yijv (81J1t•v, "and he established righteous- -is undone." Or, ta.king Joshua's explo.no.tion ness on ettrth." -of the nnme, we may say," Roll-town shall be Ver. 8.-Stri.king instances are given of zolled away." Bethel eho.11 come to nought. God's creative power and omnipotence. Seek As Bethel, "House of God," had become him that maketh the seven stll.l'II. " Seek Bethare11, "Honse of vanity" (see Hos. iv. him" is not in the Hebrew. "He that 15), as being the temple of an idol (comp. mo.keth," et.a., is in direot antithesis to "ye 1 Oor. viii. 4), so the prophet, with 11llusion who turn," etc. (ver. 7). The am,en ltars; ~ this, says that "Bethel sh11ll become Hebrew, kimah, "the heap,'' the constel111- a~en "-vanity, nothingness, itself. No tion of the Pleio.des (Job ix. 9; mviii. 81). mention is me.de of the fate of Beersheba, The Septuagint here hne, ~ ..-o«Jv ..-d.... a, but ·because Amos •has in view only the ten in Job ho.a ,r>..<1ds. The Vnlgate gives, faci• tribes, and the destiny of places beyond entem Arclurom. Symmo.ohus and Theodo- their territory is not here the object of his tion give ,r>.. .. dlia in the present pll.888ge. prediction; and indeed, when Israel wo.s 'l'he identifioo.tion of this term is discu.saed :ruined, Beersheba eeco.ped unharmed. in the • Dictionary of the Bible,' ii. 891. Ver. 6.-Break out like 11.re. God is called The obeervo.tion of this moat remarkable •• a consuming fire" (Dent. iv. 24; Heb. xii. cluster nmong the heavenly bodies would be :29; comp. Jer. iv. 4). And devour it; Sep- nature.I to the po.store.I life of A.mos. A.nd. tuagint, "O,rair 'p.~ a.val\dp.,j,p &r ,rvp II of1<or Orion; Hebrew, kuil, "foolish,'' a. rebel, ''IwtT~,P, 1<al 1<aTa,f>d'Y!I abi-dv, 11 Lest the house the no.me being applied to Nimrod, whose ,of Joseph blaze as fire, and he devour representation was foun<l by the Eastern■ him;" Vulgo.te, Ne forte oomburatur ut in this constel111tion. Some render keail, ignia d11111ua Joaeph, et devorabit. But it 11 gate ; " others connect it with the An.hilt  THE BOOK OF AMOS, [err. v. 1-27.