The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 113

present state of things, and, revelling in (wnich does not agree with the present Hebrew text), implies that these chieftains luxury, fee.red no coming judgment. carried themselves haughtily in the congre- Ver. 1.-Them that are at ease in Zion; gation of Israel. living in fancied security and self-pleasing Ver. 2.-Pasa ye. Go and compare your (Isa. =ii. 9, 11; Zeph. i. 12). Judah is in- condition with that of other countries, from cluded in the denunciation, because she is the furthest east to the north, to your own equally guilty ; the whole covenant nation neighbours-has not God done more for is sunk in the same dangerotlB apathy. you than for them? Nothing is said about SepttlBgint, To'is i~ov6,voii,n :t,i.Sv, " them the destruction of the three capitals, nor that set at naught Zion." The same ren- is Samaria threatened with similar ruin. dering is found in the Syriac, and can be Rather the cities are contemplated as still supported by a small change in the Hebrew. flourishing and prosperous (though by this It may have been intended thus to confine time they had suffered at their enemies' tlle announcement to Israel alone, in con- hands), and Israel is bidden to remember formity with the prophet's chief scope. But that she is more favoured than they. he has introduced mention of Judah else- Calneh, one of the five great Babylonian wllere, as eh. ii 4; vi. 5; ix. 11, and his cities, is probably the Kul-unu of the in- sense of his own people's careless ease may scriptions, a town in Southern Babylonia, well lead liim to include them in his warn- whose site is unknown. In Gen. x. 10 and ing. 7'rust in the mo11I1tain of Samaria. Isa. x. 9 the LXX. call it Chalanne or The city was deemed impregnable, and it Chalanlf; in the present passage they mis- kept the Assyrians at bay for three years take the Hebrew, and render, li,d./371n 1rd.v.,-u, before it was finally taken (2 Kings xviii. "pass ye all by" (see Sohrader, 'Die Keilin- 9, etc.; see notes on eh. iii 9 and iv. 1). schriften,' p. 442). St. Jerome identifies it Another rendering, not so suitable, is, the with Ctesiphon, on the east bank of the carel-eA ones upon the mountain of Samaria. Tigris. Others(see Rawlinson, 'Herodotus,' The point, however, is the supposed im- i p. 490, 2nd edit.) find in it Nopher or pregnability of the city whlch occasioned Nipur, the modern Niffer, some sixty miles a feeling of perfect security. Which are south-east of Babylon. As one of the oldest na.med ohief of the nations; rather, to the cities in the world, ranking with Bo.bel, notable men of the chief of natiom; Le. tlle Erech, and Accad, it was well known to principal men of Israel, which had the proud the Israelites. :e:amath the great; Septua- title of the chief of the nations because it gint, 'EµaTpa/3/3d.. This was tlle principal was beloved and elected of God, and was city of Upper Syria, and a place of groot designed to keep alive true religion, and importance. Ia after-years it was called to set an example to the rest of the world Epiphania, after Antiochus Epiphanes (Gen. (Exod. xix. 5; NllIDb. i. 17; Deut. iv. 20; x. 18; Numb. xxxiv. 8; Isa. x. 9). It fell 2 Sam. viL 23). Septuagint, a.1rerp{,y,,u,zv in Sargon's reign, B.O. 720; afterwards it 11.pxlu ,e.,;;,.,, "they plucked the chiefs of lost its independence, and was incorporated the nations,'' where the verb is a mistaken in the Assyrian empire. Gath of the Philis- rendering. To whom the houe of IBrael tines, One of their five chief cities, and ll&Jlle; or, come. Resort for coUD.8Cl and at one time the principal (1 Chron. xviii.. CH, VI. 1-14.] THE BOOK OF AMOS. 113