The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 138

EXPOSITION. OHAPTER VII. its material aspect altogether. It is quite possible that the custom above mentioned Ver. 1-ch. ix. 10.-Port ill. F1VE did exist, thongh it was probably limited VISIONS, WITH EXPLANATIONS, CONTINUING to certain lands, and did not apply t.o the AND CONFIBlllNG THE PREVIOUS PBOPBEOY• whole pastnrage of the conntry. It is here The afflictions are climactic, increasing in mentioned to define the time of the plagni, intensity. The first two symboli11e jndgments of locusts-the time, in fact, when its ravages would be most irremediable. The which have been averted by the prophet's LXX., by a little change of letters, render, intercession; the third and fourth adumbrate lSol, f',povxos ,Ts N,-y t, f',a~1J1.e6s, by which judgments which are to fall inevitably; they imply that the locusts would be as and the fifth proclaims the overthrow of innnmere.ble as the o.rmy of Gog. The the temple and the old theocracy. whole version is, "Behold, e. swarm of locusts coming from the Ee.et ; and behold, Vere. 1-3.-§ 1. The first vision, of locU8ts, one caterpillar, King Gog." The vision is represents Israel as a field eaten down to thought to refer to the first invasion by the ground, but shooting up afresh, and its the Assyrians, when Pul was bribed by utter destruction postponed at tlle prophet's Mene.hem to withdraw. prayer. Ver. 2.-The grass of the land. The term includes vegetables of all sorts, the Ver. 1.-Thns bath the Lord God showed food of man and beast (Gen. i. 11 ; see note unto me. Byan inward illumination (comp. on Zech. x. I). O Lord, ... forgive. The vers. 4, 7; and oh. viii. I; Jer. x.xiv. 1-3). prophet is not concerned to obtain the J[e formed grasshoppers; rather, locusts fulfilment of his prophecy; his heartfelt (Ne.h. iii. 17). This points to the more.I sympathy for his people yearns for their government of God, who uses nature to pardon, as he knows that punishment and work his purposes, "wind and storm ful- restoration depend upon moral conditions. filling his word." In the beginning of the By whom shall J'aoob arise t better, Ho'll, shooting up of the latter growth; when the 1hall Jaoob stand f literally, as t0ho f If he aftermath was beginniug to grow under is thus weakened, as the vision portends, the influence of the latter rains. If the how shall he endure the stroke? Small ; herbage was destroyed then, there would be weakened by internal commotions ond no hope of recovery in the rest of the year. foreign attack (2 Kings xv. 10-16, 19). After the king's mowinga. It is deduced Ver. 3.-Bepented for this; or, roncerni·ng from this expression that the first crop on this destruction. The punishment was con- certain grounds woe taken for the king's ditioned by man's behaviour or other con- use-a kind of royal perquisite, though siderations. Here the prophet's intercession there is no trace of such II custom found abates the full infliction of the penalty in Soripture, the pe.sse.ge in 1 Kings :xviii. (oompore analogous expressions, Dent. 5, where Ahab sends Obodiah to seo.roh for xx.xii. 36; 1 Sam. xv. 11; 2 Sam. xxiv. 16; pasture, haviog plainly nothing to do with Jer. xviii. 8; xiii. 10; Jonah iii. 10, where it; and in this case, as Keil remarks, the see note). A.mos may have had in memory plague would seem to fall upon the people the pw;sage in Joel ii, 13. The LXX. herlal only, and the guilty king would have and in ver. 6 has, METav&.,~ov, K6p .. , /irl esoe.ped. But to interpret the expression 1"06-rq,· 1tal ,-oVT'o oU,c tcr-ra.1, AE-ye, KtJp,01., entirely in e. spiritual sense, with no sub- "Repent, 0 Lord, for this; and this shall etantio.l be.sis, as "Jehovah's judgments," not be. saith the Lord." Hence some early destroys the harmony of the vision, iguoring commentators gathered that the prophet's 138 THE BOOK OF AMOS. [en. vu. 1-17.