On she.ving the hea.d ne a. sign or momning, by one fnlfilment, we mBy aee here the rate ace note on Mice.h i. 16; a.ll!l comp. Job of the Jews to the present time hopelessly i. 20; la11. iii. 24; Jer. xvi. 6; xlvii. 5; seeking Meesie.h and the Word of Goo, never Ezek. vii. 18). I will make it; Ponam finding that which they onee reckleesly cam (Vulgnte); Bo. tP-rram. But it is better rejected. By eome error the LXX. render, to tnke it to refer to the whole ate.te of ~a.A.•1181/uoV'!"a.1 63a.Ta. a.,rb 1",js 8a.A.&uu11s, ,ur./\., things mentioned before. The mourning unlees they mean, " They shall be tossed 88 for an only son "e.a proverbie.lly severe, like waters," etc. that of the widow of Ne.in (Luke vii. 12, etc.; Ver. 13.-This verse is parallel to the comp. Jer. vi. 26; Zech. xii. 10). And the preceding. The thirst, spiritual and physi- end thereof as a bitter day. The calamity cal. shall affect the re.ir virgins and young should not wear itself out; it should be men-those in all the freshneas, beauty, and bitter unto the end. Septuagint, 01,uoµa., vigour of youth. Shall faint; literally, Bhall , .• .,-o~r µfr' a.b'l"oii .:is 11µlpa.v 086v11s, "I be fle:iled, covered, expreasive of the feeling will make . . . those with him ae a day of of faintness, when the sight grows dim and anguish." a mantle of darkness drops over one (Jonah Ver. 11.-This she.II be the bitterness at iv. 8). If the strongest thns fail, ranch the end; they had rejected the wa.rnings more will the rest succumb to the threatened of the prophets (eh. vii. 12, etc.); now the calamity. Word of God and the light of his teaching Ver. 14.-They who trusted in idols shall should fail them. Famine. When the light find no help in them. They who swear by. of God's revelation is withrlre.wn, their Those who reverence and worship, as Deut. longing for the Word, however sore e.nd vi.13; x. 20. The sin of Be.maria. The golden great, she.II reme.in unsatisfierl, like that of calf at Betllel (comp. Dent. ix. 21; Hoe. Saul (1 Se.m. :xxviii. 6). They may grieve viii. 5, 6). Septuagint, ,ea.Ta. .,..;; l/\a.trµ,oii like the psalmist, "We see not our signs; ~aµ,a.p,la.s, "by the propitiation of Se.maria." there is no more e.ny prophet; neither is Thy god, 0 Dan, liveth ; i.e. as thy god there among us any that knoweth how livetll, by the life of thy god. 'l'his was long" (Pa. lxxiv. 9); but it will be in vain the other ea.If erected e.t Dan, near the (see a similar punishment threatened, Lam. source of the Jordan, in the extreme north ii. 9 ; Ezek. vii. 26; Micah iii. 7). (1 Kings xii. 29). The m611ller of lleershella Ver. 12.-They shall wander; literally, liveth; Septuagint. Z,j d 9,os uov f311pua.fJ••• they shall reel. The verse implies the eager- "Thy god, 0 Beersheba, lives." Some ness of their unB11.tisfied desire, which seeks commentators, ancient and modem, think everywhere for the revelation which for that the e.ctne.l road which led to Beersheba their sin ia denied them. ll'rom see. to see.. is here meant, and would translate, "Ae the This expreasion is taken, by Keil nnd others, way to Beel'lilleba liveth," •• By the life of to mean here "all the world over," ae Ps. the way to Beersheba," e.s Mohammedans lxxii. 8; Mimh vii. 12; Zech. ix. 10; but swear by the pilgrimage to Mecca. But it it is probably used by the prophet in 11 is beet to take the word rendered .. manner" more restricted sense, e.s it would not be in the sense of "way," ae 6/ibs is used in nature.I for him to refer in the first place to Acts (ix. 2; xi.x. 9, 2:l) for mode of worship, the seeking of the words of God beyond tile or form of religion, the ritual, or use of the limits of the Holy Land. Therefore " from service there. (For Beersheba, see note on see. to see." mee.nli from the See. of Galilee eh. v. 5.) From Dan to Beersheba is just or the Dead See. to the Mediterranean; and a hundred and forty.four miles. They 1he.ll from the north ev011 to the east-from the fall, etc. This wus partially fulfilled by north round age.in to the east, the south the destruction of the kingdom of Israel not being mentioned, beoe.use there alone and the deportntion of its inhabitants; and we.a the true worship of God to he found, its truth to this day is demonstrated by the nnd they refused to seek it there (Pusey). fate of the Jews who will not receive Jeana Of oourse. according to the wide scope as the promised Messiah. taken by propheoy, whioh is not exhausted
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-3.-.A nation ripe for ruin. While immunity lasts iniquity will go O!l. Men only love it less than they fear suffering. In the actual presence of the penalty the hand of the trnnsgressor is stayed. The murderer will not strike the death-blow under e. policemnn's eye. The blaspheme~ will not move e. lip ~hen the thunderbolt is crashin" through his roof. But by so httle does the one feeling master the other that if pu~ishment be not both certnin and at hand, the fear of it will fail to deter from 160 THE BOOK OF AMOS. [oa. vm. 1-H,