The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 175

Ver. 1.-I aaw the Lord. It ill now no ence. Ascending from the eouth, we followed longer e. mere emhlem the.t the prophet n wild, narrow wady overhung by trees, 11ee11. but ne.tunl d!'atruction. He beholds bushes, and tnngled creepers, through which the me.jcsty of Ood, 611 Ise.. vi. 1 ; Ezek. x. my guide thought we could ~t up to the 1. Upon (or, by) the e.ltBr; i.e. the e.lte.r of top; but it became absolutely 1mpre.ctice.blc, burnt offering e.t Jeruse.lem, where, it is nnd we were obliged to find our way bnck supposed, the whole ne.tion, Israelites e.nd e.ge.in. And even nftor we reached the Judme.ns, e.re n88embled for worship. It is summit, it wns so rough e.nd broken ill ne.tural, e.t firet sight, to suppose the.t the some places, e.nd the thorn-bushes so thick- sanctue.ry of the northern kingdom is the set and sharp, the.t our clothes were tom seene of this vision, e.s the de,,truction of and our hnnds e.nd fRCes severely lacerated; idolatry is here emblemized ; but more pro- nor could I see my guide at times teu steps bablv Bethel is not meant, for there were ahead of me. From such biblioal intime.- more al!Brs than one there (eh. iii. 14), and tions, we me.y believe that Ce.rmel was not one cannot imagine the Lord sta.nding by very thickly inhabited" (Thomson, • The the symbol of tbe calf-worship. Smite. The Lend and the Book,' Central Palestine, p. c.omme.nd is mysteriously e.ddressed to the 237, etc.). Other writers speak of the occur- destroying angel (oomp. Exod. :i.:ii.18; 2 Sam. rence of ce.ves e.nd deep valleys iu the :i.::i.:iv. 15, etc.; 2 Kings xix. 35). The lintel of Carmel range. In the bottomofthe ■ea. Both the door; .-1, /Aa1TT1jp1ov (Septuagint); car- this and heaven (ver. 2) e.re impre.cticable dinem (Vulg,,.t.e) ; better, the chapiter (Zeph. hiding-ple.ces, and l\re used poetically to ii. 14); i.e. the oapital. of the columns. The show the absolute impossibility of escape. word kapht.or is used in Exod. :uv. 31, eto., Serpent (nach.ash, elsewhere called leviathan for the knop or ornament on the golden and tannin, Ise.. xxvii. 1), some kind of see.- mndleeticks: here the idea is that the monster supposed to be venomous. Dr. temple receives a blow on the top of the Pusey mentions that certain poisonous pillars which support it sufficient to cause hydrophidm a.re found in the Indian and its overthrow. The LXX. rendering a.rises Pacific Oceans, and me.y probe.Uy infest the from a confusion of two Hebrew words some- Red See. e.nd the Persian Gulf. what similar. The post&; the threshol.d,; i.e. Ver. 4.-Ce.ptivity itself, in which state the base. The knop and the threshold men generally, at any rate, a.re secure of imply the total destruction from summit to their lives, she.ll not save them from the base. Cut them in the head, all of them ; sword (Lev. xxvi. 33 ; Deut. xxviii. 65, etc. • rather, break them [ the capital and the comp. Tobit i. 17, 18; iL 3, where we see tlireshold.sl to pieces upon the head of all. that the murder of ce.ptives was not un- Let the falling building cover them with. usue.l). The prophet looks forward to the its ruins. The Vulga.te renders, a1Jaritia Assyrian deportation. l!'or evil The people enim in capite om11ium, confounding two are indeed subject to God's specie.I e.ttention, words. Jerome had the same Hebrew read- but only in order to punish them (Ps. lllli v. ing, as he tre.nsle.tes, q=tus eorum, a1Jari- 15, 16; Jer. xliv. 11). tia, e.s if giving the reason for the punish- Ver. 5.-To confirm the three.ts just ment. The overthrown temple presents a uttered, the prophet dwells upon God's forcible picture of the destruction of the omnipotence, of which he gives inste.nces. theocracy. The lut of them (eh. iv. 2); He who will do this is the Lord God of hoat1. t/1£ remnant; any who escape the fall of the There is no copula in the Hebrew here. (Bo tern ple. B:e that fl.eeth, etc. All hope of eh. iv. 13; v. 8.) This title, Jehovah Elohim escape shall be cut off. Zeba-011,, represents God not only as Ruler of Ver. 2.-The thought of ver. l is further the heavenly bodies, but as the Monarch of expauded, the notion of 11.ight being, as a multitude of heavenly spirits who execute Jerome se.ys, dissected. For dig, the LXX. his will, worship him in his e.biding-ple.ce, read£, " be hidden ; " but the expression and e.re attendants and witnesses of his implies a bree.king through (Ezek. viii. 8). glory (see note on Hag. i. 2). Shall melt ; Rell (Sheol) is supposed to be in the inmost 11al\,Jr.,v (Septuagint); comp. Ps. xlvi. 6: po.rt of the earth ( corn p. Ps. cxxx.ix. 7, 8 ; xcvii. 5; Micah i. 4; Ne.h. i. 5. The ex- Obad.4). Takethem. Toreceivepunishment. pression denotes the destructive effects of Ver. 3.-The top of Carmel. Among the the judgments of God. Shall mourn. The woods and thickets. There are no caves on last clauses of the verse are a. repetition of the summit of Carmel. "Amos tells us the.t eh. viii. 8, with some slight variation. in his de.y the top of it was a place to hide Ver. 6.-Btoriea; a.11rl./3a11111 (Septue.gint); in ; nor has it changed its chare.cter in this a.8cenaiomm (V ulge.te) ; upper chambers, or reBpect. ... I would not have been prompted the stages by which is the ascent to the to place • the top of Ce.rmel' third iu such a highest hee.vens (comp. Deut. x. H; 1 Kings seriea of hiding-places, yet I can fully appre- viii. 27; Ps. civ. 3). Bie troop (aguddah); cu,,tc tb.e comi,arison from my own experi- "ault. The word is used for " the bonds '' cm, IX, 1-16.] '!'HE BOOK OF AMOS. 177