INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK

OF THE

PROPHET A MOS.

AMOS, the third of the minor prophets, was, it is said, of the little town of Tekoa, in the tribe of Judah, about four leagues southward of Jerusalem. There is no good proof, however, that he was a native of this place; but only that he retired thither when he was driven from Beth-el, which was in the kingdom of the ten tribes. It is very probable that he was born within the territories of Israel, and that his mission was directed principally to this kingdom.

As he was prophesying in Beth-el, where the golden calves were, in the reign of Jeroboam the Second, about the year of the world 3217; before the birth of Jesus Christ, 783; before the vulgar era, 787; Amaziah, the high-priest of Beth-el, accused him before king Jeroboam, saying, "Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land." Amaziah said therefore unto Amos, "O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there but prophesy not again any more at Beth-el; for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court.'

Amos answered Amaziah, "I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. And the Lord took me as I followed the flock; and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel. Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord; Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac. Therefore thus saith the Lord, Thy wife shall be a harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land, and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land."

After this the prophet retired into the kingdom of Judah, and dwelt in the town of Tekoa, where he continued to prophesy. He complains in many places of the violence offered him by endeavouring to oblige him to silence, and bitterly exclaims against the disorders of Israel. He began to prophesy the second year before the earthquake, which happened in the reign of king Uzziah; and which Josephus, with most of the ancient and modern commentators, refers to this prince's usurpation of the priest's office, when he attempted to offer incense to the Lord.

The first of his prophecies, in order of time, are those of the seventh chapter. The others he pronounced in the town of Tekoa, whither he retired. His two first chapters are against Damascus, the Philistines, Tyrians, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, the kingdom of Judah, and that of the ten tribes. The evils with which he threatens them refer to the times of Shalmaneser, Tiglath-pileser, Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnezzar, who did so much. mischief to these provinces, and at last led the Israelites into captivity.

He foretold the misfortunes into which the kingdom of Israel should fall after the death of Jeroboam the Second, who was then living. He foretold the death of king Zechariah; the invasion of the lands belonging to Israel by Pul and Tiglath-pileser, kings of Assyria; and speaks of the captivity of the ten tribes, and of their return into their own country. He makes sharp invectives against the sins of Israel; against their effeminacy and avarice, their harshness to the poor, the splendour of their buildings, and the delicacy of their tables.

INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF AMOS.

reproves the people of Israel for going to Beth-el, Dan, Gilgal, and Beer-sheba, which were the most famous pilgrimages of the country; and for swearing by the gods of these places. The time and manner of his death are not known. Some old authors relate that Amaziah, priest of Beth-el, whom we have spoken of, provoked by the discourses of the prophet, had his teeth broken in order to silence him. Others say that Hosea, or Uzziah, the son of Amaziah, struck him with a stake upon the temples, and knocked him down, and almost killed him; that in this condition he was carried to Tekoa, where he died, and was buried with his fathers. This is the account these authors give us. On the contrary, it is the opinion of others, that he prophesied a long time at Tekoa after the adventure he had with Amaziah and the prophet taking no notice of the ill-treatment which he is said to have received from Uzziah, his silence is no argument that he suffered nothing from him.

St. Jerome observes, that there is nothing great and sublime in the style of Amos. He applies these words of St. Paul to him, rude in speech, though not in knowledge. He says further, that as every one chooses to speak of his own art, Amos generally makes use of comparisons taken from the country life wherein he had been brought up. St. Austin shows that there was a certain kind of eloquence in the sacred writers, directed by the spirit of wisdom, and so proportioned to the nature of the things they treated of, that even they who accuse them of rusticity and unpoliteness in their way of writing, could not choose a style more suitable, were they to have spoken on the same subject, to the same persons, and in the same circumstances.

Bishop Lowth is not satisfied with the judgment of St. Jerome. His authority, says the learned prelate, has occasioned many commentators to represent this prophet as entirely rude, void of eloquence, and wanting in all the embellishments of style; whereas any one who reads him with due attention will find him, though a herdsman, not a whit behind the very chiefest prophets; almost equal to the greatest in the loftiness of his sentiments; and not inferior to any in the splendour of his diction, and the elegance of his composition. And it is well observed, that the same heavenly Spirit which inspired Isaiah and Daniel in the palace, inspired David and Amos in their shepherds' tents; always choosing proper interpreters of his will, and sometimes perfecting praise even out of the mouths of babes: at one time using the eloquence of some; at another, making others eloquent to subserve his great purposes. See Calmet and Dodd.

Archbishop Newcome speaks also justly of this prophet: "Amos borrows many images from the scenes in which he was engaged; but he introduces them with skill, and gives them tone and dignity by the eloquence and grandeur of his manner. We shall find in him many affecting and pathetic, many elegant and sublime, passages. No prophet has more magnificently described the Deity; or more gravely rebuked the luxurious: or reproved injustice and oppression with greater warmth, and a more generous indignation. He is a prophet on whose model a preacher may safely form his style and manner in luxurious and profligate times."

THE BOOK

OF THE

PROPHET AMOS.

Chronological notes relative to this Book.

Year from the Creation according to Archbishop Usher, 3217.-Year of the Julian period, 3927.-Year since the flood, 1561.-Year from the foundation of Solomon's temple, 225. Year since the division of Solomon's monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 188.-Year since the first Olympic games were celebrated in Elis by the Idæi Dactyli, 667.-Year since the restoration of the Olympic games at Elis by Lycurgus, Iphitus, and Cleosthenes, 97.-Year before the conquest of Coroebus at Olympia, vulgarly called the first Olympiad, 11.-Year before the building of Rome, according to the Varronian computation, 34.-Year before the birth of Christ, 783.-Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 787.-Cycle of the sun, 7.-Cycle of the moon, 13.-Twenty-eighth and last year of Caranus, the founder of the kingdom of Macedon.-Twenty-third year of Nicander, king of Lacedæmon, of the family of the Proclida.-Twenty-seventh year of Alcamenes, king of Lacedæmon, of the family of the Eurysthenida.-Eleventh year of Ardysus, king of Lydia.-Eleventh year of Agamestor, perpetual archon of the Athenians.-Tenth year of Amulius Sylvius, king of the Albans.-Fifth year of Telestus, monarch of Corinth.-Sixth year of Sosarmus, king of the Medes, according to some chronologers.Thirty-ninth year of Jeroboam II., king of Israel.-Twenty-fourth year of Uzziah, king of Judah.

CHAPTER I.

This chapter denounces judgments against the nations bordering on Palestine, enemies to the Jews; viz., the Syrians, 1-5; Philistines, 6-8; Tyrians, 9, 10; Edomites, 11, 12; and Ammonites, 13-15. The same judgments were predicted by other prophets, and fulfilled, partly by the kings of Assyria, and partly by those of Babylon; though, like many other prophecies, they had their accomplishment by degrees, and at different periods. The prophecy against the Syrians, whose capital was Damascus, was fulfilled by Tiglathpileser, king of Assyria; see 2 Kings xvi. 9. The prophecy against Gaza of the Philistines was accomplished by Hezekiah, 2 Kings xviii. 8; by Pharaoh, Jer. xlvii. 1; and by Alexander the Great; see Quintius Curtius, lib. iv., c. 6. The prophecy against Ashdod was fulfilled by Uzziah, 2 Chron. xxvi. 6; and that against Ashkelon by Pharaoh, Jer. xlvii. 5. All Syria was also subdued by Pharaoh-necho; and again by Nebuchadnezzar, who also took Tyre, as did afterwards Alexander. Nebuchadnezzar also subdued the Edomites, Jer. xxv. 9, 21, and xxvii. 3, 6. Judas Maccabeus routed the remains of them, 1 Macc. v. 3; and Hyrcanus brought them under entire subjection. The Ammonites were likewise conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. The earthquake, which the prophet takes for his era, is perhaps referred to in Zech. xiv. 5, and also in Isai. v. 25. Josephus ascribes it to Uzziah's invasion of the priestly office; see 2 Chron. xxvi. 16.

A. M. cir. 3217.
B. C. cir. 787.

Ante U. C. 34.
Amulii Sylvii,
R. Alban.,
cir. annum 10.

THE

a

d

HE words of Amos, who | Uzziah king of Judah, and in was among the herdmen of the days of Jeroboam the son Tekoa, which he saw con- of Joash king of Israel, two cerning Israel in the days of years before the

Ch. vii. 14.

b 2 Sam. xiv. 2. 2 Chron. xx. 20. NOTES ON CHAP. I.

c Hos. i. 1.

e

earthquake.

A. M. cir. 3217.
B. C. cir. 787.
Ante U. C. 34.
Amulii Sylvii,
R. Alban.,
cir. annum 10.

d Ch. vii, 10.- -e Zech. xiv. 5.

father of Isaiah, though named alike in our translaVerse 1. The words of Amos] This person and the tion, were as different in their names as in their

3309

10 B

Threatenings against

A. M. cir. 3217.
B. C. cir. 787.

Ante U. C. 34.
Amulii Sylvii,
R. Albau.,
cir. annum 10.

a

AMOS.

2 And he said, The LORD not turn away the punishment will roar from Zion, and utter thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing

his voice from Jerusalem; and

b

the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.

3 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will

a Jer. xxv. 30. Joel iii. 16.xxxiii. 9.- c Isai. viii. 4. xvii. 1. 1.- -d Or, yea, for four.

e

b 1 Sam. xxv. 2. Isai. Jer. xlix. 23. Zech. ix. Or, convert it, or let it be

instruments of iron:

the Syrians.

A.M. cir. 3217

B. C. cir. 787. Ante U. C. 34. Amulii Sylvi,

R. Alban., cir. annuin 10.

4 But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.

5 I will break also the bar of Damascus,

quiet and so ver. 6, &c. -f2 Kings x. 33. xiii, 7.-
- Jer.
xvii. 27. xlix. 27. Ver. 7, 10, 12. Ch. ii. 2, 5.-— Jer. li.
30. Lam. ii. 9.

Extemplo Æneæ solvuntur frigore membra:
Ingemit; et, duplicis tendens ad sidera palmas,
Talia voce refert: O terque quaterque beati!
Queis ante ora patrum Trojæ sub moenibus altis
Contigit oppetere.

"Struck with unusual fright, the Trojan chief
With lifted hands and eyes invokes relief.
And thrice, and four times happy those, he cried,
That under Ilion's walls before their parents died."

DRYDEN.

On the words, O terque quaterque, SERVIES makes
this remark, "Hoc est sæpius; finitus numerous pro
infinito." "O thrice and four times, that is, very
often, a finite number for an infinite." Other poets
use the same form of expression. So SENECA in
Hippolyt., Act. ii. 694.

O ter quaterque prospero fato dati,
Quos hausit, et peremit, et leto dedit
Odium dolusque !

"O thrice and four times happy were the men
Whom hate devoured, and fraud, hard pressing on,
Gave as a prey to death."

And so the ancient oracle quoted by Pausanias,
Achaic. lib. vii. c. 6: Tpis μakapes KEY

Carmel was a very fruitful mountain in the tribe of τετρακις ανδρες εσονται "Those men shall be Judah, Josh. xv. 55, Isaiah xxxv. 2.

This introduction was natural in the mouth of a herdsman who was familiar with the roaring of lions, the bellowing of bulls, and the lowing of kine. The roaring of the lion in the forest is one of the most terrific sounds in nature; when near, it strikes terror into the heart both of man and beast.

Verse 3. For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four] These expressions of three and four, so often repeated in this chapter, mean repetition, abundance, and any thing that goes towards excess. Very, very exceedingly; and so it was used among the ancient Greek and Latin poets. See the passionate exclamation of Ulysses, in the storm, Odyss. lib. v. ver. 306:

Τρις μάκαρες Δαναοί και τετρακις, οἱ τοτ' ολοντο
Τροίη εν ευρείν, χαριν Ατρείδησι φέροντες.

thrice and four times happy."

These quotations are sufficient to show that this form of speech is neither unfrequent nor inelegant, being employed by the most correct writers of antiquity.

Damascus was the capital of Syria.

Verse 4. Ben-hadad.] He was son and successi of Hazael. See the cruelties which they exercised upon the Israelites, 2 Kings x. 32, xiii. 7, &c.; ard see especially 2 Kings viii. 12, where these cruelties are predicted.

The fire threatened here is the war so successful? carried on against the Syrians by Jeroboam II, which he took Damascus and Hamath, and rec quered all the ancient possessions of Israel. E 2 Kings xiv. 25, 26, 28.

Verse 5. The bar of Damascus] The gates, whos "Thrice happy Greeks! and four times who were their strength. I will throw it open; and the gaká long transverse bars, running from wall to wall, were

slain

In Atreus' cause, upon the Trojan plain." Which words Virgil translates, and puts in the mouth of his hero in similar circumstances, En. i. 93.

were forced, and the city taken, as above.

The plain of Aven-the house of Eden] These ar names, says Bochart, of the valley of Damascus, The plain of Aven, or Birkath-Aven, Calmet says, is