1 The certainty of the desolation. 11 The restoring of the tabernacle of David.
Amo 9:1 I saw the Lord standing next to the altar in the temple. He said to me, “Strike the tops of the temple pillars. Then the heavy stones at the base of the entrance will shake. Bring everything down on the heads of everyone there. I will kill with my swords those who are left alive. Not one of them will escape. None will get away.
They will have no prospect of escape, for they will be slain with the sword.
Amo 9:2 Though they dig down to the depths below, from there my hand will take them. Though they climb up to the heavens above, from there I will bring them down.
Verses 2–4 emphasize the futility of attempting to escape (see Ps. 139:1–12). Depths below. Heb. she’ol, the figurative dwelling place of the dead, where those who have died are represented as sleeping together (see on Prov. 15:11).
Take them. To punishment.
Amo 9:3 Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, there I will hunt them down and seize them. Though they hide from my eyes at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them.
Carmel. Particularly alluded to as a hiding place, perhaps because of its caves, rocky clefts, forests, and dense shrubbery, which afforded many opportunities for concealment.
Amo 9:4 Though they are driven into exile by their enemies, there I will command the sword to slay them. “I will keep my eye on them for harm and not for good.”
Driven into exile.
These wicked apostates would not be safe from the sword, even in lands of captivity (see Lev. 26:33).
Keep my eyes on them. See Ps. 34:15, 16; Jer. 44:11.
Amo 9:5 The Lord, the LORD Almighty— he touches the earth and it melts, and all who live in it mourn; the whole land rises like the Nile, then sinks like the river of Egypt;
God is able to fulfill His judgments, for He is the ruler of all the “hosts” of heaven, not only of the heavenly bodies, but of the celestial beings of every order and station.
Earth shall melt. Compare Ps. 46:6; 97:3–5; Micah 1:4; Nahum 1:5.
The whole land rises. See on ch. 8:8.
Amo 9:6 he builds his lofty palace in the heavens and sets its foundation on the earth; he calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land— the LORD is his name.
“Chambers” would poetically designate the dwelling place of God.
Amo 9:7 “Are not you Israelites the same to me as the Cushites?” declares the LORD. “Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?
The same. On an equal basis with other nations. The Israelites were the chosen people of God only on condition of obedience to the will of God (see on Ex. 19:5, 6; see Matt. 3:7–9).
Israel were God’s chosen so long as they chose God. When they estranged themselves from Him, they became as strangers to Him.
Philistines. The mention of the Philistines and the Syrians here may well have been to draw Israel’s attention to the fact that they, as children of Jacob, were not the only ones who had been privileged to dwell in the Promised Land. Actually, both the Syrians and the Philistines lived in territory that God had promised to the seed of Abraham (Gen. 15:18). Israel had failed to press forward by faith in God to possess all the land.
Now, in the days of Amos, the people of the rebellious northern kingdom were to see that their residence in the Promised Land did not necessarily signify God’s approval—their heathen neighbors lived there also.
Amo 9:8 “Surely the eyes of the Sovereign LORD are on the sinful kingdom. I will destroy it from the face of the earth. Yet I will not totally destroy the descendants of Jacob,” declares the LORD.
The sinful kingdom. As wicked as the nation is, and as deserving of utter destruction, God graciously promises that a remnant will be saved (see Jer. 30:3, 11).
Many from the tribes of Israel did return with the returning exiles of Judah (see on Hosea 1:11; 9:17).
Amo 9:9 “For I will give the command, and I will shake the people of Israel among all the nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, and not a pebble will reach the ground.
I will shake the people. Literally, “I will toss about,” or “I will cause to stagger,” the causative form of the verb nua‘ (see on ch. 8:12). Israel will be scattered “among all nations,” and there tossed about, as it were, in the “sieve” of affliction and persecution that it might be determined through this trial who will remain loyal followers of God and who will cleave to the heathen and refuse to return from captivity.
Amo 9:10 All the sinners among my people will die by the sword, all those who say, ‘Disaster will not overtake or meet us.’
Die by the sword. None of those who deceived themselves with a false security, refusing to give heed to the prophet’s warning, will be saved. Those who disregarded the prophet’s warnings boastfully declared that trouble could neither “overtake” them from behind nor “confront” them from before.
The Restoration of Israel
Amo 9:11 “In that day “I will restore David’s fallen shelter— I will repair its broken walls and restore its ruins— and will rebuild it as it used to be,
Amos now turns from the dark picture of his people’s sinfulness and consequent chastisement to the bright and glorious promises of future restoration.
These promises were fulfilled part to those who returned after the Babylonian exile. They could have been realized fully, but both Israel and Judah failed to live up to their possibilities. Consequently, the Lord gave the Gentiles the opportunity that Israel lost, and these glorious promises will be realized by the faithful ones of all nations who will compose the church of the Lord (see Acts 15:13–17; PK 714, 715).
With the failure of literal Israel the spiritual significance of this passage is now to be found in the shadowing forth of the universal church of Christ, the spiritual Israel that arose out of the lost opportunity of literal Israel (see Matt. 23:37, 38 Acts 13:44–48).
When the Jewish nation rejected its Saviour, the blessings and promises of the nation of Israel were given to those who were the spiritual seed of Abraham, the followers of Christ (see Gal. 3:29; see above under “In that day”).
Amo 9:12 so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name,” declares the LORD, who will do these things.
The Edomites, later called Idumaeans, were the most closely related to Israel of the surrounding nations, and among the most hostile (see on ch. 1:11).
The “remnant” evidently refers to those who would escape the punishment pronounced in ch. 1:11, 12. The apostle James’s quotation of this passage closely approximates the LXX of vs. 11, 12 (see Acts 15:16, 17).
Amo 9:13 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills,
Verses 13–15 depict in striking language the multitude of blessings that might have come to literal Israel (see on v. 11) but now will come to all who are the true Israel of God (see PK 300).
So abundant will be the harvest and the vintage that, figuratively speaking, they cannot be fully gathered before the next plowing and sowing begin.
Amo 9:14 and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. “They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
The primary reference of this phrase was to the Jews’ return from exile at the close of the 70 years’ captivity (see 2 Chron. 36:22, 23; Jer. 29:10–14). However, this verse also points forward to the final scenes of the great controversy between good and evil, when the “captives” redeemed from sin will dwell in eternal peace and happiness (see Isa. 65:21, 22; PK 300).
Amo 9:15 I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the LORD your God.
I will plant. A figure of speech denoting permanence of establishment (see Jer. 24:6).
Land I have given.
The promise made to Abraham that his seed would inherit the land of Canaan (see on Gen. 15:13) was fulfilled partially when the children of Israel entered the Promised Land under Joshua. The purpose of God was still being carried out when the Jews returned to Palestine after the Babylonian captivity. However, the final fulfillment of this wonderful promise will come when the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, comes “down from God out of heaven” (Rev. 21:2) and is established permanently in the land of Canaan (see on Zech. 14:4).