1 He reproved Israel for oppression, 4 for idolatry, 6 and for their incorrigibleness.
Amo 4:1 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, “Bring us some drinks!”
For the keynote of this, the second message, see on ch. 4:12.
Amos is rebuking the luxury-loving lives of the leading men and women of the capital of Israel.
Bashan is situated in the northeastern part of Palestine, east of the Jordan River. The land was famous for its rich pastures and large herds of cattle (see Deut. 32:14; Ps. 22:12; Eze. 39:18).
The striking figure of comparison here employed is what one might expect Amos the herdsman to use (see on Amos 1:1).
Mount Samaria.
The hill of Shemer, upon which Samaria was built (see on 1 Kings 16:24). Oppress the poor.
This may allude to the violence and fraud these extravagant women forced, so to speak, upon their husbands to secure means for luxury and debauchery.
An example of this is Ahab and his wife Jezebel (see 1 Kings 21:1–16).
Bring us some drink. These wicked women invited their husbands to secure for them the means of debauchery, indecency and to join them in their revels.
Amo 4:2 The Sovereign LORD has sworn by his holiness: “The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks.
His holiness. Here God pledges by His own holiness to avenge Israel’s unholiness. God’s very nature cannot tolerate iniquity forever (see Isa. 6:3, 5). The words “hooks” and “fishhooks” indicate that the Israelites will be utterly helpless before their enemies, and so will be captured for destruction like fish caught with hooks (see Jer. 16:16; Hab. 1:14, 15, 17).
The drawing out of a fish by a hook is painful to the fish, and is made doubly painful when the fish resists.
Amo 4:3 You will each go straight out through breaches in the wall, and you will be cast out toward Harmon,” declares the LORD.
Just as cattle go quickly through gaps in a fence, so would Israel go forth, in abandonment and desperation, as animals, at the time of Samaria’s fall. They would go out, each one straight ahead, either to escape through the nearest breach or in being led forth into captivity.
Amo 4:4 “Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years.
In irony Amos now calls on Israel to show their zeal for idolatry, and thus increase their guilt (see 1 Kings 18:25–27). Bethel is specially mentioned because it is the chief seat of their idol worship (see on Amos 3:14).
Gilgal. See on Hosea 4:15. Every morning. While engaging in idolatry the Israelites apparently were careful to continue at least some semblance of the regular Levitical worship.
Amos is speaking ironically, probably not of the daily sacrifice (see Num. 28:3, 4), but of the offerings made by individual Israelites, which did not have to be offered every day. It is often true that those who shamelessly violate the simplest moral duties manifest along with this course a great religious zeal and cannot do enough in worship.
Religious zeal of itself, however, affords no evidence of true piety. This outward religious form and exercise often compensates for lack of real inner righteousness and thus soothes the conscience. According to prophecy, this sin of Amos’ day is also to be especially true of the time just before the second coming of Christ (see 2 Tim. 3:1, 5).
To sin and then do penance in religious form is easier than to crucify the flesh and separate from sin. However, it lulls the transgressor into a dangerous complacency.
Three years. Literally, “three days.” This agrees with the LXX, which reads “every third day.” Amos is here charging the people, in ironical exaggeration, to bring their tithes every three days. If the Israelites were to offer “sacrifices every morning” and give tithes every three days, and yet have no change of heart, and manifest no true repentance, nothing more would be gained than an increased apostasy from the Lord.
Amo 4:5 Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings— boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do,” declares the Sovereign LORD.
The law provided that no leaven should be used in connection with any meal offering consumed by fire (see Lev. 6:17; 7:12; see on Lev. 2:11; 23:6). When cakes of leavened bread were offered on any occasion, they were not to be placed upon the altar and burned, but one was to be for the officiating priest and the rest eaten at the sacrificial meal (see Lev. 7:13, 14).
Here again in irony the prophet charges that the people in their unlicensed zeal not only would burn on the altar that which was leavened but, to show how bountiful they were, would also offer by fire what was to be set apart for other uses.
Brag. See on ch. 3:9. The prophet’s message continues in a tone of irony. Apparently the people of Amos’ day, like the Pharisees of Christ’s time (see Matt. 6:2), ostentatiously declared to their fellows that they were about to offer what they considered a freewill, not a compulsory, offering.
Love to do That is, you love this way of doing things. Israel clung to the false idea that religion consisted in the proper external forms of worship, oblivious to the fact that “to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Sam. 15:22).
Israel Has Not Returned to the Lord
Amo 4:6 “I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD.
This expression denotes famine, being parallel in meaning to the words that follow, “lack of bread.” The people were not unwarned of the fact that famine could come because of backsliding (see Lev. 26:14 20; Deut. 28:47, 48).
Yet they were unmoved by these warnings. Yet. Note the five occurrences of this word in ch. 4 (vs. 6, 8–11). God had permitted famine, drought, blight, pestilence, and disaster, but Israel “yet” refused to return to the true God. When the words of God prove insufficient, they are followed by acts of chastisement. However, these afflictions have brought no good results, and so five times in these verses is heard the sad refrain, “yet have ye not returned unto me, says the Lord” (vs. 6, 8–11).
Amo 4:7 “I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up.
Three months. No rain three months before the height of the harvest season would mean extensive crop failure. In order that the drought might not be charged to the blind laws of nature but to God, its presence was selective.
One field. That is, of land.
Amo 4:8 People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD.
Because of the lack of rain there was a great scarcity of water, which fact made it necessary to go great distances to get it.
Staggered. “Moved unsteadily.” This indicates the exhausted condition of the people because of thirst.
Amo 4:9 “Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, destroying them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD.
Not returned to me. See on v. 6. 9.
Amo 4:10 “I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD.
As I did to Egypt.
That is, according to the way the country of the Nile was stricken (see Ex. 9:8–11; Isa. 10:24, 26; Eze. 32:15).
Your young men.
It may be that the heavy losses the Israelites suffered in their wars with the Syrians are alluded to here (see 2 Kings 6:24, 25; 8:7–12; 13:3, 7, 22).
Filled your nostrils.
Amo 4:11 “I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD.
Overthrew. Heb. haphak, the word used to describe the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (see Gen. 19:24, 25; Deut. 29:23; Jer. 20:16). The comparison of Israel’s doom with that of Sodom and Gomorrah indicates the greatness of their sin and its resulting punishment (see Isa. 1:9, 10).
Burning stick. This is a proverbial expression meaning a narrow escape with loss, since the “brand” that is snatched from the fire has been partly burned (see Zech. 3:2; 1 Cor. 3:15; Jude 23).
Not returned to. See on v. 6. 12. Therefore. The severity of the punishment could arouse some hope that the people might repent. God tries every means possible to save us before He proceeds to extreme measures.
If benefits are not recognized, He sends chastisements. These aim, not at destruction, but at opening the eyes of the transgressors so men may see God, and repent.
Therefore, God’s judgments are as much tokens of His grace as they are proofs of His wrath.
Amo 4:12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God.”
The prophet’s message in effect was, “Make ready to meet the coming judgments of the Lord.” Those who would heed the call and repent would be forgiven and would be assured of God’s protection in the day of the dreaded punishment.
The LXX reads, “prepare to call on thy God, O Israel.” God never bids men to prepare to meet Him without making a provision of mercy for those who do so prepare. This verse states the keynote of Amos’ second message (see on v. 1). God warns Israel that He is about to hale the nation into court, as it were. They will do well to prepare their case, if they have one.
Amo 4:13 He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the LORD God Almighty is his name.
To give force to his warning of punishment the prophet emphasizes God’s power and omniscience.
His thoughts. That is, man’s thought, not God’s, which God, in His omniscience, declares unto man before man expresses it in words. At times God does this through conscience; at other times through inspiring His prophets to reveal men’s secret motives and the real state of their hearts (see Jer. 17:9, 10).
Treaded upon. God’s might and majesty is represented here in human form and action. The Creator rules all things and has the loftiest under His perfect control (see Deut. 32:13; 33:29; Micah 1:3). The prophets recognize God as the being in whose service so-called natural laws operate.
God Almighty. Because of the fundamental fact that God does control all things, the OT writers often speak of Him as the “Lord of hosts” (see on Jer. 7:3). Particularly did Amos so envision his Creator, which accounts for his frequent use of the title “God of hosts” (see Amos 3:13; 5:14, 15, 16, 27; 6:8, 14; 9:5). Amos properly and grandly thought of God as being over all, as not the God of Israel alone, but as the Lord and Ruler of all the universe.