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<title>Blue Letter Bible: Text Commentaries</title>
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PriorBook = 'Joel';
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Title = 'The Book of Amos';
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SubTitle1 = 'Commentary by A. R. FAUSSET';
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SubTitle3 = 'CHAPTER 8';
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<p id="Chapter8" align="center">Commentary by A. R. FAUSSET<br>CHAPTER 8
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<p id="Am8_1"><a onclick="return mV('Amo',8,'1-14');">Amo 8:1-14</a>. VISION OF A BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT SYMBOLICAL OF ISRAEL'S END. RESUMING THE SERIES OF SYMBOLS INTERRUPTED BY AMAZIAH, AMOS ADDS A FOURTH. THE AVARICE OF THE OPPRESSORS OF THE POOR: THE OVERTHROW OF THE NATION: THE WISH FOR THE MEANS OF RELIGIOUS COUNSEL, WHEN THERE SHALL BE A FAMINE OF THE WORD.
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<p><b>1. summer fruit</b>—<i>Hebrew, kitz.</i> In <a onclick="return mV('Amo',8,2);">Amo 8:2</a> "end" is in <i>Hebrew, keetz.</i> The similarity of sounds implies that, as the <i>summer</i> is the <i>end</i> of the year and the time of the ripeness of fruits, so Israel is <i>ripe</i> for her <i>last</i> punishment, <i>ending</i> her national existence. As the fruit is plucked when ripe from the tree, so Israel from her land.
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<p id="Am8_2"><b>2. end</b>— (<a onclick="return mV('Eze',7,2,6);">Eze 7:2, 6</a>).
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<p id="Am8_3"><b>3. songs of...temple</b>— (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',5,23);">Amo 5:23</a>). The joyous hymns in the temple of Judah (or rather, in the <i>Beth-el</i> "royal temple," <a onclick="return mV('Amo',7,13);">Amo 7:13</a>; for the allusion is to <i>Israel,</i> not Judah, throughout this chapter) shall be changed into "howlings." GROTIUS translates, "palace"; compare <a onclick="return mV('Amo',6,5);">Amo 6:5</a>, as to the songs there. But <a onclick="return mV('Amo',5,23);">Amo 5:23</a>, and <a onclick="return mV('Amo',7,13);">Amo 7:13</a>, favor <i>English Version.</i>
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<br><br><b>they shall cast them forth with silence</b>—not as the <i>Margin,</i> "be silent." It is an adverb, "silently." There shall be such great slaughter as even to prevent the bodies being buried [CALVIN]. There shall be none of the usual professional mourners (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',5,16);">Amo 5:16</a>), but the bodies will be cast out in silence. Perhaps also is meant that terror, both of God (compare <a href= "#" onclick="return mV('Amo',6,10);">Amo 6:10</a>) and of the foe, shall close their lips.
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<p id="Am8_4"><b>4. Hear</b>—The nobles needed to be urged thus, as hating to <i>hear</i> reproof.
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<br><br><b>swallow up the needy</b>—or, "gape after," that is, pant for their goods; so the word is used, <a onclick="return mV('Job',7,2);">Job 7:2</a>, <i>Margin.</i>
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<br><br><b>to make the poor...to fail</b>—"that they (themselves) may be placed alone in the midst of the earth" (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',5,8);">Isa 5:8</a>).
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<p id="Am8_5"><b>5.</b> So greedy are they of unjust gain that they cannot spare a single day, however sacred, from pursuing it. They are strangers to God and enemies to themselves, who love market days better than sabbath days; and they who have lost piety will not long keep honesty. The new-2moons (<a onclick="return mV('Num',10,10);">Num 10:10</a>) and sabbaths were to be kept without working or trading (<a onclick="return mV('Neh',10,31);">Neh 10:31</a>).
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<br><br><b>set forth wheat</b>—literally, "open out" stores of wheat for sale.
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<br><br><b>ephah</b>—containing three seahs, or above three pecks.
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<br><br><b>making...small</b>—making it below the just weight to purchasers.
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<br><br><b>shekel great</b>—taking from purchasers a greater weight of money than was due. Shekels used to be <i>weighed out</i> in payments (<a onclick="return mV('Gen',23,16);">Gen 23:16</a>). Thus they committed a double fraud against the law (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',25,13,14);">Deu 25:13-14</a>).
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<p id="Am8_6"><b>6. buy...poor for silver...pair of shoes</b>—that is, that we may compel the needy for money, or any other thing of however little worth, to sell themselves to us as bondmen, in defiance of <a onclick="return mV('Lev',25,39);">Lev 25:39</a>; the very thing which brings down God's judgment (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',2,6);">Amo 2:6</a>).
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<br><br><b>sell the refuse of...wheat</b>—which contains no nutriment, but which the poor eat at a low price, being unable to pay for flour.
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<p id="Am8_7"><b>7. Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob</b>—that is by Himself, in whom Jacob's seed glory [MAURER]. Rather, by the spiritual privileges of Israel, the adoption as His peculiar people [CALVIN], the temple, and its Shekinah symbol of His presence. Compare <a onclick="return mV('Amo',6,8);">Amo 6:8</a>, where it means Jehovah's <i>temple</i> (compare <a onclick="return mV('Amo',4,2);">Amo 4:2</a>).
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<br><br><b>never forget</b>—not <i>pass by</i> without punishing (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',8,2);">Amo 8:2</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Hsa',8,13);">Hsa 8:13</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Hsa',9,9);">9:9</a>).
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<p id="Am8_8"><b>8. the land...rise up wholly as a flood</b>—The land will, as it were, be wholly turned into a flooding river (a flood being the image of overwhelming calamity, <a onclick="return mV('Dan',9,26);">Dan 9:26</a>).
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<br><br><b>cast out and drowned,</b> etc.—swept away and overwhelmed, as the land adjoining the Nile is by it, when flooding (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',9,5);">Amo 9:5</a>). The Nile rises generally twenty feet. The waters then "cast out" mire and dirt (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',57,20);">Isa 57:20</a>).
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<p id="Am8_9"><b>9.</b> "Darkness" made to rise "at noon" is the emblem of great calamities (<a onclick="return mV('Jer',15,9);">Jer 15:9</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Eze',32,'7-10');">Eze 32:7-10</a>).
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<p id="Am8_10"><b>10. baldness</b>—a sign of mourning (<a href= "#" onclick="return mV('Isa',15,2);">Isa 15:2</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jer',48,37);">Jer 48:37</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Eze',7,18);">Eze 7:18</a>).
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<br><br><b>I will make it as...mourning of an only son</b>—"it," that is, "the earth" (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',8,9);">Amo 8:9</a>). I will reduce the land to such a state that there shall be the same occasion for mourning as when parents mourn for an only son (<a onclick="return mV('Jer',6,26);">Jer 6:26</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Zec',12,10);">Zec 12:10</a>).
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<p id="Am8_11"><b>11. famine of...hearing the words of the Lord</b>—a just retribution on those who now will not hear the Lord's prophets, nay even try to drive them away, as Amaziah did (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',7,12);">Amo 7:12</a>); they shall look in vain, in their distress, for divine counsel, such as the prophets now offer (<a href= "#" onclick="return mV('Eze',7,26);">Eze 7:26</a> <a onclick="return mV('Mic',3,7);">Mic 3:7</a>). Compare as to the Jews' rejection of Messiah, and their consequent rejection by Him (<a onclick="return mV('Mat',21,43);">Mat 21:43</a>); and their desire for Messiah too late (<a onclick="return mV('Luk',17,22);">Luk 17:22</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jhn',7,34);">Jhn 7:34</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jhn',8,21);">8:21</a>). So, the prodigal when he had sojourned awhile in the "far-off country, began to be in want" in the "mighty famine" which arose (<a onclick="return mV('Luk',15,14);">Luk 15:14</a>; compare <a onclick="return mV('1Sa',3,1);">1Sa 3:1</a>; <a onclick="return mV('1Sa',7,2);">7:2</a>). It is remarkable that the Jews' religion is almost the only one that <i>could</i> be abolished <i>against the will of the people themselves,</i> on account of its being dependent on a particular <i>place,</i> namely, the temple. When that was destroyed, the Mosaic ritual, which could not exist without it, necessarily ceased. Providence designed it, that, as the law gave way to the Gospel, so all men should perceive it was so, in spite of the Jews' obstinate rejection of the Gospel.
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<p id="Am8_12"><b>12. they shall wander from sea to sea</b>—that is, from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean, from east to west.
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<br><br><b>from...north...to...east</b>—where we might expect "from north to south." But so alienated was Israel from Judah, that no Israelite even then would think of repairing <i>southward,</i> that is, to Jerusalem for religious information. The circuit is traced as in <a href= "#" onclick="return mV('Num',34,3);">Num 34:3</a>, etc., except that the south is omitted. Their "seeking the word of the Lord" would not be from a sincere desire to obey God, but under the pressure of punishment.
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<p id="Am8_13"><b>13. faint for thirst</b>—namely, thirst for hearing the words of the Lord, being destitute of all other comfort. If even the young and strong faint, how much more the infirm (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',40,30,31);">Isa 40:30-31</a>)!
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<p id="Am8_14"><b>14. swear by the sin of Samaria</b>—namely, the calves (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',9,21);">Deu 9:21</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Hsa',4,15);">Hsa 4:15</a>). "Swear by" means to <i>worship</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',63,11);">Psa 63:11</a>).
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<br><br><b>The manner</b>—that is, as "the way" is used (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',139,24);">Psa 139:24</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Act',9,2);">Act 9:2</a>), <i>the mode of worship.</i>
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<br><br><b>Thy god, O Dan</b>—the other golden calf at Dan (<a onclick="return mV('1Ki',22,'26-30');">1Ki 22:26-30</a>).
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<br><br><b>liveth...liveth</b>—rather, "May thy god ...live...may the manner...live." Or, "As (surely as) thy god, O Dan, liveth." This is their formula when they swear; not "May Jehovah live!" or, "As Jehovah liveth!"
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