67 lines
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67 lines
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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 6';
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<p id="Chapter6" align="center">Commentary by A. R. FAUSSET<br>CHAPTER 6
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<p id="Am6_1"><a onclick="return mV('Amo',6,'1-14');">Amo 6:1-14</a>. DENUNCIATION OF BOTH THE SISTER NATIONS (ESPECIALLY THEIR NOBLES) FOR WANTON SECURITY—ZION, AS WELL AS SAMARIA: THREAT OF THE EXILE: RUIN OF THEIR PALACES AND SLAUGHTER OF THE PEOPLE: THEIR PERVERSE INJUSTICE.
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<p><b>1. named chief of the nations</b>—that is, you nobles, so eminent in influence, that your names are celebrated among the chief nations [LUDOVICUS DE DIEU]. <i>Hebrew,</i> "Men designated by name among the first-fruits of the nations," that is, men of note in Israel, the people chosen by God as first of the nations (<a onclick="return mV('Exd',19,5);">Exd 19:5</a>; compare <a onclick="return mV('Num',24,20);">Num 24:20</a>) [PISCATOR].
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<br><br><b>to whom...Israel came</b>—that is, the princes to whom the Israelites used to repair for the decision of controversies, recognizing their authority [MAURER]. I prefer to refer "which" to the antecedent "Zion" and "Samaria"; these were esteemed "chief" strongholds among the heathen nations "to whom...Israel came" when it entered Canaan; <a onclick="return mV('Amo',6,2);">Amo 6:2</a> accords with this.
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<p id="Am6_2"><b>2. Calneh</b>—on the east bank of the Tigris. Once powerful, but recently subjugated by Assyria (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',10,9);">Isa 10:9</a>; about 794 B.C.).
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<br><br><b>Hameth</b>—subjugated by Jeroboam II (<a href= "#" onclick="return mV('2Ki',14,25);">2Ki 14:25</a>). Also by Assyria subsequently (<a onclick="return mV('2Ki',18,34);">2Ki 18:34</a>). Compare <a onclick="return mV('Amo',6,14);">Amo 6:14</a>.
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<br><br><b>Gath</b>—subjugated by Uzziah (<a onclick="return mV('2Ch',26,6);">2Ch 26:6</a>).
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<br><br><b>be they better</b>—no. Their so recent subjugation renders it needless for Me to tell you they <i>are</i> not. And yet they <i>once were;</i> still they could not defend themselves against the enemy. How vain, then, <i>your</i> secure confidence in the strength of Mounts Zion and Samaria! He takes cities respectively east, north, south, and west of Israel (compare <a onclick="return mV('Nah',3,8);">Nah 3:8</a>).
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<p id="Am6_3"><b>3.</b> Ye persuade yourselves that "the evil day" foretold by the prophets is "far off," though they declare it near (<a onclick="return mV('Eze',12,22,27);">Eze 12:22, 27</a>). Ye in your imagination put it far off, and therefore bring near <i>violent oppression,</i> suffering it to <i>sit enthroned,</i> as it were, among you (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',94,20);">Psa 94:20</a>). The notion of judgment being far off has always been an incentive to the sinner's recklessness of living (<a onclick="return mV('Ecc',8,12,13);">Ecc 8:12-13</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Mat',24,48);">Mat 24:48</a>). Yet that very recklessness brings near the evil day which he puts far off. "Ye bring on fever by your intemperance, and yet would put it far off" [CALVIN].
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<p id="Am6_4"><b>4.</b> (See <a onclick="return mV('Amo',2,8);">Amo 2:8</a>).
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<br><br><b>beds of ivory</b>—that is, adorned, or inlaid, with ivory (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',3,15);">Amo 3:15</a>).
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<br><br><b>stretch themselves</b>—in luxurious self-indulgence.
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<br><br><b>lambs out of the flock</b>—picked out as the choicest, for their owners selfish gratification.
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<p id="Am6_5"><b>5. chant</b>—literally, "mark distinct sounds and tones."
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<br><br><b>viol</b>—the lyre, or lute.
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<br><br><b>invent...instruments...like David</b>—They fancy they equal David in musical skill (<a onclick="return mV('1Ch',23,5);">1Ch 23:5</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Neh',12,36);">Neh 12:36</a>). They defend their luxurious passion for music by his example: forgetting that <i>he</i> pursued this study when at peace and free from danger, and that for the praise of God; but <i>they</i> pursue for their own self-gratification, and that when God is angry and ruin is imminent.
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<p id="Am6_6"><b>6. drink...in bowls</b>—in the <i>large vessels</i> or basins in which wine was mixed; not satisfied with the smaller <i>cups</i> from which it was ordinarily drunk, after having been poured from the large mixer.
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<br><br><b>chief ointments</b>—that is, the most costly: not for health or cleanliness, but wanton luxury.
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<br><br><b>not grieved for the affliction of Joseph</b>—literally, "the breach," that is, the national wound or calamity (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',60,2);">Psa 60:2</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Eze',34,4);">Eze 34:4</a>) of the house of <i>Joseph</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',5,6);">Amo 5:6</a>); resembling in this the heartlessness of their forefathers, the sons of Jacob, towards Joseph, "eating bread" while their brother lay in the pit, and then selling him to Ishmaelites.
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<p id="Am6_7"><b>7. Therefore...shall they go captive with the first</b>—As they were first among the people in rank (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',6,1);">Amo 6:1</a>), and anointed themselves "with the chief ointments" (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',6,6);">Amo 6:6</a>), so shall they be among the foremost in going into captivity.
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<br><br><b>banquet</b>—literally, the "merry-making shout of revellers"; from an <i>Arabic</i> root, "to cry out." In the <i>Hebrew, marzeach;</i> here, there is an allusion to <i>mizraqu,</i> "bowls" (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',6,6);">Amo 6:6</a>).
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<br><br><b>them that stretched themselves</b>—on luxurious couches (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',6,4);">Amo 6:4</a>).
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<p id="Am6_8"><b>8. the excellency of Jacob</b>— (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',47,4);">Psa 47:4</a>). The <i>sanctuary</i> which was the great glory of the covenant-people [VATABLUS], (<a onclick="return mV('Eze',24,21);">Eze 24:21</a>). The priesthood, and kingdom, and dignity, conferred on them by God. These, saith God, are of no account in My eyes towards averting punishment [CALVIN].
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<br><br><b>hate his palaces</b>—as being the storehouses of "robbery" (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',3,10,15);">Amo 3:10, 15</a>). How sad a change from God's <i>love</i> of Zion's gates (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',87,2);">Psa 87:2</a>) and palaces (<a href= "#" onclick="return mV('Psa',48,3,13);">Psa 48:3, 13</a>), owing to the people's sin!
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<br><br><b>the city</b>—collectively: both Zion and Samaria (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',6,1);">Amo 6:1</a>).
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<br><br><b>all that is therein</b>—literally, "its fulness"; the <i>multitude</i> of men and of riches in it (compare <a onclick="return mV('Psa',24,1);">Psa 24:1</a>).
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<p id="Am6_9"><b>9.</b> If as many as <i>ten</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Lev',26,26);">Lev 26:26</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Zec',8,23);">Zec 8:23</a>) remain in a house (a rare case, and only in the scattered villages, as there will be scarcely a house in which the enemy will leave any), they shall all, to a man, die of the plague, a frequent concomitant of war in the East (<a onclick="return mV('Jer',24,10);">Jer 24:10</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jer',44,13);">44:13</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Eze',6,11);">Eze 6:11</a>).
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<p id="Am6_10"><b>10. a man's uncle</b>—The nearest relatives had the duty of burying the dead (<a onclick="return mV('Gen',25,9);">Gen 25:9</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Gen',35,29);">35:29</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jdg',16,31);">Jdg 16:31</a>). No nearer relative was left of this man than an <i>uncle.</i>
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<br><br><b>and he that burneth him</b>—the uncle, who is <i>also</i> at the same time the one that burneth him (one of the "ten," <a onclick="return mV('Amo',6,9);">Amo 6:9</a>). Burial was the usual Hebrew mode of disposing of their dead. But in cases of necessity, as when the men of Jabesh-gilead took the bodies of Saul and his three sons from the walls of Beth-shan and burned them to save them from being insulted by the Philistines, burning was practised. So in this case, to prevent contagion.
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<br><br><b>the bones</b>—that is, the dead <i>body</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Gen',50,25);">Gen 50:25</a>). Perhaps here there is an allusion in the phrase to the <i>emaciated</i> condition of the body, which was little else but skin and bones.
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<br><br><b>say unto him that is by the sides of the house</b>—that is, to the only one left of the ten <i>in the interior of the house</i> [MAURER] (compare <i>Note,</i> see on JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/Isa/Isa014.html#Isa14_13">Isa 14:13</a>).
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<br><br><b>Hold thy tongue...we may not...mention...the Lord</b>—After receiving the reply, that none is left besides the one addressed, when the man outside fancies the man still surviving inside to be on the point, as was customary, of expressing devout gratitude to God who spared him, the man outside interrupts him, "Hold thy tongue! for there is not now cause for mentioning with praise (<a onclick="return mV('Jos',23,7);">Jos 23:7</a>) the name of Jehovah"; for <i>thou</i> also must die; as all the ten are to die to the last man (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',6,9);">Amo 6:9</a>; compare <a onclick="return mV('Amo',8,3);">Amo 8:3</a>). Formerly ye boasted in the name of Jehovah, as if ye were His peculiar people; now ye shall be silent and shudder at His name, as hostile to you, and as one from whom ye wish to be hidden (<a onclick="return mV('Rev',6,16);">Rev 6:16</a>), [CALVIN].
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<p id="Am6_11"><b>11. commandeth, and he will smite</b>—His word of command, when once given, cannot but be fulfilled (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',55,11);">Isa 55:11</a>). His mere word is enough to smite with destruction.
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<br><br><b>great house...little house</b>—He will spare none, great or small (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',3,15);">Amo 3:15</a>). JEROME interprets "the great house" as Israel, and "the small house" as Judah: the former being reduced to branches or ruins, literally, "small drops"; the latter, though injured with "clefts" or rents, which threaten its fall, yet still permitted to stand.
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<p id="Am6_12"><b>12.</b> In turning "judgment (justice) into gall (poison), and ...righteousness into hemlock" (or wormwood, bitter and noxious), ye act as perversely as if one were to make "horses run upon the rock" or to "plough with oxen there" [MAURER]. As horses and oxen are useless on a rock, so ye are incapable of fulfilling justice [GROTIUS]. Ye impede the course of God's benefits, because ye are as it were a hard rock on which His favor cannot run. "Those that will not be tilled as fields, shall be abandoned as rocks" [CALVIN].
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<p id="Am6_13"><b>13. rejoice in a thing of naught</b>—that is, in your vain and fleeting riches.
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<br><br><b>Have we not taken to us horns</b>—that is, acquired power, so as to conquer our neighbors (<a onclick="return mV('2Ki',14,25);">2Ki 14:25</a>). <i>Horns</i> are the Hebrew symbol of <i>power,</i> being the instrument of strength in many animals (<a href= "#" onclick="return mV('Psa',75,10);">Psa 75:10</a>).
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<p id="Am6_14"><b>14. from the entering in of Hamath</b>—the point of entrance for an invading army (as Assyria) into Israel from the north; specified here, as Hamath had been just before subjugated by Jeroboam II (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',6,2);">Amo 6:2</a>). Do not glory in your recently acquired city, for it shall be the starting-point for the foe to afflict you. How sad the contrast to the feast of Solomon attended by a congregation <i>from</i> this same <i>Hamath,</i> the most northern boundary of Israel, <i>to</i> the Nile, the <i>river of Egypt,</i> the most southern boundary!
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<br><br><b>unto the river of the wilderness</b>—that is, to Kedron, which empties itself into the north bay of the Dead Sea below Jericho (<a onclick="return mV('2Ch',28,15);">2Ch 28:15</a>), the southern boundary of the ten tribes (<a onclick="return mV('2Ki',14,25);">2Ki 14:25</a>, "from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain") [MAURER]. <i>To the river Nile,</i> which skirts the Arabian wilderness and separates Egypt from Canaan [GROTIUS]. If this verse includes Judah, as well as Israel (compare <a onclick="return mV('Amo',6,1);">Amo 6:1</a>, "Zion" and "Samaria"), GROTIUS' view is correct; and it agrees with <a onclick="return mV('1Ki',8,65);">1Ki 8:65</a>.
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