Amos 5:20 Komentář

The scope of this chapter is to prosecute the exhortation given to Israel in the close of the foregoing chapter to prepare to meet their God; the prophet here tells them, I. What preparation they must make; they must "seek the Lord," and not seek any more to idols (Amo 5:4-8); they must seek good, and love it (Amo 5:14, Amo 5:15). II. Why they must make this preparation to meet their God, 1. Because of the present deplorable condition they were in (Amo 5:1-3). 2. Because it was by sin that they were brought into such a condition (Amo 5:7, Amo 5:10-12). 3. Because it would be their happiness to seek God, and he was ready to be found of them (Amo 5:8, Amo 5:9, Amo 5:14). 4. Because he would proceed, in his wrath, to their utter ruin, if they did not seek him (Amo 5:5, Amo 5:6, Amo 5:13, Amo 5:16, Amo 5:17). 5. Because all their confidences would fail them if they did not seek unto God, and make him their friend. (1.) Their profane contempt of God's judgments, and setting them at defiance, would not secure them (Amo 5:18-20). (2.) Their external services in religion, and the shows of devotion, would not avail to turn away the wrath of God (Amo 5:21-24). (3.) Their having been long in possession of church-privileges, and in a course of holy duties, would not be their protection, while all along they had kept up their idolatrous customs (Amo 5:25-27). They have therefore no way left them to save themselves, but by repentance and reformation.

INTRODUCTION TO AMOS 5 In this chapter the prophet exhorts Israel to hear his lamentation over them for their impending ruin, Amo 5:1; nevertheless to seek the Lord, and all that is good; to forsake their idols, and repent of their sins, in hopes of finding mercy, and living comfortably; or otherwise they must expect the wrath of God for their iniquities, especially their oppression of the poor, Amo 5:4; otherwise it would be a time of weeping and wailing, of darkness and distress, however they might harden or flatter themselves, or make a jest of it, Amo 5:16; for all their sacrifices and ceremonial worship would signify nothing, so long as they continued their idolatry with them Amo 5:21; and therefore should surely go into captivity, Amo 5:27.

Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light?.... The design of such a question is strongly to affirm, that, in this day of the Lord spoken of, there should be nothing but misery and distress, and no prosperity and happiness, at least to the wicked Israelites, or the unbelieving Jews: even very dark, and no brightness in it? signifying that there should be no deliverance, nor the least glimmering view or hope of it; that the calamity should be so very great, and the destruction so entire, that there should be no mixture of mercy, nor the least appearance of relief.

(Verse 18-20.) Woe to those who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for it? That day will be darkness, not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light— pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? Woe to those who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? And this is darkness, and not light. As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him: or enter into the house, and lean with his hand upon the wall, and a serpent should bite him. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? and obscurity, and no brightness in it? Lest the tribe of Juda be thought to neglect men of his own stock, and to confer the speech of prophecy upon the ten tribes: Thou also shalt go to the king against Babylon, and shalt speak to him: There are gathered together all the kings of the earth against Jerusalem: how art thou fallen, thou virgin, daughter of Babylon, to be destroyed? Shall not day overtake thee suddenly, and thou perish with the sword? For there is not so much evil in the injury of captivity, as there is good in the things which the Lord promises after captivity: to which the prophet replied that it is in vain for them to wait for what will happen a long time after, in the coming of the Son of God after seventy years of captivity in Babylon, which will be followed by devastation, poverty, and countless miseries. For, he says, when those fleeing from the face of Nebuchadnezzar meet Assuerus, under whom the story of Esther is narrated, or when the empire of the Assyrians and Chaldeans is destroyed, the Medes and Persians will rise up. And when, during the reign of Cyrus, you returned, and at the command of Darius began to build the house of the Lord, and you placed all your trust in the temple, so that you may find rest in it and weary hands may rest upon its walls, then Alexander, the king of the Macedonians, also known as Antiochus Epiphanes, will come and dwell in the temple and will bite you like a snake, not outside in Babylon and Susa, but within the borders of the holy land (or yours). By these things it is proven that the day which you desire is not one of light and joy, but of darkness and sorrow. We have briefly stated these things according to history, so as not to completely leave the opinion of the Jews untouched. However, there is no doubt that all of our people understand the day of darkness, the day of judgment, about which Sophonias also writes: The great day of the Lord is near, it is also very swift: the voice of the day of the Lord is bitter and harsh (Sophon. I, 14). And Isaiah says: Behold, the day of the Lord comes, a day of incurable rage and wrath, to make the earth a desolation and to destroy sinners from it (Is. XIII, 9). At the same time, the confidence of the proud is shaken, who, in order to appear just in the eyes of men, usually wait for the day of judgment and say: Would that the Lord would come, that we may be allowed to be dissolved and be with Christ (Phil. I), imitating the Pharisee who spoke in the Gospel (Lk. XVIII, 11, 12): God, I give thanks to you, because I am not like other men, robbers, unjust, adulterers, and like this tax collector. They fast twice on the Sabbath: they give tithes of all that they possess. For from this very thing, because they long for the day of the Lord and do not fear it, they are judged worthy of punishment, because there is no one without sin among men, and the stars are unclean before him (Job 25). And he concluded all things under sin, so that he might have mercy on all (Galatians 3). Therefore, since no one can judge the judgment of God, and we will also have to give an account of every idle word (Matthew 12): and Job offered sacrifices daily for his children, lest perhaps they might think anything perverse against the Lord (Job 1), what audacity is it to hear among the Corinthians: You reign without us (I Corinthians 4, 8): and I wish you did reign, that we also might reign with you. Certainly, if their own conscience did not prick them, they ought to imitate Paul saying: 'Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire?' (2 Cor. 2:29) and to be concerned for all, so that, as lovers of themselves, they may not desire the torments of others, as if they themselves were the rulers, just as someone would want their homeland and city to be destroyed so that they alone may enjoy the friendship of the victors. We often say in times of distress and tribulation: 'Oh, if only it were allowed for me to depart from this body and be liberated from the miseries of this world', not knowing that as long as we are in this flesh, we have a place for repentance; but if we depart, we will hear that of the Prophet: 'But who will confess to you in hell?' (Ps. 6:6). This is the sadness of the world, which leads to death, as the Apostle does not want to perish the one who has fornicated with his father's wife (I Cor. V), as Judas perished unfortunate, who connected betrayal and murder with even greater sadness (Matth. XXVII), and murder worse than all other murders: so that where he thought to find a remedy, and death to be an end to his troubles, there he would find a lion and a bear and a snake. By these names it seems to me that either different punishments are being signified, or the devil himself, who is rightly called lion and bear and snake. And when we think that Isaiah says: Go, my people, into your chambers; shut the door, hide yourself for a little while, until the wrath of the Lord passes (Isa. XXVI, 20), and be as if in our house, as if resting in hell: then the snake will bite us, which in this place is called Nahas, and in Job is called Leviathan. We learn more fully about its nature and terror in the very volume itself. However, in the darkness and shadows that are contrary to light and splendor, the diversity of torments is explained.

This chapter opens with a tender and pathetic lamentation, in the style of a funeral song, over the house of Israel, Amo 5:1, Amo 5:2. The prophet then glances at the awful threatening denounced against them, Amo 5:3; earnestly exhorting them to renounce their idols, and seek Jehovah, of whom he gives a very magnificent description, Amo 5:4-9. He then reproves their injustice and oppression with great warmth and indignation; exhorts them again to repentance; and enforces his exhortation with the most awful threatenings, delivered with great majesty and authority, and in images full of beauty and grandeur, Amo 5:10-24. The chapter concludes with observing that their idolatry was of long standing, that they increased the national guilt, by adding to the sins of their fathers; and that their punishment, therefore, should be great in proportion, Amo 5:25-27. Formerly numbers of them were brought captive to Damascus, Kg2 10:32, Kg2 10:33; but now they must go beyond it to Assyria, Kg2 15:29; Kg2 17:6.

ELEGY OVER THE PROSTRATE KINGDOM: RENEWED EXHORTATIONS TO REPENTANCE: GOD DECLARES THAT THE COMING DAY OF JUDGMENT SHALL BE TERRIBLE TO THE SCORNERS WHO DESPISE IT: CEREMONIAL SERVICES ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE TO HIM WHERE TRUE PIETY EXISTS NOT: ISRAEL SHALL THEREFORE BE REMOVED FAR EASTWARD. (Amos 5:1-27) lamentation--an elegy for the destruction coming on you. Compare Eze 32:2, "take up," namely, as a mournful burden (Eze 19:1; Eze 27:2).

The Overthrow of the Kingdom of the Ten Tribes - Amos 5 and Amo 6:1-14 The elegy, which the prophet commences in Amo 5:2, upon the fall of the daughter of Israel, forms the theme of the admonitory addresses in these two chapters. These addresses, which are divided into four parts by the admonitions, "Seek Jehovah, and live," in Amo 5:4 and Amo 5:6, "Seek good" in Amo 5:14, and the two woes (hōi) in Amo 5:18 and Amo 6:1, have no other purpose than this, to impress upon the people of God the impossibility of averting the threatened destruction, and to take away from the self-secure sinners the false foundations of their trust, by setting the demands of God before them once more. In every one of these sections, therefore, the proclamation of the judgment returns again, and that in a form of greater and greater intensity, till it reaches to the banishment of the whole nation, and the overthrow of Samaria and the kingdom (Amo 5:27; Amo 6:8.).