Amos 7:13 Kommentaari

In this chapter we have, I. God contending with Israel, by the judgments, but are reprieved, and the judgments turned away at the prayer of Amos (Amo 7:1-6). 2. God's patience is at length worn out by their obstinacy, and they are rejected, and sentenced to utter ruin (Amo 7:7-9). II. Israel contending with God, by the opposition given to his prophet. 1. Amaziah informs against Amos (Amo 7:10, Amo 7:11) and does what he can to rid the country of him as a public nuisance (Amo 7:12, Amo 7:13). 2. Amos justifies himself in what he did as a prophet (Amo 7:14, Amo 7:15) and denounces the judgments of God against Amaziah his prosecutor (Amo 7:16, Amo 7:17); for, when the contest is between God and man, it is easy to foresee, it is very easy to foretel, who will come off with the worst of it.

INTRODUCTION TO AMOS 7 In this and the two following chapters are the visions of Amos, in number five; three of which are contained in this chapter, and with which it begins. The first is of the grasshoppers or locusts eating up the later grass of the land, which are stopped at the intercession of the prophet, Amo 7:1; the second is of fire the Lord called for to contend by, whose devouring flames are made to cease by the same interposition, Amo 7:4; and the other is of the plumbline, signifying the utter destruction of the people of Israel, according to the righteous judgment of God, Amo 7:7; upon the delivery of which prophecies and visions, the priest of Bethel forms a charge against the prophet to the king; and advises Amos to flee into Judea, and prophesy there, and not at Bethel, being willing to be rid of him at any rate, Amo 7:10; next follows the prophet's vindication of himself showing his divine call to the prophetic office, and his mission and express order he had from the Lord to prophesy unto Israel, Amo 7:14; and concludes with a denunciation of divine judgments on the priest's family, and upon the whole land of Israel, Amo 7:16.

But prophesy not again any more at Bethel,.... He might prophesy any where, if he did not there, for what the priest cared, that so his honour and interest were not hurt. The reasons he gave were, for it is the king's chapel; or "sanctuary" (i); where a temple was built for the idol calf, and where the king worshipped it, and attended all other religious service: and it is the king's court; or "the house of the kingdom" (k); the seat of it, where the king had a royal palace, and sometimes resided here, and kept his court, as well as at Samaria; often coming hither to worship, it being nearer to him than Dan, where the other calf was placed; intimating hereby that the king would never suffer such a troublesome man as he to be so near him; and by prophesying to interrupt him, either in his religious or civil affairs; and therefore advises him by all means to depart, if he had any regard to his life or peace. (i) "sanctuarium", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Mercerus, Junius & Tremellius. Piscator, Drusius, Cocceius. (k) "et domus regni est", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Cocceius; "domus regia", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

(Verses 10 onwards) And Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, 'Amos has rebelled against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos says: 'Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive from their own land.'' Then Amaziah said to Amos 'You seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah. There eat bread, and prophesy there. But never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is the royal residence.'' LXX: And Amasias sent priests from Bethel to Jeroboam, the king of Israel, saying: Amos is gathering groups against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land cannot endure all his words. For Amos says: Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will be led captive out of its own land. And Amasias said to Amos: You see, go forth and depart (or go) to the land of Judah, and there live and prophesy there; but do not continue to prophesy in Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary and the house of the kingdom. The proverb of Solomon, or rather the commandment, is: Do not argue with the bad, lest they hate you (Prov. IX, 8): And on the contrary, he has commanded about the good: Argue with the wise, and they will love you. In another place also: Whoever rebukes, he says, the ways of a person, will have more favor than the one who speaks what is pleasing (Prov. XXVIII, 23). Therefore, even Amos spoke to the people with the desire for correction, and he threatened terrible things from the words of God, so that those who repent would return to God and forsake idols. Then the priest of Bethel, where the golden calf was, whom Jeroboam the son of Nebat had made (3 Kings 12), and others who had succeeded him in power, sent to Jeroboam the grandson of Jehu, to inform him, saying: Amos has rebelled against you, and he is making assemblies and gatherings in the midst of your kingdom, Israel, and he speaks so boldly that the land of your kingdom cannot bear his words. Yet he dares to send to the king of Israel as if he were a high priest, fearing that if the people turn to the worship of God, he will lose his priesthood glory. And when he has heard the two, the high places will be demolished with idols, whether it is the laughter of altars or the sanctifications, or the ceremonies of Israel will be desolated, and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword, because the idols are completely destroyed, over which Amaziah the priest presided, and may God rise up against Jeroboam with the sword, unless he repents: for he does not command harm from his own, but rather he seems to grieve only at the insult to the king. For, Amos says, these things are spoken. You are mistaken, slanderer. In all his words, he does not speak as if he were a prophet himself, but always prefaces them with: Thus says the Lord. Therefore, he recalls that Amos the prophet has spoken, in order to provoke the king to seek vengeance. What did Amos say? Jeroboam will die by the sword. And in this, you are lying: for he did not say, 'he will die'; for if he had said this, it seemed that he did not take repentance upon himself; rather, the Lord will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword: threatening punishment, not imposing it. He said not, In the sword shall Jeroboam die, but, I will arise in the sword over the house of Jeroboam. For Jeroboam indeed is not dead by the sword, but his house, that is, the son of Zacharias, was destroyed by God's striking. And Israel, he said, shall be carried away captive out of his own land: add also the rest, if he does not repent. Moreover, Jeroboam, despising the empty commands of Amos, did not want to respond to what he had commanded: hence he assumes for himself the authority of the priestly office, and speaks to Amos: Thou seest, go: flee into the land of Judah. The prophets, as we have often said, were formerly called seers, because they saw with the eyes of their heart the things that were going to happen. Let the wise reader ask why he calls the seer a prophet and forces him to come out of the land of Israel? To this, one must respond: either he says it in mockery, suggesting that he lies about everything; or because he saw that there were many people who gladly listened to him. This is why he reported to the king, 'Amos is conspiring against you.' He does not dare to openly commit an injustice, lest he appear to harm those who listen to him. Go, he said, to the land of Judah, where you were born, where the insane are gladly heard: and eat your bread there, or live there, or certainly practice your craft by which you can find food for yourself, and prophesy there, for you have many whom you are accustomed to deceive. But in Bethel, where I am the priest, you shall no longer add to prophesy, for it is the sanctification of the king and the house of the kingdom. And this false priest speaks as if flattering the royal authority, so as not to say: the sanctification is of our God and the house of the idol; but of the king and the house of the kingdom: all those who worship false gods have this custom, that they attribute their pride to kings, and what they themselves do, seems to have been done by the king. All that we have interpreted about Amasias, Jeroboam, Israel, and Amos must be referred to heretics in a rhetorical manner: of whom the priest Amasias sometimes sends to the heretical king Jeroboam, and accuses the heretical patron and holy men and preachers of faith before him, and orders the teachers not to preach in Israel or go against the will of the king; because Bethel, that is, the house of God, and the false Church, is the sanctification of the king and the house of the kingdom. For they are wont to say: 'The Emperor communicates to us, and if anyone resists them, they immediately accuse them: so are you acting against the Emperor? Do you despise the commands of Augustus?' And yet, let us consider that many Christian kings, who persecuted the Church of God, and endeavored to establish Arian impiety throughout the whole world, surpass in wickedness Jeroboam, the king of Israel. For he despised the commands of the false priest and did not want to respond to his suggestion. But they, along with many of their fellow Amasian priests, killed the prophet Amos and the priests of the Lord with hunger and shortage, imprisonments and exiles.

In this chapter God represents to Amos, by three several visions, the judgments he is about to bring on Israel. The first is a plague of locusts, threatening to cut of the hopes of the harvest by attacking it in the time of the second growth; the first luxuriances of the crop being probably mowed for the king's horses, Amo 7:1-3. The next vision threatens a judgment by fire, which would consume a great part, Amo 7:4-6; and the third a total overthrow of Israel, levelling it as it were by a line, Amo 7:7-9. The rest of the chapter is a denunciation of heavy judgments against Amaziah, priest of Beth-el, who had brought an accusation to the king against the prophet, Amo 7:10-17.

But prophesy not - at Beth-el - He must not speak against idolatry, because that was the king's religion; and he who speaks against the king's religion must be an enemy to the state. This was the doctrine held in England by popish James 2 and his insidious Jesuit hireling priests, till God in his mercy put this pitiful tyrant down, and with him his false prophets, and the degrading superstition which they endeavored to establish in these lands.

showed . . . me; and, behold--The same formula prefaces the three visions in this chapter, and the fourth in Amo 8:1. grasshoppers--rather, "locusts" in the caterpillar state, from a Hebrew root, "to creep forth." In the autumn the eggs are deposited in the earth; in the spring the young come forth [MAURER]. the latter growth--namely, of grass, which comes up after the mowing. They do not in the East mow their grass and make hay of it, but cut it off the ground as they require it. the king's mowings--the first-fruits of the mown grass, tyrannically exacted by the king from the people. The literal locusts, as in Joel, are probably symbols of human foes: thus the "growth" of grass "after the king's mowings" will mean the political revival of Israel under Jeroboam II (Kg2 14:25), after it had been mown down, as it were, by Hazael and Ben-hadad of Syria (Kg2 13:3), [GROTIUS].

prophesy not again-- (Amo 2:12). at Beth-el--Amaziah wants to be let alone at least in his own residence. the king's chapel--Beth-el was preferred by the king to Dan, the other seat of the calf-worship, as being nearer Samaria, the capital, and as hallowed by Jacob of old (Gen 28:16, Gen 28:19; Gen 35:6-7). He argues by implication against Amos' presumption, as a private man, in speaking against the worship sanctioned by the king, and that in the very place consecrated to it for the king's own devotions. king's court--that is, residence: the seat of empire, where the king holds his court, and which thou oughtest to have reverenced. Samaria was the usual king's residence: but for the convenience of attending the calf-worship, a royal palace was at Beth-el also.

III. Sights or Visions The last part of the writings of Amos contains five visions, which confirm the contents of the prophetic addresses in the preceding part. The first four visions, however (ch. 7 and Amo 8:1-14), are distinguished from the fifth and last (Amo 9:1-15) by the fact, that whereas the former all commence with the same formula, "Thus hath the Lord showed me," the latter commences with the words, "I saw the Lord," etc. They also differ in their contents, inasmuch as the former symbolize the judgments which have already fallen in part upon Israel, and in part have still to fall; whilst the latter, on the contrary, proclaims the overthrow of the old theocracy, and after this the restoration of the fallen kingdom of God, and its ultimate glory. And again, of these four, the first and second (Amo 7:1-6) are distinguished from the third and fourth (Amo 7:7-9, and Amo 8:1-3) by the fact, that whereas the former contain a promise in reply to the prophet's intercession, that Jacob shall be spared, in the latter any further sparing is expressly refused; so that they are thus formed into two pairs, which differ from one another both in their contents and purpose. This difference is of importance, in relation both to the meaning and also to the historical bearing of the visions. It points to the conclusion, that the first two visions indicate universal judgments, whilst the third and fourth simply threaten the overthrow of the kingdom of Israel in the immediate future, the commencement of which is represented in the fifth and last vision, and which is then still further depicted in its results in connection with the realization of the divine plan of salvation. Visions of the Locusts, the Fire, and the Plumb-Line. The Prophet's Experience at Bethel - Amos 7