Amos 4:2 Comentariu

In this chapter, I. The oppressors in Israel are threatened for their oppression of the poor (Amo 4:1-3). II. The idolaters in Israel, being joined to idols, are given up to their own heart's lusts (Amo 4:4, Amo 4:5). III. All the sins of Israel are aggravated from their incorrigibleness in them, and their refusal to return and reform, notwithstanding the various rebukes of Providence which they had been under (Amo 4:6-11). IV. They are invited yet at length to humble themselves before God, since it is impossible for them to make their part good against him (Amo 4:12, Amo 4:13).

INTRODUCTION TO AMOS 4 In this chapter, the great ones, or the people of Israel, are threatened with calamities for their oppression of the poor, Amo 4:1; and in an ironic manner are reproved for their idolatry, Amo 4:4; then follows an enumeration of several judgments that had been upon them, yet had had no effect on them, to bring them to repentance, nor even mercies, Amo 4:6; and notwithstanding all this, in a wonderful gracious manner, they are called upon to prepare to meet their God, who is described by his power, greatness, and goodness, Amo 4:12.

The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness,.... That is, by himself, holiness being his nature, and an essential attribute of his; this is done to ascertain the truth of what is after said, and that men may be assured of the certain performance of it. Some render it, "by his holy place"; and interpret it of heaven; so Aben Ezra and Kimchi; which is not likely; see Mat 5:34. The Targum is, "the Lord God hath sworn by his word in his holiness;'' that, lo, the days shall come upon you; speedily, swiftly, and at an unawares: that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fish hooks; the enemy, the king of Assyria, or God by him, would take them out of their own land, as fish out of water, out of their own element, and carry them captive into a strange land, both them and their posterity; and which should be as easily done as fish are taken with the hook, even though they were as the kine of Bashan. The word for fish hooks signifies "thorns" (p), and is by some so rendered; these perhaps being used in angling, before iron hooks were invented. The Targum is, "that people shall take you away on their shields, and your daughters in fishermen's (q) boats;'' see Jer 16:16. (p) "spinis", Mercerus, Liveleus, Drusius, Grotius. (q) So it is interpreted by R. Sol Urbin Ohel Moed, fol. 65. 2. likewise Elias says the word signifies a small ship, or a boat that is in a large ship, Tishbi, p. 59. So Vatablus interprets it, "scaphas piscatorias, sive cymbas"; and some in Munster.

(Chapter 4, Verse 1 onwards) Hear this word, you fat cows of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, 'Bring us something to drink!' The Lord God has sworn by his holiness: behold, days are coming upon you when they will take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks. And you will go out through breaches, each one straight ahead, and you will be cast out into Harmon, declares the Lord. LXX: Hear this word, you cows of Bashan ((Or Bashanites)), who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, and crush the needy, who say to your lords: 'Give us something to drink.' The Lord has sworn by his holiness, behold, days are coming upon you when they will take you away with hooks, even those with you in pots, you pestilent merchants, and you will be thrown naked one against another, and cast upon the mountain of Remmon, says the Lord. For the fat cattle, the Seventy interpreted it as Basan's; Aquila and Theodotio interpreted the Hebrew word Basan itself (); we followed the interpretation of Symmachus, who says, 'the well-nourished cows,' that is, fatted cows, we have interpreted as fat cattle. However, he speaks to the leaders of Israel and the best men of the ten tribes, who were occupied with pleasures and rapine, that they may hear the word of God, and know that they are not plowmen's oxen, but fat cattle of the herd, or those nourished in the pastures of Basan, which are the most fertile places for herbs: and by this he signifies that they are prepared not for agriculture, but for sacrifice and eating. You fat cows of Samaria are on the mountain, and you humble ones are crushed. And you say to your lords, that is, to the shepherds through whom we understand the kings, 'Give us, and we will drink,' that is, command and we will destroy everything. But from what he said, 'Give us, and we will drink,' and he did not say, 'Give us, and we will eat,' he signifies their drunkenness in wine and luxury, which overthrow the state of the mind. Therefore, the Lord God swore in His sanctuary, either in Himself, or in the Son, or in the Temple, or in every one who is holy and called the Temple of God, that the day is coming not far off and after many ages, but now imminent, the day of captivity and distress, in which the cows will be led with hooks, and the remains of them in boiling pots, for which it is also written in Hebrew and by Aquila, 'in the bowls of the fisherman.' Furthermore, those shields that are called Sannoth in Hebrew, Aquila interpreted as clypeos; Symmachus and the LXX [interpret as] weapons; only Theodotion [interprets as] dorata, which we have followed and interpreted as contos or hastas. However, this signifies that they are captured in battle, and are carried and taken away by the right of victory; still preserving the metaphor of cows that he had begun, so that just as he had said the cows were fat, he states that their flesh should be carried in contis velscutis. And just as a boiling pot wraps up small fish, so the cows of Basan are to be oppressed with no order of captivity. And what follows: And through the openings you will go out one against another, can be explained thus: The way of captivity is open to you, and when your pots are burned up, you will go out one against another, according to the Hebrew idiom, which for that which we mutually or reciprocally, woman and woman, that is, one against another, call. And he said, 'You will be cast into the places of Armenia, which are called Armona.' Finally, Symmachus interpreted it as follows: 'And you will be cast into Armenia, in place of which the Septuagint has the mountain of Remma, Aquila [has] the mountain of Armona, Theodotion [has] the mountain of Mona; but the fifth edition has translated it as the lofty mountain.' But the word of the Lord which commands the cows of Bashan to listen, according to the begun tropology, commands the heretics, who serve their belly and throat, and are rightly called very fat cows or disgraceful cows. For Basan, in fact, translates to 'shame,' which if we want to say means 'confusion,' we will interpret it more as Babylon than Basan. These fat cows, or rather dishonorable and dry ones, are located on the mountain of Samaria, which is also referred to in Hosea: Take away your calf, Samaria. And again in the same [book], Because your calf has led you astray, Samaria (Hos. VIII, 5, 6): and therefore on the mountain of Samaria, because they are always lifted up in pride and promise themselves lofty things. Samaria is also called a custodian, not because they guard the words of the Lord, but because they boast of being guardians of his precepts. They falsely accuse the needy and crush the poor. By the needy and poor, understand the ecclesiastical man who is content with the simplicity of truth and does not seek the wealth of heretical arguments or the brilliance of eloquence. These cows say to their masters: Bring us and let us drink. We can call their masters or leaders of perverse doctrines, Valentine, and Marcion, and Arius, and Eunomius, or those who support their wrongly invented teachings through multiple books. These Basanite cows say: Bring us, and let us drink. For if they do not give them, they do not have what they devour, indeed what they drink to become drunk. But in order that we may know that waters and cups signify doctrine, the Lord speaks to the Samaritan woman: Everyone who drinks from this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will not thirst forever (John 4:13). Therefore, those who drink from the waters of the Samaritan, that is, of heretics, will always be thirsty and will not be able to refresh the heat of their dry throats, as Isaiah proclaims: As one dreams of drinking when thirsty, and when he arises, he is still thirsty, and his soul has hoped in vain; so will all the nations that fight against Jerusalem (Isaiah 29:8). For truly, he who drinks from the waters of heretics, and fights against the Church of God in Jerusalem, drinks in his dreams and his soul is deceived by empty images. And when he considers himself satisfied, then he will have the beginning of thirst. Hence it is said to the religious man: Drink the waters from your vessels, and let your own waters flow from the fountains of wells, and let them be for you alone (Prov. 5:15). And the Lord your God swears in his sanctuary against the fattened cows and the feasts that serve them, whether he swears by his saints, that the days of judgment and punishment will come upon them, to carry them in their arms, and to cast those who are with them into stewpots, or to carry them as well. And let those cows themselves be pestilent merchants, or let those who come to carry them be thrown out naked, seeing each other: let them be cast upon Mount Remman, says the Lord God. For we must say, according to the Septuagint, so that we do not seem to have proposed them in vain. When the day of judgment and vengeance comes against the heretics, then they will be taken away in arms, that is, with their weapons with which they fought against the Church; or, having been conquered by the armor of God and overcome by His warriors, they will be thrown into boiling pots to be burned and cooked, who were previously pestilent merchants; for they engaged in this trade in order to deliver those whom they had deceived to death. These are the ones of whom it is said: the sons of Heli, the sons of pestilence (1 Samuel II), who sat in the chair of pestilence (alternatively, pestilences). And when they have been sifted and burned, they will go out naked, having nothing of what they had previously presumed. And they will see their shame, and they will be cast upon the mountain of Remman, which is translated as sublimity, so that they may be crushed in their pride. Some interpret Remman as the sight of someone, that is, the vision of someone. For they could not see everything; but they promised themselves knowledge of a certain part, so that they might be projected into it, because they believed they knew it. We can, according to the letter, understand that when the days of captivity come upon the cows of Samaria, they will prevail over them in battle, and oppress them with their weapons, and in the encounter compel the defeated to go to fortified cities, which will be compared to boiling pots: just as Jerusalem, having its people shut in and besieged, is likened to a boiling pot full of meat; so the cities of Samaria will be compared to boiling pots, which will force the shut-in people to leave due to famine and plague, and to go into captivity seeing each other mutually, and be transferred to the mountains of Armenia, which are adjacent to Media and Persia.

Israel reproved for their oppression, Amo 4:1-3; idolatry, Amo 4:4, Amo 4:5; and for their impenitence under the chastising hand of God, Amo 4:6-11. The omniscience and uncontrollable power of God, Amo 4:12, Amo 4:13.

He will take you away with hooks - Two modes of fishing are here alluded to: 1. Angling with rod, line, and baited hook. 2. That with the gaff, eel-spear, harpoon, or such like; the first used in catching small fish, by which the common people may be here represented; the second, for catching large fish, such as leave the sea, and come up the rivers to deposit their spawn; or such as are caught in the sea, as sharks, whales, dolphins, and even the hippopotamus, to which the more powerful and opulent inhabitants may be likened. But as the words in the text are generally feminine, it has been supposed that the prophecy is against the proud, powerful, voluptuous women. I rather think that the prophet speaks catachrestically; and means men of effeminate manners and idle lives. They are not the bulls of Bashan, but the cows; having little of the manly character remaining. Some understand the latter word as meaning a sort of basket or wicker fish-nets.

DENUNCIATION OF ISRAEL'S NOBLES FOR OPPRESSION; AND OF THE WHOLE NATION FOR IDOLATRY; AND FOR THEIR BEING UNREFORMED EVEN BY GOD'S JUDGMENTS: THEREFORE THEY MUST PREPARE FOR THE LAST AND WORST JUDGMENT OF ALL. (Amo 4:1-13) kine of Bashan--fat and wanton cattle such as the rich pasture of Bashan (east of Jordan, between Hermon and Gilead) was famed for (Deu 32:14; Psa 22:12; Eze 39:18). Figurative for those luxurious nobles mentioned, Amo 3:9-10, Amo 3:12, Amo 3:15. The feminine, kine, or cows, not bulls, expresses their effeminacy. This accounts for masculine forms in the Hebrew being intermixed with feminine; the latter being figurative, the former the real persons meant. say to their masters--that is to their king, with whom the princes indulged in potations (Hos 7:5), and whom here they importune for more wine. "Bring" is singular, in the Hebrew implying that one "master" alone is meant.

The Lord--the same Hebrew as "masters" (Amo 4:1). Israel's nobles say to their master or lord, Bring us drink: but "the Lord" of him and them "hath sworn," &c. by his holiness--which binds Him to punish the guilty (Psa 89:35). he will take yon away--that is God by the instrumentality of the enemy. with hooks--literally, "thorns" (compare Ch2 33:11). As fish are taken out of the water by hooks, so the Israelites are to be taken out of their cities by the enemy (Eze 29:4; compare Job 41:1-2; Jer 16:16; Hab 1:15). The image is the more appropriate, as anciently captives were led by their conquerors by a hook made to pass through the nose (Kg2 19:28), as is to be seen in the Assyrian remains.

The Impenitence of Israel - Amo 4:1-13 The voluptuous and wanton women of Samaria will be overtaken by a shameful captivity (Amo 4:1-3). Let the Israelites only continue their idolatry with zeal (Amo 4:4, Amo 4:5), the Lord has already visited them with many punishments without their having turned to Him (Amo 4:6-11); and therefore He must inflict still further chastisements, to see whether they will not at length learn to fear Him as their God (Amo 4:12, Amo 4:13).