41

AMOS.

THE words of Amos, who was of the Shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw upon Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, Joash's-son, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. And he spake :

1. The ETERNAL out of Zion thunders,1 and out of Jerusalem utters his voice; therefore mourn the pastures of the shepherds, and withers the top of Carmel.

2. Thus saith the ETERNAL, For three sins of Damascus

'Thunders, lit. Hebr. roars. Vulg. rugiet. LXX. ¿p0iyEaro, but comp. Psalm xviii. 14. Mourn and wither: are the præterite, so connected with the present of the first clause, as to describe its effect; or even to enjoin what its effect should be.

Amos, a chief among herdsmen, as technical idiom suggests, or more naturally, one from among them, penetrated with Ephraim's wickedness, and hearing of an earthquake which seemed to verify his warnings, thus elaborates a poem in which his past visions, and their little success, will be introduced. How far the elaboration was aided, or finished by some editor among the Prophets, we have no means of saying.

1. Before calamities fall upon the circle of guilty realms, the Prophet hears as it were the voice of the Eternal in thunder roaring, not from Bethel, where he was mis-worshipped with idol symbols, but from Mount Zion loved as the Psalmist deemed (Psalm lxxxvii. 2) more than Gerizim.

2. Though other sins of the Syrians had been overlooked, their tripling and quadrupling them by cruelty will touch the heart of God. The Shepherd-Prophet, gentler than King David and the old Syrian kings, and

and for four I will not turn it back; for their crushing Gilead with harrows of iron;2 3. But I send fire into the house of Hazael, that it devour the palaces of Benhadad, 4. And I shiver the bar of Damascus, and cut off dweller from Aven's vale,3 and holder of sceptre from the abode of Eden, and the people of Aram shall go captive towards Kir, saith the ETERNAL.

Harrows of iron. LXX. #piori σidnpois. Vulg. plaustris ferreis. Hence some compare Jabin's chariots, Judges iv. 3. More correctly David's inflictions on the Ammonites, 2 Sam. xii. 31.

mascus.

3 Aven, not, as Jerome, iniquity, i.e. idolatry: nor necessarily, as the Greek Qv suggests, an error for i, in the sense of the Syrian Heliopolis= Baalbek: but probably, as it stands, a name for the pleasant valley of DaThe Greek translators, in Egypt, may have thought of the Egyptian Heliopolis. Paradise-Hebr. Eden, called by Ptolemy, Пupádeσoç, a valley of Libanus. Here the LXX. have Xappáv. On Kir, see 2 Kings xvi. 9, where the Assyrian carries off the Aramites to Kir, supposed a region on the Caspian called from the river Cyrus; used largely for Armenia, Yet this could hardly be the mother country of the Syrian race, as seems implied below, chap. vii. 6. At all events Jerome and others are wrong in dreaming of Cyrene. The LXX. curiously read ¿ñíкλŋτoç.

having his feelings quickened by the affinity of the tribes beyond Jordan, invokes vengeance against Damascus. What he sighs for in foreboding, King Ahaz asked by embassy, and obtained from Tiglath-Pileser the removal of some of the Syrians into Assyria, thereby fulfilling this denunciation; unless we suppose the words to Kir, or Kirwards, added to the Prophet's song a few years afterwards by its first editor: which mixed considerations, (somewhat less in this case the rhythm than the event,) suggest as possible. (Comp. 2 Kings xvi. 9.)

5, 6. If Syria is punished, why not the Philistines, the remnant of that civilised race, which once lorded it over the ruder tribes, but now so fading that their deities, e.g. Baal-zebub, the God of Ekron, as Azazel the averting or appeased Dæmon of Leviticus, xvi. 26, and afterwards Pan and the Dryads in Europe, become degraded by popular fancy into demons. The expedition of Uzziah, which Amos

5. Thus saith the ETERNAL, For three sins of Ghaza and for four, I will not turn it back; for their transporting a wholesale transportation to give captives to Edom; 6. But I send fire upon the wall of Ghaza, that it devour her palaces; and I cut off dweller from Ashdod, and holder of sceptre from Ashkalon, and turn my hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith my Lord, the ETERNAL.

7. Thus saith the ETERNAL, For three sins of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn it back; for their giving captive to Edom a wholesale transportation, and they remembered not the bond of brothers; 8. But I send fire on the wall of Tyre, that it devour her palaces.

9. Thus saith the ETERNAL, For three sins of Edom,

♦ Transportation. Hcb. Not the civic exile of Greek and Roman towns; nor necessarily the captivity of prisoners sold as slaves, though here it is so; but the compulsory migration with which countries have been often depopulated, chiefly by Eastern conquerors, as Persians and Tartars. Comp. Herodot. vi. 20, i. 155. The Greek fragments of Tyrtæus. Gibbon, ch. LXIV. A rare instance in England is one of the Hyde family transporting the village of Childerley.

may have seen preparing, suggests a cry of woe to them. (2 Chron. xxvi. 6, 7.) So Gaza, Ashdod, Ascalon, Ekron, all Philistine towns, lying westwards, have suffered the reverses and recoveries of ancient cities, such as Eschylus, Homer, Livy, describe; but in no special degree beyond others in the track of Assyrian, Babylonian, Macedonian, Roman, and Arab conquerors. Compare 2 Kings xix.

11, 12, with Isaiah viii. 3, and Isaiah xiii. 6—10.

7, 8. What will be the fate of Tyre, fortified amidst her waters?-besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, and imagined to have been captured by him, but destroyed by Alexander, yet subsequently recovered wonderfully, it comes here within the circle round which the Prophet glances.

9, 10, 11. Special bitterness tinges the reproaches

and for four, I will not turn it back ;5 for his pursuing with the sword his brother, and destroying his compassions, 10. And his anger rent perpetually, and his wrath endured for ever; 11. But I send fire upon Teman, that it devour the palaces of Bozrah.

12. Thus saith the ETERNAL, For three sins of the sons of Ammon and for four, I will not turn it back; for their cleaving the pregnant women of Gilead, in order to enlarge their border; 13. But I kindle fire on the wall of Rabbah, that it devour her palaces, with shouting in the day of battle, with whirlwind" in the day of storm; 14. And their king shall go into exile, and his princes together with him, saith the ETERNAL.

• Turn him back, either for repentance, or in relenting upon his entreaty. Non convertam, Vulg. Better perhaps, non irritum faciam, will not revoke my sentence.

• With whirlwind. Or, with storm in the day of whirlwind.

against the Edomites descended from one womb, but alienated by mutual encroachments, Israel's conquests, Edom's rebellion, and vindictive as well as profitable marauding, until at length, under Roman rule, Petra enjoyed a prosperity which the city of Solomon might envy. We need not doubt that Edom had its share of trouble from Assyrians or Babylonians, as well as from its Arab kinsmen, but it would be straining the figures of the Prophet, and almost a blasphemy against Providence, to suppose any other decree of desertion and solitude, than such as misgovernment and exhaustion, with the changed course of trade and civilisation, naturally bring about. True, that Nature executes the will of God; but on wider conditions than the execrations of tribes at feud.

12. The Ammonites, having defended their land with better success than Moab and Midian, against the tribes as they pushed their way from the desert of the South towards Canaan (Numbers xxi. 24), repaid the hatred with

15. Thus saith the ETERNAL, For three sins of Moab and for four, I will not turn it back; for his burning the bones of Edom's king into lime; 16. But I send fire upon Moab, that it devour the palaces of the cities, and Moab dieth in tumult, in shouting, in the sound of trumpet, 17. And I cut off judge from its midst, and slay all its princes with him, saith the ETERNAL.

7 The Cities, or Kerioth, originally a descriptive term, but appropriated as a local name to a town in Moab, and to one in Judah. The words Kir, Kereth, Kiriath, Kiriathaim, Kirioth, are ill separated in technical grammar; all representing a most ancient root for a fortified place. Comp. Latin Carcer, and British Caer, Caerau, the latter wrongly identified with Castra.

which their origin is described in Hebrew legend, and retaliated on Gilead the cruelties which their kindred or neighbour Midianites had suffered from the Nomad invaders, at the dictation probably of warrior priests. Numbers xxxi. 8-18. Amos might have blamed such outrages if inflicted by his own people, but feels their character more acutely from the stranger. Rabbah was used cruelly by David. 2 Sam. xii. 31. Its name seems to occur in the Hebrew of Psalm xlv. 16, and hence its king's daughter has been fancied Solomon's bride, addressed in that Psalm. Under Ptolemy Philadelphus, Rabbah revived as Philadelphia.

15, 16, 17. Moab pastoral and rude like Ammon, but less fortified or fortunate in resisting the Hebrews, paid tribute of sheep, and rebelled alternately. (Numbers xxii. 39, 2 Kings iii.) The burning of the king of Edom's son is some cruel act not elsewhere recorded, and distinct from the sacrificial immolation of the Moabite Prince, (reminding us of the Heraclidæ and Phoenissæ,) which struck the Israelite foe with awe. 2 Kings, ibid. For the threatening, comp. Isaiah xiv., where it may well have been suggested by frequent Assyrian invasions; though it seems an ancient denunciation repeated.