[Amo 1:1]. The Heading
The words of] The same title as [ Jer 1:1]; [ Ecc 1:1]; [ Pro 30:1]; [ Pro 31:1]; [ Neh 1:1].
among] i.e. one of, of: see (in the Heb.) [ 1Ki 2:7]; [ Pro 22:26].
herdmen] naḳad-keepers. The word (nôḳçd) is a peculiar one: its meaning appears from the Arabic. In Arabic naḳad denotes a species of sheep, found especially in the province of Baḥreyn, small and stunted in growth, with short legs and ill-formed faces (whence an Arabic proverb, “Viler than a naḳad”), but esteemed on account of their choice wool (see Bochart, Hierozoicon ii. xliv., p. 442 f., who cites the saying, “The best of wool is that of the naḳad”; or Lane’s Arabic Lexicon, p. 2837). In Arabic naḳḳâd is a shepherd who tends sheep of this kind; and the Heb. nôḳçd is a word of similar import. It may be inferred from this passage that there was a settlement of such naḳad-keepers at Tekoa: the occupation was perhaps hereditary in particular families (comp. the families following hereditary trades in [ 1Ch 2:55]; [ 1Ch 4:21]; [ 1Ch 4:23]). The word occurs once besides, of Mesha, king of Moab, [ 2Ki 3:4].
Tekoa] now Teḳû‘a, on the high ground of Judah, 12 miles S. of Jerusalem, and 6 miles S. of Bethlehem, from which, as Jerome (Comm. on [ Jer 6:1]) remarks, it is visible (“Thecuam quoque viculum in monte situm … quotidie oculis cernimus”). The ruins—dating principally from early Christian times—lie on an elevated hill, not steep, but broad on the top, and cover some four or five acres. South, west, and north the view is blocked by limestone hills; but on the east the prospect is open, though desolate; the land slopes away for nearly 18 miles to the Dead Sea, lying some 4,000 feet beneath, dropping first “by broken rocks to slopes spotted with bushes of ‘retem,’ the broom of the desert, and patches of poor wheat,” then to “a maze of low hills and shallow dales,” clad with a thin covering of verdure, the Wilderness or Pasture-land of Tekoa ([ 2Ch 20:22]; [1Ma 9:33]), afterwards to a “chaos of hills,” with steep and rugged sides, leading down rapidly to the shore of the Dead Sea (G. A. Smith, The Book of the Twelve Prophets, p. 74 f.). The northern half of this sea is visible from Tekoa, the level mountains of Moab forming the horizon beyond. Jerome (Pref. to Amos) speaks of Tekoa as abounding in shepherds with their flocks, the soil being too dry and sandy to be cultivated for grain. It was the home of the ‘wise woman,’ whom Joab employed to intercede with David on Absalom’s behalf ([ 2Sa 14:2]; [ 2Sa 14:4]; [ 2Sa 14:9]).
saw] beheld: not the ordinary Hebrew word for seeing (râ’âh), but ḥâzâh, a word which is sometimes merely a poetical synonym of râ’âh (e.g. [ Psa 58:8]; [ Psa 58:10]), but elsewhere is applied in particular to beholding, or gazing in prophetic vision: [ Num 24:4]; [ Num 24:16], [ Isa 30:10] “which say to the seers (rô’îm), See not; and to the gazers (ḥôzîm). Gaze not for us right things, speak unto us smooth things, gaze deceits” (i.e. illusory visions of peace and security), [ Eze 12:27]; of false prophecies, [ Eze 13:6-9]; [ Eze 13:16]; [ Eze 13:23]; [ Eze 21:29]; [ Eze 22:28], [ Lam 2:14], [ Zec 10:2]; and, as here, in the titles of prophecies, [ Isa 1:1]; [ Isa 2:1]; [ Isa 13:1]; [ Mic 1:1]; [ Hab 1:1]). The vision, especially in the earlier history of prophecy, appears often as a form of prophetic intuition: comp. ḥôzeh, “gazer,” [Amo 7:12] (see note): ḥâzôn, vision ([ 1Sa 3:1]; [ Isa 1:1], &c.; [ Eze 7:26]; [ Lam 2:9]), more rarely ḥizzâyôn ([ 2Sa 7:17]; [ Isa 22:1]; [ Isa 22:5]), ḥâzûth ([ Isa 21:2]; [ Isa 29:11]), or maḥǎzeh ([ Gen 15:1]; [ Num 24:4]; [ Num 24:16]). An interesting passage, illustrating the early frequency of the vision, is [ Hos 12:10]: comp. also Amos 7-9. As the vision was once the predominant form of prophetic intuition, ḥâzôn becomes a general designation of “prophecy,” or “revelation”; and ḥâzâh, “to behold,” is even applied inexactly to word or utterance ([ Isa 2:1]; [ Isa 13:1]; [ Mic 1:1]; [ Hab 1:1]), as here to words. See further on [Amo 7:1].
concerning Israel] i.e. the Northern kingdom, which Amos expressly visited ([Amo 7:15]), and to which his prophecies are almost entirely addressed, Judah being referred to only incidentally ([Amo 2:4] f., [Amo 6:1]; [Amo 7:12]), or implicitly ([Amo 3:1], ‘the whole family’; perhaps [Amo 9:8-9]), and in the final promise of future restoration ([Amo 9:11-12]).
in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, &c.] On the date implied in these words see the Introduction, p. 98.
two year before the earthquake] Earthquakes are not unfrequent in Palestine, particularly on its Eastern and Western borders (see on [Amo 4:11]). The earthquake referred to here must have been one of exceptional severity: for not only is Amos’ prophecy dated by it, but the terror occasioned by it is alluded to long afterwards, [ Zec 14:5], “yea, ye shall flee—viz. through the rent made in the Mount of Olives, [Amo 1:4]—like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah.”
[Amo 1:2]. The Exordium
2. The Lord] Jehovah,—or, strictly, Yahwèh,—the personal name by which the supreme God was known to the Hebrews. The name—whatever its primitive signification may have been—was interpreted by them (see [ Exo 3:14]) as signifying He that is (or He that will be), viz. not in an abstract sense, He that exists, but He that comes to be, i.e. He whose nature it is ever to express Himself anew, and to manifest Himself under fresh aspects to His worshippers, but who at the same time is determined only by Himself (“I will be that which I will be”), and who is therefore self-consistent, true to His promises, and morally unchangeable[112].
[112] See more fully an Essay by the present writer on the Tetragrammaton, in Studia Biblica, vol. i. (1885), p. 15–18; Schultz, Theol. of the O. T. ii. 138.
Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem] The words recur verbatim, Joel 3 :(4) 16, and with a modification of the thought, [ Jer 25:30] (“Jehovah will roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation”). The temple on Zion is Jehovah’s earthly abode; and from it the manifestations of His power over Israel or the world are conceived as proceeding. By the use of the term roar, the prophet shews that he has the figure of a lion in his mind (see [Amo 3:8]; and cp. [ Hos 11:10]; also [ Isa 31:4]; [ Hos 13:7-8]); and as the ‘roar’ (shâ’ag, not nâham) is the loud cry with which the animal springs upon its prey, it is the sound of near destruction which the prophet hears pealing from Zion. In utter (lit. give) his voice the roar of Jehovah’s voice is compared further with the rolling thunder (cf. [ Psa 18:13]; [ Psa 46:6]; [ Psa 68:33]; [ Joe 2:11]; [ Isa 30:30]): it was the Hebrew idea that in a thunderstorm Jehovah descended and rode through the heavens enveloped in a dark mass of cloud: the lightning-flashes were partings of the cloud, disclosing the brilliancy concealed within ([ Psa 18:9-13]; [ Job 36:29-32]; [ Job 37:2-5]); and the thunder was His voice (comp. the common expression voices for thunder, [ Exo 9:23]; [ Exo 9:28-29]; [ Exo 9:33-34]; [ Exo 19:16]; [ Exo 20:18]; [ 1Sa 12:17-18]; [ Job 28:26]; [ Job 38:25]; and see also [ Psa 29:3-9]).
and the pastures of the shepherds] not habitations; for they are spoken of as ‘springing with young grass’ ([ Joe 2:22]; cp. [ Psa 23:2]), as ‘dropping’ (with fertility) [ Psa 65:12], and as being ‘dried up’ [ Jer 23:10]: at most, if the text of [ Psa 74:20] be sound (see Cheyne and Kirkpatrick), ne’ôth will be a word like homestead, including both the farm and the dwellings upon it. Even, however, if this be the case, habitations is a bad rendering, being much too general. The term is a pastoral one; and Amos, in using it, may have thought primarily of the pastures about his own native place, Tekoa.
shall mourn] partly in consternation ([Amo 8:8], [Amo 9:5]), as they hear the peal of Jehovah’s thunder, partly on account of the desolation, which (see the next clause) that thunder is conceived as producing. A land, when its vegetation is dried up, or destroyed ([ Jer 12:11]), is said poetically to ‘mourn’: for mourn and be dried up, as here, in parallelism, see [ Jer 12:4]; [ Jer 23:10]; comp. mourn and languish (of the land, or its products) [ Isa 24:7]; [ Isa 33:9]; [ Joe 1:10].
the top of Carmel] Jehovah’s judgment does not stop at Tekoa; it sweeps northwards, and embraces even the majestic, thickly-wooded headland of Carmel. Carmel—in the Heb. usually with the art., the Carmel, i.e. the garden-land—is the bold, bluff promontory, one of the most conspicuous of the natural features of Palestine, formed by a ridge of hills, some 18 miles long, and 1200–1600 feet high, stretching out far into the Mediterranean Sea, and forming the S. side of the Bay of Acre. It still bears the character which its name suggests. “Modern travellers delight to describe its ‘rocky dells with deep jungles of copse’—‘its shrubberies thicker than any others in central Palestine’ (Stanley)—‘its impenetrable brushwood of oaks and other evergreens, tenanted in the wilder parts by a profusion of game and wild animals’ (Porter), but in other parts bright with hollyhocks, jasmine, and various flowering creepers” (D.B[113][114] s.v.). The luxuriant forests of Carmel are often alluded to in the O.T.: ch. [Amo 9:3] (as a hiding-place), [ Isa 35:2] (‘the majesty of Carmel’), [ Mic 7:14]; and (poetically) as shaking off their leaves, or languishing, [ Isa 33:9], [ Nah 1:4].
[113] .B. … Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, ed. 1, or (from A to J) ed. 2.
[114] … Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, ed. 1, or (from A to J) ed. 2.
shall be dried up] as the blood runs cold through terror, so Amos pictures the sap of plants and trees as ceasing to flow, when Jehovah’s thunder is heard pealing over the land. Cf. [ Nah 1:4]. In [ Joe 3:16] the effects of His thunder are that “the heavens and the earth shake.”
3. For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four] Similarly [Amo 1:6]; [Amo 1:9]; [Amo 1:11]; [Amo 1:13], [Amo 2:1]; [Amo 2:4]; [Amo 2:6]. The numbers are of course to be understood not literally, but typically, a concrete number being chosen for the sake of assisting the imagination: three would be a sufficient number, but they are augmented by a fourth, conceived implicitly as an aggravation of the three; the measure of guilt, in other words, is not merely full, it is more than full. “The three transgressions stand for a whole sum of sin, which had not yet brought down extreme punishment; the fourth was the crowning sin, after which God would no longer spare” (Pusey). For similar examples of “ascending enumeration,” in which the second number expresses usually something (as the case may be) more complete, or sufficient, or severe, than the first, see [ Psa 62:11], [ Job 33:14]; [ Job 40:5] (once, twice); [ Job 33:29] (twice, thrice); [ Hos 6:2], [Sir 23:16]; [Sir 26:28]; [Sir 50:25] (two and three); [ Pro 30:15]; [ Pro 30:18]; [ Pro 30:21]; [ Pro 30:29], [Sir 26:5] (three and four); [ Pro 6:16], [ Job 5:19] (six and seven); [ Mic 5:5], [ Ecc 11:2] (seven and eight); [Sir 25:7] (nine and ten).
transgressions] in the English word, the metaphor is that of overstepping a line or law; in the Hebrew, as the use of the corresponding verb, in [ 1Ki 12:19], [ 2Ki 1:1] al. clearly shews, it is that of rebellion against authority. So always in this word. ‘Transgress’ represents etymologically ‘âbhar, to go beyond, overstep, in [ Deu 17:2]; [ Jos 7:11]; [ Num 22:18]; [ Pro 8:29], and occasionally besides; but a subst. “transgression” (‘abhçrâh) is found first in post-Biblical Hebrew.
I will not turn away the punishment thereof] lit. I will not turn it back,—the object denoted by the pronoun being, as is sometimes the case in Hebrew poetry, understood from the context: comp. [ Num 23:20], [ Isa 43:13] (both with the same word), [ Isa 48:16]. Here, the object to be supplied is the destined punishment, or doom.
because &c.] introducing a typical example of the “transgressions” of Damascus, sufficient to justify the penalty threatened.
threshed] trodden. Our modes of ‘threshing’ are so different from that alluded to here that the use of the same term conveys a very inaccurate idea of what is intended. The primitive method of threshing—still, indeed, in use in the East—was to tread out the corn by the feet of animals ([ Deu 25:4]; [ Jer 50:11]; [ Mic 4:13] “Arise, and thresh (tread), O daughter of Zion; for I will make thy horn iron, and thy hoofs I will make bronze”); and the same verb was still used, even when instruments, such as those described in the next note but one, came to be employed.
Gilead] the rough and rugged, but picturesque, hill-country, extending from the deep glen of the Jarmuk on the North, to the valley of Heshbon—or perhaps even to the Arnon—on the South. Lying, as it did, on the debateable border-line between Syria and Israel (cf. [ Gen 31:44-53]), it was naturally the first to suffer in the Syrian incursions.
with sharp threshing-boards of iron (or of basalt)] boards some 7 ft. long by 3 ft. broad, armed underneath with jagged stones, and sometimes with knives as well, which, being weighted and drawn over the corn by oxen, chop up the ears, and separate the grain from the chaff. Iron may be meant literally; or (as in [ Deu 3:11]) it may denote the hard black basalt which abounds in the volcanic region East of Jordan: this is even at the present day called ‘iron’ by the natives, and is also used for the teeth of threshing-boards. See further the Additional Note, p. 227. The reference is, no doubt, to cruelties perpetrated by Hazael, when he invaded Gilead during the reigns of Jehu and Jehoahaz, c. 842–802 b.c.: comp. [ 2Ki 8:12] (Elisha’s prediction to Hazael of the cruelties which he would perpetrate against Israel); [ 2Ki 10:32] f. (which states how, in the days of Jehu, Hazael smote “all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer that is by the Wady of Arnon, and Gilead and Bashan”); and [ 2Ki 13:7] (where he is said to have left Jehoahaz only “fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria had destroyed them, and made them like dust in respect of threshing (treading).” The Syrians (if the present passage is to be understood literally) had during these wars dragged instruments of torture, such as are here alluded to, over their Israelitish prisoners. But even if the expression be meant figuratively, cruel and inhuman conduct will still be denoted by it.
Additional Note on Chap. [Amo 1:3] (the threshing-board)
Two principal forms of threshing-instrument are in use at present in the East. (1) A threshing-board (or -drag), usually about 7 ft. long by 3 ft. broad, consisting of two oblong planks, in Damascus generally of walnut-wood, fastened together by two wooden cross-pieces, slightly curved upwards in front (in the direction in which the instrument would be drawn), and set underneath crosswise with sharp pieces of hard
A Modern Syrian Threshing-board (from Nowack’s Hebräische Archäologie, 1894, i. p. 233).
stone or basalt (such as is common in the volcanic region E. of Jordan): the driver stands upon it; and being drawn round the threshing-floor[205] by a yoke of oxen it not only shells out the grain, but grinds the straw itself into chaff[206]. This is in use in Syria and Palestine: in Syria it is called el-lôaḥ, “the plank,” or el-lôaḥ el-muḥajjar, “the stoned plank”; in Jerusalem it is called nauraj[207], a name nearly the same as that borne by the Hebrew implement (môrâg) in [ Isa 41:15], [ 2Sa 24:22][208]. (2) A threshing-wagon, consisting of a low-built oblong wagon-frame, moving upon three parallel rollers, each armed with three or four circular iron blades with toothed edges; a seat upon the frame is arranged for the driver, and the instrument is drawn similarly by oxen. Jerome describes an instrument like this in his Comm. on Is. 25:20, “Sunt autem carpenta ferrata, rotis per medium in serrarum modum se volventibus, quae stipula conterunt, et comminuunt in paleas”; similarly on [ Isa 28:27], and on the present passage (“genus plaustri, quod rotis subter ferreis atque dentatis volvitur”). This is not used in Palestine, and is rare in Syria (except in the north); but it is the usual instrument in Egypt, where it is called by the same name that the threshing-board bears in Palestine, nauraj[209]. Both instruments are alluded to in the O.T.: the drag (or board), under the same name ḥârûtz (properly something sharpened) which it has in [Amo 1:3], in [ Isa 28:27], “For not with a sharp threshing-board is Nigella-seed [Tristram, N. H. B. p. 444] trodden out; nor is the wheel of a (threshing-) wagon turned about upon cummin,” [ Job 41:30] ( Heb. 22), “he (the crocodile) spreadeth a ḥârûtz upon the mire” (i.e. he leaves by his sharp scales an impression upon it, as though a sharp threshing-board had been there), [ 2Sa 12:31] (ḥârîtz[210]); and under the name môrâg in [ 2Sa 24:22], [ Isa 41:15] (where ḥârûtz qualifies it as an adj.), “Behold, I make thee (Israel) as a sharp new threshing-drag (מורנ חרוץ חדש), possessing edges[211]; thou shalt thresh (tread) mountains and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff[212]”; the wagon in [ Isa 28:27] (just quoted), 28 (where read “the roller of his (threshing-) wagon” for the obscure “wheel of his cart” of the English Versions), [ Pro 20:26].
[205] This consists of a circular piece of ground, in which the earth has been firmly trodden down (הדררך, [ Jer 51:33]) by the feet; in the centre the ears and stalks of corn are piled up in a large heap (kedís,—the Heb. גדיש, [ Exo 22:5] (6); [ Jdg 15:5]; [ Job 5:26]); at threshing-time the ears and stalks are pulled down from this heap, to form a ṭarḥa, or layer (the stratum of the Romans), round it, some 7 feet broad by 2 feet deep; over this the threshing-drag is drawn, and the mingled mass of corn chaff and straw which remains when the process is completed is thrown into a new heap to be ready for winnowing. See the illustration in Thomson, The Land and the Book, 1881 (South Pal.), p. 150 f.; Smith, D.B.2 I. 66.
[206] This was the Greek τρίβολα ([ 2Sa 12:31], LXX.), the Lat. tribulum, or “rubber”; Vergil’s trahea, or “drag,” must have been a similar instrument: cf. G. 1.164 (“tribulaque traheaeque”).
[207] Among the common people mauraj (corresponding to the old Hebrew form) is also heard (P.E.F.Q.St. 1894, p. 114).
[208] The threshing-drag is still called by the same name (môräg) in the Ḳalamûn mountains about Ma‘lûlâ: but Wetzstein never heard this word in Syria, nor is noreg (or nauraj) in use there.
[209] Lane, Mod. Egyptians5, 11, 28; Arab. Lex. p. 2783. See more fully Wetzstein’s very instructive essay on “Die Syrische Dreschtafel”, in Bastian’s Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1873, p. 271 ff.; and Anderlind, “Ackerbau und Thierzucht in Syrien,” in the Ztsch. des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins, IX. (1886), pp. 41, 44.
[210] R.V. harrows. It is, however, uncertain whether the text here really imputes to David the cruelty implied by the English Versions: see R.V. marg., and the present writer’s Notes on the Hebrew Text of Samuel, ad loc.
[211] Lit. mouths (as of a sword, [ Psa 149:6]).
[212] LXX. represent môrâg by τροχοὶ (in [ Isa 41:15]; τροχὺς ἁμάξης ἀλοῶντας καινούς), thinking of the wheels of the threshing-wagon. The Syr. גרגרא (from gârar, to drag along) denotes both instruments: see the descriptions of the Syriac lexicographers quoted by Payne Smith, Thes. Syr. col. 767: it is mentioned as an instrument of torture by Bar Hebraeus, Chron. p. 142.
4. But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad] The same refrain (only the names being varied), [Amo 1:7]; [Amo 1:10]; [Amo 1:12], [Amo 2:2]; [Amo 2:5], and (with kindle for send) [Amo 1:14]. Hosea ([ Hos 8:14]) adopts it from Amos (“And I will send a fire into his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof”); and it recurs also (with kindle for send, as [Amo 1:14]) in [ Jer 17:27]; [ Jer 21:14]; [ Jer 49:27]; [ Jer 50:32]. By fire is meant the flame of war, which, partly by literal conflagrations, partly by other destructive operations, works devastation far and near: cf. [ Num 21:28]. The house of Hazael is the family or dynasty founded by him ([ 2Ki 8:15]): ‘Ben-hadad’ stands in the parallel clause either as the name of Hazael’s successor, who would still be remembered as the second of Israel’s recent oppressors, or, possibly, as the name of the monarch reigning when Amos wrote.
5. And I will break the bar of Damascus] Damascus will be powerless to resist the besieger. The allusion is to the ‘bars’ of bronze or iron by which the gates of every fortified city were secured (see [ Deu 3:5]; [ 1Ki 4:13]), and which, when a city is captured, are spoken of as ‘broken’ ([ Lam 2:9]; [ Jer 51:30]), or ‘hewn’ asunder ([ Isa 45:2]).
and cut off the inhabitant] better, perhaps (note the parallel clause, him that holdeth the sceptre), as R.V. marg. him that sitteth (enthroned): yâshab (‘to sit’) has sometimes this force, even when standing alone; see [ Isa 10:13] R.V.; [ Psa 2:4]; [ Psa 22:3] (R.V. marg.).
from the plain] Biḳ‘âh (from bâḳa‘, to cleave) is a broad ‘cleft,’ or level ([ Isa 40:4]) plain, between mountains: it is applied, for instance, to the plain of Jericho, [ Deu 34:3], of Megiddo, [ Zec 12:11], [ 2Ch 35:22], of Lebanon, [ Jos 11:17], i.e. Coele-Syria, the flat and broad plain between the two ranges of Lebanon and Hermon, which is still called (in Arabic) el-Beḳâ‘a, and is probably the plain meant here.
of Aven] or of idolatry. The reference is uncertain. The common supposition is that Amos alludes to the worship of the Sun, carried on at a spot in the plain of Coele-Syria, called by the ancients Heliopolis, and now known as Baalbeḳ,—some sixty miles N.N.E of Dan,—where are still, in a partly ruined state, the massive walls and richly decorated pillars and architraves, of two magnificent temples. These temples, dedicated respectively to Jupiter and the Sun, are not of earlier date than the 2nd cent. a.d.,—the temple of Jupiter having been erected as a wonder of the world, by Antoninus Pius (a.d. 133–161); but the massive substructures are considered to date from a much earlier period, and to bear witness to the fact that a temple of the Sun had stood there from a distant past. According to Macrobius (Sat. 1:23) and Lucian (de Dea Syria § 5—both quoted by Robinson, Bibl. Researches, iii. 518) the worship of the Sun as carried on at Heliopolis in Syria was derived from Heliopolis in Egypt; and upon assumption of the correctness of this statement, it has been supposed that, with the worship of the Sun, the Egyptian name of Heliopolis, Aûnû (Heb. On, [ Gen 41:45]; [ Gen 41:50]; [ Gen 46:20]) may have been brought from Egypt; and further that, as the Egyptian On (און) is punctuated in [ Eze 30:17]—by way of contempt—אָוֶן Aven (i.e. idolatry), so here the Syrian On may have been called, whether by Amos himself, or by the later scribes, Aven. These suppositions are however, mere conjectures. The statements of Macrobius and Lucian may be nothing more than inferences from the fact of two celebrated temples being dedicated to a similar cult; and there is no independent evidence that On was a name of the Syrian Heliopolis. (The LXX. rendering here τὸ πεδίον Ὦν is not proof of it: for they represent On in Gen. and Ezek. by Ἡλιούπολις.) In view of the double fact that Coele-Syria was a biḳ‘âh, or broad vale, and that Baalbek, in this vale, was the old-established seat of an idolatrous worship of the Sun, it is not improbable that Amos may mean to allude to it; possibly, also,—though there is no proof that the place was called On,—the designation ‘Plain of Aven (idolatry)’ may have been suggested to him by the thought of the Egyptian On, just as the nickname Beth-Aven for Beth-el ([ Hos 4:1]; [ Hos 4:5]; [ Hos 5:8]; cf. on ch. [Amo 5:5]) may have been suggested by the place Beth-Aven in the neighbourhood, a little to the east of Beth-el ([ Jos 7:2]; [ Jos 18:12]; [ 1Sa 13:5]; [ 1Sa 14:23]). But the identification cannot be regarded as certain: Wellhausen doubts even whether in the time of Amos Heliopolis was an Aramaic city.
him that holdeth the sceptre] the σκηπτοῦχος βασιλεὺς of Homer (Il. II. 26; Od. ii. 231): comp. the corresponding Aramaic expression (חטראחז) in the Hadad-inscription (8 cent. b.c.) of Zinjirli, lines 15, 20, 25 (see D. H. Müller, Die altsemitischen Inschriften von Sendschirli, 1893, p. 20 sq., or in the Contemp. Review, April, 1894, p. 572 f.).
from the house of Eden] or from Beth-eden. Another uncertain locality. Interpreted as a Hebrew word, ‘Eden—vocalized ‘eden, not ‘çden, as in the ‘garden of Eden’—would signify ‘pleasure.’ Of the identifications that have been proposed, relatively the most probable are, perhaps, either the modern Ehden, a village situated attractively in a fertile valley about 20 miles N.W. of Baalbek or Bît-Adini, a district mentioned in the Assyrian Inscriptions and lying some 200 miles N.N.E. of Damascus, on the Euphrates. The place intended may have been a summer-residence of the kings of Damascus, or the seat of some king who held his position in dependence upon the king of Damascus. See further the Additional Note, p. 228.
Syria] Heb. Aram, the name borne regularly in the O. T. by the people (and country) whom the classical writers, through a confusion with Assyrian, knew as Syrians and Syria. (See Nöldeke in Schenkel’s Bibel-Lex. s. v. ‘Aram, or in Hermes [Amo 1:3], p. 433 ff., and Z.D.M.[115]. 1871, p. 115.) The people calling themselves Aram were very widely diffused over the regions N.E. of Palestine; their different divisions were distinguished by local designations as ‘Aram of Damascus’ [ 2Sa 8:5] f. (also, as the most important branch, called often, as here, ‘Aram’ simply), ‘Aram of Zobah,’ [ 2Sa 10:6]; [ 2Sa 10:8]; ‘Aram of Maachah,’ [ 1Ch 19:6]; ‘Aram of Beth-Rĕḥôb,’ [ 2Sa 10:6]; ‘Aram of the two Rivers’ (i.e. probably between the Euphrates and the Chaboras), [ Gen 24:10]: there were also many other tribes which were reckoned as belonging to ‘Aram,’ [ Gen 10:23]; [ Gen 22:20-24]. The language spoken by this people is called “Aramaic”; it exists in many dialects, corresponding to the different localities in which it was spoken, as the Palestinian Aramaic of Ezra and Daniel, the Palmyrene Aramaic, the dialects (not all the same) of the various Targums, the Aramaic of Edessa (commonly known as “Syriac,” par excellence), &c. From [Amo 9:7] it appears that recollections of the migrations of some of these tribes were retained, and that Aram—i.e., it may be presumed, ‘Aram of Damascus’—came originally from Kir.
[115] .D.M.G … Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft.
shall go into captivity] Rather into exile. Though in a passage such as the present there is no appreciable difference between the two ideas, yet gâlâh, the word used here, expresses properly migration from a home, exile; and it is better, where possible, not to confuse it with hâlakh bash-shebî, to go into captivity, or nishbâh, to be taken captive.
unto Kir] In [Amo 9:7] stated to have been their original home, which Amos accordingly here declares will be also their place of exile. [ 2Ki 16:9] shews how within less than a generation the prophecy was fulfilled. The result of the combined attack of Pekah king of Israel and Rezin king of Damascus upon Judah ([ 2Ki 16:5] ff.; Isaiah 7) was that Ahaz applied for help to Tiglath-pileser, who, responding to the appeal, attacked Damascus, slew Rezin, and carried away the people into exile to Kir.
The brief notice of the book of Kings may be supplemented by the details given in the annals of Tiglath-pileser. From these we learn that in his 13th year (b.c. 733), the king laid siege to Damascus, and that in (probably) the following year (b.c. 732), after ravaging the surrounding country, he took the city, and carried large numbers of its inhabitants into exile. The place to which they were deported is not, however, mentioned in the existing (mutilated) text of the Inscriptions. The situation of Kir is very uncertain. A people of the same name is mentioned in [ Isa 22:6] beside Elam, as supplying a contingent in the Assyrian army. It is generally supposed to have been the district about the river Kur, which flows into the Caspian Sea on the N. of Armenia; but (Schrader in Riehm, H.W.B., s.v.) this region does not seem to have formed part of the Assyrian dominions in the time of either Tiglath-pileser, or Sennacherib; the k in the Assyrian Kurru (Kur) is also not the same as the ḳ (q) in ḳir. Others (as Furrer in Schenkel’s Bibel-lex.; Dillm. on [ Isa 22:6]) think of the place called by the Greeks Cyrrhus (now Kuris) about 30 miles N.E. of Antioch, which gave to the surrounding region the name of Cyrrhestica. Some region more remote from Damascus itself appears however to be required by the allusions in Amos; Cyrrhus, moreover, there is reason to suppose (Schrader, l.c.), was only so called by the Greeks after a place of the same name in Macedonia.
Additional Note on Chap. [Amo 1:5] (‘Eden)
The following are the principal identifications that have been proposed for ‘Eden (or Beth-‘eden). (1) ‘Edçn, as it is called in Syriac, or ’Ehden, as it is called in Arabic, a village some 20 miles N.W. of Baalbek, on the opposite (N. W.) slope of Lebanon, attractively situated on the side of a rich and highly-cultivated valley, near the cedars, described by Amira—the author of the first Syriac grammar published in Europe (1596, p. 59), whose native place it was—as “loci situ, aquarum copia, terrae fertilitate, aeris temperie, in toto Libano praestantissima; unde non immerito tali nomine est nuncupata” (quoted by Payne Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus, col. 2810). The accounts given by modern travellers fully bear out this description: Lord Lindsay, for instance (cited by Dr Pusey) speaks of the slopes of the valleys about it as “one mass of verdure,” with “the springs of Lebanon gushing down, fresh, cool, and melodious, in every direction.” The place is said to be at present a favourite summer resort for the wealthier inhabitants of Tripoli. (2) Bêt-jenn, at the foot (E.) of Anti-Libanus, about 12 miles N.E. of Banias, and 25 miles S.S.W. of Damascus, watered by the Nahr-jennâni, which, flowing down from Anti-Libanus, forms one of the two sources of the A‘waj (the Pharpar), the second great river near Damascus (Porter, Damascus, ed. 2, p. 117 sq.). (3) Jubb ‘Adin, a village situated in the hills, about 25 miles N.E. of Damascus, and 20 miles S.E. of Baalbek. (4) The place called by the Greeks Paradisus, identified by Robinson (B.R[213] III. 544, 556) with old-Jûsieh, far up the valley of Coele-Syria, near Riblah, some 30 miles N.E. of Baalbek—a spot described as being now, at any rate, remarkably “dreary and barren” (Porter, Handbook to Palestine, p. 577). (5) The ‘Eden of [ Eze 27:23], [ 2Ki 19:12] (= [ Isa 37:12]), which Schrader (K.A.T[214][215] p. 327) is disposed to identify with the Bît-Adini, often mentioned in the Inscriptions of Asshurnazirpal and Shalmaneser II., a district lying on both sides of the Euphrates, in the middle part of its course, between Bâlis and Biredschik, some 200 miles N.N.E. of Damascus.
[213] .R. … Edw. Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine (ed. 2, 1856).
[214] .A.T. … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
[215] … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
None of these identifications can be regarded as certain: and the grounds upon which some of them have been suggested are very insufficient. The name Bêt-jenn, for instance, was formerly supposed to be Bêt el-janne, i.e. “house, or place, of the garden (Paradise),” which bore the appearance of being an Arabic translation of Beth-‘eden; but this supposition appears not to be correct[216]. The Greek—or ultimately Persian—word Paradisus, again, does not mean a ‘Paradise,’ in our sense of the term, but merely an enclosed park. Jubb ‘Adin would seem to be a place of too little note to have been signalized by the prophet in such a connexion. On the whole, either (1) or (5) appears to be, relatively, the most probable. Bît-Adini (5) might indeed be thought to be too distant from Damascus; but it has been observed that thirty-two kings are mentioned as being in alliance with Ben-hadad (I.), in [ 1Ki 20:1]; [ 1Ki 20:16], and twelve ‘kings of the land of the Hittites,’ or of the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, are mentioned as allies of the same king by Shalmaneser II. (K.A.T[217][218], pp. 202, 203); hence the allusion may not impossibly be to one or other of the subordinate kings who held rule under the suzerainty of the king of Damascus, and who, the prophet declares, will be involved with him in his fall. Perhaps there were various Aramaean settlements in Coele-Syria and Mesopotamia governed in this way; and the “plain of Aven” and “Eden”—whether this be the Syrian ‘Edçn, or Bît-adini—may have been mentioned as representing these. Others have supposed the allusion to be to a summer residence of the kings of Damascus themselves. It is impossible to speak more definitely for lack of the necessary data. We must be content to know that some place or other, connected politically with Damascus, and, no doubt, prominent at the time, is intended by the prophet.
[216] See Robinson, B.R. iii. 447; Porter, Damascus, l. c.; Socin in Bädeker’s Palästina und Syrien, ed. 2, p. 283; all of whom write Bêt-jenn.
[217] .A.T. … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
[218] … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
6. For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four &c.] The form of expression as in [Amo 1:3], where see note. Gaza was the southernmost city of the Philistines: it lay on and about a hill, rising 100 feet out of the plain, at three miles distance from the sea, and some 50 miles S.W. of Jerusalem. “Fifteen wells of fresh water burst from the sandy soil, and render possible the broad gardens, and large population,” which is said to number now about 18,000 souls. Gaza owed its importance to its position. It was a fertile spot on the edge of a great desert; and it commanded the route between Egypt and Syria. It became in consequence not only important strategically: it was also “an emporium of trade on the border of the desert, with roads and regular caravans,” on the one hand, to Jerusalem, Damascus, Tyre, &c., on the other hand, to “Petra and Elath on the gulf of Akabah, both of them places in Edom, and depots for the traffic with Arabia” (comp. G. A. Smith, Geogr., p. 184; The Twelve Prophets, p. 126). This explains why Gaza is specially selected for blame: she was pre-eminently the centre of the slave-traffic.
because they carried into exile entire populations] i.e. the entire population of the places attacked by them: as Ewald paraphrases, whole villages (R.V. the whole people). Lit. an entire exile (=exiled company: see in the Heb. [ Jer 24:5]; [ Jer 28:4], [ Oba 1:20]). The reference appears to be not to warlike incursions (such as we read of in the times of Saul and David), but to raids made upon the villages of Judah without the excuse of war, for the purely commercial purpose of procuring slaves for the trade with Edom.
to deliver them up to Edom] viz. as slaves, whether for service among the Edomites themselves, or, more probably, to be re-sold by them—for instance, amongst the tribes inhabiting the Arabian peninsula. The same charge of selling their captives to the Edomites is brought against the Tyrians in [Amo 1:9]. For Edom as a trading nation, see [ Eze 27:16] (reading with mss. Aq. Pesh., and many moderns, Edom [אדם] for Syria [ארם]). In [ Joe 3:4-6], also, the Philistines (and Phoenicians) are reproached with selling Judahites into slavery.
7. But I will send a fire &c.] The verse is framed exactly as [Amo 1:4]. Wall, with allusion to Gaza’s being a stronghold.
8. the inhabitant] See on [Amo 1:5].
from Ashdod] Another of the five chief Philistine cities ([ Jos 13:3]; [ 1Sa 6:17] f.) is here specified, Ashdod, about 21 miles N.N.E. of Gaza, and 3 miles from the sea-coast. It was a strong fortress, and served also as a half-way station on the great caravan-route between Gaza and Joppa. According to Herodotus (ii. 157), when attacked by Psammetichus king of Egypt (c. 650 b.c.), it sustained a siege of 29 years, the longest on record: how severely it suffered on this occasion may be inferred from the expression ‘remnant of Ashdod’ used shortly afterwards by Jeremiah ([ Jer 25:20]). But it recovered from this blow: it is alluded to as a place of some importance in the time of Nehemiah ([ Neh 4:7]); and it is mentioned frequently afterwards.
and him that holdeth the sceptre] as [Amo 1:5]. The independent kings of the different Philistine cities are often mentioned in the Assyrian Inscriptions (cf. below).
from Ashkelon] a third chief Philistine city, situated actually on the coast, in a rocky amphitheatre, about half-way between Gaza and Ashdod. In the Middle Ages it became the most considerable of all the Philistine fortresses, its position on the sea constituting it then the key to S.W. Palestine. In ancient times little that is distinctive is recorded of it; though it may be reasonably inferred to have been already important for purposes of marine communication with the West.
turn mine hand against] [ Isa 1:25]; [ Zec 13:7]; [ Psa 81:14].
Ekron] a fourth chief city of the Philistines, situated inland, about 12 miles N.E. of Ashdod, and nearer the territory of Judah than any of the cities before mentioned. Ekron was the seat of a celebrated oracle, that of Baal-zebub ([ 2Ki 1:2]); but otherwise it does not appear in the Old Testament as a place of great importance. Gath, the fifth chief Philistine city, is not named: either, as some suppose (see on [Amo 6:2]) it was already destroyed, or it is included implicitly in the expression ‘remnant of the Philistines,’ immediately following.
and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish] i.e. whatever among them escapes the destruction announced in the previous clauses shall perish by a subsequent one: ‘remnant’ (she’çrith), as [Amo 5:15], [Amo 9:12] &c. The rendering rest, i.e. those unmentioned in the previous enumeration ([ Jer 39:3]; [ Neh 7:72]), is less probable. The verse declares that the whole Philistine name will be blotted out.
saith the Lord God] the Lord Jehovah (אדני יהוה), Amos’ favourite title for God, occurring in his prophecy twenty times ([Amo 1:8], [Amo 3:7-8]; [Amo 3:11], [Amo 4:2]; [Amo 4:5], [Amo 5:3], [Amo 6:8], [Amo 7:1-2]; [Amo 7:4]; [Amo 7:4-6], [Amo 8:1]; [Amo 8:3]; [Amo 8:9]; [Amo 8:11], [Amo 9:8]; and followed by God of hosts, [Amo 3:13]). It is likewise a standing title with Ezekiel, who uses it with great frequency. It is employed sometimes by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Deutero-Isaiah, as well as here and there by other prophets; and also occurs occasionally in the historical books (as [ Gen 15:2]; [ Gen 15:8]; [ Jos 7:7]).
Successes, of at least a temporary character, gained against the Philistines by Uzziah and Hezekiah, are recorded in [ 2Ch 26:6] f. and [ 2Ki 18:8]; but the foes from whom they suffered more severely were the Assyrians. Gaza was attacked by Tiglath-pileser (c. b.c. 734); its king Hanno was compelled to take refuge in Egypt; much spoil was taken, and a heavy tribute imposed (K.A.T[116][117] p. 256). In 711, Azuri, king of Ashdod, refused his accustomed tribute: the result was the siege by the Assyrian ‘Tartan,’ or general-in-chief, alluded to in Isaiah 20, which ended in the reduction of the city and exile of its inhabitants. Ten years later, in 701, Ashkelon and Ekron joined the Phoenician cities and Judah, in revolting from Sennacherib, and were both punished by the Assyrian king[118]. It seems, however, that though the power of the Philistines must have been seriously crippled by these blows, it was by no means destroyed: the kings of Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, and Ashdod are all named as tributary to Esarhaddon and Asshurbanipal (K.A.T[119][120] 356); oracles are uttered against the Philistines by several of the later prophets; their cities are mentioned as places of importance in the times of Nehemiah ([ Neh 4:7], [ Neh 13:23] f.) and the Maccabees. The passages in which other prophets foretell disaster for the Philistines—chiefly at the hands of the Assyrians or the Chaldaeans—should be compared: see [ Isa 11:14] (a picture of united Israel’s successes against them in the ideal future), [ Isa 14:29-32]; [ Jer 25:20]; Jeremiah 47; [ Zep 2:4-7]; [ Eze 25:15-17]; [ Zec 9:5-7].
[116] .A.T. … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
[117] … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
[118] See K.A. T.2 pp. 397 ff., 291 ff.; or the writer’s Isaiah, pp. 45, 67 f., 73.
[119] .A.T. … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
[120] … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
9–10. Tyre, the great commercial city of the North, next receives her doom from the prophet’s lips. Tyre, as the most important of the Phoenician cities, is taken as representing Phoenicia generally. For defensive purposes Tyre was strongly fortified; but the Phoenicians were not an aggressive people: they were devoted to commerce: Tyre was a ‘mart of nations’ ([ Isa 23:3]), a centre of trade by land as well as by sea (see the striking picture of the variety and extent of Tyrian commerce in Ezekiel 27); hence her relations with the Hebrews, as with her neighbours generally, were peaceful. The Tyrians were also celebrated for skill in artistic work: Hiram, king of Tyre, sent Tyrian workmen to build a palace for David; a formal treaty was concluded between Hiram and Solomon; Tyrian builders prepared timber and stones for the Temple; and a Tyrian artist designed and cast the chief ornaments and vessels of metal belonging to it ([ 2Sa 5:11]; [ 1Ki 5:1-12]; [ 1Ki 5:18]; [ 1Ki 7:13-45]).
because they delivered up entire populations to Edom] The charge is similar to that brought against the Philistines, [Amo 1:6]; the Tyrians however are not accused of taking captives, but only of delivering them to others, i.e. of acting as agents for those who actually took them. For the Tyrians taking part in the trade of slaves, cf. [ Eze 27:13]; and see on [ Joe 3:6]. What ‘exiled companies’ are alluded to does not appear; they need not necessarily have consisted of Israelites; the reference may be as well to gangs of slaves procured with violence from other nations.
and remembered not the brotherly covenant] lit. the covenant of—i.e. between—brothers: this forgetfulness was an aggravation of the offence, which is not mentioned in the case of Gaza, [Amo 1:6]. The allusion is commonly supposed to be to the league, or ‘covenant,’ concluded between Hiram and Solomon, [ 1Ki 5:12] (for ‘brother’ used figuratively of one joined in amity to another, see [ 1Ki 9:13]; [ 1Ki 20:32]); but it is scarcely likely that the crowning offence of Tyre should be forgetfulness of a treaty entered into nearly 300 years previously; more probably the reference is to the way in which, repudiating some alliance formed with other Phoenician towns, the Tyrians were the means of procuring slaves from them for Edom. As [Amo 2:1] shews, Amos does not restrict his censure to wrongs perpetrated against Israel: it is the rights common to humanity at large, which he vindicates and defends.
Isaiah (ch. 23), Jeremiah, at least incidentally ([ Jer 25:22]), Ezekiel (ch. 26–28), Zechariah ([ Zec 9:3] f.), all foretell the ruin of Tyre; but it was long before it was accomplished. The Tyrians, it seems, escaped as a rule the hostility of the Assyrians by acquiescing in a condition of dependence and by timely payment of tribute. Thus Asshurnazirpal (b.c. 885–860) boasts of marching with his army as far as the “great sea of the West,” and receiving tribute from Tyre, Sidon, Gebal, and Arvæd; but he claims no conquest by arms (K.A.T[121][122], p. 157; R.P[123][124] iii. 73 f.). Shalmaneser II. receives tribute in his 18th and 21st years (b.c. 842, 839) from Tyre and Sidon (K.A.T[125][126], p. 207, 210; R.P[127][128] iv. 44 f.),—in the former year, together with that of Jehu, Hiram, king of Tyre, pays tribute to Tiglath-pileser in 734 (ib. p. 253). Shalmaneser IV. besieged Tyre for five years, but it does not appear that he took it. Both Esarhaddon and Asshurbanipal name “Baal of Tyre” among their tributaries (K.A.T[129][130], p. 356). Tyre sustained a long siege—according to Josephus one of 13 years—at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar; but it is not stated whether he captured it,—Ezekiel, in his allusion ([ Eze 29:18]), implies that he did not. In the subsequent centuries the greatest blow which befel Tyre was its capture, after a seven months’ siege, by Alexander the Great, when 30,000 of its inhabitants were sold into slavery. It recovered itself, however, and continued for long afterwards to be an important naval and commercial city: Jerome (c. a.d. 400) describes it as Phoenices nobilissima et pulcherrima civitas, and says that mercantile transactions of nearly all nations were carried on in it. The final blow was not given to Tyre till a.d. 1291, when it was taken by the Saracens; and since then the site of the once populous and thriving city has been little more than a barren strand.
[121] .A.T. … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
[122] … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
[123] .P. … Records of the Past, first and second series, respectively.
[124] … Records of the Past, first and second series, respectively.
[125] .A.T. … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
[126] … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
[127] .P. … Records of the Past, first and second series, respectively.
[128] … Records of the Past, first and second series, respectively.
[129] .A.T. … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
[130] … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
11. because he did pursue his brother with the sword] Edom and Israel are frequently spoken of as ‘brethren’ ([ Deu 2:4]; [ Deu 23:7]; [ Oba 1:10]; [ Oba 1:12]; cf. [ Gen 27:40-41]): they were more closely related to each other than was either to any of their other neighbours: and the unbrotherly attitude assumed too often by Edom towards Israel is the head and front of his offence. Cf. [ Oba 1:10] (of the behaviour of Edom at the time when Jerusalem was taken by the Chaldaeans; see [Amo 1:11-14]), “For the violence done to thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.”
and did cast off all pity] and corrupted (or destroyed) his compassion, i.e. suppressed, or stifled, the natural instinct of tender regard which a person would normally cherish towards a brother, and which would render it impossible for him to ‘pursue’ him ‘with the sword.’
and his anger did tear perpetually] For the figure, see [ Job 16:9]. Edom’s anger against his brother was ever raging, tearing ([ Psa 7:2]) or rending its victims, like some wild animal. But the parallelism of the following clause makes it possible that we ought to read ‘and retained his anger’ (ויטר for ויטרף): see [ Psa 103:9]; [ Lev 19:18]; [ Nah 1:2] (parallel with avenge); and, as here, parallel with keep (שמר), [ Jer 3:5] (so Pesh. Vulg. Gunning, Wellhausen and others).
and he kept his wrath for ever] i.e. nursed, cherished it: instead of letting time dissipate it, he cherished it, in a spirit of revenge, till a fresh opportunity arose for displaying it in act. This revengeful temper of Edom displayed itself especially, not in malicious words only, but also in deed, at the time when Jerusalem was taken by the Chaldaeans: see [ Oba 1:10-14]; [ Eze 25:12-14]; Ezekiel 35 (where it is made, as here, the ground of predictions of desolation); cf. also [ Isa 34:5-17]; [ Jer 49:7-22]; [ Lam 4:21] f.; [ Mal 1:4]; [ Joe 3:19]; [ Psa 137:7].
12. upon Teman] According to Eusebius and Jerome (Onomastica, ed. Lagarde, pp. 156, 260), a district of the chiefs (‘dukes’ [duces]) of Edom in Gebal, but also, they add, a village about 15 (Jerome 5) miles from Petra, and the station of a Roman garrison. From [ Eze 25:13], where it is implied that Teman was in an opposite quarter to Dedan, it may be inferred that, as Dedan was the name of a tribe on the S.E. of Edom, Teman was in the N. or W. part of Edom. It is mentioned elsewhere in the O.T., as synonymous with Edom, [ Jer 49:7]; [ Oba 1:9]; [ Hab 3:3], or in poetical parallelism with it, [ Jer 49:20]: cf. [ Gen 36:34]. Eliphaz, Job’s friend, is described as a Temanite ([ Job 2:11] &c.) In [ Gen 36:11]; [ Gen 36:15] Teman is a grandson of Esau (= Edom), the relation of the particular clan to the whole nation being represented genealogically: the name must thus have been that of an Edomite clan, as well as of the region inhabited by it.
Bozrah] A town of Edom, mentioned also [ Gen 36:33], [ Jer 49:13]; and in poetical parallelism with Edom, [ Isa 34:6]; [ Isa 63:1], [ Jer 49:22]. From the manner in which it is named in most of these passages, it is clear that it must have been an important place. It is in all probability el-Buṣaireh (a diminutive of Boṣrah), about 35 miles N. of Petra, and 20 miles S.E. of the Dead Sea, with (Roman) ruins, first visited by Burckhardt in 1812 (Syria, 1822, p. 407: cf. also Rob. ii. 167; Doughty, Arabia Deserta, i. 31, 38).
Edom is mentioned as paying tribute to Rammân-nirâri III. (K.A.T[132][133] p. 190; K.B[134] i. 191), Tiglath-pileser III. (K.A.T[135][136] p. 258), Sennacherib (ib. p. 291), Esarhaddon, and Asshurbanipal (ib. p. 355). Afterwards, like its neighbours, it fell under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar ([ Jer 27:3] f.). During, and after, the Captivity, the Edomites extended their dominions W. of the Arabah, and ultimately transferred themselves thither altogether (the later ‘Idumaea’ being the southern part of Judah); Malachi ([Amo 1:3-4]) describes Edom as desolate in his day, though how it became so, we do not know; and in b.c. 312 the Nabataeans, an Arabian tribe, are found located in Edom, where they maintained themselves for many centuries. The cities of Edom finally fell to ruin after the Mohammedan conquest in the seventh century, a.d.
[132] .A.T. … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
[133] … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
[134] .B. … Eb. Schrader, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek (1889 ff.).
[135] .A.T. … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
[136] … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.
The authenticity of the oracle against Edom is doubted by Wellhausen, and at least suspected by G. A. Smith (p. 129 f.); the former supposes it to be an addition to the original text of Amos, dating from the Chaldaean age. Not only is there in the earlier prophets and historical books no other evidence of such animus against Edom as here displays itself, but Edom, when Amos wrote, had been for two centuries under the yoke of Judah; its first subjection had been accomplished with great cruelty ([ 1Ki 11:16]); Amaziah, also, more recently (801–792 b.c.), had severely smitten Edom ([ 2Ki 14:7]). Even, therefore, although Edom had shewn itself unfriendly, “was the right to blame them Judah’s, who herself had so persistently waged war, with confessed cruelty, against Edom? Could a Judaean prophet be just in blaming Edom and saying nothing of Judah?… To charge Edom, whom Judah had conquered and treated cruelly, with restless hate towards Judah seems to fall below that high impartial tone which prevails in the other oracles of this section. The charge was much more justifiable at the time of the Exile, when Edom did behave shamefully towards Israel” (G. A. Smith, p. 130). The argument is a forcible one, and the conclusion to which it points may be the true one: our ignorance, as the same writer proceeds to point out, prohibits our endorsing it absolutely: we do not for instance know the particulars of the revolt under Jehoram or what may have happened to provoke Amaziah’s attack upon Edom, or indeed what, generally, may have been Edom’s behaviour towards Judah during the century before Amos: there may have been occurrences during this period known to Amos and sufficient to justify the words used by him.
13. because they have ript up the women with child of Gilead] A barbarity probably not uncommon in ancient warfare, at least among more cruel or uncivilized combatants: see [ 2Ki 8:12] (Hazael), [ 2Ki 15:16] (Menahem); [ Hos 13:16]; cf. [ Hos 10:14]: comp. the similar cruelty of dashing children in pieces ([ 2Ki 8:12]; [ Hos 13:16]; [ Nah 3:10]; [ Isa 13:16]; [ Psa 137:9]). “In the embittered border-feuds between Arabian tribes the same ghastly barbarity is often mentioned; Ibn Athir iv. 256. 1, 258. 6, 260. 60, 262. 11 sqq.; Kitâb al-’Aghani, xix. 129. 12 sq., xx. 128. 13; Tabari ii. 755. 19” (Wellh.).
that they might enlarge their border] Such cruelty was not perpetrated in self-defence, but in cold blood, simply from a desire to augment their territory, at the expense of their Israelitish neighbours on the N. and W. (cf. at a later date [ Jer 49:1]).
14. But I will kindle a fire] Varied from I will send of the other cases: see on [Amo 1:4].
in the wall of Rabbah] The capital city of the Ammonites, and indeed the only Ammonite city mentioned in the O.T.: named elsewhere, [ 2Sa 11:1]; [ 2Sa 12:27]; [ 2Sa 12:29] ([ 1Ch 20:1]); [ Jos 13:25]; [ Jer 49:3]; [ Eze 25:5]; called more fully ‘Rabbah of the Ammonites,’ [ Deu 3:11]; [ 2Sa 12:26]; [ 2Sa 17:27]; [ Jer 49:2]; [ Eze 21:25] ( Heb. 20). From Ptolemy Philadelphia (b.c. 287–245) it received the name of Philadelpheia: in the Middle Ages it was known as ‘Ammân, a name which it still bears. It was situated about 25 miles N.E. of the N. end of the Dead Sea, in the valley forming the upper course of the Jabbok, now called the Wâdy ‘Ammân. The stream is perennial, and is well-stocked with fish: one of its sources, the ‘Ain ‘Ammân, is a little above the city, to the W. The present remains are chiefly of the Roman period, comprising a fortress, theatre, odeum, baths, a street of columns and gate, mausolea, &c. The fortress stands upon a hill, which rises on a triangular piece of ground on the N. of the stream to a height of some 300–400 ft., the city lying in the valley to the South. This lower city, situated on the banks of the ‘Ammân, is probably the “city of the waters” stated to have been taken by Joab in [ 2Sa 12:27]. There is a full description, with plan and views, of the existing ruins, in the Survey of Eastern Palestine (published by the Palestine Exploration Society) 19–64: see also D.B[138]1 s.v. (with a view).
[138] .B. … Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, ed. 1, or (from A to J) ed. 2.
with shouting in the day of battle] The ‘shouting’ is the battle-cry of the advancing foe: cf. [ Job 39:25]; [ Jer 4:19]; [ Jer 49:2] (A.V., R.V., ‘alarm’), &c., and the corresponding verb, [ Jdg 7:21]; [ 1Sa 17:52].
with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind] A figurative description of the onslaught of the foe: it will level all before it, like a destructive hurricane.
15. And their king shall go into captivity, &c.] into exile ([Amo 1:5]). The verse is borrowed by Jeremiah, with slight changes, in his prophecy against the Ammonites ([ Jer 49:3]), “For their king shall go into exile, his priests and his princes together”—where the addition of ‘priests’ makes it probable that for malcâm ‘their king,’ we should read, with most of the ancient versions, Milcom, the name of the national God of the Ammonites ([ 1Ki 11:5], &c.).