Old Testament Commentary - Amos 2

by Don R. Hender


Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
Commentary & Explanation
Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
            CHAPTER 2             

The Lord will pour out judgments upon Moab, Judah, and Israel for their unrighteousness.

 1 THUS saith the LORD; For three transgressions of aMoab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:
 2 But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kirioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet:
 3 And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the LORD.
 4 ¶ Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have adespised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked:
 5 But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
 6 ¶ Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israela, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they asold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;
 7 That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to aprofane my holy name:
 8 And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.
 6a transgressions of Israel Moab and Judah have already been spoken against so now here Israel is the northern kingdom the Kingdom of Ephraim which is Israel, Ephraim having been given that name under the hand of Jacob (see JST Genesis 48). And while Amos will primarily been the prophet to warn Israel/Ephraim, he will also speak to Judah as well as it is all one and the same part of the whole of the house of Jacob that will be destoryed and scattered. First the house of Israel in Ephraim, the northern kingdom and later also the southern kingdom of Judah.
 9 ¶ Yet adestroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.
 10 Also I abrought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you bforty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.
 11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for aNazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD.
 12 But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.
 13 Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.
 14 Therefore the aflight shall perish from the bswift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty cdeliver himself:
 15 Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself: neither shall he that rideth the horse adeliver himself.
 16 And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the LORD.