Thus saith Jehovah For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not revoke its sentence; because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant.
Amos opens with judgments on the nations around Israel. Here the word falls on Tyre, a rich trading city that had once been Israel's friend. The charge is not war but betrayal. Tyre handed a whole people over to Edom and forgot a covenant between brothers.
Each announcement opens with the same counting formula. The numbers themselves carry the message. Commentators read them as testimony piling past the point of doubt:
In the first two chapters there are eight short announcements of judgment, introduced by the words "for three transgressions and for four." Three witnesses were enough proof. Four is the cup running over, and the four quarters of the earth can testify to it.
The repeated phrase settles the outcome before the crime is even named:
In each judgment prediction we find the phrase, "For three transgressions … and for four, I will not revoke the punishment." It means that the measure is full and that nothing can turn the judgment aside. Fire stands out as the way judgment comes.
The "covenant of brotherhood" was not a figure of speech. It pointed back to a real friendship between Tyre and Israel's kings — and to what money did to it:
But hope of gain made Tyre forget the covenant of brotherhood, and Tyre gave the refugees up to the cruel Edomite. Tyre did not remember the covenant of brotherhood. This is the prophet's charge against her. David and Hiram, king of Tyre, made a covenant, and Solomon confirmed it; Hiram called Solomon "my brother" (see 2 Sam. 5 and 1 Kings 5 — 9).
That history is what makes the betrayal so ugly. The friendship had held for generations:
Tyre, the capital of Phoenicia, had also sinned against Israel by handing them over to their great enemy Edom. Their sin was especially wicked because David and Solomon had made a covenant with the king of Tyre, so no king of Judah or Israel had ever gone to war against Tyre.
Tyre did not sell a few prisoners. It sold a whole people, and it sold them to Israel's fiercest enemy:
Then Tyre comes before us, proud of its money as a city of merchant princes usually is, and linked by trade with every part of the earth. Fire would devour its palaces, and that is exactly what happened… They broke faith with their covenant of brotherhood, and handed the whole body of Jewish captives over to Edom, the proud hater of the people of God. They never thought that He saw their greedy trade in Israel and was angry at it.
This was not Tyre's only sale of God's people. One writer sets the charge here beside another charge in Scripture:
One specific charge brought against Tyre is that "they delivered up a whole people to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood." Amos 1:9. God said of them that they had taken His silver and His gold, carried His finest treasures into their temples, and sold the children of Judah to the Greeks. Joel 3:5-6.
The sentence did not stay a threat. Writers trace how it came true through two conquerors:
But Tyre broke away from the "covenant of brotherhood," and came under God's displeasure (Amos 1:9). Because of their sinful pride, God's judgments came on these cities, just as Isaiah (Isa. 23) and Ezekiel (Ezek. 26-29) had prophesied. They came through Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and later through Alexander the Great of Greece.
Tyre saw Israel fall and saw money in it. That calculation is where Tyre went wrong:
Here we see the folly of the hope held by the enemies of God's people. They sought Israel's ruin, thinking they would gain by it. God can certainly discipline His people, for He must show what His character is; but the malice of their enemies brings His judgment on them too.
The prophet then turns to God's own people. Judah is measured by the same formula used against Tyre:
After this we come in Amos 2:4 to the solemn announcement that God must deal with Judah just as He deals with their Gentile neighbours. With God there is no favouritism about sin, and none about righteousness either.
- Covenant. David and Hiram made a covenant, and Tyre's king called Solomon "my brother" — a real bond, not a formality.
- Forgotten. Hope of gain made Tyre forget that covenant. Profit beat a friendship generations old.
- Sold. Tyre handed a whole people over to Edom, the proud hater of God's people. It traded human beings for money.
- Seen. Tyre never thought God was watching. The numbers "three and four" say the measure was full, and God would not revoke the punishment.
- Burned. Judgment fell through Nebuchadnezzar and later Alexander. Seeking your own gain in another's ruin is folly, and with God sin meets no favouritism.
And I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.
Tyre's turn comes in a chain of eight short judgments that Amos delivers against the nations, each one framed the same way and fire running through them. The question the verse presses is why a rich trading city should have God's fire fall on its wall.
God sentences the surrounding nations before He touches Israel or Judah. The ground of that sentence is how they treated people.
At the start Jehovah roars from Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem, proclaiming His own rights from the place of His own throne. Afterwards, right at the end, comes the announcement that the house of David and of Israel will be restored. We may notice this. God pronounces judgment on the surrounding nations before He declares the judgment of Israel and Judah. He does so because of their hostile and cruel behaviour to the people of Israel, and because of what was cruel in their very nature, opposed even to the feelings of humanity. For God takes account of all these things.
In the previous verse Amos charges Tyre with handing a whole people over to Edom and not remembering "the covenant of brotherhood." Writers trace that covenant back to an alliance between kings, and the betrayal back to money.
Tyre shows enmity just as the other nations do, and she rejoiced when Jerusalem fell. Her huge trade may have increased her hatred. Many people may have fled to Tyre for refuge when Jerusalem was destroyed. But the hope of gain caused Tyre to forget the brotherly covenant, and she gave the fugitives up to the cruel Edomite. This is the prophet's charge against her (Amos 1:9). David and Hiram, king of Tyre, made a covenant, and Solomon confirmed it. Hiram called him "my brother" (see 2 Samuel 5 and 1 Kings 5 — 9).
The repeated phrase "for three transgressions… and for four" is not vague poetry. It marks a line already crossed.
In each judgment prediction we find the phrase, "for three transgressions or four … I will not reverse it." It means that the measure is full. The judgment cannot be turned aside. Fire stands out as the way the judgment comes. These nations were the enemies of Israel.
The numbers carry weight drawn from the courtroom, where witnesses proved a charge:
In the first two chapters there are eight short announcements of judgment, introduced by the words "for three transgressions and for four." Three witnesses were enough testimony. Four is the cup running over, and the four quarters of the earth can testify to it.
The fire falls on what Tyre trusted: her wall and her fortified buildings, which older translations call "palaces." A city built on trade burns at the point of its pride.
Then Tyre comes before us. It is proud of its purse, as a city of merchant princes usually is, and its trade connects it with every part of the earth. Fire would devour its palaces, and that is what happened… They were false to their brotherly covenant, and they handed the whole body of Jewish captives over to Edom, the haughty hater of the people of God. Little did they think that He saw and resented their covetous traffic in Israel.
Amos was not the only prophet to say it, and history did not leave the words hanging.
But Tyre broke away from the "brotherly covenant," and brought God's displeasure on herself (Amos 1:9). Because of their sinful pride, God's judgments came on Tyre and her neighbour city, just as Isaiah (Isaiah 23) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 26-29) had prophesied. They came through Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and later through Alexander the Great of Greece. Another prophet's words came true: Tyre built herself a stronghold and heaped up silver like dust and fine gold like the mud of the streets. But the Lord will cast her out, He will strike down her power in the sea, and she will be devoured with fire (Zechariah 9:3-4).
The spirit that traded a people away for profit did not die with the city.
The opposition that Tyre showed has carried on into modern times. The commerce that made that city famous has spread its wing over the cities of our day. They follow in the steps of Tyre, they carry the same unrighteousness, and the same doom waits for them. Our own age may not show the same arrogance that the prince of Tyre and the king of Babylon showed. But the world's commerce in Satan's hands leads to it.
- Covenant broken — Tyre had a brotherly bond with David and Solomon, and let the hope of gain cancel it.
- Measure full — "three… and four" means the evidence is more than complete and the judgment cannot be reversed.
- Fire sent — God Himself is the one who sends it, and it lands on the wall and strongholds the city trusted.
- Word fulfilled — Nebuchadnezzar and then Alexander carried out what Amos, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah announced.
- Warning standing — the trading spirit that broke a covenant for profit still runs today's cities, and the same verdict waits.