Thus saith Jehovah For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke its sentence; because they have despised the law of Jehovah, and have not kept his statutes; and their lies have caused them to err, after which their fathers walked.
The prophet has already passed sentence on Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab. Now he turns the same words on Judah — the people who held God's own law. The charge here is not cruelty in war. Judah had rejected what God said. So does religious privilege protect anyone from judgment?
Judah hears the same opening words the prophet had just aimed at pagan neighbours. One writer explains why.
Then in Amos 2:4 we come to the solemn announcement that God must deal with Judah as He deals with their Gentile neighbours. With God there is no favouritism about sin, any more than about righteousness… Here Judah broke the LORD's law and trusted lies or idols.
The counting phrase is not a total of seven offences. It is a picture from the courtroom and from an overflowing cup.
In the first two chapters there are eight short announcements of judgement. Each opens with 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.
Another writer explains the second half of the line: God will not take the sentence back.
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 and that nothing can turn the judgment aside.
The law Judah rejected was not a vague idea of right and wrong. Amos stands with three other prophets who show that a written law book was already in the nation's hands.
There are four witnesses to this fact whom no one can challenge: the prophets Isaiah, Micah, Amos and Hosea. They take us back past the days of Hezekiah to the days of Uzziah and Jeroboam the Second. Three of them name "The Law of the Lord" outright. Two of them say it existed as a written book. All of them quote enough of that book to show it is the same book we have.
Something filled the space the law had left. Commentators differ on what "their lies" were: one writer links them to idols, another to the message of false prophets.
Judah's sin was the rejection of the law of the Lord. They would not listen to the voice of the Lord or to His prophets. They listened to the false prophets instead, whose lies led them astray. And the children walked in the evil footsteps of their fathers. The sin of Judah was apostasy. That is the great sin today among the professing people of God, Christendom… Fire was to come upon Judah and the palaces of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar fulfilled this prophecy.
Why does Judah's failure weigh more than Moab's or Ammon's? Judah had a law from God; the nations around them did not.
Gentiles are never called transgressors in the sense of breaking the law or the covenant. They are called "sinners of the Gentiles"… The Jews stood under the stated terms of the law, so the law brought them to a definite test. If they broke that law, they were not just sinners like the Gentiles. They were transgressors as well. That is, they were guilty of clearly breaking a law of God that they knew. So their guilt is greater.
The order of these judgments carries a warning that reaches past the ancient nations.
We may also notice the order in which the prophecy of Amos names these four kingdoms for judgment: Edom, Moab, Judah and Israel… Those who despise grace only "treasure up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God."
- Measure. The words "for three transgressions … and for four" mean the witness is complete and the cup is running over. God will not reverse the judgment.
- Law. Judah threw away a real book they already had. Amos quotes it, and so do Isaiah, Micah and Hosea.
- Lies. Judah refused God's word, so the word of false prophets filled the gap and led the nation astray. One writer calls this swap apostasy, and sees it repeated in the professing church today.
- Inheritance. The children walked the same road their fathers had walked. Lies pass down from parents to children like a family tradition.
- Weight. God judges Judah by the same standard as the pagan nations, but more heavily. Breaking a known law makes a man a transgressor, not only a sinner. With God, sin gets no favouritism, and neither does righteousness.
And I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
Amos has just announced doom on six neighbouring nations, and now the roll call reaches God's own people. Jerusalem faces the same sentence as any pagan capital — so what protection is left in belonging to God?
When the prophet turns from the pagan nations to Judah, nothing in the wording softens.
Then in Amos 2:4 comes the solemn announcement that God must deal with Judah as He deals with their Gentile neighbours. With God there is no favouritism about sin, any more than about righteousness. "For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment." Here they had broken the Lord's law, and had trusted lies and idols.
The wording is identical for every nation on the list, and that sameness is itself the blow.
The Lord had said of Israel that this people would live alone and would not be counted among the nations. Yet Amos gives us a list of eight guilty nations, with Judah and Israel last on it, marked out for doom in exactly the same words as the other six. By their sin they had forfeited all special recognition from the Lord. In their condition they stood before Him just as Damascus, Philistia and Moab did. They are named alongside these pagan peoples in a way meant to reach their consciences and stir up the memory of the special place they held in God's favour.
Judah's charge is spelled out, and it is not the charge laid against the pagan nations.
Judah's sin was the rejection of the law of the Lord. Instead of listening to the voice of the Lord and to His prophets, they listened to the false prophets, whose lies led them astray, and the children walked in the evil footsteps of their fathers. The sin of Judah was apostasy. That is the great sin today among the professing people of God, Christendom. Fire was to devour the cities and palaces of the nations, and fire was to come on Judah and the palaces of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar fulfilled this prophecy.
The repeated phrase "for three transgressions… and for four" sets the measure for each nation. The numbers themselves carry the point.
Three witnesses were enough testimony. Four is the cup running over, and the four corners of the earth can testify to it.
All eight announcements use the same picture: fire.
The meaning is that the measure is full and that nothing can turn the judgment aside. Fire is named again and again as the way the judgment comes.
The fire falls on the strongholds — the palaces and fortified buildings that made Jerusalem feel safe. This is what it meant when the fire came.
The Chaldeans also burned the house of God, a terrible insult for Judah to have to bear. They broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned its palaces with fire and destroyed everything of value in the city.
One thread ties the whole list of nations together, and it explains why Judah is on it.
These judgments from the Lord fall on the nations settled in the land promised to Abraham, land that belongs by God's gift to the people of Israel. God clears His land of what defiles it, and so, sadly, of Judah and Israel as well. At the same time He asserts and keeps His own rights over it, and He will use them in grace for Israel in the last days.
These two chapters only settle that Judah and Israel are as guilty as anyone else. What follows goes further.
If God dealt with the Gentiles like this, Judah and Israel could not escape… In chapter 3 they are judged not merely as being at fault — others were guilty and so were they. But Israel stood under the Lord as no other nation did, and so they could be charged with treason in a way no one else could… Has this no voice for us? Have we no special relationships with God?
- Same formula. God sentences Judah in exactly the same words as Damascus, Philistia and Moab. By their sin they had forfeited every special claim on Him.
- No favourites. God must deal with Judah as with their neighbours, because with Him there is no favouritism about sin, any more than about righteousness.
- Worse charge. Judah's sin was rejecting the law of the Lord and trusting the lies of false prophets. That is apostasy, a turning away from the God they knew, and commentators see the same sin in the professing church today.
- Full measure. "Three and four" means the cup has run over. Nothing can turn the judgment aside now, and fire is how it comes.
- Real fire. The strongholds fell: the temple burned, the wall broken down, the palaces destroyed. Yet God keeps His own rights over His land, and He will use them in grace for Israel in the last days.
Thus saith Jehovah For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke its sentence; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes;
Amos has just announced God's judgment on the nations around Israel, and then on Judah. Now the same words turn on Israel itself. The crime named is everyday injustice: a righteous man sold for silver, a poor man for the price of sandals.
One writer explains the numbers as evidence piled past the point of doubt:
In the first two chapters there are eight short announcements of judgment. They are 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 phrase means the case is closed. God will weigh nothing more, and nothing will hold the sentence back:
Then 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.
God's dealing does not stop with the nations. Judah and Israel fall under the same rule:
After this we come in Amos 2:4 to the solemn announcement that God must deal with Judah as with their Gentile neighbours. With God sin admits of no respect of persons any more than righteousness.
And privilege does not soften the verdict:
Israel had failed as a nation before God. The righteousness that punished the other nations would certainly not spare a more privileged people who bore His name.
Kelly sorts the sins of verses 6 to 8 into four kinds:
Last of all we come (verses 6-8) to Israel's transgressions. Here it seems there are four classes of wickedness. There is hard selfishness — the strictest legal right turned into the greatest wrong. There is greedy grinding down of the poor. There is unclean and profane living. And there is wild feasting in idol worship.
Darby traces the root to a heart that has stopped fearing God, not to a broken law. The victims are people God has His eye on:
In Israel the sin named has a character more independent of the law. It is connected with that turning away from the fear of God, which lets a man give way to the selfishness of his own heart and oppress those whom God cares for. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They care not for the sufferings of the poor.
Amos returns to this charge again and again. It runs far wider than one prophet:
All through the Word of God, God calls us to remember the poor in kindness, and He gives some most blessed promises to those who obey these gracious words. See Proverbs 14:21; 19:17; 22:9; 28:8, 27; Psalm 41:1. Oppression of the poor is a sin, which God specially marks. See Isaiah 3:14, 15; 10:2; Ezekiel 18:11-13; Amos 2:6, 4:1; 5:11; James 2:6. When the Lord comes He will remember the poor and deliver them.
Gaebelein sees the same pattern still at work:
Oppression of the poor, yes, the poor of their own people, is another characteristic of the Jewish people. The prophet Amos rebuked it in his day, when the poor were downtrodden and robbed by the rich. It is so today and will be so in the future. And the rich used the money they took from the poor to live in luxury and reckless pleasure. The spirit they showed in piling up treasure, oppressing the poor and needy, robbing them, and living in pleasure, is the same spirit that condemned and killed the Just One, the Lord Jesus Christ, who did not resist.
- Full measure. "Three… and for four" means the evidence is beyond dispute and the cup has run over. God announces that He will not turn back the sentence.
- Full impartiality. The same words that sentenced the surrounding nations fall on Israel, because with God sin meets no respect of persons.
- Full privilege, heavier account. The righteousness that punished the nations would not spare a people who bore God's name.
- Full record. Selling a righteous man for silver and a poor man for sandals comes from a heart that has lost the fear of God and oppresses the very people God watches over.
- Full reversal coming. Scripture says God marks the oppression of the poor. When the Lord comes, He will remember the poor and deliver them.
panting after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turning aside the way of the meek; and a man and his father will go in unto the [same] maid, to profane my holy name.
Amos has just passed sentence on Israel's neighbours. Now the same measure falls on Israel itself. The question is whether being God's people makes any difference to how God treats sin.
Kelly reads verses 6 to 8 as a list, not a blur. He sorts Israel's sins into four kinds, then sets them against God's past care for the nation.
Lastly we come (verses 6-8) to Israel's transgressions. Here there seem to be four kinds of wickedness: hard selfishness; greedy grinding of the poor; shameless immorality; and idol-worship with wild feasting. To shame them, the prophet sets before them the kind and faithful care of God, both in the land and, before that, in Egypt.
Trampling the poor is not just a social failure here. Darby traces it back to something lost inside, and shows that Amos returns to this charge again and again.
In Israel the sin named is less a matter of the law... It is tied to a departure from the fear of God. That departure lets a man give way to the selfishness of his own heart, and oppress the very people God cares about. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They do not care about the sufferings of the poor... This prophecy repeats the charge of despising the poor again and again (Amos 2:7; 4:1; 5:11; 8:6), and it is aimed especially at Israel.
The greed reached even the courts. Money taken as fines came back as wine for the men who imposed them.
The poor suffered because of their greed. They lived in unspeakable filth. They worshipped idols. The people whom the judges condemned paid their fines, and that money bought the judges wine for their pagan orgies.
Pushing a poor man's head into the dirt looks like nothing to the man doing it. Scripture says the sound of it reaches heaven.
Nothing can be more painful to a tender heart than the lack of kindly consideration for the poor, so often shown by the rich. They can sit down to a fine meal after turning away from their door some poor hard-working man who came for the just reward of his honest work. They do not think of the aching heart that man carries home to his family, when he tells them how he was let down, and they with him. Oh! it is terrible. It is most offensive to God, and to all who have drunk, in any measure, into His grace. Do we want to know what God thinks of such behaviour? Then listen to these words of holy indignation: "the wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts" (James 5:4). "The Lord of hosts" hears the cry of the wronged and disappointed labourer.
The verse ends by tying the immorality of father and son directly to God's holy name. Outsiders judge God by the lives of the people who claim Him.
It all comes to a head in one solemn statement. The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through the religious man. The Apostle is speaking of the Jew; but what he says is equally true of the professing Christian. The corruption and the degraded practice of people who claim the Christian name have been the main cause of the blasphemies of unbelievers. People would not have become Christians simply because Christians were consistent. But if Christians lived out what they claim, no one would have any reason to blaspheme God.
Some expect closeness to God to soften the sentence. Kelly says it does the opposite.
No corruption is as serious as the corruption of God's people. So His chastening matches it: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos 3:2).
- Root. Cruelty to the poor is not first an economic problem. It grows out of a departure from the fear of God that leaves selfishness free to run.
- Fruit. The text lists what grows from that root: hard selfishness, grinding the poor, immorality, and idol-worship paid for with money taken from the ruined.
- Cry. The trampled man's grief does not go unheard. The Lord of hosts hears the cheated worker's cry, and answers such conduct with holy indignation.
- Name. Sin among God's people does not stay private. It reaches His name, and outsiders form their view of God from the lives of those who claim Him.
- Reckoning. Being known by God raises the standard instead of lowering it. No corruption is more serious than that of God's people, and His chastening matches it.
And they lay [themselves] down by every altar upon clothes taken in pledge, and they drink [in] the house of their God the wine of the condemned.
Amos has just named the crimes of the surrounding nations, and now he turns on Israel and points at their worship. The offence is not that they had stopped worshipping — it is what they carried in with them.
In this verse the garments were taken in pledge. A pledge was security a lender held against a loan.
People took articles as security for loans and similar debts from very early times. The law set restrictions on this, so that no one could take unfair advantage through it. Exodus 22:26; Deuteronomy 24:10-17; Job 22:6; Job 24:3, 9; Amos 2:8.
One writer paraphrases God's own reasoning behind one of those restrictions.
If a borrower gave his garment as security, the lender must not keep it even overnight. My righteous demands must in no way take precedence over proper compassion.
One writer traces the behaviour to its root, then points at where it happened.
The sin here comes from turning away from the fear of God. That lets a man give way to the selfishness of his own heart, and oppress those whom God cares about. They care nothing for the sufferings of the poor. Even at the altar itself — the altar that was at least supposed to be Jehovah's — they lie down on garments pledged through poverty. They make merry with the fines imposed for wrongdoing. … The charge of despising the poor comes up again and again in this prophecy (Amos 2:7; 4:1; 5:11; 8:6), and especially in connection with Israel.
The wine had a source. One writer traces it back to the courtroom.
Verses 6-8 describe their sins. The poor suffered through their greed. They lived in unspeakable vileness. They were idolatrous. The judges condemned people and took their fines, and that money bought the judges wine for their heathen revelry.
One writer sorts these charges into four kinds. He then shows what God set against them.
Lastly we come (verses 6-8) to Israel's transgressions. There seem to be four classes of wickedness here: hard selfishness, greedy grinding of the poor, shameless immorality and contempt for holy things, and idolatrous revelry. To shame them, the prophet sets before them the gracious and faithful care of God, in the land and before that in Egypt (9, 10). He sets before them God's choice of their sons to be prophets and Nazirites too. And what had they done? … Israel had failed as a nation before God. The righteousness that punished the other nations would surely not spare a more privileged people who bore His name.
(A Nazirite was an Israelite set apart to God by a vow.)
Israel was not alone in this. One writer finds the same conduct condemned outside Israel.
The first "Woe" is pronounced over the man who collects other people's possessions, goods that do not belong to him. He loads himself with a burden of goods that he pledges against interest. The same things had happened in Israel (Amos 2:6-8). … Such behaviour is something detestable in God's eyes. How much punishment could rulers spare themselves and their nations, if they saw how low such deeds are!
- Pledge. The garment was security for a loan. The law limited how long a lender could hold it, so no one could profit from a poor man's need.
- Compassion. A legal claim never outranks kindness. The cloak had to go back before nightfall.
- Altar. The sin was not neglected religion but corrupted religion. They stretched out at the altar itself, on garments they should have given back.
- Revelry. The judges condemned people, collected their fines, and drank wine bought with that money in the house of their God.
- Judgment. This is the last count of four. God answered it by naming all He had given them, and the righteousness that punished other nations would not spare a people who carried His name.
But I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was as the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; but I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.
God has just listed Israel's sins against the poor. Then He turns the argument around and points to Himself: Israel owed its very address in the land to a victory it never won.
The Amorite blocked Israel's road into the land and paid for it. A reference work fills in the history behind the verse:
When Israel came near the promised land, the Amorites were in the east. They refused to let Israel pass. But they were beaten, their cities fell, and their people were killed, along with Sihon their king. Some must have escaped, for we read of them later. One of the disputes the Lord had with Israel was over worshipping their gods.
That last line carries a sting: Israel later bowed to the gods of the people God had cleared out of their way.
The two trees are chosen for what everyone knew about them. The Hebrew words behind "oaks" all come from a root carrying a plain idea:
Four Hebrew words are translated this way. They all seem to come from the same root, meaning "strong, hardy," and they most often refer to the oak, which lives to a great age… The oak is a symbol of strength, and it gives shade from the heat of the sun.
So the enemy stood like the best timber in the land: tall, old, hard to move. God treats him as a tree, then takes the fruit off the top and the roots from underneath.
One writer describes what happened when Israel met Sihon and Og. Watch what he says about Israel's own losses:
Israel had won its war against Sihon the Amorite king, and against Og, king of Bashan, one of the giants. Neither could stand against them. It had been a war of extermination. Every man, woman and child was cut off. As far as we read, not one Israelite was wounded… Og came from the Rephaim, an ancient and very powerful race. He found that his fortified cities, with their high walls, gates and bars, gave him no protection against the invading army.
God did not clear the land on a whim. The Amorite here stands for all the nations of Canaan, and God waited until their evil was past bearing:
Every landlord has a perfect right to evict bad tenants. The nations of Canaan had not only failed to pay their rent, as we say. They had damaged and defiled the property so badly that God could no longer put up with them. So He was going to drive them out, no matter who the new tenants were… The wickedness of the Amorites had reached its highest point. Nothing remained but for judgement to take its course.
None of the credit fell to Israel, and God said so:
God told Abraham that his descendants must go down and live in Egypt for a long time, because the sin of the Amorites had not yet reached its full measure. And this happened. God made plain to Israel why these nations were judged: "Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, but for the wickedness of these nations, the Lord drives them out before you," Deut. 9:5.
The verse is not history for its own sake. God sets it beside the sins He has just listed, and the contrast does the work:
Last of all (verses 6-8) we come to Israel's sins. There seem to be four kinds of wickedness here: hard selfishness; grinding the poor out of greed; immorality that profanes God's name; and idolatrous revelry. To shame them, the prophet sets out the gracious and faithful care of God, both in the land and, before that, in Egypt (verses 9, 10). He also sets out God's choice of their sons to be prophets and Nazirites. And what had they done?
And the memory was meant to shape how they treated the weak among them — the very people they were now crushing:
The same power destroyed the Amorite, the Canaanite, and the rest who lived in the promised land. Israel was bound to remember that all this was of His grace. He required that same grace, in due measure, from those who prospered, on behalf of their poor brothers.
- Cause — The Amorite fell for his own sin. It had ripened until God would bear it no longer. Israel's own record had nothing to do with it.
- Gift — The land came to Israel as grace; Deuteronomy 9:5 rules out any claim of their own righteousness.
- Power — Giants in fortified cities could not stand. God felled the tallest timber in the land, not Israel's army.
- Completeness — Fruit above, root below: God left nothing. Israel could not point to one wound of their own that paid for it.
- Result — Remembered grace should shame sin and soften the strong toward the poor. Israel forgot, and had no answer when God listed its crimes.
And I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.
Amos has just listed Israel's crimes. Now the Lord answers with a record of His own: He brought them out of Egypt, He led them forty years, and He gave them the land of the Amorite.
The verse is not a history lesson for its own sake. One writer explains why God recalls His own kindness here:
The prophet sets before them the gracious and faithful care of God, both in the land and before that in Egypt, to shame them. … Israel had failed as a nation before God. The righteousness that punished the surrounding nations would certainly not spare a more privileged people who bore His name.
Notice who acts in this verse. Israel never acts. God brings up, God leads, God gives the land. One commentator lists the same acts, then says what Israel's sins did to God's heart:
Yet God had brought them up out of Egypt. He had destroyed their enemies to give them their lands. He had given them the signs of a special relationship with Himself… Their sins crushed the heart of God, so to speak, and His judgment would overtake them.
The Amorites were a real people, and Israel met them on the way to the land:
When Israel came near the promised land, the Amorites were in the east, and they refused to let Israel pass. But they were defeated, their cities were taken, and the people were killed, along with Sihon their king… Some must have escaped, because we read of them later. One of the disputes the LORD had with Israel was for worshipping their gods.
That last detail sharpens the whole verse. The nation whose land God handed over became the nation whose idols Israel later copied.
One writer sets God's gifts beside Israel's response:
Then the Lord reminds them of all His mercies and loving kindness in the past. He destroyed the Amorite. He led them through the wilderness to take the land… Despite all these many mercies they continued in their evil ways, grinding down the poor, defying God and His law, and living in moral corruption.
There is a puzzle in the wording. God says you came out of Egypt, yet He is speaking to the people of Amos's own day:
Again, the LORD says to His erring people in Amos 2:10: "Also it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness." In fact the people He was speaking to had never been in Egypt or the wilderness. They lived hundreds of years after the Exodus. Yet God speaks of them as sharing in that wonderful deliverance.
His answer is belonging. Birth into the nation gave them a share in the nation's history. The same writer applies this to Christians at Corinth:
The "fathers" of Isaiah's day, and the Israelites Amos spoke to, are described as the people God rescued from Egypt. By their birth as Israelites they had become part of the people God favoured in this way. In the same way, Scripture describes the Christians at Corinth as baptized by the Spirit. Through their reception of the gospel the Spirit of God lived in them, so they had become part of that wonderful living body, the body of Christ.
- Brought up. The list starts with the rescue from Egypt. Israel never acts in it: God brings up, God leads, God gives the land.
- Led. Forty years in the wilderness are counted as care, not punishment, in this recital of "the gracious and faithful care of God both in the land and before it in Egypt."
- Given. God destroyed the Amorites to give Israel their land. Later Israel worshipped the gods of that very people.
- Counted in. The "you" of this verse reaches people born centuries later. Birth into the nation meant a share in the rescue that made the nation.
- Called to account. The list of mercies becomes the charge. The righteousness that judged the surrounding nations would not spare a more privileged people who bore His name.
And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, ye children of Israel? saith Jehovah.
Here God pauses His charge against Israel to name His gifts: rescue from Egypt, land to live in, and then people — prophets and Nazirites from their own sons. It ends with a question aimed straight at the nation's conscience, and the next verse shows how they answered.
The list of gifts sits inside a charge against the nation. One commentator sets the gifts and the crime side by side.
To shame them, the prophet sets God's gracious and faithful care before them, both in the land and before that in Egypt (verses 9, 10). He also sets before them God's choice of their sons to be prophets and Nazirites. And what had they done? (verses 11, 12.)
Prophets and Nazirites are the two marks of a nation in a special relationship with God. One kind of person was set apart for Him. The other was sent from Him. Israel spoiled both, in two different ways.
He had given them the tokens of a special relationship with Himself. These were persons set apart for Himself, and others whom He had sent to them as messengers. But they had caused the first to defile themselves, and had told the second not to prophesy in the name of Jehovah.
The words "I raised up" matter. Israel's first order of things did not include prophets. They came only after that order broke down.
An extraordinary energy of the Spirit raised them up to guide Israel. The original settlement of things in Israel did not provide such a ministry. The nation was to stand in the remembrance and obedience of the words which Moses had delivered. See Deuteronomy 6, 11, 31. But when they forgot these words, an extraordinary presence of the Spirit of God became necessary. It then appeared in the person and ministry of the prophets.
The other gift is a word that needs unpacking. The name itself carries the whole idea.
The very term "Nazirite" speaks of "separation." The three things required of him all say this. He kept away from the fruit of the vine. His long hair set aside the dignity of manhood. He kept away from the dead. The vow, as looked at here, was voluntary and for a limited time. These are the things in which its character shows itself.
Notice whose sons these were. God raised up this devotion inside Israel's own families. The next verse shows what the nation did with it.
Amos mentions a further privilege of the people. God had given among them young people who wanted to live especially for God: "some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young men for Nazirites" (v. 11). How had they treated these privileges? They should have rejoiced over the devotion of the Nazirites. Instead they discouraged these young men and tried to distract them from their consecration to God: "you made the Nazirites drink wine" (v. 12). They said, in effect, "Don't take things so seriously: a little more earthly joy and a little less dedication is better — one shouldn't overdo things."
Why go to the trouble of pulling someone down? The same writer presses the question, and finds the answer close to home.
One wonders what motivation led them to act in this way. If they would not encourage them, why not simply leave the Nazirites (and the prophets) alone? They could have done that even without feeling called or inclined to follow their example. Is the reason not this? The greater dedication of my brother or my sister pricks my conscience and condemns me.
The same appetite can show up in Christians today. One writer sees it in what people want from teaching.
One danger for Christians at the present moment is the desire for stimulants in teaching. This also characterised Israel (Amos 2:11). Stimulants are not food at all. In the end they even create a distaste for food. They only excite the imagination, the intellect, or nature. They never reach the conscience or the heart. Christ, and Christ alone, is the food of His people.
- Given. God recalls His gifts to shame Israel: prophets and Nazirites, named alongside the rescue from Egypt and the land.
- Given from within. These were their own sons and young men. God raised up the devotion inside Israel's homes.
- Given after failure. Prophets came by an extraordinary working of the Spirit, after the nation forgot the words Moses had delivered. The Nazirite's very name means separation.
- Spoiled. Israel spoiled both tokens of that special relationship. They defiled the separated one with wine and silenced the messenger.
- Still asked. God's question still stands. It reaches us whenever another believer's dedication pricks the conscience, and we discourage instead of encourage.
And ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.
God has just listed His gifts to Israel: a land, His care in Egypt before that, and prophets and Nazirites — young men set apart to live for God — raised up from Israel's own sons. Verse 12 is Israel's answer to that kindness, and it raises a hard question: what kind of people work to shut down the gifts God gives them?
The charge lands right after a reminder of how well God had treated Israel.
To shame them, the prophet sets God's gracious and faithful care before them — His care in the land, and before that in Egypt. He also sets before them His choice of their sons to be prophets and Nazirites. And what had they done?
The verse names two groups, and God had raised up both of them in Israel. One writer sees the wine as pressure on young men who wanted to live for God.
God had given them young people who wanted to live for God in a special way: "And I raised up some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young men for Nazirites." How had they treated these privileges? They should have rejoiced over the devotion of the Nazirites. Instead they discouraged these young men and tried to pull them away from their consecration to God: "But you made the Nazirites drink wine." They said, in effect, "Don't take things so seriously. A little more earthly joy and a little less dedication is better. One shouldn't overdo things." Their attitude to the prophets was just as wrong: "and commanded the prophets, saying, 'You shall not prophesy.'"
Handing a Nazirite a cup of wine looks harmless — until you see what the wine stood for.
"Wine and strong drink," which the Nazirite had to keep away from, would point to what gratifies, stimulates, and excites the flesh… As Nazirites we do not need the joys of men. We do not need what the world provides to keep us going. Our joy and strength are in the Lord.
Nobody is forced to interfere with another person's devotion. The question of why they bothered leads to an uncomfortable answer.
One wonders what motive led them to act in this way. Why did they not at least leave the Nazirites (and the prophets) alone, if they would not encourage them? They could have done that even if they themselves did not feel called or inclined to follow their example. Is the explanation not that the greater dedication of my brother or my sister pricks my conscience and condemns me?
The same writer turns the verse into a question for today.
Even today the prophet Amos asks us how we handle the dedication of others. Should we not beware of comments that put them down or discourage them? Should we not encourage them on this pathway and pray for them instead? The behaviour of the Nazirites can be a positive example and a spur for us to live for the Lord ourselves.
The order to stop prophesying comes back later in the book. This time a priest named Amaziah aims it at Amos himself.
The priest Amaziah tries to stir up the fears and jealousy of the king against Amos. At the same time he pretends to advise Amos for his own good. His aim is to get rid of the testimony from God, which he dreaded… Religion in Israel was a political arrangement, despite their effort to imitate the ritual of God.
If a people will not hear, God can stop speaking. Later in the book Amos warns them what that will feel like.
Amos announces a great famine. It will not be a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. God will withdraw His Word and the light of His revelation from them completely. They would then look for the word of the Lord they had despised, and not find it.
- Gift. God raised the prophets and the Nazirites up out of Israel's own sons. They were a kindness to the nation, not intruders.
- Gift corrupted. The cup pressed on the Nazirite attacked his separation. Wine stands for what excites the flesh — the very joy he had laid aside.
- Gift silenced. Amaziah the priest later turns the same order on Amos, because he dreaded the testimony from God.
- Motive. A believer with deeper devotion pricks our conscience. Discouraging him is easier than following him.
- Result. A people who tell God to stop speaking may get the silence they asked for. Then they search for the word they despised and cannot find it.
Behold, I will press upon you, as a cart presseth that is full of sheaves.
Amos has spent two chapters naming the crimes of nation after nation. Now the charge lands on Israel itself. At the climax God stops listing their sins and reaches for a picture from the harvest field: a cart loaded past its limit.
The image is not decoration. It comes from a man who worked among animals, fields and fruit trees. His very name carries the idea of a load.
The prophet Amos (= to lade, to burden, Burden-bearer) came from Tekoa, a town in Judah, south of Jerusalem. He was a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit (Amos 1:1; 7:14). In his way of speaking you can recognise Amos' knowledge of farming life (Amos 2:13; 3:12; 4:9; 5:8; 6:12; 7:1-2).
Commentators differ on the direction of the pressure. Older translations read it as God Himself under the weight. One writer sets the verse beside God's words in Isaiah about being worn out by Israel's sins.
But God does bear with these wicked men. He said so to Israel through the prophet Isaiah: "You have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities" (chapter 43:24). And again through the prophet Amos: "Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves" (chapter 2:13).
Others read it the other way round. The loaded cart is what God will do to them, and the verses that follow spell out how complete the crushing will be.
Behold, I will press you down as the full cart presses the sheaves. Then escape will be lost to the swift, the strong will not hold on to his strength, and the hero will not save his life.
Amos names what piled up. Israel's sin was cruelty toward the people God cares about, and it went on right beside the altar.
They sell the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals. They care nothing for the sufferings of the poor. Even at the altar — supposed, at least, to be Jehovah's altar — they lie down on garments taken in pledge from the poor, and make merry with the fines imposed for wrongdoing... The heart of God was crushed, as it were, by their sins; and His judgment would overtake them.
Sheaves are not the only thing in the cart. Verses 11 and 12 add what Israel did with two gifts. God had raised up prophets to speak for Him, and Nazarites — young men set apart to live wholly for Him.
God had given them young people who wanted to live for Him in a special way: "I raised up some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young men for Nazarites" (v. 11). But how had they treated these privileges? But they did not rejoice over the devotion of the Nazarites. They discouraged these young men and tried to pull them away from their consecration to God: "You gave the Nazarites wine to drink" (v. 12). They said, in effect: "Don't take things so seriously. A little more earthly joy and a little less dedication is better. Don't overdo things." Their attitude to the prophets was just as wrong: "And you commanded the prophets, saying, 'Do not prophesy!'" (v. 12).
The test still stands. Do we rejoice when someone takes dedication seriously, or do we quietly urge them not to overdo it?
The word "Behold" marks a turn. Up to this point God has been recalling His kindness to shame them. Now nothing holds the judgment back, and privilege gives no shelter.
To shame them, the prophet sets before them the gracious and faithful care of God, both in the land and before that in Egypt (9, 10). He also sets before them His choice of their sons to be prophets and Nazarites. And what had they done? (verses 11, 12.) Patience was over; no resources should keep or deliver... Israel had failed as a nation before God. The righteousness that punished the other nations would certainly not spare a more privileged people who bore His name.
- Wagon — Amos was a herdsman, and his name carries the idea of a burden. He pictures sin as sheaves stacked on a cart.
- Weight — They sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals, and they did it beside the altar itself.
- Wearied — On the older reading, God is the one under the load. His words through Isaiah say their sins had worn Him out. Commentators differ: others read the verse as God pressing Israel down.
- Wasted — They ordered the prophets to stop and pushed wine on the Nazarites. They treated God's gifts as excess, and the same test still faces us.
- Warning — "Behold" signals that patience is over. Bearing God's name gave no shelter. The righteousness that judged other nations would not spare a more privileged people.
And flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver his soul.
God has just named the crimes of nation after nation, and the list closes on Israel itself. Here every escape route shuts: the fast man, the strong man and the brave man each lose the one thing they trust.
This judgment lands only after a long record of mercy abused. One commentator traces the story. God cared for Israel in Egypt and in the land, and gave them prophets and Nazarites — men set apart by vow to live wholly for God:
The prophet sets before them the gracious and faithful care of God, both in the land and before that in Egypt, to shame them (verses 9, 10). He also sets before them God's choice of their sons to be prophets and Nazarites. And what had they done? (verses 11, 12.) Patience was over. No resources would keep them or deliver them.
Another writer's rendering works through the army man by man:
Then flight will be lost to the swift, and the strong will not confirm his strength, and the hero will not save his life. The man with the bow will not stand, the swift of foot will not save himself, and the rider of the horse will not save his life.
These words landed on a nation at the height of its success, not on one already in ruins:
Under King Jeroboam II, the northern kingdom of Israel flourished as never before or after. There was great outward prosperity. So the prophet speaks of the rich, of their great wealth and luxury, of their arrogant pride and self-security, and of the oppression of the poor. Underneath it all was an awful moral corruption, the fruit of the false worship. In this state of prosperity, immorality and false worship, they never dreamed of any coming disaster.
Two verses earlier God says they made the Nazarites drink wine and told the prophets to stop speaking. One writer reads that as an attack on other people's devotion:
God had given them young people who wanted to live for Him in a special way: "And I raised up some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young men for Nazirites" (v. 11). But how had they treated these privileges? They should have rejoiced over the devotion of the Nazarites. Instead they discouraged these young men and tried to pull them away from their consecration to God: "But you made the Nazirites drink wine" (v. 12). They said, in effect, "Don't take things so seriously. A little more earthly joy and a little less dedication is better — one shouldn't overdo things..."
Israel might have expected their unique place with God to shield them. The structure of Amos 1–2 says otherwise:
Amos gives us a list of eight guilty nations. Judah and Israel come last, and they are marked out for doom in the same form of words as the other six. By their sin they had forfeited all special recognition by the Lord. In their condition they stood before Him just as Damascus, Philistia and Moab did. They are named alongside these pagan peoples to reach their consciences, and to stir up the memory of their special place in God's favour.
Every defence Israel trusted was about to give way. One writer sets against that what Christians are given:
In contrast, we (Christians) receive "a kingdom that cannot be shaken" (Hebrews 12:28). We are brought to what is forever stable, and beyond all danger of change or decay. Unless our souls are truly settled in this truth, we cannot "offer to God acceptable worship." Our thoughts and hopes will be largely taken up with things that belong to the earth, and the earth will soon be shaken.
- Patience. God's care had been long and detailed. This judgment comes only after that care was spent: "Patience was over. No resources would keep them or deliver them."
- Provocation. The sin named just before is pressure put on the devoted: the Nazarites given wine, the prophets told to be quiet.
- Prosperity. The warning came to a nation at its richest. Proud and self-secure, it "never dreamed of any coming disaster."
- Privilege. Amos lists Israel alongside Damascus, Philistia and Moab, in the very same words. They had "forfeited all special recognition." Nearness to God is no cover for sin.
- Permanence. Speed, strength and courage all fail; what does not fail is "a kingdom that cannot be shaken."
Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and the swift of foot shall not escape, and he that rideth the horse shall not deliver his soul;
Amos has pronounced doom on nation after nation, and he ends with Israel itself. This verse shuts the last doors of escape. The archer, the runner and the horseman all fail at the moment they are needed. The question it forces is simple — when God moves in judgment, what is left to trust?
The verse sits at the end of a deliberate sequence. Amos names nation after nation before turning on his own people.
The first two chapters make up an ordered series of judgments, beginning with Damascus, then with Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Judah, and Israel.
The earlier verses fell on other nations. The sting is that the same measure falls on Israel.
The measure was full for these nations, who had piled transgression on transgression. Yet Judah and Israel were as guilty as these nations — yes, even more guilty. The same telling phrase "for three transgressions and four" is used of both. If the punishment of the nations could not be held back, but had to come, then Judah and Israel could not escape.
The three men in this verse are the best a nation had: the archer, the runner, the horseman. Amos shuts off each one in turn.
Patience was over. No resources would keep them or deliver them… Israel had failed as a nation before God. The righteousness that punished the other nations would certainly not spare a more privileged people who bore His name.
Being God's people was no shield. The same writer notes a few verses earlier that with God, who you are never changes how He judges sin.
Amos names the horseman last. One writer explains why a war horse is no safer than a man's own strength:
A mighty man has confidence in his own strength, which in the long run fails him. In the same way he may trust the strength of a war horse. But this is a vain hope. In the end he will find that even the great strength of the horse fails him. So people choose many methods of self-defense. These prove useless at keeping them safe, because they are not depending on their Creator. But we all seem very slow to learn this most basic lesson: the strength of the creature, in any form, is pitifully weak, and we need the strength of God to preserve us.
The horse does more than fail. What was meant to carry a man clear leaves him trapped. One writer finds the same pattern in Isaiah, where a people trusted their own means of escape:
God would make them a striking example. He would show that the resources they trusted were only so many nets to catch them in. Had they sought to flee? They would flee in terror. Had they sought help to escape quickly? Swift would be the vengeance of their foes. God constantly makes the earthly object of trust into the rod for the fool's back.
One writer looks at a battle long ago, where four hundred young men escaped on camels, and turns it on the reader:
They forget the past, and do not fear the future. They ignore sin, and hope that there will be no judgment, but judgment comes… Some of them — four hundred young men — got away. But in the day when the Lord comes in judgment, there will be no camels for you to flee on. There will be no way of escape then; you may be perfectly sure of that. "While people are saying, 'There is peace and security,' then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape" (1 Thessalonians 5:3). You had better get to Jesus now.
- Sequence: Judgment marches through Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Moab, Ammon and Judah — then stops at Israel. God's own people hear their verdict last.
- No exemption: God spared none of the nations, and He would not spare His own people either. Privilege and His name were no shield.
- No resource: Patience had run out. No resource would keep them or deliver them — bow, speed and horse are each named and each cancelled.
- No strength: The strength of the creature, in any form, is pitifully weak. The war horse fails the man who leans on it, because he is not depending on his Creator.
- No escape: The thing you trust to carry you clear becomes the net that catches you. In the day the Lord comes in judgment there will be no way out at all. So turn to Him now.
and he that is stout-hearted among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith Jehovah.
Amos 2 ends a list of judgments that starts with Israel's neighbours and lands on Israel itself. The last picture in it is the army's bravest soldier, running for his life with nothing left on him — and courage counts for nothing.
Arno Clemens Gaebelein notes that the same words of accusation cover God's own people and the surrounding nations alike:
These nations had heaped transgression upon transgression, and their measure was full. But Judah and Israel were as guilty — yes, even more guilty — than these nations. The same significant phrase, "for three transgressions and for four," applies to both. Nothing could hold back the punishment of the nations. So Judah and Israel could not escape either.
The verses just before strip away one advantage after another: speed, strength, weapons, nerve. William Kelly sees the end of God's long patience with a people more privileged than any other:
Patience was over. No resource would protect them or rescue them… Israel had failed as a nation before God. The righteousness that punished the nations would certainly not spare a more privileged people who bore His name.
The word does not picture a man with nothing on at all. Kelly gathers the other places where Scripture uses it, and puts this verse among them:
Scripture often uses "naked" (see also 1 Sam. 19:24; 2 Sam. 6:20; Amos 2:16; John 21:7) for the absence, not of all covering, but of the usual outer garment of one kind or another.
So the bravest soldier throws off his outer garment to run faster. He keeps his life and loses everything that marked him as a fighting man.
The earlier verses of the chapter name what brought this on. J. N. Darby traces Israel's guilt to a lost fear of God, which set selfishness free to prey on the poor:
Israel's sin is bound up with that departure from the fear of God which lets a man give way to the selfishness of his own heart, and oppress those whom God regards. They sell the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals. They care nothing for the sufferings of the poor. But even at the altar — supposed, at least, to be the altar of Jehovah — they lie down on garments taken in pledge from the poor, and make merry with the fines imposed for offences… Their sins crushed the heart of God, as it were, and His judgment would overtake them.
Men who stripped the poor of their clothing are last seen stripped and running.
Amos 2 tries Israel alongside the nations. The next chapter tries them on closer ground. Kelly sets the two side by side, then turns the point on his readers:
In chapter 3 God judges them on more than their faults. Others were guilty and so were they. But Israel was under Jehovah as no other nation was, so they were guilty of treason in a way that no other nation could be… Has this no voice for us? Have we no special relationships with God?
The runner in this verse is fleeing at the wrong moment. Hamilton Smith shuts every door a man might try when that day comes:
No escape in judgment. Once the sentence of judgment has fallen, what will you do? Where will you go? Will you seek help from God? He is "a consuming fire." Will you seek help from the world? It will be all on fire about you. From the saints? You mocked them on earth! From your conscience? There is the worm that gnaws. From mercy? The lease has run out.
There is a flight that works, but it has to happen before the day arrives:
But judgment is coming. The awful day of vengeance is near. Meanwhile the voice of Jesus sounds through the lips of His dear ambassadors. Everywhere it calls men to flee out of the terrible whirlpool and escape to the stronghold of God's salvation.
- Privilege — The same words of accusation fell on Israel as on the nations around. Israel was as guilty, and even more guilty.
- Sins — They sold the poor, slept on garments taken in pledge, and feasted on fines. A lost fear of God set selfishness free against people God watches over.
- Stripped — "Naked" means without the usual outer garment. The bravest man drops it to run, and keeps his life and nothing else.
- Flight — Speed, strength, weapons and courage all fail in turn. God's patience had run out, and no resource could rescue them.
- Refuge — Once the sentence falls there is no door left open. The call now is to flee in the other direction, to the stronghold of God's salvation.