Why does Amos keep repeating "for three sins . . . even for four" in chapters 1-2?

In the first two chapters there are eight short denunciations of judgements, introduced by the words "for three transgressions and for four." Three witnesses were adequate testimony; four is the cup running over, of which the four quarters of the earth can testify. The judgements are against:

In the first two chapters there are eight short denunciations of judgements, introduced by the words "for three transgressions and for four." Three witnesses were adequate testimony; four is the cup running over, of which the four quarters of the earth can testify. The judgements are against:

Syria under its chief city Damascus. The Philistines under Gaza. Tyre. Edom. Ammon. Moab. Judah. Israel.

Six nations are mentioned against which judgment is announced, five in this chapter and Moab in the beginning of the second. Eight times we read "saith the LORD." Then in each judgment prediction we find the phrase, "for three transgressions or four ... I will not reverse it." The meaning of it is that the measure is full and that the judgment cannot be averted. Fire is prominently mentioned as the mode of judgment. These nations were the enemies of Israel. The Syrians were the great enemies of Israel and treated them with awful cruelties. The threshing of Gilead with iron instruments took place when Hazael of Damascus conquered the land east of Jordan (2 Kings 10:32-33; 13:7). Hazael murdered Ben-hadad and Elisha predicted all the horrible things he would do to Israel. When the man of God wept and Hazael asked him the reason, Elisha answered, "Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel; their strongholds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child" (2 Kings 8:12). Damascus was broken and the predicted judgment came. It was executed through the King of Assyria, Tiglath-Pileser, who drove the Syrians back to Kir, from which they had come (2 Kings 16:9).

While the measure was full of these nations, who had heaped transgressions upon transgressions, Judah and Israel were as guilty, yea, even more guilty, than these nations. The same significant phrase "for three transgressions and four" is used in connection with both. If the punishment of the nations could not be held back, but had to come, so Judah and Israel could not escape. 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 harkened to the false prophets, who, with their lies, caused them to err, 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 upon Judah and the palaces of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar fulfilled this prophecy.

Ammon yet political and calculating in their desire to destroy Israel for their own interests are doomed of God to go into captivity. "Thus says Jehovah; For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border: but I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind." "Thus says Jehovah; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime: 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." It would seem that 2 Kings 3:26-27, contains the fact alluded to, which most like Josephus have misinterpreted. "His eldest son" means the eldest son of the king of Edom, the heir-apparent and probably joint king, whom the king of Moab threatened to burn, and did burn his bones, when Israel refused to raise the siege.

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. "For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn back." Here Jehovah's law was broken, and lies or idolatries were trusted.

Lastly we come (verses 6-8) to Israel's transgressions. Here there are apparently four classes of wickedness: hard selfishness (summum jus summa injuria, we may perhaps say); covetous grinding of the poor; licentious profanity; and idolatrous revelry. The prophet sets before them the gracious and faithful care of God both in the land and before it in Egypt, to shame them (9, 10), and 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. "Behold I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves. Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself: neither shall he stand that handles the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself. And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, says Jehovah." Israel had failed as a nation before God; and certainly the righteousness that punished the heathen would not spare a more privileged people who bore His name. Yet we find that in these two chapters there is only a general dealing laid down, preparatory to all the details which follow. And this is the more remarkably shown by the fact that from Amos 3 what is special is said of the two houses or the whole family of Israel.

But though Amos had "the whole family" in view, his words of warning are intended specially for the house of Israel. Why then, it may be asked, does the prophecy begin with the doom of six Gentile nations? For a very cogent reason. Jehovah had said of Israel that "the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations" (Num. 23:9). Yet Amos presents us with a list of eight guilty nations in which Judah and Israel are the last included, and marked out for doom in exactly the same formula of words as are the other six. They had, by their sin, forfeited all special recognition by Jehovah. As to their state they were even as Damascus, Philistia and Moab before Him, and are mentioned alongside these heathen peoples in a way calculated to reach their consciences, and stir up their remembrance of their peculiar place in God's favour.

Then we come to particulars. "Thus says Jehovah; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron. But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael which shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad." The Spirit begins with the greatest but most external of the enemies here to be enumerated, the Syrians. Their ruthless and persevering efforts cruelly to exterminate the Jews east of the Jordan would not be forgiven. This filled the cup of Syria. "I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitants from the plain of Aven, and him that holds the sceptre from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall go into captivity to Kir, says Jehovah." The Syrians were to go back captives to Kir (probably Kurgistan, Georgia), whence they had emerged as conquerors and settlers.

Thus saith the Lord. For three transgressions of Damascus, … of Gaza, … of Tyrus, … of Edom, … of Ammon, … of Moab, … of Judah … and of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof.

Amos 1. In the outset Jehovah, proclaiming His own rights from the place of His own throne, roars from Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem. Afterwards, quite at the end, the restoration of the house of David and of Israel likewise is announced. We may remark that, before the judgment of Israel and Judah is declared, that also of the surrounding nations is pronounced; and this, on account of their hostile and cruel behaviour to the people of Israel, and on account of that also which was essentially cruel in them, and opposed even to the sentiments of humanity; for God takes cognizance of all these things.

Syria is to be carried away captive into Assyria. The means employed for the judgment of the others is not mentioned. Gaza and the Philistines, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, pass successively in review; and, finally, Judah and Israel. God enters into much more detail with respect to the sins of His people. He had indeed specified that which characterised each nation judged; but with Israel He goes into detail. We may here again remark — that which we have seen elsewhere — that these judgments of Jehovah fall upon the nations that are established on the territory promised to Abraham, and belonging, according to this gift of God, to the people of Israel. God purges His land of that which defiles it, and consequently alas! of Judah and Israel likewise; but at the same time asserting and retaining His own rights, which He will exercise in grace on Israel's behalf in the last days. We see here the folly of the hope entertained by the enemies of the people, in seeking their ruin with the idea of finding their own advantage in it. Doubtless God can chastise His people, for He must make His own character manifest; but the malice of their enemies brings His judgment upon them also.

The threshing-floor is the place where the grain is separated from the chaff, under the hoofs of the ox, or the teeth of the threshing-instrument. In that way it would suggest the enemy, but looked at as God's instrument to purge His people. In fact, the nations are so spoken of in at least one passage (Am. 1:3), while they themselves axe to be purged by similar judgments. I think we are right in saying that the thought suggested is God's instrument of chastening.