[2] The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.
The virgin — So she was, when first espoused to God.
Upon her land — Broken to pieces upon her own land, and so left as a broken vessel.
Verse 3
[3] For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.
By a thousand — That sent out one thousand soldiers.
An hundred — Shall lose nine parts of them.
Verse 4
[4] For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
Ye shall live — It shall be well with you.
Verse 5
[5] But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
Seek not — Consult not, worship not the idol at Bethel, Gilgal, or Beersheba.
Verse 6
[6] Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.
The house of Joseph — The kingdom of the ten tribes, the chief whereof was Ephraim, the son of Joseph.
In Beth-el — If once this fire breaks out, all your idols in Beth-el shall not be able to quench it.
Verse 7
[7] Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
Ye — Rulers and judges.
Judgment — The righteous sentence of the law.
To wormwood — Proverbially understood; bitterness, injustice and oppression.
Leave off — Make to cease in your courts of judicature.
Verse 8
[8] Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:
The seven stars — A constellation, whose rising about September was usually accompanied with sweet showers.
Orion — Which arising about November brings usually cold, rains and frosts intermixt very seasonable for the earth.
The shadow of the earth — The greatest adversity into as great prosperity.
Dark with might — Changes prosperity into adversity.
That calleth — Commands the vapour to ascend, which he turns into rain; and then pours from the clouds to make the earth fruitful.
Verse 9
[9] That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
The strong — The mighty, victorious and insolent.
Shall come — Shall rally and form a siege against their besiegers.
Verse 10
[10] They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
They — The judges and people.
In the gate — Where judges sat, and where the prophets many times delivered their message.
Verse 11
[11] Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
Your treading — You utterly oppress the helpless.
Ye take — Ye extort from the poor great quantities of wheat, on which he should live.
Verse 12
[12] For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
In the gate — In their courts of justice.
Verse 13
[13] Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
Shall keep silence — Be forced to it.
Evil — Both for the sinfulness of it, and for the troubles, wars, and captivity now at hand.
Verse 14
[14] Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.
With you — To bless and save you yet.
Verse 15
[15] Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
The evil — All evil among the people, and yourselves.
Love — Commend, encourage, defend: let your heart be toward good things, and good men.
Remnant — What the invasions of enemies, or the civil wars have spared, and left in Samaria and Israel.
Verse 16
[16] Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.
Therefore — The prophet foreseeing their obstinacy, proceeds to denounce judgment against them.
The husbandman — This sort of men are little used to such ceremonies of mourning, but now such also shall be called upon; leave your toil, betake yourselves to publick mourning.
Verse 17
[17] And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.
Vineyards — In these places were usually the greatest joy.
Pass through — To punish all every where.
Verse 18
[18] Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.
That desire — Scoffingly, not believing any such day would come.
To what end — What do you think to get by it? Is darkness - All adversity, black and doleful.
Not light — No joy, or comfort an it.
Verse 19
[19] As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.
And a bear — You may escape one, but shall fall in another calamity.
Into the house — At home you may hope for safety, but there other kind of mischief shall meet you.
Verse 21
[21] I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
I hate — Impure and unholy as they are.
Will not smell — A savour, of rest or delight, I will not accept and be pleased with.
Verse 23
[23] Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
Thy songs — Used in their sacrifices, and solemn feasts; herein they imitated the temple-worship, but all was unpleasing to the Lord.
Will not hear — Not with delight and acceptance.
Thy viols — This one kind of musical instrument is put for all the rest.
Verse 24
[24] But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Let judgment — Let justice be administered constantly.
Righteousness — Equity.
Stream — Bearing down all that opposes it.
Verse 25
[25] Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
Have ye — Their fathers and they, tho' at so great a distance of time, are one people, and so the prophet considers them.
Unto me — Was it to me, or to your idols, that you offered, even in the wilderness?
Verse 26
[26] But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
Ye have borne — Ye carried along with you in the wilderness; the shrine, or canopy in which the image was placed.
Moloch — The great idol of the Ammonites.
Chiun — Another idol.
Verse 27
[27] Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.
Therefore — For all your idolatry and other sins, in which you have obstinately continued.
Amos 5 Bible Commentary
John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes
Verse 2
[2] The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.
The virgin — So she was, when first espoused to God.
Upon her land — Broken to pieces upon her own land, and so left as a broken vessel.
Verse 3
[3] For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.
By a thousand — That sent out one thousand soldiers.
An hundred — Shall lose nine parts of them.
Verse 4
[4] For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
Ye shall live — It shall be well with you.
Verse 5
[5] But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
Seek not — Consult not, worship not the idol at Bethel, Gilgal, or Beersheba.
Verse 6
[6] Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.
The house of Joseph — The kingdom of the ten tribes, the chief whereof was Ephraim, the son of Joseph.
In Beth-el — If once this fire breaks out, all your idols in Beth-el shall not be able to quench it.
Verse 7
[7] Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
Ye — Rulers and judges.
Judgment — The righteous sentence of the law.
To wormwood — Proverbially understood; bitterness, injustice and oppression.
Leave off — Make to cease in your courts of judicature.
Verse 8
[8] Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:
The seven stars — A constellation, whose rising about September was usually accompanied with sweet showers.
Orion — Which arising about November brings usually cold, rains and frosts intermixt very seasonable for the earth.
The shadow of the earth — The greatest adversity into as great prosperity.
Dark with might — Changes prosperity into adversity.
That calleth — Commands the vapour to ascend, which he turns into rain; and then pours from the clouds to make the earth fruitful.
Verse 9
[9] That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
The strong — The mighty, victorious and insolent.
Shall come — Shall rally and form a siege against their besiegers.
Verse 10
[10] They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
They — The judges and people.
In the gate — Where judges sat, and where the prophets many times delivered their message.
Verse 11
[11] Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
Your treading — You utterly oppress the helpless.
Ye take — Ye extort from the poor great quantities of wheat, on which he should live.
Verse 12
[12] For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
In the gate — In their courts of justice.
Verse 13
[13] Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
Shall keep silence — Be forced to it.
Evil — Both for the sinfulness of it, and for the troubles, wars, and captivity now at hand.
Verse 14
[14] Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.
With you — To bless and save you yet.
Verse 15
[15] Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
The evil — All evil among the people, and yourselves.
Love — Commend, encourage, defend: let your heart be toward good things, and good men.
Remnant — What the invasions of enemies, or the civil wars have spared, and left in Samaria and Israel.
Verse 16
[16] Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.
Therefore — The prophet foreseeing their obstinacy, proceeds to denounce judgment against them.
The husbandman — This sort of men are little used to such ceremonies of mourning, but now such also shall be called upon; leave your toil, betake yourselves to publick mourning.
Verse 17
[17] And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.
Vineyards — In these places were usually the greatest joy.
Pass through — To punish all every where.
Verse 18
[18] Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.
That desire — Scoffingly, not believing any such day would come.
To what end — What do you think to get by it? Is darkness - All adversity, black and doleful.
Not light — No joy, or comfort an it.
Verse 19
[19] As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.
And a bear — You may escape one, but shall fall in another calamity.
Into the house — At home you may hope for safety, but there other kind of mischief shall meet you.
Verse 21
[21] I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
I hate — Impure and unholy as they are.
Will not smell — A savour, of rest or delight, I will not accept and be pleased with.
Verse 23
[23] Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
Thy songs — Used in their sacrifices, and solemn feasts; herein they imitated the temple-worship, but all was unpleasing to the Lord.
Will not hear — Not with delight and acceptance.
Thy viols — This one kind of musical instrument is put for all the rest.
Verse 24
[24] But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Let judgment — Let justice be administered constantly.
Righteousness — Equity.
Stream — Bearing down all that opposes it.
Verse 25
[25] Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
Have ye — Their fathers and they, tho' at so great a distance of time, are one people, and so the prophet considers them.
Unto me — Was it to me, or to your idols, that you offered, even in the wilderness?
Verse 26
[26] But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
Ye have borne — Ye carried along with you in the wilderness; the shrine, or canopy in which the image was placed.
Moloch — The great idol of the Ammonites.
Chiun — Another idol.
Verse 27
[27] Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.
Therefore — For all your idolatry and other sins, in which you have obstinately continued.