the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Ki̇tap (Turkish Bible)
Amos 1:2
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from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
The Lord: Amos 3:7, Amos 3:8, Proverbs 20:2, Isaiah 42:13, Jeremiah 25:30, Hosea 13:8, Joel 2:11, Joel 3:16
the habitations: Amos 4:7, Amos 4:8, Isaiah 33:9, Jeremiah 12:4, Jeremiah 14:2, Joel 1:9-13, Joel 1:16-18
Carmel: 1 Samuel 25:2, Isaiah 35:2, Jeremiah 50:19, Nahum 1:4
Reciprocal: 1 Kings 18:19 - mount Carmel Isaiah 66:6 - a voice of the Lord Jeremiah 12:14 - against Jeremiah 28:8 - prophesied Hosea 4:3 - the land Hosea 11:10 - he shall roar like Hosea 13:7 - General Amos 3:4 - a lion 1 Peter 5:8 - as Revelation 10:3 - loud
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And he said,.... That is, the Prophet Amos, before described; he, being under divine inspiration, said as follows:
the Lord will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; not from Samaria, nor from Dan and Bethel, but from Zion and Jerusalem, where the temple of the Lord stood; and out of the holy of holies in it, where was the seat of the divine Majesty; and his voice being compared to the roaring of a lion, denotes his wrath and vengeance; and is expressive of some terrible threatening prophecy he would send from hence, by one or other of his prophets; perhaps Amos may mean himself; and who, having been a shepherd or herdsman in the wilderness, had often heard the terrible roaring of the lion, to which he compares his prophecy concerning the judgments of God on nations. Some think reference is had to the earthquake, as Aben Ezra; and which might be attended with thunder and lightning, the voice of God:
and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn; that is, the huts or cottages they dwell in, erected for the more convenient care of their flocks; these, by a figure, are said to mourn, because exposed to the violent heat of the sun in this time of drought; or because forsaken by the shepherds; or it may design the shepherds themselves that dwelled in them, that should mourn because there was no pasture for their flocks, the grass being dried up, and withered away: and indeed it may be rendered, "the pastures of the shepherds shall mourn" s; being destroyed by the drought, as the cattle upon them are said to mourn and groan, Joel 1:18;
and the top of Carmel shall wither; a fruitful mountain in the land of Israel; there were two of this name, one in the tribe of Judah, near which Nabal dwelt, 1 Samuel 25:2; another in the tribe of Asher, near to Ptolemais or Aco; some think the former is meant, as being nearer Tekoa, and more known to Amos; others the latter, because Israel or the ten tribes are prophesied against; though Carmel may be taken for any and all fruitful places in the land; and the top or chief of it withering may signify the destruction of everything pleasant and useful. Some think Amos speaks figuratively in the language of a herdsman or shepherd, as artificers and mechanics do in their own way t; and so by "shepherds" he means kings and princes; and, by their "habitations", their kingdoms, cities, towns, and palaces; and, by "Carmel", their wealth, riches, and precious things, which should all be destroyed; and to this agrees the Targum,
"the habitations of kings shall become desolate, and the strength of their fortresses shall be made a desert.''
s × ××ת ×רע×× "pascua pastorum", Vatablus, Piscator, Grotius, Burkius. t "Navita de ventis, de tauris narrat arator, Enumerat miles vulnera, pastor oves". Propert. I. 2. Eleg. 1.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
The Lord will roar - Amos joins on his prophecy to the end of Joelâs, in order at once in its very opening to attest the oneness of their mission, and to prepare peopleâs minds to see, that his own prophecy was an expansion of those words, declaring the nearer and coming judgments of God. Those nearer judgments, however, of which he spake, were but the preludes of the judgments of the Great Day which Joel foretold, and of that last terrible voice of Christ, âthe Lion of the tribe of Judah,â of whom Jacob prophesies; âHe couched, He lay down as a lion, and as a young lion; who shall raise Him up?â Genesis 49:9. God is said to âutter Hisâ awful âvoice from Zion and Jerusalem,â because there He had set His Name, there He was present in His Church. It was, as it were, His own place, which He had hallowed by tokens of His presence, although âthe heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him.â In the outset of his prophecy, Amos warned Israel, that there, not among themselves in their separated state, God dwelt. Jeremiah, in using these same words toward Judah, speaks not of Jerusalem, but of heaven; âThe Lord shall roar from on high, and utter His voice from His holy habitationâ Jeremiah 25:30. The prophecy is to the ten tribes or to the pagan: God speaks out of the Church. He uttereth His Voice out of Jerusalem, as He saith, âOut of Zion shall go forth, the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalemâ Isaiah 2:3, âwhere was the Temple and the worship of God, to shew that God was not in the cities of Israel, that is, in Dan and Bethel, where were the golden calves, nor in the royal cities of Samaria and Jezreel, but in the true religion which was then in Zion and Jerusalem.â
And the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn - Perhaps, with a feeling for the home which he had loved and left, the prophetâs first thought amid the desolation which he predicts, was toward his own shepherd-haunts. The well-known Mount Carmel was far in the opposite direction in the tribe of Asher. Its name is derived from its richness and fertility, perhaps âa land of vine and olive yards.â In Jeromeâs time, it was âthickly studded with olives, shrubs and vineyards.â âIts very summit of glad pasturcs.â
It is one of the most striking natural features of Palestine. It ends a line of hills, 18 miles long, by a long bold headland reaching out far into the Mediterranean, and forming the south side of the Bay of Acco or Acre. Rising 1,200 feet above the sea , it stands out âlike some guardian of its native strand;â yet withal, it was rich with every variety of beauty, flower, fruit, and tree. It is almost always called âthe Carmel,â âthe rich garden-ground.â From its neighborhood to the sea, heavy dews nightly supply it with an ever-renewed freshness, so that in mid-summer it is green and flowery . Travelers describe it, as âquite green, its top covered with firs and oaks, lower down with olives and laurels, and everywhere excellently watered.â âThere is not a flower,â says Van de Velde , âthat I have seen in Galilee or on the plains along the coasts, that I do not find here again on Carmel. It is still the same fragrant lovely mountain as of old.â : âIts varied world of flowers attracts such a number of the rarer vari-colored insects that a collector might for a whole year be richly employed.â âIt is a natural garden and repository of herbs.â
Its pastures were rich, so as to equal those of Bashan. âIt gives rise to a number of crystal streams, the largest of which gushes from the spring of Elijahâ Jeremiah 50:19; Nahum 1:4. It had abundant supplies in itself. If it too became a desert, what else would be spared? âIf they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?â Luke 23:31. All, high and low, shall be stricken in one common desolation; all the whole land, fromm âthe pastures of the shepherdsâ in the south to Mount Carmel in the North. And this, as soon as God had spoken. âHe spake, and it was made.â So now, contrariwise, He uttercth His Voice, and Carmel hath languished. Its glory hath passed away, as in the twinkling of an eye. God hath spoken the word, and it is gone.
What depended on Godâs gifts, abides; what depended on man, is gone. There remains a wild beauty still; but it is the beauty of natural luxuriance. âAll,â says one who explored its depths , âlies waste; all is a wilderness. The utmost fertility is here lost for man, useless to man. The vineyards of Carmel, where are they now? Behold the long rows of stones on the ground, the remains of the walls; they will tell you that here, where now with difficulty you force your way through the thick entangled copse, lay, in days of old, those incomparable vineyards to which Carmel owes its name.â
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Amos 1:2. The Lord will roar from Zion — It is a pity that our translators had not followed the hemistich form of the Hebrew: -
Jehovah from Zion shall roar,
And from Jerusalem shall give forth his voice;
And the pleasant dwellings of the shepherds shall mourn,
And the top of mount Carmel shall wither.
Carmel was a very fruitful mountain in the tribe of Judah, Joshua 15:56; Isaiah 35:2.
This introduction was natural in the mouth of a herdsman who was familiar with the roaring of lions, the bellowing of bulls, and the lowing of kine. The roaring of the lion in the forest is one of the most terrific sounds in nature; when near, it strikes terror into the heart of both man and beast.