Deeper Commentary

Amos 3:1 Hear this word that Yahweh has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family- "The whole family" refers to Israel and Judah. There is one body- this is a very common theme in the New Testament. But it has strong Old Testament antecedents. There was one chosen nation, one land, one tabernacle, one altar, one covenant, one temple- unity was God's evident intention for His people even in Old Testament times. Israel were redeemed from Egypt as one family (Am. 3:1). The earliest anticipation  of the one body was the fact that man and woman become one flesh / body in the marriage process (Gen. 2:17). If we are all members of the one body, this fact requires us to strive for unity with each other. We can't just sit back and think 'OK, so there's one body'; rather like a married couple can't just say they are one because they are " one flesh" . They must work on it if they want to be truly one. And likewise with the one body of Christ. 

Which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying- Amos spoke against the background of the calf cult, built and presented by Jeroboam with clear allusion back to the golden calf, whom an apostate Israel had liked to believe had brought them out of Egypt (Ex. 32:8 s.w.). The point is that Yahweh and not the calves brought Israel out of Egypt. To reconstrue Israel's national history wasn't possible; and yet that is what is done by all who turn away from faith. They reinterpret God's previous, clear involvement in their lives, shrugging it off as coincidence or tricks of the mind. Just as Israel reinterpreted God's 'bringing them forth' from Egypt as the work of the calves.

Amos 3:2 You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all of your sins- This is the theme of Hosea. God was in exclusive relationship with Israel, having entered a marriage covenant with them at Sinai (see on Hos. 8:1). As He was exclusively theirs, so they were to be for Him. "Chosen" is yada, 'to know', in the sense of relationship. And the sexual sense of a man knowing a woman is not completely out of view here. God's exclusive commitment to us His people of itself has to elicit our similar response. He is not one enthusiasm out of many, one god in a pantheon; He is to our only God. And this is the huge force of the first commandment, that for us, in our hearts, there is to be only one God.

Amos 3:3 Do two walk together, unless they have agreed where to meet?- The AV rendering "Can two walk together unless they be agreed?" has been misused by exclusivists to demand total agreement between fellow believers. But this is not the context here; neither is it required that there be total agreement before two can walk together. Both Old and New Testaments are full of examples of where believers had differing interpretations, and yet walked together toward the same Kingdom. And unity is not the same as uniformity. What is important here is that there must be an agreed meeting point before the journey can begin. And God and Israel had indeed met together at Sinai and there entered covenant relationship (Am. 3:1). They were being reminded therefore of their ongoing commitment to the covenant, and the need to continue to walk together with God. The idea is picked up in Am. 4:12, where Israel are told to "prepare to meet your God". This was no mere grim pronouncement of doom to come, but a desperately urgent appeal for repentance, for preparation and willingness to meet their God in renewed covenant relationship, as they had done at Sinai.

Amos 3:4 Will a lion roar in the thicket, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing?- The lion represents Israel's Babylonian and Assyrian enemies. They were roaring (see on :7). Israel were already caught; but there was a desperately brief window of repentance. Amos was appealing with urgency and intensity; Israel were already in the mouth of the lion (:12). But they refused to perceive their true position before God and the urgency of the need for repentance.

Amos 3:5 Can a bird fall in a trap on the earth, where no snare is set for him? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when there is nothing to catch?- The original is difficult; the idea may be that a snare definitely works, and an animal or bird cannot trigger it without being caught in the jaws of the trap. Amos is addressing the deep psychological mentality that assumes that in fact we can sin and get away with it; somehow, we reason, in my case it will be different.

Amos 3:6 Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city without the people being afraid?- The trumpet was being sounded by Amos; the invaders were at the gates, indeed in :12 we read that Israel were already being consumed. Amos struggled to express the intensity and urgency of their position, just as we do in our appeals to men and women.

Does evil happen to a city and Yahweh hasn’t done it?- This could be translated to the effect that if evil happens God will judge it. God will  judge sin. This will be the terror of His latter day judgments. I would paraphrase Am. 3:6,7 like this: ‘If there’s evil in a city, God will do something, i.e. He will punish it. But He now does nothing, but He reveals His future judgments to His servants the prophets’. In the context, Amos has been forth-telling judgments to come on various cities (Am. 3:9,12,14,15). The text however may be read as it stands; as Is. 45:5-7 makes clear, evil in the sense of calamity comes from God. All is of Him, and there is no room therefore for the classical idea of a cosmic Satan figure responsible for all our calamities and negative experiences.

Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord Yahweh will do nothing, unless He first reveals His secret to His servants the prophets- This is not simply stating the obvious; the implied idea is that God reveals His intended behaviour to the prophets, who are intimate with God and know His 'secrets'; and they then reveal them to men. But the implication is that in the gap between the statement and the fulfilment, there can be repentance. And this was what Amos was appealing for.

Amos 3:8 The lion has roared- who will not fear? The Lord Yahweh has spoken- who can but speak it forth?-  Amos sees himself as the prophet (:7) who is the roaring lion. But the lion is a clear symbol of Israel's enemies, Babylon and Assyria (:4). Through the prophetic word of judgment, Israel had the opportunity to repent. The word of judgment was therefore the roar of the approaching lion. The Hebrew for "Speak it forth" can mean to pray or appeal; the idea is that although God's word of judgment is certain, in the gap between the statement and the fulfilment, there can be repentance; and God may then change His stated purpose, as He did with Nineveh.

 

Hebrew poetry rhymes according to the ideas presented rather than the assonance of the words. However, this doesn’t mean that in a couplet, the first part is directly equal to the second part. Subtle differences are set up in order to make a point. Am. 3:8 is an example of this. "The lion has roared: who shall not fear? God has spoken: who can but speak forth [AV ‘prophesy’, but not only in the sense of predicting future events]?". If a lion roars, so a man naturally fears as a result of it. God speaks, and just as naturally we can do nothing but speak it forth. Hence Am. 3:9 goes on to exhort the hearers to publish God’s purpose to the Gentile nations around them. The lion roars, and man fears; and we are set up to expect: God speaks, and man should fear. But there is an intended dashing of this expectation. God has spoken, just as the lion may roar; but we are not to fear but rather to speak it forth to others. We come down, therefore, to something very basic, something in the foundation of our faith: that the Bible is the inspired word of God. But if we believe that, if we hear that voice of Yahweh, we will inevitably, axiomatically, speak it forth to others.

 

Amos 3:9 Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see what unrest is in her, and what oppression is among them- Samaria was built on a hill, but that hill was surrounded by higher hills. God is judging Israel (see on :13), and He invites the Egyptians and Philistines to come and take their place seated on the vantage points around the city of Samaria, to view His just judgment of the Israel whom their influence had corrupted. They aren't listed in the list of nations condemned in chapters 1 and 2; we can assume that the invitation was in order that they might learn from God's judgment of Israel and repent. This is consistently the purpose of His judgments. Just as He had expected Israel and Judah to learn from the judgments upon the "palaces" of their neighbours in Am. 1 and 2, so here God desires those who lived in the palaces of Ashdod and Egypt to learn from the judgment of the "palaces" of Samaria. God's desire to save comes through so strongly, even during His judgment of sinners.

Amos 3:10 Indeed they don’t know how to do right, says Yahweh, who hoard plunder and loot in their palaces- We noted on Am. 1 and 2 that the "palaces" of the surrounding nations were destroyed by Divine judgment. Israel were intended to learn from this. The wealth they had gotten from abusing their brethren is described as "plunder and loot" because as they had plundered their brethren, so their wealth was to become "plunder and loot" for their invaders (:11). When sin is persisted in, sinners lose any taste for righteousness; they become incapable of knowing how to do right. Only the direct working of God's Spirit on the human heart can change this. A new psychology is required.

Amos 3:11 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: An adversary will overrun the land; and he will pull down your strongholds, and your fortresses will be plundered- Just as they had obtained their wealth and expensive gadgets by plundering their brethren (:11). The overrunning of the land clearly refers to the coming up of the Assyrians throughout the land. All human defences would be destroyed and shown to be just that- the pathetic hopes of the flesh, which before God were nothing at all. And again, the essence of this filters down to us in our age, with our tendency to trust technology, health science, bank balances, hoped for inheritances... rather than in the God who promises to supply our daily bread. See on :14.

Amos 3:12 Thus says Yahweh: As the shepherd rescues out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be rescued who sit in Samaria- As explained on :4 and :8, Israel was already consumed, but they could avert this by intense repentance. Amos was a herdman (Am. 1:1), and he may be alluding to the way the sheep were branded on their legs and ear. The brave shepherd wished to extricate these parts from the lion's mouth to demonstrate simply that "this was mine". In this we see God's hope for the tiny remnant; that they would be His, saved out of the mouth of the invaders, proven to be His. And yet the remnant didn't repent and were not spiritually strong nor obedience at the time of the restoration. God is here presented as the shepherd, and yet Amos was a shepherd (Am. 1:1). We observe again the closeness between God and His prophets.

On the corner of a couch, and on the silken cushions of a bed- The idea was that the couch in the corner was the most desirable place. They who now lived in luxury at the expense of the poor were in fact in the mouth of the lion. Part of the prophetic mission was to persuade Israel of the seriousness of their position. And God's word does likewise with us. Why spend our time and passions for that which shall fade away? If we are to spend eternity being spiritually minded and doing God's work, then should we not be seeking to do this now? If we get even a glimpse of the extent of eternity, are we not to use this brief life to the maximum for the things of the Kingdom?

Amos 3:13 Listen, and testify against the house of Jacob, says the Lord Yahweh, the God of Armies- This continues the sense that God has entered into judgment with Israel, and the Philistines and Egyptians were seated in the gallery as observers; see on :9. The invitation may be to Amos personally, or to the gathered Philistines and Egyptians.

Amos 3:14 For in the day that I visit the transgressions of Israel on him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel- This repeats the prediction of the man of God against that altar in 1 Kings 13:1-4. Amos was making the same prophesy; perhaps he literally stood near Bethel or the altar and repeated the message.

And the horns of the altar will be cut off, and fall to the ground- The horns were considered the place of certain refuge (1 Kings 2:28). The repeated point is that what we consider to be our human strength and defence will surely be revealed as nothing before God's judgment; see on :11.

Amos 3:15 I will strike the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory will perish, and the great houses will have an end, says Yahweh- We noted on Am. 1 and 2 that the judgments of the "palaces" or grand houses of the surrounding nations were intended as warnings to the wealthy Israelites; for their similar houses would be destroyed unless they repented. But they didn't learn the lesson from others' judgments, and so the record of the invasions records that the great houses of Jerusalem and Samaria were indeed pulled down. "Houses of ivory" refer to houses in which ivory was stored or where the decorations were of ivory. Ahab had such a house (1 Kings 22:39). Instead of repudiating his apostate lifestyle, the Israelites had eagerly followed it.