1 Commentaries: Hear this word which the LORD has spoken against you, sons of Israel, against the entire family which He brought up from the land of Egypt: (2024)

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

(1) Children of Israel rather than “house of Israel” is a phrase not so usual in Amos. Hence in many MSS. the latter phrase is substituted. There is, however, significance in the former, as Amos addresses himself to both kingdoms in the phrase “the whole family.” Yet the kingdom of the Ten Tribes seems to be chiefly in the mind of the prophet.

Amos 3:1-2. Hear this word against the whole family, &c. — All that family of which Jacob, or Israel, was the head. The word family is equivalent to people here and in the following verse. You only have I known — Acknowledged, by revealing myself to you, protecting you, and conferring on you peculiar privileges. Therefore will I punish you — Your sins, therefore, shall be punished, and that in an exemplary manner; because you have sinned against greater light and higher obligations than other nations are or have been favoured with; and you have manifested an ungrateful, as well as a disobedient spirit. For the same reason the angel is commanded to begin his execution at the sanctuary, Ezekiel 9:6; and St. Peter observes, that judgment must begin at the house of God, 1 Peter 4:17 : see also the margin.

3:1-8 The distinguishing favours of God to us, if they do not restrain from sin, shall not exempt from punishment. They could not expect communion with God, unless they first sought peace with him. Where there is not friendship, there can be no fellowship. God and man cannot walk together, except they are agreed. Unless we seek his glory, we cannot walk with him. Let us not presume on outward privileges, without special, sanctifying grace. The threatenings of the word and providence of God against the sin of man are certain, and certainly show that the judgments of God are at hand. Nor will God remove the affliction he has sent, till it has done its work. The evil of sin is from ourselves, it is our own doing; but the evil of trouble is from God, and is his doing, whoever are the instruments. This should engage us patiently to bear public troubles, and to study to answer God's meaning in them. The whole of the passage shows that natural evil, or troubles, and not moral evil, or sin, is here meant. The warning given to a careless world will increase its condemnation another day. Oh the amazing stupidity of an unbelieving world, that will not be wrought upon by the terrors of the Lord, and that despise his mercies!

Amos, like Hosea, rebukes Israel directly, Judah indirectly. He had warned each nation separately. Now, ere he concentrates himself on Israel, he sums up what he had before said to Judah and in the Person of God. "Ye have been alike in My gifts to you, alike in your waste of them and your sins; alike ye shall be in your punishment." What was said to Israel was said also to Judah: what was directed first to the former people, belongs to us, the later. What Jesus said to the Apostles, He said also to the Church, and to single souls, "What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch" Mark 13:37.

Hear ye this word - With that solemn threefold call, so frequent in the Old Testament, he summons them thrice Amos 3:1; Amos 4:1; Amos 5:1, as in the Name of the Holy Trinity, to hear God's words. : "The prophet, at the outset of the chapter, rouses the hearers to anxious consideration. For the words of the most High God are to be heard, not with a superficial, unawed, wandering mind, but with reverence, fear, and love."

That the Lord hath spoken against - (and upon) you, (coming down from heaven Hebrews 12:25, both "upon" and "against" them) the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt To Abraham God had said, "in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed" Genesis 12:3. So now, in withdrawing that blessing from them. He takes it away from them, family by family Zechariah 12:12. He includes them, one and all, and Judah also, since all had been "brought out of Egypt."

CHAPTER 3

Am 3:1-15. God's Extraordinary Love, Being Repaid by Israel with Ingratitude, of Necessity Calls for Judgments, Which the Prophets Announce, Not at Random, but by God's Commission, Which They Cannot but Fulfil. The Oppression Prevalent in Israel Will Bring Down Ruin on All Save a Small Remnant.

1. children of Israel—not merely the ten tribes, but "the whole family brought up from Egypt"; all the descendants of Jacob, including Judah and Benjamin. Compare Jer 8:3, and Mic 2:3, on "family" for the nation. However, as the prophecy following refers to the ten tribes, they must be chiefly, if not solely, meant: they were the majority of the nation; and so Amos concedes what they so often boasted, that they were the elect people of God [Calvin], but implies that this only heightens their sins.The necessity of God’s judgment against Israel, Amos 3:1-8. The publication of it, with the causes thereof, Amos 3:9-15. Hear, with ear and mind, consider it well, for this is to hear indeed. This word, which is spoken, and the thing decreed too, of God. The Lord hath spoken; the Lord, who did show you greatest kindness, and whom you have repaid with greatest ingratitude, the everlasting God, who changeth not, hath determined and declared his determinate purpose; against you; or to, or concerning; for if menaces are words against them, yet advice, exhortations, and promises are to, and concerning, those to whom they are spoken. O children of Israel; subjects of Jeroboam the Second, now king of the ten tribes. Against the whole family: and let the two tribes consider too how far they are concerned in the prophet’s reproving for sin, calling to repent of sin, and threatening it they do not repent. Brought up from the land of Egypt: see Amos 2:10.

Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel,.... The prophecy against Israel begins in the preceding chapter, where notice is taken of their sins, at least some of them, and of their aggravated circ*mstances, and sure destruction; and here they are called upon to hearken and listen to what the Lord by his prophet had spoken, and was about to speak unto them; and to "receive" this word, as the Targum; to receive it as the word of God, and not men, and with all humility and reverence; and to take it, and apply it to themselves, to whom it justly belonged; and to make a proper use and improvement of it by humiliation and reformation. A word this was,

against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt; it was but a family that went down into Egypt, and, though it greatly increased there, it was no more when it was brought up from thence: a family under the peculiar care of Jehovah, as the bringing them out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, when greatly distressed there, abundantly shows; and which was a wonderful blessing and favour; and therefore often mentioned, and led on to many other blessings and mercies: a family which was the Lord's own, and therefore he had a right to chastise and correct them for their sins. It seems by this phrase, "the whole family", as if the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin were included: though the prophecy seems chiefly intended against the ten tribes, which went by the name of Israel, ever since the breach in Rehoboam's time, as distinct from Judah;

saying; as follows:

Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

1. the whole family] The expression used includes naturally Judah, though, as the context shews, Amos is practically thinking only of Israel. For family, used in the sense of a whole people, cf. Amos 3:2; Jeremiah 8:3; Micah 2:3.

Verse 1-ch. 6:14. - Part II. THREE ADDRESSES PARTICULARIZING THE SINS OF ISRAEL AND ANNOUNCING IMMINENT JUDGMENT. Verses 1-15. - § 1. First address: the prophet begins by showing Israel's ingratitude for past mercies (vers. 1, 2), and his own commission to announce the coming judgment (vers. 3-8). They have drawn this upon themselves by iniquities which astonish even heathen nations; and they shall be punished by the overthrow of the kingdom and the destruction of their city (vers. 9-15). Verse 1. - The peculiar favour which God has shown the Israelites enhances the guilt of their ingratitude and increases their punishment. Hear this word. Each address (Amos 4:1; Amos 5:1) begins with this solemn call. O children of Israel. The summons is addressed to the twelve tribes, as the following words prove; but the succeeding denunciation is confined to Israel, Judah being only indirectly warned that she may expect a similar fate unless she turns in time. I brought up from the land of Egypt. This is mentioned as the crowning act of God's favour (Amos 2:10). Amos 3:1

Amos 3:1 and Amos 3:2 contain the introduction and the leading thought of the whole of the prophetic proclamation. Amos 3:1. "Hear this word which Jehovah speaketh concerning you, O sons of Israel, concerning the whole family which I have brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying: Amos 3:2. You only have I acknowledge of all the families of the earth; therefore will I visit all your iniquities upon you." The word of the Lord is addressed to all the family of Israel, which God had brought up out of Egypt, that is to say, to all the twelve tribes of the covenant nation, although in what follows it is the ten tribes of Israel alone who are primarily threatened with the destruction of the kingdom, to indicate at the very outset that Judah might anticipate a similar fate if it did not turn to its God with sincerity. The threat is introduced by the thought that its divine election would not secure the sinful nation against punishment, but that, on the contrary, the relation of grace into which the Lord had entered with Israel demanded the punishment of all evil deeds. This cuts off the root of all false confidence in divine election. "To whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. The greater the measure of grace, the greater also is the punishment if it is neglected or despised." This is the fundamental law of the kingdom of God. ידע does not mean to know, to become acquainted with, or to take knowledge of a person (Hitzig), but acknowledge. Acknowledgment on the part of God is not merely taking notice, but is energetic, embracing man in his inmost being, embracing and penetrating with divine love; so that ידע not only includes the idea of love and care, as in Hosea 13:5, but expresses generally the gracious fellowship of the Lord with Israel, as in Genesis 18:19, and is practically equivalent to electing, including both the motive and the result of election. And because Jehovah had acknowledged, i.e., had singled out and chosen Israel as the nation best fitted to be the vehicle of His salvation, He must of necessity punish all its misdeeds, in order to purify it from the dross of sin, and make it a holy vessel of His saving grace.

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