CHAPTER 4

(787 B.C.)

THE DEPRAVITY OF ISRAEL

¹Hear this word, you kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink. (The phrase, Hear this word, you kine of Bashan, pertains to the rich pastureland east of Jordan, where cattle there fed became strong and fat. The Nobles of Samaria are compared to them here.

Which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, registers Gods Love for the poor and His indignation against oppression, which is a feature of the Book of Amos.

The phrase, Which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink, refers to the Nobles appealing to Jeroboam II to provide them with luxurious banquets furnished by money robbed from the poor.)

²The Lord GOD has sworn by His Holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. (This Scripture addresses the Assyrian Monarch, who, upon subjugating an enemy, passed hooks through the lower lips of their captives and thus led them away to slavery. This would happen to Israel!)

³And you shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her; and you shall cast them into the palace, says the LORD. (They will be led forth, not through the gates of the city of Samaria, but through its broken walls; they will go quietly and in a straight line so as to mitigate the pain of their tortured lips. The last phrase could be better said, You shall be cast as slaves into the palace of Sennacherib. In other words, the luxury of Samaria would be reduced to slavery.)

ISRAELS FAILURE TO REPENT

⁴Come to Beth-el, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years:

⁵And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O you children of Israel, says the Lord GOD. (The invitation of Verses 4 and 5 is meant to portray irony. Go to Beth-el but not to worship Me to transgress against Me! Israel professed to be Gods worshippers, but they adored Him under the similitude of the golden calf as multitudes do today under the similitude of man-made directions other than the Cross of Calvary. God denounces as idolatry all worship that is not based on the atoning work of Calvary.)

⁶And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have you not returned unto Me, says the LORD. (In this and the following Verses, the Holy Spirit through the Prophet sets forth instances of judgment which He had sent at various times to correct Israel. The phrase, Yet have you not returned unto Me, says the LORD, proclaims Gods unwearied Love, which had not conquered their rebellion.)

⁷And also I have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. (All of this proclaims the Lord having total control, as should be obvious!)

⁸So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have you not returned unto Me, says the LORD. (The phrase used again, Yet have you not returned unto Me, says the LORD, has reference to the fact that while they were staggering from one city to another in order to find water, still, their hearts were so hard that their acute circumstances were not enough to bring them to Repentance.)

⁹I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have you not returned unto Me, says the LORD. (The Lord dealt with Israel with famine, drought, and now blight, but to no avail!)

¹⁰I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have you not returned unto Me, sa ys the LORD. (I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt, has no reference to the plague of Ex. 9:3, etc., but was an allusion to the plague which was reckoned to be epidemic in Egypt and other loathsome diseases for which that country was notorious. No judgments seemed to be enough to bring Israel back to the Lord!)

¹¹I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have you not returned unto Me, says the LORD. (And you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning, refers to the fact that it was only the Mercy of God which stopped the destruction short of total; but impenitence was the unchanging response to each stroke yet have you not returned unto Me.)

¹²Therefore thus will I do unto you, O Israel: and because I will do this unto you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel. (As a consequence, they are now warned of a Supreme Judgment that is, to meet God Himself. Prepare to meet your God, O Israel, means to make ready to meet God in Judgment, turning to Him with changed heart, praying that He will forgive and withdraw His heavy Hand.)

¹³For, lo, He Who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares unto man what is his thought, Who makes the morning darkness, and treads upon the high places of the Earth, The LORD, The God of Hosts, is His Name. (The Majesty of God is set forth in this Scripture. The mountains may be seen; the wind, unseen; mans thought, unread; day and night, unchangeable; and the revolution of the Earth in its orbit, invariable: but all was in the power of this dread Judge Jehovah Elohim Sabaioth is His Name!)