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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Amos 2:13 - 2:13
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This base contempt of their covenant mercies the Lord would visit with a severe punishment. Amo 2:13. “Behold, I will press you down, as the cart presses that is filled with sheaves. Amo 2:14. And the flight will be lost to the swift, and the strong one will not fortify his strength, and the hero will not deliver his soul. Amo 2:15. And the carrier of the bow will not stand, and the swift-footed will not deliver, and the rider of the horse will not save his soul. Amo 2:16. And the courageous one among the heroes will flee away naked in that day, is the saying of Jehovah.” The Lord threatens as a punishment a severe oppression, which no one will be able to escape. The allusion is to the force of war, under which even the bravest and most able heroes will succumb. הֵעִיק, from עוּק, Aramaean for צוּק, to press, construed with tachath, in the sense of κατὰ, downwards, to press down upon a person, i.e., to press him down (Winer, Ges., Ewald). This meaning is established by עָקָה in Psa 55:4, and by מוּעָקָה in Psa 66:11; so that there is no necessity to resort to the Arabic, as Hitzig does, or to alterations of the text, or to follow Baur, who gives the word the meaning, “to feel one's self pressed under another,” for which there is no foundation in the language, and which does not even yield a suitable sense. The comparison instituted here to the pressure of a cart filled with sheaves, does not warrant the conclusion that Jehovah must answer to the cart; the simile is not to be carried out to this extent. The object to תָּעִיק is wanting, but may easily be supplied from the thought, namely, the ground over which the cart is driven. The לָהּ attached to הַֽמְלֵאָה belongs to the latitude allowed in ordinary speech, and gives to מְלֵאָה the reflective meaning, which is full in itself, has quite filled itself (cf. Ewald, §315, a). In Amo 2:14-16 the effects of this pressure are individualized. No one will escape from it. אָבַד מָנוֹס, flight is lost to the swift, i.e., the swift will not find time enough to flee. The allusion to heroes and bearers of the bow shows that the pressure is caused by war. קַל בְּרַגְלָיו belong together: “He who is light in his feet.” The swift-footed will no more save his life than the rider upon a horse. נַפְשׁוֹ .esroh in Amo 2:15 belongs to both clauses. אַמִּץ לִבּוֹ, the strong in his heart, i.e., the hearty, courageous. עָרוֹם, naked, i.e., so as to leave behind him his garment, by which the enemy seizes him, like the young man in Mar 14:52. This threat, which implies that the kingdom will be destroyed, is carried out still further in the prophet's following addresses.