Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Amos 1:1 - 1:8

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Amos 1:1 - 1:8


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Against Damascus and Gaza

v. 1. The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen, a man who owned and tended sheep, of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel, chiefly with regard to the northern kingdom, in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the second of that name, the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake, an event of some importance in the history of that century. Cf Zec_14:5.

v. 2. And He said,
speaking to Amos in a vision, by a special revelation of the Lord, The Lord will roar from Zion and utter His voice from Jerusalem, Cf Joe_3:16; and the habitations of the shepherds, the pastures where they fed their flocks, shall mourn, and the top of Carmel, the mountain by the sea, with its forested summit, shall wither, so that the whole land, from north to south, would be included in the punishment. From the outset the purpose of the message of Amos was to call the sinners to repentance and to oppose the foolish notion as though the judgment of God would strike the heathen world only, although the various nations in the. neighborhood are enumerated first, in an introductory series of prophecies.

v. 3. Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Damascus,
the capital of Syria, with its country, and for four, the number being by no means restricted, I will not turn the punishment thereof, literally, by way of parenthesis, "not will I reverse it," both threat and punishment being irrevocable, because they have threshed Gilead, the territory of Israel east of Jordan, with threshing instruments of iron, in a most cruel treatment of the conquered inhabitants, 2Ki_10:32-33; 2Ki_13:7,

v. 4. but I will send a fire into the house of Hazael,
the cruel king of Syria, which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad, the son of Hazael, 2Ki_13:8, so that both would suffer the Lord's punishment.

v. 5. I will break also the bar of Damascus,
shattering the bolt of its gate at the conquest of the city, and cut off the inhabitant from the Plain of Avon, possibly a place near Damascus, or the valley between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and him that holdeth the scepter from the house of Eden, in the district of Laodicea; and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, very likely a district of Assyria, saith the Lord. This prophecy was fulfilled when the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser took the city of Damascus and dissolved the Syrian kingdom. Cf 2Ki_16:9.

v. 6. Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Gaza,
the leading city-state of Philistia, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, rather. He would not reverse His intention of punishing this city, because they carried away captive the whole captivity, all the prisoners who had been in a certain campaign, very likely that mentioned 2Ch_21:16, to deliver them. up to Edom, the archenemy of Israel, who would be sure to treat the captive Israelites with the highest degree of cruelty;

v. 7. but I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof,
Gaza being a proud and rich city;

v. 8. and I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod,
to make the city desolate, and him that holdeth the scepter from Ashkelon, the ruler of this city-state with his people, and I will turn Mine hand against Ekron, so that four of the five city-states are expressly mentioned, the fifth, which bore the name Gath, being omitted because it was not essential to name them all; and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God, the prophecy finding its fulfillment in the repeated conquest of Philistia by the great world-powers, so that it did not retain its existence for any length of time.