5 Do not be looking for help to Beth-el, and do not go to Gilgal, or make your way to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal will certainly be taken prisoner, and Beth-el will come to nothing.
Those who make their oaths by the sin of Samaria and say, By the life of your God, O Dan; and, By the living way of Beer-sheba; even they will go down, never again to be lifted up.
Come to Beth-el and do evil; to Gilgal, increasing the number of your sins; come with your offerings every morning and your tenths every three days:
And Abraham, after planting a holy tree in Beer-sheba, gave worship to the name of the Lord, the Eternal God.
So a great outcry will go up from among your people, and all your strong places will be broken, as Beth-arbel was broken by Shalman in the day of war, as the mother was broken on the rocks with her children. So will Beth-el do to you because of your evil-doing; at dawn will the king of Israel be cut off completely.
But still we have wisdom for those who are complete in knowledge, though not the wisdom of this world, and not of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing:
And the low things of the world, and the things without honour, did God make selection of, yes, even the things which are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are:
So this is what the Lord has said: Your wife will be a loose woman in the town, and your sons and your daughters will be put to the sword, and your land will be cut up into parts by a line; and you yourself will come to your end in an unclean land, and Israel will certainly be taken away a prisoner out of his land.
My word came to the ears of the prophets and I gave them visions in great number, and by the mouths of the prophets I made use of comparisons.
And I will send destruction on your high places, overturning your perfume altars, and will put your dead bodies on your broken images, and my soul will be turned from you in disgust. And I will make your towns waste and send destruction on your holy places; I will take no pleasure in the smell of your sweet perfumes; And I will make your land a waste, a wonder to your haters living in it.
All their evil-doing is in Gilgal; there I had hate for them; because of their evil-doing I will send them out of my house; they will no longer be dear to me; all their rulers are uncontrolled.
For the cruel one has come to nothing; and those who make sport of the Lord are gone; and those who are watching to do evil are cut off:
The Lord undoes the designs of the nations; he makes the thoughts of the peoples without effect.
Your haters will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the sinner will not be seen again.
From year to year he went in turn to Beth-el and Gilgal and Mizpah, judging Israel in all those places.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Amos 5
Commentary on Amos 5 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 5
The scope of this chapter is to prosecute the exhortation given to Israel in the close of the foregoing chapter to prepare to meet their God; the prophet here tells them,
They have therefore no way left them to save themselves, but by repentance and reformation.
Amo 5:1-3
This chapter begins, as those two next foregoing began, with, Hear this word. Where God has a mouth to speak we must have an ear to hear; it is our duty, it is our interest, yet so stupid are most men that they need to be again and again called upon to hear the word of the Lord, to give audience, to give attention. Hear this word. this convincing awakening word must be heard and heeded, as well as words of comfort and peace; the word that is taken up against us, as well as that which makes for us; for, whether we hear or forbear, the word of God shall take effect, and not a tittle of it shall fall to the ground. It is the word which I take up-not the prophet only, but the God that sent him. It is the word that the Lord has spoken, ch. 3:1. The word to be heard is a lamentation, a lamentable account of the present calamitous state of the kingdom of Israel, and a lamentable prediction of its utter destruction. Their condition is sad: The virgin of Israel has fallen (v. 2), has come down from what she was; that state, though not pure and chaste as a virgin, yet was beautiful and gay, and had its charms; she looked high herself, and was courted by many as a virgin; but she has fallen into contempt and poverty, and is universally slighted. Nay, and their condition is helpless: She shall no more rise, shall never recover her former dignity again. God had lately begun to cut Israel short (2 Ki. 10:32), and, because they repented not, it was not long before he cut Israel down.
Amo 5:4-15
This is a message from God to the house of Israel, in which,
Amo 5:16-20
Here is,
Amo 5:21-27
The scope of these verses is to show how little God valued their shows of devotion, nay, how much he detested them, while they went on in their sins. Observe,