8 Go for help to him who makes Orion and the Pleiades, by whom the deep dark is turned into morning, who makes the day black with night; whose voice goes out to the waters of the sea, sending them out over the face of the earth: the Lord is his name;
For see, he who gave form to the mountains and made the wind, giving knowledge of his purpose to man, who makes the morning dark, and is walking on the high places of the earth: the Lord, the God of armies, is his name.
Who made the Bear and Orion, and the Pleiades, and the store-houses of the south:
And it will come about in that day, says the Lord God, that I will make the sun go down in the middle of the day, and I will make the earth dark in daylight:
When you make it dark, it is night, when all the beasts of the woods come quietly out of their secret places.
Uncovering deep things out of the dark, and making the deep shade bright;
And I will take the blind by a way of which they had no knowledge, guiding them by roads strange to them: I will make the dark places light before them, and the rough places level. These things will I do and will not give them up.
The people who were in the dark saw a great light, and to those in the land of the shade of death did the dawn come up.
We go on our way, like blind men feeling for the wall, even like those who have no eyes: we are running against things in daylight as if it was evening; our place is in the dark like dead men.
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, all the fountains of the great deep came bursting through, and the windows of heaven were open; And rain came down on the earth for forty days and forty nights. On the same day Noah, with Shem, Ham, and Japheth, his sons, and his wife and his sons' wives, went into the ark; And with them, every sort of beast and cattle, and every sort of thing which goes on the earth, and every sort of bird. They went with Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh in which is the breath of life. Male and female of all flesh went in, as God had said, and the ark was shut by the Lord. And for forty days the waters were over all the earth; and the waters were increased so that the ark was lifted up high over the earth. And the waters overcame everything and were increased greatly on the earth, and the ark was resting on the face of the waters. And the waters overcame everything on the earth; and all the mountains under heaven were covered. The waters went fifteen cubits higher, till all the mountains were covered.
Those who were in the dark, in the black night, in chains of sorrow and iron; Because they went against the words of God, and gave no thought to the laws of the Most High: So that he made their hearts weighted down with grief; they were falling, and had no helper. Then they sent up their cry to the Lord in their sorrow, and he gave them salvation out of all their troubles. He took them out of the dark and the black night, and all their chains were broken.
He sent black night and made it dark; and they did not go against his word.
Covering it with the sea as with a robe: the waters were high over the mountains; At the voice of your word they went in flight; at the sound of your thunder they went away in fear; The mountains came up and the valleys went down into the place which you had made ready for them. You made a limit over which they might not go, so that the earth would never again be covered by them.
Is your voice sent up to the cloud, so that you may be covered by the weight of waters?
Have you, from your earliest days, given orders to the morning, or made the dawn conscious of its place; So that it might take a grip of the skirts of the earth, shaking all the evil-doers out of it?
And the seventh time he said, I see a cloud coming up out of the sea, as small as a man's hand. Then he said, Go up and say to Ahab, Get your carriage ready and go down or the rain will keep you back. And after a very little time, the heaven became black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab went in his carriage to Jezreel.
And in the morning watch, the Lord, looking out on the armies of the Egyptians from the pillar of fire and cloud, sent trouble on the army of the Egyptians; And made the wheels of their war-carriages stiff, so that they had hard work driving them: so the Egyptians said, Let us go in flight from before the face of Israel, for the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians. And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched out over the sea, and the waters will come back again on the Egyptians, and on their war-carriages and on their horsemen. And when Moses' hand was stretched out over the sea, at dawn the sea came flowing back, meeting the Egyptians in their flight, and the Lord sent destruction on the Egyptians in the middle of the sea. And the waters came back, covering the war-carriages and the horsemen and all the army of Pharaoh which went after them into the middle of the sea; not one of them was to be seen.
And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched out to heaven, and all the land of Egypt will be dark, so that men will be feeling their way about in the dark. And when Moses' hand was stretched out, dark night came over all the land of Egypt for three days; They were not able to see one another, and no one got up from his place for three days: but where the children of Israel were living it was light.
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,