3 And thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Damascus, And for four, I do not reverse it, Because of their threshing Gilead with sharp-pointed irons,
Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Israel, And for four, I do not reverse it, Because of their selling for silver the righteous, And the needy for a pair of sandals.
Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Tyre, And for four, I do not reverse it, Because of their delivering up a complete captivity to Edom, And they remembered not the brotherly covenant,
Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Judah, And for four, I do not reserve it, Because of their loathing the law of Jehovah, And His statutes they have not kept, And their lies do cause them to err, After which their fathers did walk,
Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Moab, And for four, I do not reverse it, Because of his burning the bones of the king of Edom to lime,
Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Gaza, And for four, I do not reverse it, Because of their removing a complete captivity, To deliver up to Edom,
Concerning Damascus: Ashamed hath been Hamath and Arpad, For an evil report they have heard, They have been melted, in the sea `is' sorrow, To be quiet it is not able. Feeble hath been Damascus, She turned to flee, and fear strengthened her, Distress and pangs have seized her, as a travailing woman. How is it not left -- the city of praise, The city of my joy! Therefore fall do her young men in her broad places, And all the men of war are cut off in that day, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts. And I have kindled a fire against the wall of Damascus, And it consumed palaces of Ben-Hadad!'
The burden of Damascus. Lo, Damascus is taken away from `being' a city, And it hath been a heap -- a ruin. Forsaken are the cities of Aroer, For droves they are, and they have lain down, And there is none troubling. And ceased hath the fortress from Ephraim, And the kingdom from Damascus, And the remnant of Aram are as the honour of the sons of Israel, The affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts!
The burden of a word of Jehovah against the land of Hadrach, and Demmeseh -- his place of rest: (When to Jehovah `is' the eye of man, And of all the tribes of Israel.)
Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Edom, And for four, I do not reverse it, Because of his pursuing with a sword his brother, And he hath destroyed his mercies, And tear perpetually doth his anger, And his wrath -- he hath kept it for ever,
In those days hath Jehovah begun to cut off `some' in Israel, and Hazael smiteth them in all the border of Israel, from the Jordan, at the sun-rising, the whole land of Gilead, of the Gadite, and the Reubenite, and the Manassahite (from Aroer, that `is' by the brook Arnon), even Gilead and Bashan.
And Hazael saith, `Wherefore is my lord weeping?' and he saith, `Because I have known the evil that thou dost to the sons of Israel -- their fenced places thou dost send into fire, and their young men with sword thou dost slay, and their sucklings thou dost dash to pieces, and their pregnant women thou dost rip up.'
`And it hath been, him who is escaped from the sword of Hazael, put to death doth Jehu, and him who is escaped from the sword of Jehu put to death doth Elisha;
For the head of Aram `is' Damascus, And the head of Damascus `is' Rezin, And within sixty and five years Is Ephraim broken from `being' a people.
Give a portion to seven, and even to eight, For thou knowest not what evil is on the earth.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Amos 1
Commentary on Amos 1 Matthew Henry Commentary
An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of
The Prophecy of Amos
Chapter 1
In this chapter we have,
Amo 1:1-2
Here is,
Amo 1:3-15
What the Lord says here may be explained by what he says Jer. 12:14, Thus said the Lord, against all my evil neighbours that touch the inheritance of my people Israel, Behold, I will pluck them out. Damascus was a near neighbour to Israel on the north, Tyre and Gaza on the west, Edom on the south, Ammon and (in the next chapter) Moab on the east; and all of them had been, one time, one way, or other, pricking briers and grieving thorns to Israel, evil neighbours to them; and, because God espouses his people's cause, he there calls them his evil neighbours, and here comes forth to reckon with them. The method is taken in dealing with each of them is, in part, the same, and therefore we put them together, and yet in each there is something peculiar.