Amo 4:6-11 | JFB | STEP | 6-11. Jehovah details His several chastisements inflicted with a view to reclaiming them: but adds to each the same sad result, "yet have ye not returned unto Me" ( ); the monotonous repetition of the same burden marking their pitiable obstinacy. cleanness of teeth —explained by the parallel, "want of bread." The famine alluded to is that mentioned in [GROTIUS ]. Where there is no food to masticate, the teeth are free from uncleanness, but it is the cleanness of want. Compare , "Where no oxen are, the crib is clean." So spiritually, where all is outwardly smooth and clean, it is often because there is no solid religion. Better fighting and fears with real piety, than peace and respectable decorum without spiritual life.

Amos 4:6-11

6-11. Jehovah details His several chastisements inflicted with a view to reclaiming them: but adds to each the same sad result, "yet have ye not returned unto Me" (Isa 9:13; Jer 5:3; Ho 7:10); the monotonous repetition of the same burden marking their pitiable obstinacy.

cleanness of teeth—explained by the parallel, "want of bread." The famine alluded to is that mentioned in 2Ki 8:1 [GROTIUS]. Where there is no food to masticate, the teeth are free from uncleanness, but it is the cleanness of want. Compare Pr 14:4, "Where no oxen are, the crib is clean." So spiritually, where all is outwardly smooth and clean, it is often because there is no solid religion. Better fighting and fears with real piety, than peace and respectable decorum without spiritual life.

7. withholden . . . rain . . . three months to . . . harvest—the time when rain was most needed, and when usually "the latter rain" fell, namely, in spring, the latter half of February, and the whole of March and April (Ho 6:3; Joe 2:23). The drought meant is that mentioned in 1Ki 17:1 [GROTIUS].

rain upon one city . . . not . . . upon another—Any rain that fell was only partial.

8. three cities wandered—that is, the inhabitants of three cities (compare Jer 14:1-6). GROTIUS explains this verse and Am 4:7, "The rain fell on neighboring countries, but not on Israel, which marked the drought to be, not accidental, but the special judgment of God." The Israelites were obliged to leave their cities and homes to seek water at a distance [CALVIN].

9. blasting—the blighting influence of the east wind on the corn (Ge 41:6).

when . . . gardens . . . increased—In vain ye multiplied your gardens, &c., for I destroyed their produce. BOCHART supports Margin, "the multitude of your gardens."

palmer worm—A species of locust is here meant, hurtful to fruits of trees, not to herbage or corn. The same east wind which brought the drought, blasting, and mildew, brought also the locusts into Judea [BOCHART], (Ex 10:13).

10. pestilence after the manner of Egypt—such as I formerly sent on the Egyptians (Ex 9:3, 8, &c.; Ex 12:29; De 28:27, 60). Compare the same phrase, Isa 10:24.

have taken away your horses—literally, "accompanied with the captivity of your horses"; I have given up your young men to be slain, and their horses to be taken by the foe (compare 2Ki 13:7).

stink of your camps—that is, of your slain men (compare Isa 34:3; Joe 2:20).

to come up unto your nostrils—The Hebrew is more emphatic, "to come up, and that unto your nostrils."

11. some of you—some parts of your territory.

as God overthrew Sodom— (De 29:23; Isa 13:19; Jer 49:18; 50:40; 2Pe 2:6; Jude 7). "God" is often repeated in Hebrew instead of "I." The earthquake here apparently alluded to is not that in the reign of Uzziah, which occurred "two years" later (Am 1:1). Traces of earthquakes and volcanic agency abound in Palestine. The allusion here is to some of the effects of these in previous times. Compare the prophecy, De 28:15-68, with Am 4:6-11 here.

as a firebrand plucked out of . . . burning—(Compare Isa 7:4; Zec 3:2). The phrase is proverbial for a narrow escape from utter extinction. Though Israel revived as a nation under Jeroboam II, it was but for a time, and that after an almost utter destruction previously (2Ki 14:26).