CHAP. VIII.
The vision of a basket of summer-fruit, signifying the speedy ruin of Israel, 1-3. Severe reproofs, and predictions of heavy judgments, 4-10. A famine of the word of God prophetically menaced, 11-14.
HUS hath the Lord God a shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer-fruit.
2 And he said, b Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer-fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.
3 And the songs of the temple * shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: there shall be & many dead bodies in every place; h they shall cast them forth ↑ with silence.
4 Hear this, O ye that swallow up
the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail;
5 Saying, 1 When will the new moon mbe gone, that we may sell corn? "and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea , and sell the refuse of the wheat?
7 The Lord hath a sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood;
1 Num. 10:10. 28:11,&c. 2 Kings 4:23. Ps. 81:3,4. Is. 1:13,14. Col. 2:16.
g 4:10. Is. 37:36. Jer. 9:21,22. Or, month.
Nah. 3:3.
h 6:9,10. Jer, 22:18,19.
Heb. be silent. Lev. 10:3. Ps. 39:9.
i 7:16. 1 Kings 22:19. Is. 1:10. 28:14. Jer. 5:21. 28:15.
k 2:6,7. 5:11,12. Ps. 12:5. 14: 4. 56:1. 140:12. Prov. 30:14. Is. 32:6,7. Matt. 23:14. Jam. 5 : 6.
in Mal. 1:13.
5:1-5,8. Joel 3:3,6.
q 6:8. Deut. 33:26-29. Ps. 47 4. 68:34. Luke 2:32.
г Ex. 17:16. 1 Sam. 15:2,3. Ps. 10:11. Is. 43:25. Jer. 31:34 Hos. 7:2. 8:13. 9:9.
s Ps. 18:7, 60:2,3. 114:3-7. Is 5:25. 24:19,20. Jer. 4:24-26 Mic. 1:3-5. Nah. 1:5,6. Hab, 3.5-8. Hag. 2:6,7.
t 10. 9:5. Jer. 12:4. Hos. 4:3 10:5. Matt. 24:30.
u 9:5. Is. 8:7,8. Jer. 46:3. Dan 9:26.
the ringleaders of heresy, or superstition, or idolatry, will be the most inveterate and intolerant. Men of this character have commonly been false accusers of the Lord's servants to princes, and the first movers of persecution: for their reputation, authority, and quiet enjoyment of their preferments, are endangered by the prevalence of truth and righteousness.
Sometimes, however, even irreligious or idolatrous princes have been indisposed to listen to their insinuations, or to adopt their counsels; and they have been forced to employ menaces against those, whom they would have more imperiously silenced, if they could: or they have given them counsel, that savored of their own character. They will perhaps intimate, where and how ministers are most likely to obtain preferment, or to escape the cross; but not where good may be done to souls.
They consider it as the extreme of folly, insolence, or rusticity, to declare alarming offensive truths before the great; or where error, impiety, and vice are sanctioned by high authority, long established customs, or eminent examples: as if smooth and soothing heresies alone were fit to be prophesied in the chapels of kings, and soft deceitful words alone would pass current in their palaces! and as if it were the enviable prerogative of royalty and privilege of nobility, to tread, unmolested and unadmonished, the broad road to everlasting misery!
Indeed none ought to intrude themselves into such places and services: nor are all, who are called to the mimstry, qualified to assault iniquity, impiety, infidelity, or superstition, in these strong-holds. But when the Lord has work to do of an extraordinary kind, he will raise up and furnish proper instruments for it.
In doing this, he often deviates from men's rules, and takes such as have not been regularly educated, but perhaps were engaged in some laborious occupation, where they were inured to hardship, kept at a distance from the luxuries and indulgences of the affluent, and taught indifference to the interests and splendor dor of the world. They, however, who are selected to these ser-hardened in grief; and regardless of their near
vices, must declare the whole word of God without reserve, or respect of persons, to prin ces or people, to whatever treatment they may be exposed: and those who oppose or attempt to silence them, will do it at their peril.
We cannot indeed speak too humbly of ourselves and our poor attainments and services, but as ministers we ought to "magnify our office:" and though we should not apply the denunciations or examples of God's word, personally to our opposers; yet we should not hesitate to declare, that they, who despise the least of those whom the Lord sends forth to preach his word, are despisers of him; and that all who injure them may expect severe rebukes, in their families, persons, and circumstances, and even fatal effects to their souls, except they repent.
Nor can the most haughty and powerful prevent any of those judgments, the denunciation of which offends them; while their opposition provokes God to contend with them in particular, as his avowed adversaries.
NOTES.
CHAP. VIII. V. 1-3. Under the emblen of a basket of summer-fruit, which must be used immediately or it will perish, the speedy approach of the predicted judgments upon Israel was denoted, for which they were fully ripe. ( Marg . Ref . b-e. - Notes , 7:7-9. Is . 28:1 4, v. 4. Jer. 1:11,12. 24:1.
Ez . 7:2-11.) This may be supposed to have begun in the murder of Zachariah the son of Jeroboam: as the subsequent contests, between the successive usurpers of the throne, made way for the Assyrian invasions, invasions, which terminated in the entire ruin of the kingdom of Israel. ( Notes , 2- Kings 15: 8-30. 17:1-6.) These approaching events would turn the songs, which were used in the temple of Beth-el, or those of their other idoltemples, or in the palace, into ho howlings of ter ror and despair.
Numbers would die in every place by the sword, pestilence, and famine whose bodies the survivors would cast forth, without the customary solemnities of burial; as
per
and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up a sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son , and the end thereof as a bitter day.
est friends and relatives, through anxious concern for their own safety. ( Mar safety. ( Marg . and Marg . Ref . f-h.- Notes , 4-10, υυ . 9,10. 6:9-11. Lev . 10:3-6. Hos . 10:5,6.)
106
land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, d but of hearing the words of the LORD:
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it .
13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
14 They that sware by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The * manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
d 1 Sam. 3:1. 28:6,15. Ps. 74: |g Hos. 4:15. Zeph. 1:5.
9. Is. 5:6. 30:20,21. Ez. 7:26. Mic. 3:6. Matt. 9:36.
e Prov. 14:6. Dan. 12:4. Matt. 11:25-27. 12:30, 24:23-26. Rom. 9:31-33. 11:7-10.2 Tim. 3:6,7.
f Deut. 32:25. Ps. 144:12-15. Is. 40:30. Jer. 48:18. Lam. 1:18. 2:10,21. Hos. 2:3. Zech, 9:17.
h 1 Kings 12:28,29,32. 13:3234. 14:16. 16:24. 2 Kings 10 29. Hos. 8:5,6, 10:5. 13:2,16. * Heb. way. Acts 9:2. 18:25. 19:9,23. 24:14.
i See on 5:5.
k Deut. 33:11. 2 Chr. 36:16 Ps. 36:12. 140:10. Prov. 29:1.
Is. 43:17. Jer. 25:27. 51:64.
7:1-3, v . 2. 8:13. 9:9,10.) These crimes would provoke provoke him to send upon them those judgments, which would make the land to tremble, as in an earthquake: it would be desolated by overwhelming calamities from one end to another, as Egypt is annually covered by an inundation of the Nile: the prosperity and hopeful prospects of the people would be suddenly darkened, as if "the sun should go down at noon-day," and the clear light should at once be exchanged for midnight darkness.
Their idolatrous or sensual feasts, and the songs accompanying them, would be turned into lamentations; every expression of extreme grief and dejection would be universally employed by the survivors, as if each of them had lost an only child; and instead of a joyful end to their troubles, they would terminate most bitterly, in the captivity and dispersion of the 9. 6:3-8. 9:5,6. Ps . 114:3-8. Is . 8:6-8. 13:9, 10. 24:17-22. Jer . 4:19-27. 15:8,9. Joel 2 : 28 32, vv . 30,31. Zech . 12:9-14, v . 10.)
V. 4-10. The rich and powerful in Israel were exceedingly addicted to injustice and cruel oppression, as well as ringleaders in impiety and idolatry: and the approaching саlamities would fall more heavily on thein than on others. They ought therefore to consider how they might escape, or how they could endure, such miseries; instead of oppressing the poor, as if they would devour and extirpate them by their exactions. ( Marg . Ref . i, k.Notes, 2:6-8. 5:10-13, vv . 11,12.) It seems, that trade and commerce were suspended, even in the kingdom of Israel, on the new moons and sabbath-days, which they observed with some forms of devotion. But this was a weariness to the covetous oppressors; who were ready to saynation. ( Marg . Ref . s-b.- Notes , 1-3. 5:7
es.
to themselves, and to each other, 'When will 'this tedious day be over?
When will this wea'risome task of religion be ended?" They longed to return to their worldly pursuits: they were in haste to set forth corn and other provisions to sale, in order to increase their richIn managing this traffic, which so nearly concerned the laboring poor, they made "the ephah," or bushel , too small, and thus cheated in the quantity of what they sold; and they weighed the silver, with which they were paid, by too heavy a weight, and thus cheated in the sum which they took for it; nay, they used artifice in the act of weighing, and imposed in that way also on their customers: and they even took advantage of the people's necessities, to sell the refuse-corn, which was scarcely fit for use. ( Marg . and Marg .
Ref . 1-o.Notes, Neh . 13:15-22. Prov. 11:1. Is . 58:13,14. Mic . 6:10-15.7:1-4. Mal . 1:12--14. Rom . 8:5 -9.) By these methods, the poor became their debtors, and they obtained a supposed right to sell them for slaves; which they inhumanly took advantage of, when they gained a very trivial sum by depriving them of liberty. ( Marg . Ref . p.-- Notes , 1:6-8. 2:6--8. Neh . 5:1 --13.
Joel 3:3--8, υυ . 3,6--8.) But the Lord sware by himself, who was the real "Excellency of Israel," of Israel," or most honorable distinction of his people, that he would never forget or onit to punish any of their works. ( Marg . Ref . r. -Notes, Is . 43:22-25, v . 25. Jer . 31:33,34. Hos .
V. 11-14. In accession to all outward miseries, the remnant of Israel would be visited with "a famine," not of bread only, and with "thirst," not for water only, but "of hearing the words of the LORD;" and they would wander far and wide to seek information of the will of God respecting them, and yet entirely lose their labor. The kingdom of Israel seems to have been favored with fewer prophets, during some time before the Assyrian captivity, than in former ages. After that catastrophe, the motley people and religion of the Samaritans succeeded in the land.
The dispersed Israelites were either incorporated with the heather; or lived without prophets, or teachers qualified to explain the scriptures to them, and far removed from divine ordinances and means of grace: nor could any of their efforts or inquiries supply this want to their souls. ( Marg . Ref . d, e.- Notes , Ps. 74:9. Is . 5:5,6. 30: 20,21. Ez . 7:25,26. Hos . 3:4,5. Mic . 3:5-7. Rom . 11:7-10.) But some think, and not improbably, that the present state of the Jews was also predicted.
After they rejected Christ and his apostles and ministers, they were punished with a famine and thirst of the words of God; and in vain have they ever since sought and waited for another Messiah, or other teachers, to instruct them in his truth and will.--In that
day, it was predicted, "the fair virgins and young men would faint for thirst;" which may mean, that the most amiable and zealous, who were best disposed to religion, would rest in outward forms and decency of conduct; and, being destitute of "the wells of salvation," would at last perish for want of that water of life, which Christ alone can bestow. ( Marg . Ref . f.- Notes , Is . 40:27-31, υυ . 30,31. Zech . 9: 17.) Thus, those who sware, as an act of solemn worship, by the idols which were the sin of Samaria, by the golden calf that was the god of Dan, and by the idol which was wor
the mercantile transactions of numbers "an abomination to the LORD;" we should not wonder to see them so averse to his worship, or so soon weary of it; for their consciences cannot but be at some tinies disquieted, as well as their darling pursuits interrupted, by such spiritual exercises. But what place will they be fit for in another world, who have here delighted in iniquity and ungodliness? They may conceal their works, or forget them, but the Lord registers them all in his book of remembrance: and, seeing nations tremble and mourn for sin, and dark and gloomy calami
shipped at Beer-sheba, after the manner pre-ties overspread most flourishing kingdoms,
scribed there by its priests, would at length be punished. Though this was a dead idol, they sware by it as the living God! But they would fall to rise no more. ( Marg . and Marg . Ref.- Notes, 5:4-6. 1 Kings 12:26-29. 14:14-16. 16:24. Hos . 8:5,6. 10:5,6. 13:1,2. Zeph. 1:5.) - From the north even to the east. (12) 'The 'prophet omits naming the south; because the idolaters, to whom he directs his discourse, 'would choose to inquire any where rather 'than of the true prophets of the Lord; (1 'Kings 22:7. 2 Kings 3:11.) who dwelt in 'Judah, which was situated in the southern 'parts of the nation.' Lowth .
PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.
and turn all their joys into howlings and distress; what will be "the weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth" which sinners will experience, in that "bitter day," which will succeed to their sinful and sensual pleasures!-No earthly calamity should be so much dreaded, as the want of the instructions of God's word, and the means of grace: this is a far more fatal famine, than that which only kills the body; as it directly leads to the miserable perdition of the immortal soul.
This judgment is often inflicted on those, who abuse, despise, or neglect the gospel; and who prefer antiscriptural notions and forms to the religion of the Bible. (Note, John 12: 34-36 . Р. О. 34-50.) When God in anger thus visits a degenerate church, their own schemes and endeavors, to find out a way of salvation, will stand them in no stead.
Let us then value, and seek to profit by, our peculiar advantages, and fear provoking God to deprive us of them: and let it be remembered, that even if these blessings be continued in our land, death will soon remove ungodly men to that place, "where there is no repent
We should carefully notice, and endeavor to deduce instruction from, every discovery which it may please God to afford us of his truth and will.--Nothing tends more to alarm the consciences of careless sinners, than a conviction that their end draws near, and that the Lord is about to punish them for their transgressions: but if men will not take warning, and improve present mercies and oppor-ance unto salvation," and where "the filthy
tunities; their carnal mirth, self-confident joy, and hypocritical songs of praise, will soon end in howlings of terror and despair.--Those who are most averse to hear the awful messages of God, should on some occasions be more directly addressed.--Times of public calamity will be peculiarly dreadful to the sensual, the avaricious, and the secure.--The ordinances of God must be a weariness to the carnal mind: the sabbath will therefore either be profaned, or be a dull and heavy day; the sermon and service will be thought intolerably tedious; the return of these seasons will be considered as a sad deduction from the enjoyment, or interruption of the business, of life; for such persons are all the time out of their element. And could we witness the fraudulent and covetous practices, which, in diversified forms, render
continue filthy still;" for they, who fall into that pit of destruction, shall rise no more for ever.
NOTES.