2) He addresses the ungodly wives of the wicked and calls them "fat cows". For this generation is far too weak to have any use for prosperity, since they are wont to afflict the hearts of the wise. To this opinion also speaks Isaiah Cap. 3, 16: "Therefore the daughters of Zion are proud, and walk with their necks lifted up, and with their faces made up" 2c. So he speaks also here of the wives of the high priests and the princes, to whom the goods of the poor become a prey.
V. 1. You fat cows.
That is, you rich and powerful women 3) among the people, who are a cause of ungodliness to your husbands. Your avarice is insatiable; there is no measure of your indulgence and your ostentation. (For it is implanted in this generation by nature that they are devoted to these things unless there is godliness). And this is that he adds: 4)
And speak to your masters.
[This is] to your men. 5)
2) Instead of this whole paragraph, D.: Some take the "fat cows" for the wives of the rich, who abuse the present fortune for indulgence, as Is. 3, 16. is said: "Therefore, that the daughters of Zion are proud, and walk with erect neck, with made-up faces" 2c., they think that the prophet is also speaking here of the wives of the high priests, the priests and the princes, but I prefer to understand it of the idolaters, to whom false religion was for profit.
3) D. omits "women" and says: who give you a cause to the rest of the people 2c.
4) From the beginning of the parenthesis until here, D.
Instead, D.: This is to those who protect your ungodly worship and make you rich.
Let's get drunk.
Instead of ut bibamus6 ) it should more correctly read: let us feast, and let us live deliciously and gloriously. Because you seek this one thing, therefore the Lord has sworn by himself 7) or by his holiness that he will bring the Assyrian king upon you, to whom you will become a prey, who will slaughter you, the fat cows.
V. 2. that you will be brought out with fishing rods. 8)
Again, these are parables of the beast. As if he wanted to say: As we are used to carry slaughtered meat on a spit or on a stick, so also this one will take you away in miserable captivity.
And your descendants.
Instead of et reliquias vestras, it should more correctly read: your remaining, your last, that is, your house, your sons and daughters, with whom you now lead such a tender life, these the king of the Afsyrians will also take away.
Mt Fishhäklein.
In ollis ferventibus [Vulg.: in boiling pots] or in a fish cel they will perish miserably with you in captivity.
6) In the Vulgate: stdidswus.
7 ) Thus, according to the Zwickau manuscript, is to be translated per "anstuin.
8) In the text: Hui^us in sontis vos portabit [who will carry you away on polesU in the Vulgate: st Isvndunt vos in sontis.
V. 3. and shall go out to the gaps, every one before him, and be cast away to Harmon.
You will not go out on the right road, but through the gaps as you are able. For so it will happen that you, who now dwell safely in well-fortified cities, will flee when the Assyrian comes, and after the walls and fortifications are destroyed, he will push you out of the city through those gaps. He will have no regard for your dignity, but as you fall into his hands, so he will let you go out and drive you forward. "He will drive you before him as the shepherd drives the cows." - "Harmon," 1) the commentators mean, is a high mountain, or Armenia, and I know not what is to be indicated by this. But this is nothing, and we do not concern ourselves with it. We are satisfied with the simple history. Therefore, as he named the city of Kir above in the first chapter, v. 5. so here let us understand a place or region in Assyria where the captive Israelites were brought. For as I said above, just as the Israelites were not taken away to Syria, neither were they taken to Armenia, but to Media and Persia.
V. 4. Yes, come to Bethel, and cast out sin.
These two places, Gilgal and Bethel, are famous and infamous, because they wanted to be like the priesthood of Judah in these places. They performed a very high service in these places, but still against God's word. Therefore, this passage is in a mocking way a kind of bitter and sharp concession, as if he wanted to say: I condemn this godless worship of yours, I always forbid you not to deviate from the worship that is established by my word, but you confidently despise me and continue to act godlessly. Go on, go on, as if you had not been ungodly enough before. "Yes, yes, go on." So it goes with all the ungodly, that they,
1) Instead of the following to the end of the paragraph D. has: This is perhaps the mountain Amanus, beyond which the people are led away to Assyria.
if they want to be righteous, if they think they are acting well, they will sin all the more grievously in God's judgment.
And bring your sacrifices of the morning.
This also belongs to the mocking speech. This prophet had great audacity, since he was not afraid to condemn and reject the highest and seemingly best works done to the true God.
And your tithes of the third day.
2) Here I follow the opinion of Lyra, as if the prophet wanted to say: You establish a service, you seek to do like Judah, which has the law of God that it should appear before the Lord three times a year, as the law prescribes. You also pursue the same, and when you come together, you preach your ungodly nature and make much of it. Because you act without God's word and without faith, these are your inventions. Therefore, you mock God, and God mocks you. Therefore, nothing is valid before God but what He Himself has established.
V. 5. and burn incense from the leaven for the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
[Instead of sacrificate it means] according to the Hebrew: set on fire. There were many kinds of sacrifices: Burnt offerings, thank offerings, likewise vow offerings and voluntary offerings offered in thanksgiving. Therefore, it would have been more correctly translated here (instead of laudem in the Vulgate): Lobopfer. Because such sacrifices happened for certain good deeds to the thanksgiving, as is to be read in Moses. So he took this passage from Moses, as if he wanted to say: Well, light your sacrifice, you excellent people, namely you priests, who use leaven for sacrifice, from which, as the law wants, one must be extremely careful. Or (so that it would be a mocking speech) he rebukes here again the godless hypocrisy, which they did with the law, since everything was done against the law. It
2) Instead of this passage, D.: Instead of tribus dus is more correctly translated thus: Bring your tithes" of the third day. But these are mocking concessions, as many such are also read in the other prophets.
was A place prescribed by GOD where He wanted to be worshipped. Leavened bread was also used for the sacrifice of thanksgiving, Deut. 7, 13.
And preach of voluntary sacrifice (Et vocate voluntarias oblationes).
The apostle Paul translated the word vocare everywhere by preach. So it must be translated also in this place, as if the prophet wanted to say: by these your sermons you invite the people to that your godless being which you have caused. Voluntarias, that is voluntary. It is a legal word taken from Moses, because under this name several sacrifices were made in the law. So it is also said in the 119th Psalm, v. 108: "Let the willing sacrifice of my mouth be acceptable unto thee, O Lord."
V. 6. Therefore I have also given you idle teeth (stuporem dentium) in all your cities.
As if he wanted to say: I cannot dissuade you from that godless nature, I do nothing with plagues, however great and much they may be, therefore I am finally forced to reject you completely. I have done nothing by famine, nothing by pestilence, nothing by drought, nothing by failure of the seeds, because always when you should have returned to me, since I have beaten you in this intention, you have returned to that service of yours, although it is an abomination to me. But here is a figurative speech of the Hebrew language, which is quite far-fetched, which we cannot reproduce with our words. But it is written in Hebrew like this: I have given you purity or idleness of teeth, that is: long ago you had nothing to eat, I had sent famine upon you, but you continue to sin. For when the Jews were thus smitten by the Lord, they thought that the cause was that they had neglected the service at Bethel, since it was the Lord's intention that they, thus smitten, should recognize their error and take refuge in him and obtain mercy. So we also suffer from the same ungodliness: when the Lord is angry with us and gives us some
Whenever the Turk sends us misfortune, we celebrate field festivals and say many masses, even though we provoke the Lord even more severely in this way. The same thing happens every year when we have to fight with the Turk, and that is why the Turk always has the upper hand over us. And this is what I said above, that the wicked, since they meanwhile think they are doing well, only sin the more grievously 2c.
V. 7. a field was irrigated (Pars una compluta est).
[Pars] means a field, because in Hebrew a field is called a part (portio), because to each individual citizen his fields are allotted.
V. 8. and two, three cities went to one city.
In Hebrew it means: they wavered. It indicates the movement and swaying of the thirsty people.
V. 9. all that grew in your gardens 2c.
Multitudinem, that is, the whole quantity of your fruits. You see the same thing in Hosea.
V. 10. I sent pestilence among you (Misi in vos mortem).
Instead of mortem, it should more correctly read: pestilence. Where or when this history happened, we do not know. - "I caused your horses to be led away captive." Instead of usque ad captivitatem, according to the Hebrew it should read: into captivity.
V.11. I turned back some of you, as God turned back Sodom and Gomorrah.
This can be read in the conjunctive as well as in the indicative. But it is the opinion, which I have indicated above in the third chapter [v. 12], of the saved others. I have turned you back and afflicted you miserably; I have led you away and trampled you underfoot, but still some, very few remnants have been torn out, a very small part has been preserved, so that Israel would not perish completely. For so much
1) amdarvalia, which the old translator paraphrases very well: "we hold processions in which one rides around the corridor with crosses and flags".
Even though I have smitten you in the most wretched way, you have not returned to the one who smites you, that is, to me, the LORD your God. But he uses a similitude according to his way: Just as a firebrand, and a burning one at that, plucked out of the conflagration, cannot be compared to a whole burnt Hanse, so your remnant is nothing compared to the whole people 2c. This is also how the Lord deals with us when he wants to justify us; he frightens and disgraces our consciences in such a way that we think it has happened to us, as if we should already be eternally damned. And yet there is still some hope left, so that we do not completely despair. He snatches us out of the fire, as it were, as a fire. Therefore these and similar passages are written both to terrify and to comfort. They frighten those who have a hard neck and stubbornly insist on their righteousness. They comfort those who humbly and shatteredly recognize their error. Happy is he who understands this!
V. 12 Therefore I will continue to do this to you, Israel.
1) Some want something to be omitted here (esse eclipsin), so that the opinion is: I have done this to you so far, I will continue to do it further. I do not like this opinion. For what should the Lord do further to those who have already turned back before, like Sodom, and so much so that hardly the very least remains, like the leg of a sheep torn out of the mouth of a lion, or a firebrand torn out of a conflagration, have been preserved? But my opinion is that he thus says: Israel, you think you have a gracious God, whom you seek and call upon in Bethel against the law of God; but look upon me, it is I who strike you, and therefore you should return to me and prepare to meet me; but you do not do it.
1) D. begins this passage thus: I like that something is left out here, so that the opinion is: I have done this to you so far, and will continue to do the same to you. Others would rather interpret it as if he meant to say: Israel, you mean 2c.
And meet your God (In occursum meum).
Here again the interpreters diverge. The Septuagint's interpretation is beautiful, but the grammar does not allow it. This passage, however, belongs where many others in the prophets belong, like the one in Ezekiel Cap. 13, 5: "They do not stand before the gaps, nor make themselves a barrier around the house of Israel, nor stand in battle in the day of the LORD." Likewise Cap. 22:30: "I sought among them if any man would make himself a wall, and stand against the breach against me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none." And Isa. 64:7, "There is none that calleth upon thy name, or riseth up to keep thee." So here also is the same opinion, as if he wanted to say: With the plagues with which you were struck, I wanted this, that you would return to me, that you would meet me, anticipate the wrath, oppose me, so that I would not continue to avenge; but you do completely the opposite. Everything is connected with the foregoing, since he kept repeating, "You have not yet turned back to me."
V. 13 For behold, it is he who makes the mountains.
He cites the greatness of his power. What is it, he says, that you take refuge in idols or in human help, while you should fear me, of whom you know that I can create everything and make it perish. I am the creator of all sublime things; the night, the day, the lust for life, everything comes from me. Therefore, you are fools who think you can escape from my hand, since I am so powerful that I have everything in my hands. When I have seized someone, there is no one who could snatch him away from me. Thus he opposes his omnipotence to their godless hardness. In the same way also Isaiah Cap. 51, 15. f. speaks: "I am the Lord, your God, who moves the sea" 2c.
He who creates the wind (Creans ventum).
I understand [by "wind"] the spirit of life or the breath, as if he wanted to say: so much you cannot escape from my hands, if I want to take revenge on you, that you also have your spirit of life from me. If I take it from you, you will not be able to live for a moment.
1724 " XXV, 424-426. interpretation dG Amos (1.), cap. 4, 13. 5, 1. 2. W. VI, 249S-2499. 1725
And show the man what he should speak (Eloquium suum).
I interpret it like this: Who gives to men that they may speak. For the divine majesty is so close to us that it also gives us the words that we are to speak. For the Hebrew word actually signifies this. But when the Scripture speaks of the speech of God or the word of God, it uses the word XXX 2) or XXX.
He makes the dawn and the darkness.
That is, you do not yet fear the Lord, who can also take away from you the day of which you cannot do without.
1) D. here incorrectly inserts the Hebrew word ^21.
2) In the original: amra; in D.:
He steps out of the heights of the earth.
Everything that is great and exalted on earth is subject to him. Besides the literal sense, it will not be inadmissible to play here also with secret interpretations: The LORD forms the mountains, that is, all power, all dominion, comes from him; when he wills, it ceases, he subdues it again, as he says, "He treadeth upon the high places of the earth." Likewise he makes the dawn and the day [that is, good times], likewise the darkness, that is, evil 3) times. When he wills it, our things go on happily; again, when he wills it, everything is unhappy and is disturbed 2c.
3) Here we have assumed instead of doua: umla. It seems to us here that what we have inserted in parenthesis has been omitted by a printing error, or rather doua tsiupora has been put in the second place, instead of mala tempora. In our original: item undila koo est: mala tempora.