4) As I said above at the beginning of the third chapter, the prophets did not finish these books, which contain prophecies or sermons, in one year, just as they did not immediately prophesy everything in one year; so also here another sermon begins, which is held in another year. But it has the same opinion as the previous ones, and it all comes to the same thing, but in each individual sermon he uses different words and different ways of speaking. For in general these books of the prophets are nothing else than sermons.
V. 1. 2. Hear this word, you of the house of Israel, to whom I must make this lamentation: The virgin of Israel is fallen, that she shall not rise again.
4) Instead of this section, D. has: As I said above that the speeches of the prophets are not continuous, but that the individual chapters are individual sermons, which are given at different times, so also here is a new sermon, although it is of the same opinion as the previous ones, and everything goes to the same thing, only that he uses other words and other figures of speech.
That he says: I raise above you (levo [XXX] super vos), is a common Hebrew way of speaking in all prophets. Since they call the word of the Lord a burden, the prophets announce a future evil that shall afflict the people. Therefore they gave the word the name "burden", since the prophets were burdensome and hateful and troublesome, since they proclaimed nothing but a burden, desolation of the land, wrath and threat of God, just as Paul also says (and with him all proclaimers of the word) [Rom. 1, 18.]: "God's wrath from heaven is revealed against all ungodly beings" etc. This sermon, which in your opinion is hard and heavy, does not want the flesh to suffer, but trusts in its righteousness and thinks that it does not deserve the punishment. But the prophets threaten a temporal evil, so that we do not have to suffer the eternal one, if we do not repent. 5) The same word is also in this passage, where he says: levo super vos, "I will be over
5) This sentence is missing in D.
you lnden". In Latin, we cannot well imitate this Hebrew way of speaking.
The virgin Israel has fallen.
Israel was betrothed to God alone because of the word of God and the faith in the word by which their souls were kept chaste. But he says that she ["the virgin Israel"] has fallen, or will fall, and shall be laid waste by the king of the Assyrians. Thus the prophet envisions the calamity that was to happen, as if it were already happening or had happened. This is the way of the prophets. But he does not speak of virginity, as the interpreters are fooling at this point, and Jerome with them.
That she will not get up again.
This is what also Hosea Cap. 1, 6. prophesied: "I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will cast them away." For they are so desolate and scattered that they have never been restored to their kingdom, as the sacred histories indicate.
She is knocked to the ground and there is no one to help her up.
It will lie desolate and abandoned, while a few remnants will remain, but these remnants will not be comparable to those that will be discarded and perish; barely the tenth part will remain, as is evident from the following.
V. 3. the city where a thousand go out etc.
This is what he said above about the remnant to be saved, like a knee torn out of the lion's mouth and like a firebrand torn out of a conflagration. Here he speaks clearly, without image. As if he wanted to say: They will be devastated in the most miserable way, but still very few remains will be left.
V. 4. Seek me.
Now the Lord begins to admonish and warn in a most friendly way, as if he wanted to say: Seek me, me. I am the one who strikes you, as he said above; I can also heal you.
Why do you deun run to your ungodly worship in Bethel? 1) Come back to me. Thus the Lord always has his eye on Bethel, as he also immediately adds. "Seek the Lord" is not in seeking in outward works, or in outward hypocrisy, but, as it is said in the Psalm [Ps. 119, 2. 10.], 2) with all the heart he must be sought; he requires the heart, not the outward rending of garments, as also Joel, Cap. 2, 13, says: "Rend your hearts" etc. So also says Isaiah Cap. 21, 12. [Vulg.], "If ye seek the Lord, seek him; be converted, and come."
This is how you will live.
It is a Hebrew expression that we render in Latin somewhat like this: it will be well with you (bene habebitis). This expression is frequent in Scripture, as Ps. 142, 6: "My portion in the land of the living." Thus Isa. 38, 11. in the song of Hezekiah: "I said: Now I no longer have to see the Lord in the land of the living," that is, in the land where everything is happy and everything is well.
V. 5. Do not seek Bethel, and do not come to Gilgal, and do not go to Beersheba.
The same foolishness and the same godless nature was with this people as with ours, who erected a temple or an altar in honor of the saints, if they had been in a place or had done something. Quite the same nonsensical procedure was also with the Jews. In Bethel Jacob had been, in Gilgal 3) they had been circumcised, in Berseba Abraham had stayed. Therefore they chose these places before others as holy, and set up any place of worship.
1) From here to the following "Bethel" is missing in D., probably by mistake.
2) From here to "Joel 2, 13." D. has instead of the following: seek with all their heart, that they earnestly grieve over the sin they have committed and in hope of divine mercy turn to him who smites them, ask him for forgiveness, desire mercy and desist from finding it. The hypocrites seek in a different way, for they have a blind and unrepentant heart, they do not see their sins, therefore they do not call upon God seriously, and seek Him only in appearance with fasting, tearing of clothes etc. But Joel 2, 13. etc.
3) Instead of Oilssä in the issues is to be read after Jos. 5, 7. OUZuI.
service. But the Lord wanted us to follow not the deeds but the faith of the saints, for he always inculcates this in the law: Keep what I command you, as if to say: not what I have done with the saints. And since the holy prophets taught such things, they were considered heretics and, as it were, godless people who prevented the service of God. 1) But the prophets went about bringing Israel completely and badly back from works alone to the word, which we also should do without delay; but as then the prophets were despised and killed as blasphemers, so the same thing happens to us today etc.
Bethel will become BethAven (Bethel erit inutilis).
Here is the word [H, of which I said above. Here the prophet has used it in its right and proper meaning, as also in the 90th Psalm, v. 10.: "And if it has been delicious, it has been toil and labor." So here: "Bethel shall become Aven," that is, as ye have wrought ungodly righteousness in Bethel, whereof ye have had trouble and travail, so shall the Lord do the same unto you, namely, make Bethel BethAven, that is, "ye shall have heartache and sorrow therefrom." This Bethel will be the cause of very great misfortune for you.
V. 6. in the house of Joseph.
The kingdom of Israel is elsewhere in the prophets called the house of Joseph, Samaria, (the house of) Israel, Mount Ephraim, the house of Ephraim etc.
V. 7 You who turn justice into wormwood.
Scripture always connects these two words. But this passage is taken from Genesis, Deut. 29:18: "Lest there be a root among you that beareth gall and wormwood." From this passage also the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Cap.
1) D. 1". Just as we are condemned today because we do not approve of the self-chosen services and insist on the works of the profession. But the prophet deals with it etc.
12, 15, likewise the Acts of the Apostles, Cap. 8, 23, repeats this expression. But the opinion is: You, secure in your righteousness, despise God, whom you should fear, 2) and so you turn what is otherwise sweetest into bitter bile for yourselves and others etc.
V. 8. the mother hen (Arcturum).
At this point the Hebrews bring up various things, which are uncertain, therefore we also leave this aside. The prophet, however, intends, as above, to oppose the power of God to the godless despisers, as also indicated by what follows. 3)
Who makes the dark night out of the day.
As if to say, "The gods you seek in Bethel and Gilgal and Beersheba will not help you. In vain do you take refuge in them, as if you could obtain help from them and call upon them for help. I am the Lord and the Creator of all things, 4) come to me and you will live.
Who calls to the water in the sea. 5)
This is what is said in the Psalm [Ps. 147, 8.]: "He who covers the sky with clouds, and gives rain on earth." For he causes clouds to rise from the sea, 6) when he wants to give rain, as can be seen in the history of Elijah etc.
V. 9. who causes a disturbance on the strong, and brings a disturbance on the strong city. 7)
This is translated quite unrhymed. In Hebrew, however, it reads like this: the one who disturbs
2) Instead of the following, D.: Moreover, you have no just government, but abuse your power to oppress the good. For he indicates both: the church and the secular regime are mismanaged etc.
3) D. f: What the Latin translated by ^retururu, others translate by the Pleiades s "the mother hen"), and this I like better.
4) D. I: I who create the change of times, I who bring forth the springs and rivers from the sea;
5) This entire section is missing from D.
6) Instead of: ässeeuaere we have assumed aseeuäere with the Hallic manuscript.
7) Vulgate: Hui sukriäet vastitateur super rokusturu, st äepoxulatiouem super potentem altert.
makes strong [XXXXX). It is the same word that is found in the 39th Psalm, v. 14: "That I may rest [XXXXXX] before I go, and be no more here." The interpreters, however, differ quite extraordinarily from each other. But it seems to me that the prophet is speaking figuratively, so that "to make the disturbance strong" is the same as: to carry out the disturbance with force and power, so that no one can resist it.
About the strong (super robustum).
Nones: over the power, or kingdom, and dominion ("force"), as in the 62nd Psalm, v. 12. [Vulg.] "The power is God's." To Him all things are subject, in His hand all things are; there is no strength and power so great as to resist Him, yea, that would not be of Him, as He also said above.
V. 10: Who are they to him that punisheth them in the gate?
The Hebrews call the place of judgment "the gate", where the judges and the council sit and judge. Therefore, the opinion here is: these godless people do not want 1) to be punished in a gathering of people, not publicly in front of an assembly. So also our princes and larval bishops interpret it as a mistake for words of God, that it makes their godless nature obvious 2) before the common people etc.
Who teaches wholesome.
The same word [XXXX] is in the 119th Psalm, v. 1: "Blessed are those who live without change," that is, blessed are those who live wholesomely etc. This is how Paul interpreted it [2 Tim. 1, 13]. Namely, those who had sound doctrine, sound faith and love, they would not suffer. But how ungodliness cannot suffer the wholesome doctrine, we experience daily.
V. 11. Therefore, because you oppress the poor (diripiebatis).
After a very friendly admonition, he now adds a threat in another parable
1) Here D. continues thus: that their sins be punished, but desire that they be concealed, like our etc.
2) D. omits the following words.
to. He complains about what he always complained about above, namely the epitome of all godlessness, the distrust against God and the violence against the neighbor. - Instead of diripiebatis, it should more correctly be said: you burden, you oppress the poor and put burdens on them that they are not able to bear; you flay the poor rabble, you put on unbearable estimates, you scrape goods together with right and wrong.
And take the grain from them with great burdens (ablatum electum).
That is, all that the poor have good, you appropriate, the best fields, grounds, gardens you snatch by robbery and tyrannical avarice. Here let the pope and his people consider themselves, 3) and our princes, the suckers and devourers of the poor. Now if a poor man has a good field, or whatever he may have, he is compelled to pay valuation of it.
In the fine vineyards (Vineas amantissimas).
In the lovely vineyards. This word is frequent in all the prophets and in the Psalms: "lovely, funny, pretty vineyards".
V. 12 For I know your transgression.
With this word, when he says: "I know", he indicates the heart movement of those people and his own, as if he wanted to say: You rage so against the poor, you oppress them so, as if I do not see or know it, about I see it very well, my eyes look on the poor. Nothing of all that you do is hidden from me, however much I act for a time as if I did not see it; that makes you blind. So it is also said in the tenth Psalm, v. 11: "The wicked speaks in his rushing: God has forgotten, he has hidden his face,
3) Here D. continues to the end of the section so fött: who are in truth devoured the poor. Because übet^Kl they have taken everything, what only somewhere the best gewesmÄi, with not even honorable tricks. Although the dominions can be maintained without great burdens to the subjects, it is nevertheless due to the princes that they keep moderation, so that they do not prove to be tyrants instead of being princes, and as disturbers of the subjects instead of being protectors. For God hates all injustice.
he will never see it." Thus Ezek. 8, 12: "They say, 'The Lord does not see us;' but the Lord has left the land." Likewise Cap. 9, 9. Also Isa. 29, 15: "Who sees us? and who knows us?"
V. 13. Therefore the wise man must keep silent at the same time.
1) Here belongs the whole eleventh Psalm [v. 2. 3.]: "For behold, the wicked draw the bow, and lay their arrows upon the sinews, to shoot withal the upright. For they overthrow the ground; what shall the righteous do?" 2) Here let him perish who will not be exalted. [Revelation 22:11:^ "He that is unclean, let him be unclean after all."
For it is an evil time.
"Evil" he calls them because the evil ones have the upper hand.
V.14. Then the Lord God of hosts will be with you, as you boast.
This is an objection. Since the godless Jews did not recognize their godlessness, they protected themselves with the promises of God, namely that they were the people of God; that the Lord had promised that he would be in their midst, and that the Lord had not done this to any other people. Therefore, they accused the holy prophets of lying, proclaiming the future wrath of God, as if they were speaking against the law of God and against the promises of God. Such ungodly speeches were clearly indicated by the prophet Micah in the second chapter [v. 6. f.]: "They say that one should not cry; for such crying does not befall us, we will not be so put to shame. The house of Jacob comforts itself: "Do you think that the spirit of the Lord is shortened? Should he want to do such a thing?" etc. All these ungodly speeches are invalidated by the prophet Amos, who says: "Seek good and not evil" etc. as if he wanted to say: "The Lord has promised that he will be with you, but only if you are godly.
1) D. f: That is, so great is the tyranny that no one dares to teach the word of God, but immediately they threaten with the cross and draw the swords, as soon as someone begins to murmur against them. Here etc.
2) D. omits the following.
blessed are you if you have had what he commanded you, as Micah also adds [Cap. 2:7], "It is true, my sayings are kind to the pious. "etc. 3)
V. 16. There will be wailing in all the streets.
He goes over to the threat in a very hard transition. As if he wanted to say: Because you do not judge rightly, therefore you will fall into a terrible judgment. All places will be full of lamentation, all roads and paths, and not only in the cities, but also the farmers will lament, as follows:
And one will call to the Ackermann to mourn, and to lament, who can cry there.
As if he wanted to say: I will cause a general mourning in the whole kingdom, so that whoever can mourn shall mourn. It will be such a great lamentation that there will be no one who is not weary of his life; both old men and young men will lament, "everything that can howl.
V. 17. There will be wailing in all the vineyards.
In vineis, that is, the vintners. We have [in the Vulgate] the bad reading: viis.
For I will go among you, says the Lord.
That is when I will trample you in my fury and strike you as I struck Egypt.
3) D. f: For this is the difference between the promises of the law and the gospel, that the law promises what it promises under a certain condition, as the text clearly says [Deut. 18, 5. Rom. 10, 5.]: "Whoever does this, he will live in it." "Honor thy father and mother, that thou mayest live long upon the earth." For everywhere it is attached to the condition of our works, as is clear from the 28th chapter of the 5th book of Moses, indeed, from your whole law. But what the gospel promises, it promises by grace for free, without the condition of any work. Therefore, whoever accepts the promise in faith will certainly receive it, and neither the past evil life nor the present and future weakness will hinder him. For the mercy of God, which is shown to us in Christ, is certain and unfailing. When faith looks at this, it certainly receives what is promised for the sake of Christ, without the condition of a work or our worthiness.
V. 18. Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord.
He says this against the despisers of the sermon and the stiff-necked people who accused the prophet of lying and foolishness and mocked him by denying that everything he predicted would happen. Of these it is written in 2 Petr. 3, 4: "They say, Where is the promise of his future? For after the fathers have fallen asleep, all things remain as they were from the beginning of the creation" etc. This is how it has always been from the beginning of the world: just as the wicked did not believe the promises of God, so they also despised the threats until they perished completely, while they were not aware of it. The same thing is being done nowadays by our godless preachers 1) in that they are very sure to despise the Word, which is now revealed to the world again through God's great goodness, and to mock those who threaten them with misfortune and ruin. For they saw thus: 2) "O it is a passing over of the priests", the matter will change; the time will come when all these things will cease, and the priests will be held in the highest honor. These are in the same damnation in which the godless Jews were, of whom Amos remembers here and of whom Peter says. 3)
For the day of the Lord is darkness and not light.
"The Lord's day" he calls the whole time of that tribulation which he predicts. "Day" 4) but
1) D.: the godless papists
2) D. continues thus: It is a short storm by which the clergy is shaken, but in a short time the thing will change, and all these things will cease etc.
3) In immediate connection with this follows in D.: for he calls "the day of the Lord" the calamity which he predicts, and says: "Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord." But because, when the prophet threatened that such things would come, they said assuredly, Let only the day of the Lord come which thou threatenest, as if to say, That shall never come to pass which thou foretellest, he saith, Woe to such and so sure despisers, for they shall feel that the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light; that is, they shall know that I have lied nothing, and suffer punishment for their ungodliness. For "darkness" denotes tribulation, "light" comfort, joy, well-being. - For this the whole following passage is missing.
4) Instead of "Us8 it would probably be better to read lux here, which both D. and the Zwickau manuscript offer.
is, as I also said above [Cap. 4, 13.], with the Hebrews happiness and welfare and joyful times, as this image is frequent everywhere in the Psalms. Therefore he says that everything happy will be full of unhappiness and mourning.
V. 19. As if someone flees before the lion.
Now he threatens these despisers with a terrifying downfall, as if he wanted to say: "Well, despise 5) only the word of the Lord; you are safe, you think it will not happen that you fall into future misfortune; but it will be so impossible that you do not perish, as it is impossible that he, who flees from a lion, runs into a bear. You will not be able to escape in such a way that, while you have the confidence that you will escape, you will run into the midst of misfortune. I will take away all your protection etc. Thus, nowadays, our measuring monkeys will have the princes, to whom they take refuge, as enemies. Of course, they seek an excellent protection against God, whom they flee!
V. 21. I am grief-stricken for your holidays and despise them.
Here he answers them again, as it were, by an objection, because they undoubtedly held in high esteem that worship which they had wrought, thinking that it was very pleasing to God, since they sang much, sacrificed much, built great temples etc. All this they held against the prophets, just as today our wicked hold against us the great costs of the churches, their songs. 7) The prophet answers: I am disgusted with all this and despise it; I also dislike everything, no matter how holy it may be, because you are godless and do everything out of a godless heart. We see this in great detail in the first chapter of Isaiah. So the Scriptures and the Spirit in the Scriptures utterly condemn whatever the ungodly do, whatever they undertake to please God, even if they follow the works of the law, because they are not holy.
5) D.: "orUsrnrnkis; in the manuscript: 8F6, O0Ntsnanitk.
6) D. f: and in twofold,
7) D. f: Do you think that all this is in vain?
their heart is ungodly and without faith. This is what is said in Proverbs 21:27: "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination" etc. And 1 Sam. 15, 22: "Obedience is better than sacrifice." And if these works of the Jews, so holy in appearance, who were God's people and had the word of God, because they were done without faith, 1) are condemned, what is it then that our godless papists pride themselves so much with their foolish and cold works? 2)
And may not smell into your assemblies.
Moses connects this verbum with all sacrifices: the sacrifices of the godly would be a who smell to the Lord, as can be seen everywhere. But here he rejects the sacrifices of the wicked altogether, and says he will not accept the smell, that is, when you come together to sacrifice, I will not have a smell, I will not accept your sacrifices, they will be a stench to me etc.
V.22. Though you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I have no pleasure in them.
XXXX, oblationes, grain offering. This they always added to the burnt offerings.
So I also do not like to look at your cowardly sacrifices of thanksgiving.
That is, whatever you offer will not please me. I will not accept your peace offerings, however fat they may be, 3) even if you sacrifice fattened cattle.
V. 23. Just take away from me the noise of your songs.
Here we see that they also sang. But how he considers everything else ungodly and
1) Instead of kaetain in the Erlanger is to be read Laeta according to the manuscript with the Weimar edition.
2) D.t: But you must notice that at this point the prophet does not only focus on the present people and the present worship, but entirely on the abolition of the law and worship. For this is how they [the prophets] tend to move on in their sermons to the promise of the Gospel and the abolition of the present worship and kingdom.
3) The following is missing from D.
condemned, so also their songs or chants. This is certainly a great boldness of the prophet, that he took the liberty to condemn the works that seem to be so very holy. 4) But the prophets who condemned such things were killed as ungodly and transgressors of the law who hindered the worship of God. But the prophets who condemned such things were put to death as ungodly men and transgressors of the law who hindered the worship of God, as we also suffer today from being reproached for this. 5) But the Lord wants to be worshipped in faith. The ungodly 6) do not please the Lord, no matter how great and brilliant their works may be.
V. 24. But the law shall be revealed as water.
After the threat, he brought in the kingdom of Christ here. And it is a transition, as if he wanted to say: What is it that you praise your sacrifices, your meal offerings and all these things? The time will come when all these outward things will cease and righteousness will be revealed in richest abundance. Therefore, it seems to me that he is definitely talking about the gospel being revealed through Christ. For to be revealed is to be preached and made known, which at that time had not yet happened. Therefore, he passes here from the reprehensible worship to the right worship, which is pleasing to God. For this is what all prophets do, when they want to present the right righteousness through Christ, they condemn all the works of unbelievers, no matter how holy they may appear to be. The same is in the 40th Psalm, v. 7. "Sacrifice and meat offering are not pleasing to thee, but thou hast opened mine ears." Therefore, when he says, "like water," he indicates the riches of grace to be proclaimed through the gospel, as a similar thing is found in Isaiah [Isa. 48:18].
And justice like a strong stream.
It indicates the power and effect of the Word. Because the word breaks through and
4) Erlanger: camouflage instead of tarn in the manuscript. In D. it is missing.
5) D.t: that they cry out that we condemn good works, since we punish and condemn their worship and works.
6) Instead of "the ungodly" D. has: But they are without faith.
also runs where the raging of Satan and the adversaries is in full swing. It breaks through like a stream, the rulers may want it or not; they cannot suppress it etc.
V. 25. Have you of the house of Israel offered me sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness these forty years? Yes, indeed.
This passage was cited by Stephen Apost. 7, 42. f., but with different words. But he hit the meaning perfectly, which is what all apostles do when they quote sayings of the prophets. But what shall we say to this passage, which disputes with many other passages of Scripture? For it is quite evident that not all of this people were godless, as Scripture also testifies of them in many places. And Balaam says 4 Mos. 23, 21: "One sees no toil in Jacob, and no work in Israel. The Lord his God is with him" etc. There he praises the people extraordinarily because of their excellent godliness, so that also some interpreters take offense at it, and here in various ways they struggle. 1) But it is to be brought into agreement in this way: in the holy Scriptures one must be very careful and see to the figure of speech, which the grammarians call synecdoche, that both are said by the same people, as it is to be understood here. Thus, in the 78th 2) Psalm, v. 18, he puts their ungodliness on them and punishes them because of their lack of faith.
1) Instead of the following until the end of this section, D.: But at this point such a subtlety is not necessary. For we see that the prophets have often made use of the synecdoche, that they generally say of the valid people, either it is good, or it is bad, while they understand this nevertheless only of a part of the people. Thus, for the sake of some godly people, Moses calls the whole nation a royal priesthood, the people of God, the saints, while the greater part of the people was evil. So here he calls them idolaters, although many were godly who had not served idols. Therefore the opinion is: You are like your fathers etc.
2) The manuscript may read 77; in the Erlangen and Weimar manuscripts incorrectly: In psalrno 11. In the Zwickau manuscript correctly: psatm 77.
He says: "And tempted God in their hearts to ask for food for their souls" etc. And of the same sin he says praisingly in another Psalm [Ps. 105, 40.] that they acted godly in asking for food. So different and opposite are the sayings about one and the same history. But that is why I said that the word of God has the whole people in mind, and yet it also divides them into two parts. For there were undoubtedly also godly among them, whom he does not punish, since he remembers the idols, and on the other hand excludes the godly, since he mentions godliness and the right worship, which the godly followed with Moses etc. The wicked murmured because of the food, and yet it was given for the godly. And so both are true, but because of that murmuring those were rejected who did not believe, but the godly were preserved, for whose sake the food was also given. And this is how this passage in Amos is to be understood. There were many godly people in Jacob who did not worship idols, and he does not speak of them, although he remembers Jacob; but the greater part were godless, and their idolatry he punishes. They did many ungodly things, which the Lord bore for the time being, as it says in the 95th Psalm, v. 10: "That I had forty years' trouble with this people" etc. See Heb. 3:17. So here he accuses them of idolatry, as if to say: You are like your fathers; your fathers sinned against God with idols and abominations, so you pursue the same ungodliness, therefore everything will fall away and be taken away from you, whatever you trust in, all your righteousness, and you will be taken away.
V. 26. the star of your gods.
What kind of star this had been, one cannot infer from the scripture. 3)
3) D. f: Stephen, in the Acts of the Apostles fEap. 7. 43.] calls it "the star of the god Remphan".