This chapter is light. What he has threatened with clear words until now, he now does with dark speeches and visions. All this happens because God is long-suffering and waits for repentance; finally, when he sees 2c., he lets us go in our lusts 2c. The prophets have often been deceived; the preaching is of no avail 2c.; at last he has let them go 2c. These are terrible things
judges of God. It is a sign of mercy that he teaches constantly; he admonishes when he shows mercy. He is exceedingly merciful, and again [exceedingly fierce] when he is angry. When he wills to have mercy, we reject him; when we will not, 3) he is angry.
3) Instead of volurnus we have assumed noturnus.
V. 1 (The Lord showed me a vision, and behold, there stood one making locusts).
"He showed me", you to the horror, therefore convert. - Fictorem, "one who made". - "Since the latter rain began to come"." 1) The first (is the early rain), the later (is the late rain) 2c. The early rain and the latter rain is mentioned above (Joel 2:23.). It is a description of the time when this vision happened, namely at the most inopportune time when the seeds were waiting for rain, at the beginning of the rising late rain, that is, at the time when the late rain is to begin.
(After -the king had his sheep sheared (post tonsionem regis).)
Tonsio regis (the shearing of the king) means the grazing, the shearing of the seed in the field before it has ears 2c. This shearing the kings reserved for their flocks, as a tithe. The superfluous herb, which grew luxuriantly on the fields, the herb of the seeds.
V. 2.2 ) Now when they were about to eat up the herbage in the land.
This indicates the most inopportune time. It is only a threat, but not done. It indicates that an enemy nation would be in the land, which would devour everything in the land. The locust, that is, the king of Assyria will devour everything; but at the prayer of Amos it did not happen. - "Who will restore Jacob?" This indicates the prophet's movement of heart. He makes a comparison between Jacob and the locust, as if to say, Who can preserve Jacob, who is all-zero against the Assyrian, "they devour him" 2c. The locust "should eat it", since a good 3) king reigned, "since the" fruits "stunden best" 2c.
1) For: "in the beginning, when the Grummet went out", the Vulgate has: prineipio Kerrninuntium "erotini irndris. - In the Weimar we are offered: 'eum jn "ipsrst vsnire', serotinus ivaker prius, postsrius ste.
2) The following up to v. 4. is added to v. 1. in the Weimar edition without a new verse number.
3) Instead of dona in the Weimar edition, we read with the Erlangen kvno.
V. 4. (And behold, the Lord called to the fire to punish with it.)
[Instead of et ecce vocabat judicium ad ignem Dominus Deus in the Vulgate it should read according to your Hebrew:] 4) And, behold, [someone] cried out that one should fight by filers, or in the fire of the LORD. It was a vision. I have seen such a thing tried, which was to be punished with fire; I have seen the sentence passed, that the thing should be avenged with fire. But the fire was so great, and so great its fury, that it consumed not only the trees, but also "the deep," that is, the standing waters, the seas, the fishponds. "It consumed" indicates the ferocity of the rage. [Abyssus multa, that is,] many deep waters, as in the Psalm [Ps. 36:7.] The sun cannot dry them up. - Instead of partem ["part"] it should be Acker, as above. The fields were divided into parts and pieces. He indicates that he wanted the whole rich kingdom to be consumed. A flourishing kingdom was seen before the eyes, so that nothing less could be expected than that it should be consumed. But the Lord shows that he will consume the whole "land".
V. 5. O Lord, desist!
Quiesce, that is, desist, O Lord, "desist"; so Amos prays. As one part is against a whole country, so is Jacob against the Assyrians. The threats are postponed, but not cancelled, as if to say: It will not happen while the land is sprouting its herb, that is, while the kingdom is in bloom, but at another time.
V. 7. (And he had the lead cord (trulla cementarii) in his hand).
Trulla, they say, is a straightedge to make the stones straight and straighten them, "Richtschnur". It is not a tool for smearing (litum) [, namely a trowel, 5) but] a straightedge. (The HErr stood on the wall of the straightedge, is a Hebrew
4) Supplemented by us according to the Hall manuscript.
5) In the Hall manuscript: "murkule", that is mason's trowel, not "Richtscheit", as the Weimar one interprets it in the introduction p. XX.
idiom,) 1) that is, on the wall, which was made straight and straightened, 2) as the masons do; [he] "measured on the wall". That's how I saw him standing. The stone that was not right, [that] "he hit on the head".
V. 8. 3) [And the Lord said unto me, What seest thou, Amos? I said, A lead cord 2c.)
[When the Lord asked Amos,] he said, "I see a lead cord," a straightedge. - [Instead of non adjiciam, according to the Hebrew it means:] 4) I will pass no more. That is, though I postpone the calamity, the captivity, yet I will not pass by him further, I will not pass by any more, [no longer) overlooking his sins, but severely punishing him. By this punishment he will bring the king's house into line. He saw the peculiar (particularem) wrath by which, while the people were spared, the royal house was to be set right. I will put on the lead cord, that is, my judgment, that is, I will judge as a craftsman uses the lead cord to put a stone in its order. Thus will I do, that they may return to order before the greatest persecution comes. First I will judge, 5) but afterwards 2c.
V. 9 6) But the high places of Isaac shall be laid waste, and the churches of Israel shall be destroyed.
Now he connects "all" faces. - Idoli ["Isaac's"], of the mockery. Those high places he calls a mockery, a laughter, because they are mockers and scoffers of God. The mocker Ishmael mocked the son, Isaac, Gal. 4, 29. Always the children of the flesh are mockers, mockers,
1) Supplemented according to the Altenburg manuscript.
2) After M8tiÜ68.t)Atur, where the Erlangen edition indicates a gap, the Weimar one has the addition, incomprehensible to us: "Mius rnorti^". According to the Hallische manuscript, we have assumed ut kaeiunt muratorss instead.
3) Here the new verse number is missing in the Weimar edition, and the following is drawn without a distinction to v. 7.
4) Completed by us according to the Hall manuscript.
marche
. 6) The Weimar edition still has this connected with v. 8. until: "läoli" 2c.
"vexiren the right children" 2c. They mock there on the heights the right prophets and preachers. - Heights of mockery are the altars, not only because they had them on the mountains, but because they were raised hills, "higher" than the other earth. - Sanctificatio ["the churches"], "a pen." "When Israel came out of Egypt" [Ps. 114, 2 Vulg.], "Judea became his bishopric, Israel became his dominion," that is, his kingdom. He divides the people into kingdom and priesthood. ["And the churches of Israel shall be destroyed," that is, for [the] "pews" where they worship must "come down." He predicts the disturbance; now also the particular disturbance of Jeroboam over his house. The descendants of Jeroboam have to stand up, as the history [2 Kings 15:10] shows. He exterminates the wicked, although he postpones it from time to time. Now follows the dispute of the prophet and [the] "priest" of that [king].
V. 10. [Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam, saying, Amos maketh a tumult against thee in the house of Israel 2c.]
Rebellavit, he has made a "covenant, thrown up" 2c. Here you can see the godlessness that the "Pfaff" defends. The true worship he despises, and his worship of mockery he prefers 2c. All the ungodly become more and more angry. Just so the pope takes from his dignity and from the greatness and from the length of time his reasons of proof, as now 2c. They had a certain word 7) and a fixed time from the kingdom, "above which the prophets could not come." Thus [said] those: Though we live ungodly, yet our kingdom is of GOD 2c.; therefore we do not err, because GOD is in the righteous kingdom 2c. But since you come and speak against the kingdom, you are a "heretic." Therefore, "[the prophets] must hold forth" 2c. "Look on it, he wants to make a riot" because he says .you are sinning 2c. Under the title of the kingdom they feed their belly. Christ "had to hear" [Luc. 23, 5.], "He hath stirred up the people." That is the title of the prophets, baß sie ausrührisch
7) Instead of tsmpus we have assumed verkuru.
are. [The adversaries say This is impossible; the church does not err, sw is the people of GOD. Christ died for them, the Holy Spirit governs them 2c.
V. 11.1 ) [For thus saith Amos, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall be carried away captive out of his land].
He [Amaziah] perverted the Prophet's speech [against the House of Jeroboam] as if he had spoken against the person [of Jeroboam]; "wanted to disgrace him." That is the way everyone is wont to do it. This is what all the prophets had to hear: This will not happen, because we are the Church of GOD 2c. The one part of [this] word is true, and [the church] is preserved. Thus Paul says [Rom. 11, 1.]: I have been preserved. On the whole people "they draw it" 2c. Only the remaining are preserved, as it says in Isaiah: [Cap. 10, 22.] 2). But it is not on the whole, but on the remaining, that he wants to preserve few, and destroy many. The wicked cannot believe this 2c.
B. 12. 13. [And Amaziah said to Amos, "You seer, go away and flee to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, and prophesy no more at Bethel, for it is the king's pen and the kingdom's house.)
The king "must be pious", he does not answer anything, "does not accept it". Therefore Amaziah turns to Amos: It is the "king's pen" and the kingdom or the king's house, "his castle", because the kingdom of Israel is the kingdom of God, and the priesthood of Israel is the priesthood of God. - The two kingdoms [Israel and Judah] were opposed to each other.
1) The Weimar edition does not have a new verse number here, but only at v. 16. The following interpretation immediately follows the previous one there.
S) Here, both the Erlanger and the Weimarsche have in the margin: 4es. 10, 11.
one another, therefore he says: Say that Judah is to be laid waste, not Israel; we are the people of GOD.
V. 14. [Amos answered and said to Amaziah, I am not a prophet, nor a prophet's son 2c.]
He says: I do not belong to the number or state of the prophets, as Jeremiah [Cap. 18, 18. 3) distinguishes such ranks) 2c. As there was a class of priests, so also of prophets 2c. That is, I do not belong to the state of the prophets. I am specially called, not by the general profession of the prophets. - ["But I am] a cowherd" (armentarius), who has herds of cattle, who picks or seeks "wild mulberries". That is, I am satisfied with little, I do not seek advantage and profit by my divination; I am satisfied that I nourish myself with my hand, "seek that I fill the mouth" 2c.
V. 16 [Do not drip against the house of Isaac].
Idoli ["Jsaak"], of laughing at, mocking. - "Drip" is frequent in the prophets, "drip." It is a word that means to preach. I drip the punishment and the threat, afterward follows the calamity. It stands for threaten and preach a future calamity. Thou shalt not threaten us with calamity.
V. 17. 4) [Your wife will become a harlot in the city].
In public, before all eyes, the Assyrian will commit fornication, your wife will be defiled. He indicates the violence 2c. - "You shall die in an unclean land," namely, you shall die in captivity.
3) In the Weimarschen is incorrect Hiersw. [27, 9); likewise in the Erlanger.
4) This verse number is missing in the Weimar edition.