Amos 9
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Chapter 9
Chapter Overview:
Verses:
Judgments are threatened upon all, but the remnant, ver. 1 - 10.
Mercy is promised, ver. 11 - 14.
| 9:1 | The altar - Of burnt - offering before the temple at Jerusalem, this altar and temple Israel had forsaken, and set up others against it; and here God in his jealousy appears prepared to take vengeance.Possibly it may intimate his future departure from Judah too.There Ezekiel, Ezekiel 9:2 , saw the slaughter - men stand.The door - The door of the gate that led into the priests court.And cut them - Wound deep, the people who were visionally represented as standing in the court of the temple. |
| 9:2 | Hell - The center of the earth, or the depth of hell. |
| 9:3 | The serpent - The crocodile or shark. |
| 9:4 | Set my eyes - I will perpetually watch over them. |
| 9:5 | Toucheth - He needs not take great pains therein, a touch of his finger will do this. Shall melt - As snow before the sun. |
| 9:6 | His stories - The celestial orbs one over another, as so many stories in an high and stately palace. And he hath founded his troop in the earth: all the creatures, which are one army, one body; so closely are they connected, and so harmoniously do they all act for the accomplishing of their creator's purposes. Calleth for the waters - Either in judgment to drown, or in mercy to give rain. |
| 9:7 | The Arabians - A wild, thievish, and servile nation.Have not I brought - And whereas you boast my kindness to you, bringing you out of Egypt, and thereupon conclude, God cannot leave you whom he hath so redeemed; you argue amiss, for this aggravates your sin.From Kir - Conquered by some potent enemies, and sent away to Kir, a country of Media, yet at last delivered. Should these nations, argue themselves to be out of danger of divine justice, because I had done this for them. |
| 9:8 | The sinful kingdom - Every sinful kingdom. |
| 9:9 | The least grain - Though tumbled and tossed with the great violence, yet the smallest, good grain, shall not be lost or destroyed. |
| 9:10 | All the sinners - The great, notorious sinners.The evil - Is far off, we shall die first, and be safe in the grave. |
| 9:11 | In that day - In the set time which I have fixt.Raise up - Bring back out of captivity, and re - establish in their own land, the house of David, and those that adhere to his family.Fallen - By the revolt of the ten tribes. The breaches - Which are in it by that long division. |
| 9:12 | They - Literally the Jews. Possess - Both the lands of Edom, and some of the posterity of Edom; these as servants, the other as their propriety. The remnant - Left by Nebuchadnezzar.All the heathen - That is, round about. That doth this - But this is also a prophecy of setting up the kingdom of the Messiah, and bringing in the Gentiles. |
| 9:13 | Behold the days come - Here is another promise literally of abundant plenty to the returned captives, and mystically of abundant grace poured forth in gospel - days. The plowman - Who breaks up the ground, and prepares it for sowing, shall be ready to tread on the heels of the reaper who shall have a harvest so large, that before he can gather it all in, it shall be time to plow the ground again.The treader of grapes - So great shall their vintage be that e'er the treaders of grapes can have finished their work, the seeds - man shall be sowing his seed against the next season. Shall drop - The vineyards shall be so fruitful, and new wine so plentiful as if it ran down from the mountains. Shall melt - Or, as if whole hills were melted into such liquors. If any object, it never was so: I answer, the sins of the returned captives prevented these blessings, which are promised under a tacit condition. |
| 9:15 | Pulled up - On condition that they seek the Lord. This was on God's part with admirable constancy performed through six hundred years, perhaps the longest time of freedom from captivity they ever knew. |