AMOS IV. 1 He reproveth Israel for oppression, 4 for idolatry, 6 and for their incorrigible ness. 1 Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the A.C. 793. mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink. 2 The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. 3 And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow as that which is before her; and * ye shall cast them into the palace, Or, we shall saith the LORD. 4 Come to Beth-el, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after + three years: 5 And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings for § this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord GOD. 6 ¶ And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. 7 And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city; one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. 8 So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. * cast away the things of the palace. + Heb. three Heb. offer love. titude of your did the pal 9 I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when Or, the mul your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your gardens, &c. olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet merworm, &c. have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. way. 10 I have sent among you the pestilence * after the man- *Or, in the ner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, + and have taken away your horses; and I have made the + Heb. with stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have your horses. ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. the captivity of 11 I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew "Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked u Gen. xix. out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. 12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. 24, 25. A.C. 793. * Or, spirit. 13 For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name. x ch. iv. 4. y Job ix. 9. & Xxxviii. 31. z ch. ix. 6. + Heb. spoil. a Zeph. i. 13. Heb. vine yards of desire. $ Or, a ran som. AMOS V. 1 A lamentation for Israel. 4 An exhortation to repentance. 21 God rejecteth their hypocritical service. 1 Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel. 2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land there is none to raise her up. 3 For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel. 4 For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live: X 5 But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Beth-el shall come to nought. 6 Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el. 7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth, y 8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name : 9 That strengtheneth the + spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress. 10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. 11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them. 12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take § a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. 13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time. 14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have A.C. 793. spoken. 14. & xcvii. 15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judg- b Ps. xxxiv. ment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts 10. Rom. xii. will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph. 16 Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. 17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD. 9. 18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to c Is. v. 19. what end is it for you?d the day of the LORD is darkness, d Jer. xxx. 7. and not light. 19 As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. 20 Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it? Joel ii. 2. 21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not e Is. i. 11. Jer. smell in your solemn assemblies. 22 Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. 23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. vi. 20. days. + Or, thank offerings. 24 But let judgment ‡run down as waters, and righte- + Heb. roll. ousness as a mighty stream. 25 Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in facts vii. 42. the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 26 But ye have borne § the tabernacle of your Moloch Or, Siccuth and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made your king. to yourselves. 27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts. AMOS VI. 1 The wantonness of Israel, 7 shall be plagued with desolation, 12 and their incorrigibleness. 1 Woe to them that || are at ease in Zion, the mountain of Samaria, which are named nations, to whom the house of Israel came! and trust in g Luke vi. 24. chief of the cure. || Or, are sc. h Ex. xix. 5. * Or, first 2 Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye fruits. to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philis 250 A.C. 793. tines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border? i Ezek. xii. 27. i k 3 Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the *Or, habita-seat of violence to come near; tion. + Or, abound + Or, quaver. Or, in bowls of wine. 4 That lie upon beds of ivory, and +stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; 5 That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David; 6 That drink & wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with Heb. breach. the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the || affliction of Joseph. 1 Jer. li. 14. 7¶Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed. 8 'The LORD GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces therefore will I deliver up the city with all *Heb. the ful. that is therein. ness thereof. m ch. v. 13. + Or, they will not, or, have not. + Or, droppings. 9 And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. 10 And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house, Is there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue: for + we may not make mention of the name of the LORD. m 11 For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts. 12 ¶ Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock: 13 Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength? 14 But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hamath unto the Or, valley. § river of the wilderness. AMOS VII. ver. 1-10. 1 The judgments of the grasshoppers, 4 and of the fire, are diverted by the prayer of Amos. 7 By the wall of a plumb line is signified the rejection of Israel. 1 Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me; and, be|| Or, green hold, he formed || grasshoppers in the beginning of the worms. shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter A.C.793. growth after the king's mowings. 2 And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: *by whom shall Jacob arise ? for Or, who of he is small. 3 The LORD repented for this: It shall not be, saith the LORD. 4 Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part. 5 Then said I, O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small. 6 The LORD repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord GOD. 7 Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the LORD stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. 8 And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the LORD, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more: 9 And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. (or, for,) Jacob shall stand. SECTION IV. History of Jonah 23. JONAH I. 1 Jonak, sent to Nineveh, fleeth to Tarshish. 4 He is bewrayed by a tempest, 11 thrown into the sea, 17 and swallowed by a fish. 1 Now the word of the LORD came unto † Jonah the son About 787. of Amittai, saying, "The first mention of the prophet Jonah, in Scripture, is found in 2 Kings xiv. 25. "Jeroboam restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath, unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher." Bishop Lloyd fixes the date of this book nearer to the probable time of Jonah's first prophecy, than other commentators have done. Archbishop Newcome places it between 856, and 784—Taylor, in the year 770, in the second year of Menahem, and about the 70th year of Jonah's age. At this time, when his reputation was established by the accomplishment of his first prophecy, it is by many supposed that Jonah was commanded to go to Nineveh. He was peculiarly qualified for the performance of this commission, from being +Called, Matt. xii. 39, Jonas, |