Amoschapter 9
15 verses · Amos · about 760 BC · The Twelve
“Are you not like the Cushites to Me, O children of Israel?” declares the LORD. “Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Arameans from Kir?
Introduction
Amos, The Twelve, Amos Overview.
This chapter carries the last of the five visions and closes the book. In it Amos sees the Lord Himself, standing beside an altar. His hearers counted on their shrines, their exodus and their chosen status to keep them safe. The chapter answers each of those, and then turns to the house of David and a harvest still to come. Listen for the places a fugitive might try to hide. Notice the change of tone near the end. James quotes those closing verses at the council in Jerusalem in Acts 15.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who had run out of places to hide
- What
- A vision of the Lord at the altar, a judgment no one escapes, a sifting of Israel, and a promise to restore the fallen tent of David.
- Where
- An altar in the northern kingdom, most likely at Bethel, with Carmel, the sea, Egypt, Caphtor and Kir named.
- When
- About 760 BC for the vision; the promise looks past the fall of Samaria in 722 BC to a later day.
- Why
- To show that no place or privilege shelters the guilty, and that God will keep a remnant and restore His people.
Historical context
The list of hiding places is a tour of the extremes of the known world. Digging into Sheol, the realm of the dead below; climbing to heaven above; hiding on the summit of Carmel, a wooded ridge riddled with caves where fugitives genuinely did hide; and the bottom of the sea, the one place Israelites considered wholly outside human reach.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The sieve image is a threshing-floor tool. After winnowing, grain was shaken in a sieve so that the small stones and dirt fell through or stayed behind; the good kernels were kept. Amos says Israel will be shaken among the nations that way, and not a pebble will fall to the ground unnoticed, the shaking is a sorting, not a scattering.
The line about the Ethiopians, the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir is a deliberate flattening of Israel's exceptionalism. God says he ran their migrations too. Israel's exodus was not the only journey he directed.
The booth of David is a humble word. It is the same term used for the temporary shelter of branches a family lived in during the Feast of Tabernacles, and for a watchman's hut in a vineyard. David's royal house is pictured not as a fallen palace but as a collapsed shack, and it is the shack God says he will raise up and repair.
Significance
The closing harvest picture would have made a farmer laugh out loud. The ploughman overtakes the reaper and the treader of grapes the one sowing seed, the seasons run into each other because the crop is so heavy the work never finishes. Mountains dripping sweet wine is the same joke, told bigger.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
This is the passage James stood up and quoted at the council in Jerusalem, when the question was whether Gentiles belonged in the church without becoming Jews first. The rebuilt booth of David exists so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, all the nations called by his name. The final promise, that they will be planted on their own land and never again uprooted, still waits for the King who will keep it.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The last nine verses of this chapter are read aloud in the synagogue in the Ashkenazi rite. The site's table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts records Amos 9:7 to 9:15 as the Haftarah of Kedoshim, the portion of Leviticus 19:1 to 20:27. The probe printed that use for the Ashkenazi rite only. The same entry records Ezekiel 20:2 to 20:20 as the Sephardi reading for that week, so a Sephardi congregation hears Ezekiel in its place. The table's own header adds that communities vary beyond what it lists.
The corpus joins the reading to the chapters of Leviticus that follow it. Under the tenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Behar 3:1, and Behar is Leviticus 25:1 to 26:2 in the table. Rashi's note on the thirteenth verse reads its promise through Leviticus 26:5, which stands in the portion Bechukotai, Leviticus 26:3 to 27:34.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The translation is modern, so every quotation from it is fifty words or fewer.
The chapter opens on the Lord standing beside the altar, and Rashi reads it, after Targum Jonathan, as the Presence leaving the Temple. It went from the cherub to the golden altar, and "this is one of the ten travels made by the Shechinah" (Rashi on Amos 9:1:1). The corpus carries Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 25 and Avot DeRabbi Natan 34:7 on the same verse. At the sixth verse he gives two readings of what God founded on the earth, which he glosses as a company. In the first it is the company of his creatures. In the second, "The company of the righteous was the foundation of the earth and the ceiling [other editions: and the benefit] of the heavens, for whose sake everything exists" (Rashi on Amos 9:6:1).
The Haftarah opens at the seventh verse with the comparison to the Cushites, and Rashi reads it as a warning against presuming on the Exodus. "Have you not come from the sons of Noah like the other nations?" (Rashi on Amos 9:7:1). The Exodus was grace. "Was it not out of My goodness, the beginning of My choosing you, My taking you out of the land of Egypt?" (Rashi on Amos 9:7:2). God brought the Philistines out of Caphtor as well, after Deuteronomy 2:23, "and, even so, I did not make them My people" (Rashi on Amos 9:7:2). The next verse limits the sentence. "The kingdom is the house of Jehu, but I will not destroy the house of Jacob" (Rashi on Amos 9:8:1).
The promise of the eleventh verse is where the classical Jewish reading and the New Testament meet and part. Rashi reads it of "the day destined for the redemption", and with Targum Jonathan he takes the fallen tent of David as "the kingdom of the house of David" (Rashi on Amos 9:11:1). He reads the twelfth verse as Israel inheriting what remains of Edom (Rashi on Amos 9:12:1). James cites the same two verses at the council in Jerusalem in Acts 15:16 and 15:17, where the calling of the Gentiles is the matter in hand. The store prints the difference. Amos in the Berean Standard Bible reads "the remnant of Edom", and the citation in Acts reads "the remnant of men may seek the Lord". Both read the verse of David's house restored. They part on who is gathered to it.
The chapter ends on plenty. "They will not finish plowing until the harvest comes, and they will not finish harvesting until the time of sowing comes" (Rashi on Amos 9:13:1). He sets it beside the blessing of Leviticus 26:5.
The corpus carries six further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Amos 9:4:1, 9:5:1, 9:8:1 and 9:15:1 and at Radak on Amos 9:4:1 and 9:14:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, seven it files under Talmud and thirty-three under Midrash, and the text of none, so each is cited by ref here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 14:1, Aggadat Bereshit 68:1, Avot DeRabbi Natan 34:7, Bereshit Rabbah 68:12 and Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 25. On the second verse it holds Learning to Read Midrash, Appendix, Hebrew Sources 5:3 and Learning to Read Midrash, Chapter 5, Engaging the Reader in Dialogue, The Servant in the Graveyard 17. It also holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Pischa 1:16 and Shemot Rabbah 15:15. On the sixth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 53:2, Avot DeRabbi Natan 8:4, Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 18:8, Bamidbar Rabbah 15:18 and Bereshit Rabbah 23:7.
On the seventh verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 43:28, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Moed Katan 3:2, Ein Yaakov, Moed Katan 3:7, Midrash Tehillim 7:16 and Midrash Tehillim 7:20. On the tenth verse it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Behar 3:1, Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 6:1, Tractate Semachot 8:14 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 271:1. On the eleventh verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 88:7, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:41, Kohelet Rabbah 3:8:2, Midrash Aggadah, Deuteronomy 3:23:4 and Midrash Tehillim 76:2. On the thirteenth verse it holds Bava Batra 16a:1, Bereshit Rabbah 93:5, Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 33:1:2 and Pesikta DeRav Kahana 7:10.
On the fourteenth verse it holds Berakhot 28a:8, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Berakhot 4:2, Ein Yaakov, Berakhot 4:4 and Ein Yaakov, Yadayim 4:1. On the fifteenth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 19, Devarim Rabbah 3:11, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 10:3 and Midrash Aggadah, Exodus 1:1:1. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and it is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Amos 9:1:1 to 9:13:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Amos 9:4:1, 9:5:1, 9:8:1 and 9:15:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Amos 9:4:1 and 9:14:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/amos/9.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the entry for Kedoshim (Leviticus 19:1 to 20:27) with its Haftarah Amos 9:7 to 9:15 for the Ashkenazi rite and Ezekiel 20:2 to 20:20 for the Sephardi, and the entries for Behar and Bechukotai.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
No place to hide, from Sheol to the top of Carmel
The vision sets the Lord "standing beside the altar," commanding "Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake," the shrine brought down. Judgment breaks out from the place the people trusted for safety, the false worship the book has attacked since chapter 4.
Amos 9:1
“I saw the Lord - He saw God in vision; yet God no more, as before, asked him what he saw. God no longer shows him emblems of the destruction, but the destruction itself. Since Amos had just been speaking of the idolatry of Samaria, as the ground of its utter destruction, doubtless this vision of such utter destruction of the place of worship, with and upon the worshipers, relates to those same idolaters and idoltries . True, the condenmation of Israel would become the condemnation of Judah, when Judah’s sins, like Israel’s, should become complete.”
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Amos 9:1
“Let us now see the design of the vision. The greater part of interpreters think that the destruction of the kingdom and of the priesthood is predicted here, at the time when Zedekiah was taken and led ignominiously into exile, and when his children were killed, and when afterwards the temple was erased and the city demolished.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Amos 9:1
“He demands many victims on the altar, but they are to be human victims. CALVIN and FAIRBAIRN, and others, make it in the temple at Jerusalem. Judgment was to descend both on Israel and Judah.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Amos 9:2-4
Though they dig down to Sheol: Every way of escape is closed, from Sheol and heaven to "atop Carmel," "the bottom of the sea" and captivity itself. "I will fix My eyes upon them for harm and not for good" reverses the covenant promise of the Lord's eyes on the land.
Amos 9:2
“Nay, he that escapes of them, that thinks he has gained his point, shall not be delivered. Evil pursues sinners, and will arrest them. This is here enlarged upon by showing that wherever sinners flee for shelter from God's justice, it will overtake them, and the shelter will prove but a refuge of lies.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
there I will command the serpent to bite them: After Sheol and heaven, the Lord names two places a man could reach, the heights and the sea. Albert Barnes points out that Mount Carmel rises abruptly out of the sea it overhangs, so the verse sets its summit against the depths below. The hand of the Lord reaches both.
Amos 9:3
“He had contrasted heaven and hell, as places impossible for man to reach; as I David says, “If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there: If l make my bed in hell, behold Thee” Psa 139:8. Now, of places in a manner accessible, he contrasts Mount Carmel, which rises abruptly out of the sea, with depths of that ocean which it overhangs. Carmel was in two ways a hiding place.”
I will fix My eyes upon them for harm: Exile itself becomes a place of judgment. Matthew Henry notes that God's eyes are on all men, on some for good and on others to mark their sins for punishment. Adam Clarke reads the verse as the same providence that once worked for Israel's good now turned against them.
Amos 9:4
“I will set mine eyes upon them for evil - I will use that very providence against them which before worked for their good. Should they look upward, they shall see nothing but the terrible lightning-like eye of a sin-avenging God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Amos 9:4
“His eyes are in every place, are upon all men and upon all the ways of men, upon some for good, to show himself strong on their behalf, but upon others for evil, to take notice of their sins ( Job xiii. 27 ) and take all opportunities of punishing them for their sins.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The God who builds his chambers in heaven sifts Israel
Amos 9:5-6
touches the earth and it melts: The third of the book's hymns closes the judgment section with the Lord "who touches the earth and it melts." The hymn names the Creator at every hinge of the book. It closes on the words the book repeats: "The LORD is His name."
Amos 9:5
“And who is He who should do this? God, at whose command are all creatures. This is the hope of His servants; from where Hezekiah begins his prayer, “Lord of hosts, God of Israel” Isa 37:16. This is the hopelessness of His enemies. “That toucheth the land” or “earth, and it shall melt,” rather, “hath melted.” His Will and its fulfillment are one. “He spake, and it was; He commanded and it stood fast” Psa 33:9. His Will is first, as the cause of what is done; in time they co-exist.”
The LORD is His name: Adam Clarke pictures a house built in stories. John Gill lists readings of the upper rooms as the elements, the orbs, or the heavens one above another. John Wesley says the waters may come in judgment to drown or in mercy as rain.
Amos 9:6
“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.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Amos 9:6
“Buildeth his stories in the heaven - There is here an allusion to large houses, where there are cellars, or places dug in the ground as repositories for corn; middle apartments, or stories, for the families to live in; and the house-top for persons to take the air upon.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Amos 9:6
“It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven,.... The three elements, according to Aben Ezra, fire, air, and water; the orbs, as Kimchi, one above another; a word near akin to this is rendered "his chambers", which are the clouds, Psa 104:3; perhaps the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, which are three stories high, may be meant; we read of the third heaven, 2Co 12:2; and particularly the throne of God is in the highest heaven; and the "ascents" (y) to it, as it may be rendered.”
like the Cushites to Me: The Lord asks whether Israel is anything more than "the Cushites," a distant people. The God who brought Israel "up from the land of Egypt" brought "the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Arameans from Kir," each migration His doing. The exodus gives Israel no claim to exemption from judgment.
Amos 9:7
“Are you not like the children of Ethiopia to me, O sons of Israel, says the Lord? Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Cappadocia, and the Syrians from Cyrene? Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth: yet will I not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord. LXX: Are you not like the children of Ethiopia to me, O sons of Israel, says the Lord?”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Amospatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Amos 9:7
“Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto Me, O children of Israel! - Their boast and confidence was that they were children of the patriarch, to whom God made the promises.”
Amos 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.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Amos 9:8-10
the sinful kingdom: The "eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom," to destroy it. "Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob," judging the kingdom and sparing the people. Israel is shaken "as grain is sifted in a sieve; but not a pebble will reach the ground."
Amos 9:8
“The eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom - The kingdom of Israel, peculiarly sinful; and therefore to be signally destroyed by the Assyrians. I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob - The race shall not become extinct: I will reserve them as monuments of my justice, and finally of my mercy.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
as grain is sifted in a sieve: The Lord shakes Israel among the nations. Albert Barnes notes that Amos enlarges the word of Hosea that they would be wanderers among the nations, adding the violence of the shaking. Matthew Henry reads the pebble that never reaches the ground as the righteous, of whom none will be lost.
The sword finds those who were sure they were safe. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown match these sinners to the chaff of verse 9. Adam Clarke names them as the boldest, who despise God's warnings, and adds that a man's fearlessness is no proof of his safety.
Amos 9:10
“All the sinners of my people - Those who are the boldest and most incredulous; especially they who despise my warnings, and say the evil day shall not overtake nor prevent us; they shall die by the sword. It is no evidence of a man’s safety that he is presumptuously fearless. There is a blessing to him who trembles at God’s word.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Amos 9:10
“All the sinners--answering to the chaff in the image in Am 9:9, which falls on the earth, in opposition "to the grain" that does not "fall." overtake . . . us--"come on us from behind" [MAURER].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Raising up the fallen tabernacle of David
Amos 9:11-12
the fallen tent of David: "In that day I will restore the fallen tent of David" is the passage James quotes at the Jerusalem council, Acts 15:16-17. The fallen tent is David's collapsed house and kingdom. Verse 12 carries the same wide reach, "the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear My name."
Amos 9:11
“In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen,.... Not in the day of Israel's ruin, but in the famous Gospel day, so often spoken of by the prophets; and this prophecy is referred to the times of the Messiah by the ancient (q) Jews; and one of the names they give him is taken from hence, "Barnaphli" (r), the Son of the fallen. R. Nachman said to R.”
4 more voices on this verse
Amos 9:11
“After him James spoke as follows: "Men, brethren, Simon hath declared how God did purpose to take from among the Gentiles a people for His name. And thus do the words of the prophets agree, as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: that the residue of men may seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, among whom my name has been invoked, saith the Lord, doing these things.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book IIIpatristic
Amos 9:11
“In that day I will raise up - Amos, as the prophets were taught to do, sums up his prophecy of woe with this one full promise of overflowing good. For the ten tribes, in their separate condition, there was no hope, no future. He had pronounced the entire destruction of “the kingdom” of Israel. The ten tribes were, thenceforth, only an aggregate of individuals, good or bad. They had no separate corporate existence. In their spiritual existence, they still belonged to the one family of Israel; and, belonging to it, were heirs of the promises made to it.”
Amos 9:11
“In him God's covenant with David had its accomplishment; and the glory of that house, which was not only sullied, but quite sunk, revived again; the breaches of it were closed and its ruins raised up, as in the days of old; nay, the spiritual glory of the family of Christ far exceeded the temporal glory of the family of David when it was at its height.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Amos 9:11
“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.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Cross references
Amos 9:11
- Quoted inActs 15:16“‘After this I will return and rebuild the fallen tent of David. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it,”
'I will build again the tabernacle of David', James at the Jerusalem Council
the remnant of Edom: The rebuilt house of David takes in the remnant of Edom and all the nations. Adam Clarke reports Bishop Newcome's reading of Edom as Adam, mankind, the reading found at Acts 15:17. John Wesley reads the verse as a prophecy of the Messiah's kingdom bringing in the Gentiles.
Amos 9:12
“That they may possess the remnant of Edom - Bp. Newcome translates this clause as follows: “That the residue of men may seek Jehovah, and all the heathen who are called by my name.” Here, instead of אדום Edom, he reads אדם Adam, men or mankind, which is the reading of the Arabic, and some MSS. of the Syriac, and of Act 15:17. The Pachomian MS. of the Septuagint adds here, ὁπως εκζητησωσι με, that they may seek me.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Amos 9:12
“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.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Amos 9:12
“Hence as an act of sovereign grace, fulfilling His promise, it is spoken of God. Proclaim His title as sovereign, "the Lord that doeth this" ("all these things," Ac 15:17, namely, all these and such like acts of sovereign love).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The plowman overtakes the reaper; planted and never plucked up
Amos 9:13-15
the plowman will overtake the reaper: The closing promise pictures harvest without a pause, since "the plowman will overtake the reaper" and the mountains drip with sweet wine. The Lord will "restore My people Israel from captivity" and plant them "in their own land, never again to be uprooted," rebuilding the ruined cities.
Amos 9:13
“Behold the days are coming - The Day of the Lord is ever coming on: every act, good or bad, is drawing it on: everything which fills up the measure of iniquity or which “hastens the accomplishment of the number of the elect;” all time hastens it by. “The plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed.” The image is taken from God’s promise in the law; “Your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time” Lev 26:5; which is the order of agriculture.”
3 more voices on this verse
Amos 9:13
“And the mountains drip sweetness. Therefore, the mountains, as it seems, here he calls the churches of Christ, on account of the loftiness of the doctrines in them, and the excellence of their piety towards God, and because the mountains appear to be covered with various plants, while the churches of Christ have countless heads of saints, like cedars and the tallest trees, which are established by the outlets of spiritual waters.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on Amospatristic
Amos 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.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Amos 9:13
“These had been long confined to the vineyard of the Jewish church; divine revelation, and the power that attended it, were to be found only within that enclosure; but in gospel-times the mountains and hills of the Gentile world shall be enriched with these privileges by the gospel of Christ preached, and professed, and received in the power of it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
They will plant vineyards and drink their wine: The ruined cities are rebuilt and lived in, and the vineyards yield wine for those who planted them. Adam Clarke sets the promise against the threat of Amos 5:11. Before their restoration, he writes, they would labor for others, and after it they would labor for themselves.
Amos 9:14
“They shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine - When threatened with great evils, Amo 5:11, it is said, “They shall plant pleasant vineyards but shall not drink the wine of them.” Previously to their restoration, they shall labor for others; after their restoration, they shall labor for themselves.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
never again to be uprooted: John Wesley reads the promise as conditional on seeking the Lord. Albert Barnes, citing Theodoret, holds that God's promises to individuals depend on their keeping the character the promise names. Matthew Henry applies it to the church, secured by God's grant of the land He has given.
Amos 9:15
“And I will plant them upon their own land - The promises and threatenings of God are, to individuals, conditional upon their continuing to be of that character, to which God annexes those promises or threats. Theodoret: “The God of all often promises, when those who receive the promises, by joying in iniquity hinder those promises from taking effect.”
2 more voices on this verse
Amos 9:15
“Two things secure the perpetuity of the church:-- 1. God's grants to it: It is the land which I have given them; and God will confirm and maintain his own grants. The part he has given to his people is that good part which shall never be taken from them; he will not revoke his grant, and all the powers of earth and hell shall not invalidate it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Amos 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.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: The last of five visions, followed by the promise of restoration that closes the book, as guide classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Five visions in one pattern | The visions open at 7:1, 7:4, 7:7, 8:1 and 9:1. Amos pleads after the first two and the LORD relents both times. After the third and fourth no plea is recorded and the Lord says He will no longer spare them. The fifth has no question and no answer, only a decree.the site's Amos guide, src/components/book/guides/amos/AmosGuide.tsx, the Five Visions block. | Amos 7:1, Amos 7:4, Amos 7:7, Amos 8:1, Amos 9:1 |
The structure
3 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verses 1 to 4 are the fifth vision, with no question and no answer. Verses 5 and 6 are the third of the book's hymns. Verses 7 to 10 answer Israel's trust in its exodus and describe the sifting. Verses 11 to 15 turn to the restoration of David's tent, the harvest and the return from captivity.
Where the chapter reaches
James quotes verses 11 and 12 at Acts 15:16 to 17, when the council in Jerusalem asked whether Gentiles who believe must first become Jews.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
the site's Amos guide, src/components/book/guides/amos/AmosGuide.tsx, the Five Visions block.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.