Amos 4:7

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7, 8) Three months to the harvest.—The withdrawal of rain at this period (February and March) is at the present day most calamitous to the crops in Palestine.

Caused it to rain . . .—The tenses should be regarded as expressing repetition of the act, and might be, with advantage, rendered as present cause it to rain . . . is rained upon, &c. The inhabitants of the most suffering districts wander, distracted and weary, to a more favoured city, and find no sufficiency. Comp. the graphic description in Jeremiah 14:1-6. Moreover, the specialties of affliction, in particular localities. reveal the purpose of God rather than the operation of universal laws.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:6-13 See the folly of carnal hearts; they wander from one creature to another, seeking for something to satisfy, and labour for that which satisfies not; yet, after all, they will not incline their ear to Him in whom they might find all they can want. Preaching the gospel is as rain, and every thing withers where this rain is wanting. It were well if people were as wise for their souls as they are for their bodies; and, when they have not this rain near, would go and seek it where it is to be had. As the Israelites persisted in rebellion and idolatry, the Lord was coming against them as an adversary. Ere long, we must meet our God in judgment; but we shall not be able to stand before him, if he tries us according to our doings. If we would prepare to meet our God with comfort, at the awful period of his coming, we must now meet him in Christ Jesus, the eternal Son of the Father, who came to save lost sinners. We must seek him while he is to be found.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And I, I too have withholden the rain - Jerome, dwelling in Palestine, says, that "this rain, when "three months yet remained until harvest," was the "latter rain," of the very greatest necessity for the fields of Palestine and the thirsty ground, lest, when the blade is swelling into the crop, and gendering the wheat, it should dry up through lack of moisture. The time intended is the spring, at the end of April, whence, to the wheat-harvest, there remain three months, May, June, July." "God withheld the rain that they might endure, not only lack of bread, but burning thirst and penury of drink also. For in these places, where we now live, all the water, except small fountains, is of cisterns; and if the wrath of God should withhold the rain, there is greater peril of thirst than of hunger, such its Scripture relates to have endured for three years and six months in the days of the prophet Elijah. And lest they should think that this had befallen their cities and people, by a law of nature, or the influence of the stars, or the variety of the seasons, He says, that He rained upon one city and its fields, and from another withheld the rain."

This was a second visitation of God. First, a general famine, "in all their cities;" secondly, a discriminating visitation. "Nature" possesses no discrimination or power over her supplies. Seeming waste is one of the mysteries of God in nature, "to cause it to rain on the earth" Job 38:26 where "no man" is; on "the wilderness wherein" there, "is no man." Ordinarily too, God "maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust" Matthew 5:45. But God does not enslave Himself, (as people would have it) to His own laws. Amos appeals to them, that God had dealt with them, not according to His ordinary laws; that not only God had given to one city the rain which he had withheld from another, but that He had made the same difference as to smaller "pieces" of ground, the inherited "portions" of individuals . Some such variations have been observed in Palestine now. But this would have been no indication of God's Providence, had not the consciences of people responded to the prophet's appeal, and recognized that the rain had been given or withheld according to the penitence or impenitence, the deeper or more mitigated idolatry, the greater or less sinfulness of the people. We have. then, in these few words a law of God's dealing with Israel. God, in His word, reveals to us the meaning of His daily variations in the workings of nature; yet, hardly even in such instances, as people can scarcely elude, do they think of God the Creator, rather than of nature, His creation.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. withholden … rain … three months to … harvest—the time when rain was most needed, and when usually "the latter rain" fell, namely, in spring, the latter half of February, and the whole of March and April (Ho 6:3; Joe 2:23). The drought meant is that mentioned in 1Ki 17:1 [Grotius].

rain upon one city … not … upon another—Any rain that fell was only partial.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I also have withholden the rain from you; your vanities could not, and because ye did so greatly sin against me I would not, give you rain; I forbade the clouds from above, and they, thus prohibited, did withhold their rain, as I threatened, Deu 28:23,24.

When there were yet three months to the harvest; at a season when your country most usually had, and as then it ever did most need, rain: see Joel 2:23. Three months drought then, as it was unusual in the course of nature, so it was an extraordinary curse and punishment on them. That you might see my hand in it and be instructed, I gave rain to one city, and withheld rain from the next neighbour city; nay, one part of a field, the same field, was watered and flourished, another part dry and withered. All this to convince and turn you.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And also I have withholden the rain from you,.... As he did for the space of three years successively in the days of Ahab, as predicted by Elijah, 1 Kings 17:1; the consequences of which are very bad to men and beast, and bring on a scarcity of food for both, and a famine if long withheld:

when there were yet three months to the harvest; that is, three months before the harvest, as Jarchi; when, as Kimchi observes, there was need of rain: this was the latter rain which was usually given and expected about this time, and on which the goodness of the crop, and so of the harvest, greatly depended; these three months before barley harvest were December, January, and February, that being in March; and before the wheat harvest, February, March, and April, that being in May usually:

and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city; so that it might appear to be not by the course of nature, or through the influence of the planets, or by chance; but was according to the direction of divine Providence, the hand of God was manifestly in it: yea,

one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered; one piece of ground or field had a plentiful shower on it, whereby it became fruitful; and another field or close on the other side of the hedge or partition had none, whereby what did spring up withered away and came to nothing: or "one inheritance" (u), or farm, as some render it; one man's estate was well watered with rain from heaven, and brought forth much fruit; and another man's estate, for want of it, was barren, and brought forth nothing: thus God was pleased to do in his providence, to show his sovereignty, and to chastise men for their sins; and in such a manner as that they might, if not blind easily perceive his hand in it.

(u) "fundus", Mercerus, Vatablus; "hereditas", Targum.

Geneva Study Bible

And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three {i} 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.

(i) I stopped the rain until the fruits of the earth were destroyed with drought, and yet you would not consider to return to me by repentance.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7–8. Drought.

And I also have withholden the winter-rain from you, when there were &c.]. The Heb. is not mâṭâr, but géshem, i.e. a burst of rain: the heavy rains of winter, which continue as a rule from the end of October to the end of February and are then followed by the ‘latter rain,’ or showers of March and April, which refresh and advance the ripening ears (see on Joel 2:23), had ceased prematurely; the crops were consequently deficient in fulness and strength, and the harvest (which comes in May) was seriously damaged. Something of the same sort happened in the winter of 1895; there had been hardly any rain since the Christmas of 1894, and in a report, dated Feb. 16, it was stated that unless rain fell shortly there would be great deficiency of water, as no houses had their cisterns full (G. A. Smith, p. 161). Géshem, though a general term for an abundant rain (as 1 Kings 17:14; 1 Kings 18:41; 1 Kings 18:44-45), is used specially of the heavy rains of winter in Song of Solomon 2:11; comp. Leviticus 26:4, Ezekiel 34:26, Joel 2:23 (see note).

I caused it to rain &c.] would cause it to rain … would be rained upon … would wither. The tenses, both here and to the end of the verse, are frequentative, indicating what had happened repeatedly.

piece] i.e. plot of land, or portion belonging to a particular proprietor (Ruth 2:3; Ruth 4:3; 2 Samuel 14:30). The same partial character of the rain-fall is still sometimes observable in Palestine.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - The second punishment is drought, as predicted (Leviticus 26:19, etc.; Deuteronomy 28:23). When there were yet three months to the harvest, and when rain was most necessary to swell the grain. The season meant is in February and March, when what was called "the latter rain" fell. In the south of Palestine the harvest commenced at the end of April, but in the northern parts it was some weeks later, so that it might be said in round numbers that it took place three months after the latter rain. I caused it to rain upon one city. That they might not attribute this drought to the blind laws of nature, God caused it to be of a partial character, giving rain to one city while he withheld it from another. One piece. The portion of ground belonging to an individual is so called (Deuteronomy 33:21; Ruth 2:3; Ruth 4:3). Amos 4:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"And I have also withholden the rain from you, in yet three months to the harvest; and have caused it to rain upon one city, and I do not cause it to rain upon another. One field is rained upon, and the field upon which it does not rain withers. Amos 4:8. And two, three towns stagger to one town to drink water, and are not satisfied: and ye have not returned to me, is the saying of Jehovah." The second punishment mentioned is the withholding of rain, or drought, which was followed by the failure of the harvest and the scarcity of water (cf. Leviticus 26:19-20; Deuteronomy 28:23). The rain "in yet (i.e., at the time when there were yet) three months to the harvest" is the so-called latter rain, which falls in the latter half of February and the first half of March, and is of the greatest importance to the vigorous development of the ears of corn and also of the grains. In southern Palestine the harvest commences in the latter half of April (Nisan), and falls for the most part in May and June; but in the northern part of the land it is from two to four weeks later (see my Archologie, i. pp. 33, 34, ii. pp. 113, 114), so that in round numbers we may reckon three months from the latter rain to the harvest. But in order to show the people more clearly that the sending and withholding of rain belonged to Him, God caused it to rain here and there, upon one town and one field, and not upon others (the imperfects from 'amtı̄r onwards express the repetition of a thing, what generally happens, and timmâtēr, third pers. fem., is used impersonally). This occasioned such distress, that the inhabitants of the places in which it had not rained were obliged to go to a great distance for the necessary supply of water to drink, and yet could not get enough to satisfy them. נוּע, to stagger, to totter, expresses the insecure and trembling walk of a man almost fainting with thirst.