Amos 5:17

And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:7-17 The same almighty power can, for repenting sinners, easily turn affliction and sorrow into prosperity and joy, and as easily turn the prosperity of daring sinners into utter darkness. Evil times will not bear plain dealing; that is, evil men will not. And these men were evil men indeed, when wise and good men thought it in vain even to speak to them. Those who will seek and love that which is good, may help to save the land from ruin. It behoves us to plead God's spiritual promises, to beseech him to create in us a clean heart, and to renew a right spirit within us. The Lord is ever ready to be gracious to the souls that seek him; and then piety and every duty will be attended to. But as for sinful Israel, God's judgments had often passed by them, now they shall pass through them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And in all vineyards shall be wailing - All joy should be turned into sorrow. Where aforetime was the vintage-shout in thankfulness for the ingathering, and anticipating gladness to come, there, in the source of their luxury, should be wailing, the forerunner of sorrow to come. it was a vintage, not of wine, but of woe.

For I will pass through thee - In the destruction of the firstborn in Egypt, God did not "pass through" but "passed over" them, and they kept, in memory thereof the feast of the Passover. Now God would no longer "pass over" them and their sins. He says, "I will pass through thee," as He then said, "I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn of the land of Egypt - and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment" Exodus 12:12. As God says by Hosea, "I will not enter the city" Hosea 11:9, that is, He would not make His presence felt, or take cognizance, when to take cognizance would be to punish, so here, contrariwise, He says, "I will pass through," taking exact and severe account, in judgment. Jerome further says, "so often as this word is used in Holy Scripture, in the person of God, it denotes punishment, that He would not abide among them, but would pass through and leave them. Surely, it is an image of this, that, when the Jews would have cast our Lord headlong from the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, "He passed through the midst of them Luke 4:30, so that they could not see Him nor know Him, "and so went His way." And this, when He had just told them, that none of the widows of Israel were fed by Elias, or the lepers cleansed by Elisha, save the widow of Sarepta, and Naaman the Syrian. So should their leprosy cleave to them, and the famine of the word of God and of the oil of the Holy Spirit abide among them, while the Gentiles were washed by His laver and fed with the bread of life."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

17. in all vineyards … wailing—where usually songs of joy were heard.

pass through thee—taking vengeance (Ex 12:12, 23; Na 1:12). "Pass over" and "pass by," on the contrary, are used of God's forgiving (Ex 12:23; Mic 7:18; compare Am 7:8).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In all vineyards shall be wailing: in these places was usually the greatest jollity, and they gathered their vintage with joy; but now it is quite contrary, either vines are blasted, or eaten up, or destroyed of the enemy.

I will pass through thee, as an incensed God, punishing all, every where, who have sinned against him; and therefore every place now shall be full of sorrow, because every place hath been full of sin.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And in all vineyards shall be wailing,.... The vines being destroyed, and no grapes to be gathered, and put into the press; when there used to be great shoutings, and large expressions of joy, at the gathering in of the vintage, and pressing the grapes; but now there shall be a different tone; see Jeremiah 48:32;

for I will pass through thee, saith the Lord; through their cities, towns, and country, fields and vineyards, and destroy all in his way, as he passed through Egypt when he destroyed their firstborn.

Geneva Study Bible

And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

17. The wailing will embrace even the vineyards, which, as the season of vintage came round, were annually the scenes of mirth and hilarity (Isaiah 16:10).

for I will pass through the midst of thee] viz. as a destroyer (cf. Exodus 12:12), guiding, as it were, the foe by whose agency Amos conceives the disaster to be accomplished.

-2Amos 5:18-27. A rebuke, addressed to those who desired the “Day of Jehovah,” and trusted to the splendour and regularity of their religious services, to secure for them Jehovah’s favour. They have mistaken the principles upon which Jehovah acts: His ‘day,’ when it arrives, will be a day on which, so far from sparing them for their zealous discharge of ritual observances, He will consign them to exile for their disregard of moral obligations.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 17. - Vineyards. The place of mirth and gladness, that, says St. Jerome, "ubi quondam fuit materia laetitiae, sit origo lacrymarum" (Isaiah 16:10). I will pass through thee. A terrible echo of the last plague of Egypt (Exodus 12:12), when God will not "pass over" thee as he did then, but treat thee as Egypt, and "pass through" to smite and punish (Nahum 1:12). Amos 5:17

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

This judgment is announced in Amos 5:16, Amos 5:17. Amos 5:16. "Therefore thus saith Jehovah the God of hosts, the Lord: In all roads lamentation! and in all streets will men say, Alas! alas! and they call the husbandman to mourning, and lamentation to those skilled in lamenting. Amos 5:17. And in all vineyards lamentation, because I go through the midst of thee, saith Jehovah." Lâkhēn (therefore) is not connected with the admonitions in Amos 5:14, Amos 5:15, nor can it point back to the reproaches in Amos 5:7, Amos 5:10-12, since they are too far off: it rather links on to the substance of Amos 5:13, which involves the thought that all admonition to return is fruitless, and the ungodly still persist in their unrighteousness, - a thought which also forms the background of Amos 5:14, Amos 5:15. The meaning of Amos 5:16, Amos 5:17 is, that mourning and lamentation for the dead will fill both city and land. On every hand will there be dead to weep for, because Jehovah will go judging through the land. The roads and streets are not merely those of the capital, although these are primarily to be thought of, but those of all the towns in the kingdom. Mispēd is the death-wail. This is evident from the parallel 'âmar hō hō, saying, Alas, alas! i.e., striking up the death-wail (cf. Jeremiah 22:18). And this death-wail will not be heard in all the streets of the towns only, but the husbandman will also be called from the field to mourn, i.e., to seep for one who has died in his house. The verb קראוּ, they call, belongs to מספּד אל י, they call lamentation to those skilled in mourning: for they call out the word mispēd to the professional mourners; in other words, they send for them to strike up their wailing for the dead. ידעי נהי (those skilled in mourning) are the public wailing women, who were hired when a death occurred to sing mourning songs (compare Jeremiah 9:16; Matthew 9:23, and my Bibl. Archologie, ii. p. 105). Even in all the vineyards, the places where rejoicing is generally looked for (Amos 5:11; Isaiah 16:10), the death-wail will be heard. Amos 5:17 mentions the event which occasions the lamentation everywhere. כּי, for (not "if") I go through the midst of thee. These words are easily explained from Exodus 12:12, from which Amos has taken them. Jehovah there says to Moses, "I pass through the land of Egypt, and smite all the first-born." And just as the Lord once passed through Egypt, so will He now pass judicially through Israel, and slay the ungodly. For Israel is no longer the nation of the covenant, which He passes over and spares (Amos 7:8; Amos 8:2), but has become an Egypt, which He will pass through as a judge to punish it. This threat is carried out still further in the next two sections, commencing with hōi.