Amos 8:2

And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:1-3 Amos saw a basket of summer fruit gathered, and ready to be eaten; which signified, that the people were ripe for destruction, that the year of God's patience was drawing towards a conclusion. Such summer fruits will not keep till winter, but must be used at once. Yet these judgments shall not draw from them any acknowledgement, either of God's righteousness or their own unrighteousness. Sinners put off repentance from day to day, because they think the Lord thus delays his judgments.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thus hath the Lord God showed me - The sentence of Amaziah pronounced, Amos resumes just where he left off, before Amaziah broke in upon him. His vehement interruption is like a stone cast into the deep waters. They close over it, and it leaves no trace. Amos had authenticated the third vision; "Thus hath the Lord God shewed me." He resumes in the self-same calm words. The last vision declared that the end was certain; this, that it was at hand.

A basket of summer fruit - The fruit was the latest harvest in Palestine. When it was gathered, the circle of husbandry was come to its close. The sight gives an idea of completeness. The symbol, and the word expressing it, coincide. The fruit-gathering קיץ qayits, like our "crop," was called from "cutting." So was the word, "end," "cutting off," in (קץ qêts). At harvest-time there is no more to be done for that crop. Good or bad, it has reached its end, and is cut down. So the harvest of Israel was come. The whole course of God's providences, mercies, chastenings, visitations, instructions, warnings, in spirations, were completed. "What could have been done more to My vineyard, God asks Isaiah 5:4, that I have not done in it?" "To the works of sin, as of holiness, there is a beginning, progress, completion;" a "sowing of wild oats," as people speak, and a ripening in wickedness; a maturity of people's plans, as they deem; a maturity for destruction, in the sight of God. There was no more to be done. heavenly influences can but injure the ripened sinner, as dew, rain, sun, but injure the ripened fruit Israel was ripe, but for destruction.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. end—(Eze 7:2, 6).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Amos, what seest thou? the like question you have Amos 7:8, which see.

A basket of summer fruit: see Amos 8:1. Then said the Lord unto me: the meaning of this hieroglyphic not being very plain in itself, the Lord doth here explain it in the following words.

The end of God’s patience towards Israel, of their peace, growth, and glory; the end of their ripening, they are now as fruit fully ripe, in the end of the year, fit to be gathered.

My people Israel; so they were once, so they boast themselves, so the nations about them account Israel to be the people of God.

I will not again pass by them any more: see Amos 7:8. God had with admirable patience spared and tried, but now he will with just severity punish, neither pardon nor spare.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he said, Amos, what seest thou?.... To quicken his attention, who might disregard it as a common thing; and in order to lead him into the design of it, and show him what it was an emblem of:

and I said, a basket of summer fruit; some render it "a hook" (w), such as they pull down branches with to gather the fruit; and the word so signifies in the Arabic language (x); but the other is the more received sense of the word:

then said the Lord unto me; by way of explanation of the vision: the end is come upon my people Israel: the end of the kingdom of Israel; of their commonwealth and church state; of all their outward happiness and glory; their "summer was ended", and they "not saved", Jeremiah 8:20; all their prosperity was over; and, as the Targum, their

"final punishment was come,''

the last destruction threatened them (y):

I will not again pass by them any more; pass by their offences, and forgive their sins; or pass by their persons, without taking notice of them, so as to afflict and punish them for their iniquities: or, "pass through them and more" (z) now making an utter end of them; See Gill on Amos 7:8.

(w) "unicuus", V. L. (x) "ferramentum incurvum, seu uncus ex quo de sella commeatum suspendit viator", Giggeius apud Golium, col. 2055. (y) There is an elegant play on words in the words "summer", and "the end". (z) So Mercerus, Grotius.

Geneva Study Bible

And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of {a} summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.

(a) Which signified the ripeness of their sins, and the readiness of God's judgments.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. The question is asked for the same purpose as in Amos 7:8.

The end] Amos answers, “A basket of ḳaitz”: Jehovah replies, “Ḳêtz—an ‘end’—is come upon my people Israel.” The last vision had declared that the approaching judgement was certain; this, that it was final, and also close at hand.

I will not again pardon it any more] The same words as Amos 7:8.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - The end (kets). This is very like the word for "fruit" (kaits). Pass by (see note on Amos 7:8). Ver. 3 - The songs of the temple; Septuagint, τὰ φατνώματα τοῦ ναοῦ, "the pannels of the temple;" Vulgate, cardines templi. These versions point to a different reading. It is better rendered, "the songs of the palace," referring to the songs of the revellers mentioned already (Amos 6:5). These shall be changed into howlings of lamentation for the dead which lie around (comp. ver. 10). There shall be many dead bodies. The Hebrew is more forcible: "Many the corpses: in every place he hath cast them forth. Hush!" The Lord is represented as casting dead bodies to the ground, so that death is everywhere; and the interjection "hush!" (comp. Amos 6:10) is an admonition to bend beneath the hand of an avenging God (comp. Zephaniah 1:7). Orelli takes it as an expression of the apathy that accompanies severe and irremediable suffering - suffering too deep for words. The Greek and Latin versions take this onomatopoetic word has! "hush!" as a substantive. Thus the Septuagint, ἐπιῥῤίψω σιωπήν, "I will cast upon them silence;" Vulgate, projicietur silentium - an expressive rendering, but one not supported by grammatical considerations. Amos 8:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Vision of a Basket of Ripe Fruit. - Amos 8:1. "Thus did the Lord Jehovah show me: and behold a basket with ripe fruit. Amos 8:2. And He said, What seest thou, Amos? And I said, A basket of ripe fruit. Then Jehovah said to me, The end is come to my people Israel; I will not pass by them any more. Amos 8:3. And the songs of the palace will yell in that day, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah: corpses in multitude; in every place hath He cast them forth: Hush!" כּלוּב from כּלך, to lay hold of, to grasp, lit., a receiver, here a basket (of basket-work), in Jeremiah 5:27 a bird-cage. קיץ: summer-fruit (see at 2 Samuel 16:1); in Isaiah 16:9; Isaiah 28:4, the gathering of fruit, hence ripe fruit. The basket of ripe fruit (qayits) is thus explained by the Lord: the end (qēts) is come to my people (cf. Ezekiel 7:6). Consequently the basket of ripe fruit is a figurative representation of the nation that is now ripe for judgment, although qēts, the end, does not denote its ripeness for judgment, but its destruction, and the word qēts is simply chosen to form a paronomasia with qayits. לא אוסיף וגו as in Amos 7:8. All the joy shall be turned into mourning. the thought is not that the temple-singing to the praise of God (Amos 5:23) would be turned into yelling, but that the songs of joy (Amos 6:5; 2 Samuel 19:36) would be turned into yells, i.e., into sounds of lamentation (cf. Amos 8:10 and 1 Maccabees 9:41), namely, because of the multitude of the dead which lay upon the ground on every side. השׁליך is not impersonal, in the sense of "which men are no longer able to bury on account of their great number, and therefore cast away in quiet places on every side;" but Jehovah is to be regarded as the subject, viz., which God has laid prostrate, or cast to the ground on every side. For the adverbial use of הס cannot be established. The word is an interjection here, as in Amos 6:10; and the exclamation, Hush! is not a sign of gloomy despair, but an admonition to bow beneath the overwhelming severity of the judgment of God, as in Zephaniah 1:7 (cf. Habakkuk 2:20 and Zechariah 2:13).