Amos 1:3 Thus said the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof… The prophet shows that God, as a Judge, would call all the neighbouring nations Co account. Had the prophet threatened the Israelites only, they might have thought that what they suffered was by chance, when they saw the like things happening to their neighbours. Thus all the authority of the prophet must have lost its power, except the Israelites were made to know that God is the Judge of all nations. Amos puts the Israelites in the same bundle with the Moabites, the Idumaeans, and other heathen nations; as though he had said, "God will not spare your neighbours; but think not that ye shall be exempt from His vengeance, when they shall be led to punishment: I now declare to you that God will be the Judge of you all together." The design of Amos was — 1. To set before the eyes of the Israelites the punishment of others to awaken them, and also to induce them to examine themselves. He designed to lead them into a teachable frame of mind: for he knew them to be torpid in their indulgences, and also blinded by presumption, so that they could not be easily brought under the yoke. 2. He had this also in view, that God would punish the Syrians, because they cruelly raged against the Israelites, especially against Gilead and its inhabitants. As God, then. would inflict so grievous a punishment on the Syrians, because they so cruelly treated the inhabitants of Gilead, what was to be expected by the Israelites themselves, who had been insolent towards God, who had isolated His worship, who had robbed Him of His honour, who had in their turn destroyed one another? For there was among them no equity, no humanity; they had forgotten all reason. ( John Calvin.) Parallel Verses KJV: Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron: |
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