The Lord repented for this ,.... He heard the prophet's prayer, and desisted from going on with the threatened destruction: this also shall not be, saith the Lord God ; the whole land shall not be destroyed, only a part of it carried captive. read more
Verse 6 He adds, that God was again pacified. We must ever bear in mind the object he had in view; for ungodly men thought the Prophets to be liars, whenever God did not immediately execute the vengeance he had denounced: but Amos here reminds them, that when God defers punishment, he does not in vain threaten, but waits for men to repent; and that if they still go on in abusing his patience, they will have at last to feel how dreadful is the vengeance which awaits all those who thus pervert... read more
Revelation and prayer. "Thus hath the Lord God showed unto me," etc. This portion of the Book of Amos ( Amos 7:1-17 and Amos 8:1-14 ) contains four symbolical visions respecting successive judgments that were to be inflicted on the kingdom of Israel. They were delivered at Bethel, and in all probability at the commencement of the prophet's ministry. Each of them, as it follows in the series, is more severe than the preceding. The first presented to the mental eye of the prophet a swarm... read more
§ 2. The second vision devouring fire, represents a more severe judgment than the preceding one, involving greater consequences, but still one which was again modified by the prayers of the righteous prophet. read more
The vision of consuming fire. The prophet's vision goes on, and the situation in it becomes more critical. One woe is averted only for a worse to take its place. The Divine avenging hosts remain in battleline. They return to the attack with renewed vigour. For the fusillade is substituted the booming of the great guns. Escaping as by the skin of their teeth from the wasting locust, incorrigible Israel are met in the prophet's eye by the devouring fire. In connection with this second scene... read more
The intercession is the same as in Amos 7:2 , except that the prophet says cease instead of "forgive;" and in effect the tide of war was rolled back from Israel, and Samaria itself was spared for the time. read more
As our Lord repeated the same words in the Garden, so Amos interceded with God with words, all but one, the same, and with the same plea, that, if God did not help, Israel was indeed helpless. Yet a second time God spared Israel. To human sight, what so strange and unexpected, as that the Assyrian and his army, having utterly destroyed the kingdom of Damascus, and carried away its people, and having devoured, like fire, more than half of Israel, rolled back like an ebb-tide, swept away to... read more
Amos 7:4-6. The Lord God called to contend by fire, &c. This represented a sorer judgment than the former, and, in the opinion of some expositors, denoted the invasion of Tiglath-pileser, who carried a great part of Israel away captive, 2 Kings 15:29, and so was properly represented by a raging fire, which consumed the sea by turning it into vapours, and then devoured a great part of the land. Then said I, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee, &c. Here the prophet observes, that upon... read more
7:1-9:10 VISIONS OF JUDGMENTGod’s patience before judgment (7:1-9)Farmers paid their taxes by giving the king the first reaping of their harvest. After this a second crop grew up, which provided the main harvest for the people. It was this second crop that Amos, in his vision, saw threatened with destruction from a plague of locusts. If God judged Israel in this way, it might never recover. When Amos pleaded on Israel’s behalf for God’s mercy, God answered his prayer (7:1-3). God later answered... read more
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Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Amos 7:1-9
We here see that God bears long, but that he will not bear always, with a provoking people, both these God here showed the prophet: Thus hath the Lord God showed me, Amos 7:1, 4, 7. He showed him what was present, foreshowed him what was to come, gave him the knowledge both of what he did and of what he designed; for the Lord God reveals his secret unto his servants the prophets, Amos 3:7. I. We have here two instances of God's sparing mercy, remembered in the midst of judgment, the narratives... read more