Amos 5:25-27

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Amos 5:21-27

The scope of these verses is to show how little God valued their shows of devotion, nay, how much he detested them, while they went on in their sins. Observe, I. How unpleasing, nay, how displeasing, their hypocritical services were to God. They had their feast-days at Bethel, in imitation of those at Jerusalem, in which they pretended to rejoice before God. They had their solemn assemblies for religious worship, in which they put on the gravity of those who come before God as his people come,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Amos 5:25

Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings ,.... No; they were not offered to God, but to devils, to the golden calf, and to the host of heaven: so their fathers did in the wilderness forty years ; where sacrifices were omitted during that time, a round number for a broken one, it being about thirty eight years; and these their children were imitators of them, and offered sacrifice to idols too, and therefore deserved punishment as they: even ye, O house of Israel ? the ten... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Amos 5:26

But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Mo ,.... The god of the Ammonites; See Gill on Amos 1:13 ; and See Gill on Jeremiah 7:31 ; called theirs, because they also worshipped it, and caused their seed to pass through the fire to it; and which was carried by them in a shrine, or portable tent or chapel. Or it may be rendered, "but ye have borne Siccuth your king" F16 סכות מלככם "Siccuth regem vestrum", Munster, Montanus, Vatablus, Calvin, Mercerus. ; and so Siccuth may be taken... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Amos 5:27

Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus ,.... The chief city of Syria; and which, as Aben Ezra says, lay to the east of the land of Israel, and was a very strong and fortified place: and Syria being in alliance with Israel, the Israelites might think of fleeing thither for refuge, in the time of their distress; but they are here told that they should be taken captive, and be carried to places far more remote than that: Stephen says, "beyond Babylon"; as they were, for... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:25

Have ye offered unto me sacrifices - Some have been led to think that "during the forty years which the Israelites spent in the wilderness, between Egypt and the promised land, they did not offer any sacrifices, as in their circumstances it was impossible; they offered none because they had none." But such people must have forgotten that when the covenant was made at Sinai, there were burnt-offerings and peace-offerings of oxen sacrificed to the Lord, Exodus 24:5 ; and at the setting up of... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:26

But ye have borne - The preceding verse spoke of their fathers; the present verse speaks of the Israelites then existing, who were so grievously addicted to idolatry, that they not only worshipped at stated public places the idols set up by public authority, but they carried their gods about with them everywhere. The tabernacle of your Moloch - Probably a small portable shrine, with an image of their god in it, such as Moloch; and the star or representative of their god Chiun. For an... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:27

Will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus - That is, into Assyria, the way to which, from Judea, was by Damascus. But St. Stephen says, Acts 7:43 , beyond Babylon; because the Holy Spirit that was in him chose to extend the meaning of the original text to that great and final captivity of the Jews in general, when Zedekiah, their last king, and the people of Judea, were carried into Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Media; see 2 Kings 17:7 , 2 Kings 17:24 . This captivity... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:25

Verse 25 The Prophet shows in this place, that he not only reproved hypocrisy in the Israelites in obtruding on God only external display of ceremonies without any true religion in the heart; but that he also condemned them for having departed from the rule of the law. He also shows that this was not a new disease among the people of Israel; for immediately at the beginning their fathers mixed such a leaven as vitiated the worship of God. He therefore proves that the Israelites had ever been... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:26

Verse 26 It now follows, And ye have carried Sicuth your king. This place, we know, is quoted by Stephen Acts 7:42 : but he followed the Greek version; and the Greek translator, whoever he was, was mistaken as to the word, Sicuth, and read, Sucoth, and thought the name an appellative of the plural number, and supposed it to be derived from סוך suk, which means a tabernacle; for he translated it σκήνην as if it was said, “Ye bore the tabernacle of your king instead of the ark.” But it was a... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:27

Verse 27 Here the Prophet at last denounces exile on the Israelites as though he had said that God would not suffer them any longer to contaminate the Holy Land, which had been given them as an heritage, on the condition that they acknowledged him as the only true God. God had now, for a long time, borne with the Israelites though they had never ceased to pollute his land with superstitions. He comes now to cleanse it. I will cause you, he says, to migrate beyond Damascus; for they thought that... read more

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