Amos 4:6-8

Amos 4:6-8. And I also have given you Or, for this cause I have given you, cleanness of teeth An expression signifying a scarcity of food, or a famine. The famine which we read of 2 Kings 8:1, seems to be that which is here referred to. Yet have ye not returned unto me Nevertheless ye have not been brought to a sense of your sins, to any sorrow for them, or to any sincere purpose of amendment. Also I have withholden the rain, when there were yet three months to the harvest At a season when your country most needed it, and when it had been wont to fall most plentifully. And I caused it to rain upon one city, and not upon another And, to make it more remarkable, I caused it to rain upon cities or places adjoining to yours, at the same time that the drought was so great on all your territories. This may import that God punished them with drought at the same time when he sent rain upon the cities of Judah; making a remarkable difference between Israel and Judah, like that which he formerly made between Egypt and the land of Goshen. One piece was rained upon, &c. This seems to be spoken of those parts which lay quite contiguous to the lands of other nations, of which parts, though they touched each other, yet rain fell upon the one and not upon the other; the consequence of which was, that the one piece of land was withered, or scorched up for want of moisture, while the adjoining one was green and flourishing. So two or three cities wandered, &c. So the inhabitants of several of your cities went to some city or other without your territories for the sake of getting water to quench their thirst. But they were not satisfied They could not obtain a sufficient quantity.