Amos 7:4 - Exposition

Called to contend by fire; Septuaguint, ἐκάλεσε τὴν δίκην ἐν πυρί , "called for judgment by fire;" Vulgate, vocabat judicium ad ignem. God called the people to try their cause with him by sending fire as a punishment among them (comp. Isaiah 66:16 ; Ezekiel 38:22 ); and in the vision the fire is represented as so vehement that it devoured the great deep, drank up the very ocean itself ( Genesis 7:11 ; Isaiah 51:10 ); or the subterranean fountains and springs, as Genesis 49:25 . And did eat up a part; τὴν μερίδα κυρίου . This version takes eth-hacheleq as the "inheritance" or "portion" of the Lord, i.e. the land of Israel ( Jeremiah 12:10 ); but Canaan is nowhere called absolutely "the portion;" nor were the ten tribes specially so designated. Rather, the portion (not a part) is that part of the land and people which was marked out for judgment. The particular calamity alluded to is the second invasion of Tigiath-Pileser II , when he conquered Gilead and the northern part of the kingdom, and carried some of the people captive to Assyria ( 2 Kings 15:29 ).