Amos 4:11

11. Earthquake. Some consider Amos 4:11 a summary of all preceding judgments, not a description of a new calamity; others, a figure of devastating wars (2 Kings 13:4; 2 Kings 13:7); but it is more natural to interpret it as a description of an earthquake causing serious havoc in Israel. Palestine has suffered frequently from earthquakes, especially in the border districts. During the past ten years four earthquakes are said to have visited the country. The most disastrous of which more or less complete accounts have been preserved were those of 31 B.C., in which, according to Josephus, some thirty thousand persons perished, and of January 1, 1837. A vivid account of the horrors of the latter is given in Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine, 2:529-531, note 41. The only earthquake mentioned in the Old Testament is that mentioned in the days of Uzziah (Amos 1:1; compare Zechariah 14:5), unless we class in the same category the destruction of the cities of the Plain (compare G.A. Smith, Historical Geography, p. 508f.). The allusion cannot be to the one mentioned in Amos 1:1, unless we suppose that Amos retouched his prophecies when he collected them subsequent to the earthquake (see p. 195). He may have in mind any similar catastrophe.

Some of you R.V., “cities among you”; literally, among you. Not the whole country suffered; nevertheless, all should heed the warning.

God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah The point of comparison is the completeness of the ruin. As an illustration of this the destruction of these cities (Genesis 19:0) is mentioned several times in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 29:23; Jeremiah 49:18; Isaiah 1:7, etc.).

Ye Those that escaped.

A fire brand plucked out of the burning A picture of narrow escape. They were almost consumed, only the divine mercy saved them (Isaiah 1:9; compare Zechariah 3:2). But even in the face of ruin and with this overwhelming evidence of the divine love the people hardened their hearts. The divine love and mercy (Amos 2:9 ff.), as well as the divine judgments (Amos 4:6 ff.) failed to accomplish the divine purpose. Nothing more can be done. Destruction is inevitable.

On the philosophy underlying Amos 4:6-11, see in part comment on Amos 3:6. To it may be added that in the ancient world it was customary to ascribe all calamities to the wrath of the deity, manifesting itself either arbitrarily or on account of sins committed by the devotees. The Hebrew prophets believed that Jehovah’s wrath was aroused by sin, that his righteousness demanded the punishment of sin, and that the punishment would take the form of some calamity to be experienced in this present life. They believed also that these calamities had a corrective purpose. These two beliefs underlie the prophetic explanation of calamities. Since secondary causes and the working of natural laws were entirely disregarded, it never occurred to the prophets that any calamity could come without Jehovah’s direct interference, and without a punitive or corrective purpose. With a clearer conception of the character of God we may hesitate to believe that every time a famine or drought or earthquake occurs, God is especially angry with those who have to suffer, and yet there can be no doubt that “the instinct is sound which in all ages has led religious people to feel that such things are inflicted for moral purposes.”