Commentary on the Twelve Prophets 1 part 6/19

'The words of Amos, which came in Kariathiarim from Thekoe, which he saw concerning Jerusalem in the days of Ozias king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.' The prophet taught us that, coming forth from Thekoe, he obtained the divine revelation in Kariathiarim, and that he was commanded to compose the words concerning Jerusalem.

He also teaches the time of the prophecy.

For this reason he made mention of the kings, Ozias king of Judah and Jeroboam king of Israel.

It was for this reason that he also mentioned Jeroboam, who reigned over those people at that time.

But since each of them reigned for a long time (for Ozias ruled fifty-two years, and Jeroboam forty-one), he fittingly indicated the time of the earthquake, and said that it occurred two years after the prophecy, so as to teach clearly at what point he addressed the divine words to the people.

But some, not having paid careful attention to the chronology, supposed that this earthquake occurred at the time when the great Isaiah, after the death of Ozias, saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, when the lintel was raised by the voice of the Seraphim.

But I, having investigated the chronology, found this to be false.

For if the earthquake occurred after the death of Ozias, and the blessed Amos began his prophecy two years before, it would have been in the fiftieth year of the reign of Ozias.

For he reigned fifty-two years.

But Jeroboam was no longer living at that time.

For in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, Ozias received the appointment to the kingdom.

It was at the beginning of the reign of Ozias that the prophecies of the inspired Amos took place, since he said that he received the gift of prophecy while Jeroboam was still living and reigning.

Having thus indicated the time of the prophecy, he also teaches with what preludes he made use.

'The Lord uttered forth from Sion, and from Jerusalem He gave His voice, and the pastures of the shepherds mourned, and the summit of Carmel was withered.' For since he is about to foretell grievous things to the neighbouring nations, he necessarily teaches from where the verdicts against them are issued.

For, he says, from Jerusalem and from Mount Sion, when the God of all has uttered forth and pronounced the sentences of punishments, the shepherds shall mourn, inasmuch as they find no food for the flocks that are pastured by them.

And all Carmel, even up to its very peak, shall be deprived of the abundance of fruits.

These things also came to pass according to history, on account of the drought, and the locust, and the caterpillar, and the other scourges which the righteous Judge brought upon them.

Nevertheless, through these things he also intimates other matters, and he calls Israel the summit of Carmel.

For this too was a portion of the promised land.

'For I brought you,' He says, 'into Carmel, to eat its fruits and its good things.' And by shepherds he names the kings of the neighbouring nations.

And by pastures, their subjects, not only because they brought them tribute and taxes as a kind of pasturage, but also because they were continually pastured upon by them.

He says, therefore, that the God of all, from Mount Sion and from the city of Jerusalem, shall encompass the other neighbouring nations with all manner of evils, according to the divine sentence.

Then, part by part, he expounds the transgressions of the nations, and teaches the punishments brought upon them.

'Turn away Thy face from my sins.' But when He punishes, God Himself says:

'And I will set My face against you, and I will look upon your iniquities.' So then the phrase 'I will not turn away' means 'I will no longer be long-suffering, nor will I turn away My face from your sins.'

'But I will look upon the things which formerly, through long-suffering, I did not seem to see.'

And the phrase 'for the three, and for the four' signifies multitude.

But especially those things which they dared to commit against the Gileadites, using cruelty and bestiality against them, so as even to saw asunder the pregnant women.

This Symmachus taught more clearly, saying:

'Because they threshed Gilead with iron wheels.' Aquila and Theodotion also set down the same meaning.

We learn, therefore, that casting the aforesaid women onto a kind of threshing floor, they cruelly threshed them with saw-like wheels after the manner of ears of grain.

Having thus indicated the lawlessness, he brings on the punishment.

'And it shall devour the foundations of the son of Ader.' Some supposed this to be the father of Hazael, dividing the name in two, and understanding separately the son, and separately Ader.

For he is called Barhadad in the Hebrew and the Syrian tongue, and he is not the father, but the son of Hazael, as the fourth book of the Kingdoms teaches.

Wherefore the prophecy also says:

'And it shall devour the foundations of the son of Ader';

that is, 'I will uproot her kingdom root and branch.'

'I will destroy her former security.'

'And I will utterly destroy the inhabitants out of the plain of On, and I will cut off a tribe out of the men of Charran, and the chosen people of Syria shall be led captive, says the Lord.' Not only the mother-city, but also all the surrounding dwellers, both those who were transplanted from Charran but dwelt there, and those who sojourned by the idol On, I will cause to become captives of the spear, and I will utterly abolish the kingdom of Syria, once so renowned.

For by 'chosen' he means 'renowned.'

And concerning Gaza also He says: 'Three and four times having been long-suffering, I will no longer at all endure their transgressing.'

'And what compels Me to be yet more incensed against them are the deeds they dared against My people.'

'For because,' He says, 'they carried away captive the captivity of Solomon, to shut them up in Idumea.' Now some have understood this thus: that Solomon of old having taken the Idumeans captive and confined them in Judea, these people, warring against the Jews, granted them their freedom and gave the Idumeans back.

But to me this seems far from the truth.

For ten kings arose from Solomon down to the present prophecy, and a very long time had passed in between.

But I think that the passage before us has this meaning:

The Philistines, being neighbours to the Jewish tribe and frequently making expeditions against them, those whom they took captive they gave over not to any others, but to the Idumeans, who were their most bitter and most hostile enemies.

So then the captivity of the captured Jews he named 'the captivity of Solomon,' displaying the splendour and distinction of the people by reference to that illustrious and renowned king.

So then, being indignant on account of this cruelty, God threatens to deliver Gaza to fire, and with it the other cities of the Philistines.

He makes the same accusation also against Tyre, and, heightening the charge, He added:

'And they did not remember the covenant of brethren.' For since Solomon and Hiram the king of Tyre displayed a brotherly disposition toward one another, and the one supplied cedar wood for the building of the divine temple, while the other gave grain in return;

but the Tyrians came to forget this friendship, and sinned against Israel in the same way as the Gazites, He fittingly pronounced the same verdict against them also.

And concerning the Idumeans also, having said that 'Three and four times, and many times having been long-suffering toward them, I will no longer henceforth endure,' beholding above all their fury against their brother;

for they were not willing even to take nature itself to mind, nor that they had dwelt together in one womb, but persisted in displaying a murderous intent against him;

He threatens to deliver these also to fire, just as the Syrians, and the Philistines, and the Tyrians.

And by fire He calls the army of the Assyrians, which destroys all things after the manner of fire.

and, as was to be expected, making use of fire, they both set villages ablaze, and consumed cities with fire, and utterly obliterated all things.

The phrase, 'He ravaged the womb,' points to his madness against nature: that though he was a brother and born of the same womb, having dwelt at the same time in the very same belly (for he was a twin), he persists in raging against him, all but inflicting outrage upon the very womb which both of them had inhabited.

The phrase, 'He seized upon terror as a testimony against himself,' means: 'He has dared deeds full of horror,' leaving behind such a testimony against himself.

Having said these things also concerning the Ammonites, that 'Having shown great long-suffering toward the many and frequent offences they have committed, I shall now bring on the punishment,' he makes mention of the lawless deed done against Israel.

'In return for which,' He says, 'they ripped open the pregnant women of the Gileadites, that they might enlarge their own borders.' For these too, being neighbours of the Gileadites and treating them with savagery and cruelty, not only slew the men but also destroyed those not yet born, daring to slaughter the women with child.

'I will kindle a fire upon the walls of Rabbath, and it shall devour her foundations with a shout in the day of war, and she shall be shaken in the day of her consummation.'

'And Melchom shall go into captivity, his priests and his rulers together, says the Lord.' Here He clearly taught what kind of fire it was that He had named in the case of the others too.

He threatens that, together with her, the idol honoured by her shall also be led away captive.

For Melchom is the false god of the Ammonites, who was not able to defend even his own priests and rulers, nor indeed himself, when he was taken as a spoil of war.

By Rabbath he means the metropolis of Ammon, which is now in Arabia called Philadelphia in the Greek tongue, but Amman in the language of the Syrians.

He threatens Moab too with that warlike fire, and says that together with the people He will also deliver the rulers over to destruction, since in addition to their many impieties they displayed great bestiality against the king of the Edomites.

For this man, who had once come as an ally to the king of the Israelites, they afterwards ambushed and, taking him captive, they offered him as a sacrifice to their own idols, and they fanned that pyre to such a degree that they consumed with the fire even all his bones.

Having thus concluded his oracles concerning the foreign nations, he transfers the word of prophecy against the people, and sets forth first the lawlessness of the tribe of Judah before all.

'For the three impieties of the sons of Judah, and for the four, I will not turn away from them, because they rejected the law of the Lord and did not keep His ordinances, and the vain things which they made led them astray, after which their fathers walked.'

'And I will send forth fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the foundations of Jerusalem.' 'Both Judah,' He says, 'and Jerusalem I will deliver to the fire of war, since they utterly despised the things ordained by Me, but continued to serve the idols made by hands (for these He calls vain things), following the corrupt mind of their fathers.'

'While these things were being dared, I bore with them for a very long time, but I will no longer employ My accustomed long-suffering.'

From these he passes to the ten tribes, and says that He will no longer be long-suffering toward them either.

'In return for which they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals, (verse 7) of those who trample upon the dust of the earth;'

'and they struck the heads of the poor with their fists, and turned aside the way of the lowly.' 'These too,' He says, 'looking to gain, sold off the righteous, and, being slaves to shameful profit, did not refuse to make gain even of sandals, which afford men only the meanest use; abandoning those who were wronged, maltreating the poorer, and not admitting the pleas of the more dishonoured.'

'In addition to these things, living also in licentiousness, they consorted with one another's wives like brute beasts, so that neither did a son keep away from the concubine dedicated to his father, nor did a father preserve for his son the marriage-bed undefiled;'

'so that from this the rights of nature were confounded, and the names of kinship were henceforth no longer even distinguishable.'

'And these things,' He says, 'they did, in order that they might profane the name of their God.' For the foreign peoples dwelling nearby, learning of these things, moved their tongue against the God of all, either as though He had ordained such things, or as though He tolerated a people committing such lawlessness.

'And binding their garments with cords, they made curtains close by the altar, and drank wine gained from false accusations in the house of their God.' For they did not even render the fitting reverence to the divine temple, but even there, constructing tents out of garments, they drank the wine procured from injustice;

but they were unwilling to take it to mind, as (verse 9)

'whose height was as the height of a cedar, and he was strong as an oak, and I removed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.' These things He has spoken figuratively, teaching the greatness and the strength of the men of that time.

And the spies sent by the great Moses said, that 'There is Enak there, and the descendants of the giants, and exceedingly tall men, and we were before them as grasshoppers.'

The God of all therefore says, that 'It was not by using your own strength that you prevailed over men so great and strong.'

'For how could you, who were so terrified even by the very report, attempt to return to Egypt? But it was I who uprooted that one root and all.'

By 'roots' he means the fathers, and by 'fruit' the children.

'But indeed,' He says, 'it is necessary to remind you of the benefits I bestowed before this too.'

'For I freed you from the Egyptian bondage, and for forty years I sustained you in the wilderness, and some of you I counted worthy of prophetic grace, while others I made priests.'

'For I took,' He says, 'from your sons for prophets, and from your young men for sanctification.' Then, in the manner of a question, as though the things spoken were beyond dispute:

'Is it not so, O sons of Israel? says the Lord.' 'Prove it,' He says, 'if you find anything false in what has been said;'

'but this is among the impossible things;'

'for you yourselves also know that the catalogue of the benefits is true, in opposition to which you have persisted in acting;'

'for not only do you transgress My laws without fear, but you even gave wine to drink to those consecrated to Me (He means the Nazirites), teaching that the service rendered to Me is of no profit;'

'and you hindered the prophets sent by Me from foretelling the things I commanded, being vexed, as was to be expected, at My very voice.'

'When these evils are brought upon you, neither shall the swiftest runner procure safety by flight, nor shall the valiant man keep his courageous spirit, nor shall the archer trust in his skill, and even the horseman, using the swiftness of his horse as a helper, shall not enjoy safety;'

'Hear therefore this word which the Lord has spoken against you, O house of Israel, and against every tribe which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying:'

'You only have I known out of all the tribes of the earth;'

'for which cause I also delivered you from the bondage of the Egyptians.'

The phrase, 'against every tribe which I brought up out of the land of Egypt,' hints at no others;

but since he had made mention of Israel, and after the division the ten tribes were called Israel, he summons also Judah and Benjamin to the hearing of what has been said.

Then, showing that it is with His permission that the army of the enemies comes upon them, he confirms the word by means of certain images.

'Shall a trumpet sound in a city, and the people not be terrified? Is there evil in a city which the Lord has not made?' 'Just as,' He says, 'it is among impossible things for two to share a road together at the same time without disclosing to each other where and for what cause they are setting out, nor indeed for a lion to roar when there is no prey, or for a bird to fall apart from the fowler, or for all the other things mentioned to happen;'

'so it is impossible, if God does not will it, for any punishment to be brought upon anyone.'

For He has called the punishment 'evil,' using the common custom of speech.

For we are accustomed to call 'evils' also diseases, and chastisements, and untimely deaths, and famines, and wars, and the like, not because these are by nature evil, but because they are hurtful to men, and occasion grief and mourning.

This the prophet Jonah too teaches us more plainly.

'For the Lord repented,' he says, 'of the evil which He had spoken;' that is, of the hurtful threat;

for there too he called the threat of punishment 'evil.'

'But that these things are so,' He says, 'and that it is among the impossible things for chastisement to be brought upon anyone unless God wills it, learn from the very facts.'

For He foretells through the prophets the grievous things which He is about to bring upon those who sin.

'For the Lord God will surely do nothing, unless He reveals His chastisement to His servants the prophets.'

'A lion shall roar, and who shall not fear?' 'Knowing this therefore clearly, receive the predictions as true;'

'for we too, fearing these things, bring them to you.'

'For if a roaring lion terrifies all who hear, much more do we prophesy with fear, when God commands.'

'The Lord God has spoken, and who shall not prophesy?' (verse 9) 'Proclaim to the regions among the Assyrians, and to the regions in the land of Egypt;'

'Be gathered together upon the mountain of Samaria.' 'But since you disbelieve the prophetic words, I will openly display to the Assyrians and the Egyptians the lawless deeds dared within the borders of Samaria.'

For the phrase, 'And see the many wondrous things in the midst of her,' He has spoken by way of irony;

wherefore, making the word plainer, He added:

(verse 10) 'And she knew not the things that shall be against her, says the Lord;'

'those who treasure up injustice and misery in their regions.' For daring the utmost injustice and enslaving the poorer, they were unwilling to perceive what kind of fruits lawlessness produces;

but they treasured up injustice, reaping thence misery and captivity.

Very fittingly did He put 'they treasured up,' teaching that 'None of the things done by you is consigned to oblivion, but, as in some treasury, in the memory of God both the things well and rightly done and their opposites are kept.'

'Tyre, and the land round about you shall be laid waste, and it shall bring down your strength from you, and your regions shall be plundered.' 'From the things happening to those who dwell around you, learn the things that shall come to pass against you;'

'for not Tyre alone, but also the nations round about you shall together with you be delivered over to desolation.'

'In the manner in which a shepherd draws out from the mouth of the lion two legs, or the lobe of an ear;'

'so shall the ten tribes be delivered over to the Assyrians.'

'But those alone shall escape enslavement who, on account of their great insignificance or weakness, shall be overlooked by them.'

'for even she shall suffer this same destruction.'

The phrase 'set over against a tribe in the midst' indicates that the tribe of Judah shall for the present remain untouched by these calamities.

For when Sennacherib had marched against Jerusalem, he returned in disgrace, having lost his army.

The Lord God, the Almighty.

'And I will crush and smite the winter house upon the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and many other houses shall be swept away, says the Lord.' For not only, He says, the splendid houses, but the mean ones as well I will overthrow and deliver up to fire; together with those built for winter I will burn also those that stand open and are made for summer.

For Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion rendered 'periptheron' (the colonnaded house) as the winter house;

for such houses, by the walls surrounding them on every side, as though by certain wings, keep their inhabitants warm.

'And I will demolish,' He says, 'the altars of Bethel also,' the occasions of impiety;

and since not men only, but women too practiced the utmost lawlessness, He fittingly accuses these as well, and threatens destruction.

'Hear this word, you cows of Bashan that are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor and trample upon the needy, who say to your lords:'

for such also are the cows of Bashan, frisking about by reason of the abundance of pasture.

For this reason they appropriated the goods of the more lowly, and did not shrink from giving orders to their husbands, to whom according to the divine law they had been made subject, and commanded them to take the place of servants.

Such also was Jezebel, who treated her husband as though he were a slave.

'The Lord swears by His holy ones, that behold, days are coming upon you, and they shall take you away with weapons, and fiery pestilences shall cast those with you into cauldrons set to boil.' And interpreting what was said, He added:

'And you shall be carried out naked, woman and man opposite one another, and you shall be cast forth upon the mountain of Harmana, says the Lord.' 'Assuredly,' He says, 'I will bring upon you in due season the punishment against you, and I will deliver you to your enemies, so that your men (for these are they whom He calls 'those with you') shall be like cauldrons set to boil, as they burn with jealousy and behold the wantonness inflicted upon you.'

For as though scorched by some flame, they shall use wrath against your men, but lust against you, leading men and women alike, stripped of every garment, and carrying them off to the mountain of Harmana.

But Symmachus rendered 'Harmana' as 'Armenia';

and Theodotion as 'a high mountain.'

And the phrase, 'The Lord swore by His holy ones,' Symmachus rendered as 'by His holiness';

and He set the oath before the things spoken, showing the prophecy to be free of all falsehood.

'You shall endure these things,' He says, 'because you practiced impiety in Bethel and in Gilgal, and dared to celebrate three-day festivals to the idols, and offered the tithes that I commanded to be brought to My priests to the ministers of impiety instead, and made certain compacts and covenants with the idols, so as to follow their laws.'

For this He made clear when He said:

'They read a law openly, and called for a covenant.' By 'law' He means not the divine one, but that which was laid down by those who serve the idols.

Then He bids the prophet to speak, saying:

'Proclaim that these things the sons of Israel loved, says the Lord God.' For it was not casually that they dared such impiety, but they practiced it with ardent disposition and affection toward these things.

For those who eat nothing at all have not even a remnant of food lodged in their teeth.

When therefore famine and want overtake you, since because of the abundance of good things you frisked against the Giver of the gifts, your teeth too shall suffer bluntness, no longer able to enjoy food, but like those stricken by unripe grapes or something of the more astringent sort, and unable to grind their food.

But even when this chastisement is brought upon you, you will persist in your former evils.

'But not even so will I cease from your cure;'

'for I will bring upon you yet another chastisement, and holding back the latter rain (for this is what He meant by, Three months before the harvest), I will deliver the land over to barrenness.'

And exercising loving-kindness, and showing that these things come about not of themselves, but happen at My nod, 'To this city I will grant the rain, but to that one I will not impart such watering, so that the one land shall be utterly parched, while the other is rained upon in part.'

'And so great shall be the scarcity of waters, that two or three cities shall run together to the city that has water, longing to drink, and not even so shall they satisfy their thirst to the full.'

'But nevertheless you will persist even so, incurably diseased, and this though you have already fallen into other evils;'

'for I, as a physician of souls, applied yet another cautery, bringing upon you various diseases, now fevers, now jaundice;'

'yet you did not forget your impiety.'

'And after this chastisement you also received the caterpillar; everything delightful in vineyards, or olive groves, or gardens is gone;'

'and not even this persuaded you to acknowledge Him who brings the chastisements.'

To these He adds, that even those fleeing the Assyrian and hastening to reach Egypt, I delivered to the Assyrian's sword, using My wrath as though it were a fire;

and not even from this were they willing to perceive what was fitting.

'I overthrew you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.' He does not thereby indicate another as the one who did those things, but speaks as concerning Himself.

'And you became,' He says, 'like a brand plucked from the fire, and not even so did you turn back to Me, says the Lord.' For just as the brand, when half-burnt, shows indeed the working of the fire, yet is useless for any purpose whatever, and serviceable only for fire;

so you, when most of you have been slain and led into captivity, shall be stripped of all power, and shall appear fit only for slavery.

'nevertheless thus will I do to you.' Yet even so, to those incurably diseased I will bring the treatment befitting you.

'Prepare to call upon your God, O Israel;'

'who makes the dawn and the mist, and treads upon the high places of the earth; the Lord God, the Almighty is His name.' Being freed therefore from this insensibility, O Israel, seek out the God who is invoked over you, who changes the thin and loose element of the air into the fearful crash of thunder, stirring it up and gathering it together by means of the winds that have been made by Him.

This same One also announces to you the king appointed for your deliverance;

and it is easy for Him, even after deep night, to bring on the dawn, and by day to hide the light with mist.

As therefore, while you sat in unshaken noonday (for to this peace is likened), He brought upon you the mist of captivity;

so, having brought the night of servitude to an end, He commands the most delightful dawn of freedom to rise.

For He treads upon the high places of the earth; that is, He is the highest of all, and fills the whole inhabited world, being indeed Lord and God, holding dominion over all.

Having thus announced the pleasant things, He turns His discourse to the contrary, frightening these with the one, but comforting those with the other, and preparing them to attend earnestly to repentance.

'Hear this word of the Lord, which I take up over you as a lamentation:'

'The house of Israel has fallen; it shall no more rise again.'

'The virgin of Israel has stumbled upon her own land;'

And the phrase, 'It shall no more rise again,' is not contrary to the good tidings of freedom.

For it signifies that they shall no longer govern themselves as a state, nor have a king of their own.

But if one is willing to attend carefully, he will find the fulfillment of these things after their madness against our Savior;

for having fallen at that time, they have remained upon their fall even until this very day.

He calls her a virgin, on account of her former piety;