Commentary on the Twelve Prophets 1 part 7/19

but as having stumbled and been corrupted, on account of the idolatry that followed afterward.

And the phrase, 'There is none to raise her up,' signifies that she shall enjoy no human succor;

for when the God of all opposes, neither the king of the Egyptians nor any other was able to defend them.

He foretells also the fewness that would come upon them.

'For the city,' He says, 'from which a thousand went forth, shall have a hundred left, and that from which a hundred went forth shall have ten left.' Yet at length at least, forsaking Bethel and Gilgal, and the idolatry beside the Well of the Oath, seek out My providence;

for from this you shall obtain life.

But Bethel and Gilgal, together with the idols, shall be delivered up to the enemies.

And it is manifest madness, not only to take no remembrance of Abraham's piety from that well, but even beside it to dare impiety.

'Seek the Lord, and you shall live, lest the house of Joseph blaze up like fire and devour it, and there be none to quench it for the house of Israel.' From these words we plainly learn that sin kindles for us the flame of evils;

but affection and disposition toward God procure life for us.

'The Lord who executes judgment on high, and has set righteousness on the earth.' 'He decrees,' He says, 'what He wills, being just, and the things judged receive their conclusion upon the earth.'

'He who makes all things, and transforms them, and turns the shadow of death into morning, and darkens the day into night;'

'He who calls for the water of the sea and pours it out upon the face of the earth: the Lord God Almighty is His name.' Take courage, he says, in the power of God, and hold fast to this hope;

for with ease He both does and refashions whatever He wills, and it is a simple thing for Him to turn even the greatest dangers into good cheer.

For by 'the shadow of death' he named the great dangers.

And with ease He can bring adversity upon those who dwell in prosperity.

And indeed, drawing up the water of the sea into the air by a mere nod, He waters the earth through the clouds.

'He who divides destruction over strength, and brings misery upon the stronghold.' With great ease He restores even those who have grown weak to their former strength, and hands over the strong to misery.

'They hated him that reproved in the gates, and they abhorred the holy word.' It was the custom among the ancients, as some say, to hold their assemblies and councils about the gates.

There, then, where they gathered together, there also the prophets brought forward their reproofs;

but living amid injustices and lawless deeds, they neither gave heed to the reproofs of the truth, nor received the word of the righteous.

Since, then, you have done these things as well, and in addition to them have persisted in doing violence with both hand and tongue against those held fast by poverty, and, delighting in bribery, have been eager wickedly to increase your wealth, know that you shall neither dwell in the houses which you have well and beautifully built and adorned, nor shall you harvest the vineyards which you have planted with much care;

for the excess of your impiety and lawlessness deprives you of the enjoyment of these things;

for you trampled upon justice, taking gifts from the more powerful, while in judgment condemning the poor.

'On this account the prudent man in that time shall keep silence, because the time is evil.' For every man of sense, and able to discern what is fitting, seeing the cloud of the evils being brought upon you, astonished and marveling at the infallibility of the prophecy, will be unable to utter anything out of despondency.

'Seek then the good, and not the evil, that you may live; and so the Lord God Almighty shall be with you, in the manner you have said.'

'We have hated the evil, and have loved the good.'

'And establish judgment in the gates, that the Lord God Almighty may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.' Let deeds follow your words, he says; and though you say that you love the good and abhor wickedness, show forth by deed the truth of your words.

For by doing this, you will obtain life from the God of all.

But if this is not done by you, lamentations and wailings shall seize both the broad streets and the highways;

so that even the farmers, instead of tilling, will give themselves to mourning.

And these things shall come to pass when I am present and bring on the punishments.

'Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord!'

'And to what end is this day of the Lord for you?'

Those who desire to see the fulfillment of the prophecy, he says, differ in nothing from a man who has fled from a lion coming upon him, and after it has fallen in with a bear, then in terror has reached his house, and unawares—on account of the tumult gripping his soul—having leaned his hand against the wall, is bitten by a most venomous serpent.

For just as that man beholds darkness, and not the splendor of light, on that day;

so these men shall be delivered over to deep darkness in the day of punishment.

'I have hated, I have rejected your feasts, and I will not smell the savor in your solemn assemblies.'

'What to Me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord.'

'I am full of whole burnt offerings of rams;'

'and the fat of lambs, and the blood of bulls and of goats I do not desire.' And in what follows He enumerates all the things offered to Him according to the law, saying that He abhors them all alike.

So here too He said that He hates the feasts;

and that He does not accept the sacrifices offered in the solemn assemblies;

for the phrase 'I will not smell' He set down in place of 'I will not accept.'

So too in the case of Noah the blessed Moses said, 'The Lord God smelled a savor of sweetness'; instead of, He approved the intention of those who had offered.

For God has no need of these things;

but neither, He says, will I grant My appearing even to those who offer them for their own salvation.

Cease, then, both from singing and from using musical instruments;

for neither do I take delight in these things, but from the beginning I ordained them to come about, leading you by means of pleasant things toward these serious pursuits.

'Judgment shall roll down like water, and righteousness like an impassable torrent.' The just sentence pronounced against you, he says, will bring the punishment upon you after the manner of a torrent and a violent flood of water, and you will not be able to find a way of escape;

and remember how, spending forty years in the wilderness, you did not offer Me worship from sacrifices, but even there displayed the same impiety, having made images of idols of every kind, and to these—and moreover to certain stars—rendering every service.

For Moloch and Rhephan are names of idols;

and of Moloch he made mention also in the opening of the prophecy.

When the Syrians drew near to them, they chafed under the servitude; He foretells the more distant one, wishing to strike them with dismay by the prediction;

And this the blessed Stephen, interpreting in the Acts, said: 'I will remove you beyond Babylon.'

'Woe to those who set at nought Zion, and who trust in the mountain of Samaria!'

'They have gathered the first-fruits of the nations, and have entered in for themselves.' Wretched, he says, and thrice wretched are those who despise Zion, yet put their confidence in Samaria, and do not consider that the God who is worshipped in Zion led them into the land of promise, having utterly destroyed those who dwelt in it before, and having granted them a very spacious habitation.

But if you suppose that these things are not so, [chapter] 2.

'Those who are coming to an evil day'—as having made themselves worthy of punishment.

For by 'an evil day' he calls the day of punishment.

'Those who draw near and cleave to false sabbaths'—those who in appearance honor the sabbaths, yet in them do countless lawless deeds.

Then, in addition to these things, He rebukes their luxury, saying that beds of ivory are spread out beneath them, and that every kind of daintiness is set before them;

kids being brought from the flocks, and calves from the herds;

instruments producing their sound;

the clapping of hands accompanying the sound;

fragrant wine, and that of choicest bloom, being brought forth;

and sweet-smelling perfume completing their dissolute living.

Thus living dissolutely, he says, and embracing a life of soft luxury, and supposing these things to be permanent and enduring, and not reckoning up their transitory nature.

For this He signified when He said:

'They reckoned them as standing fast, and not as fleeting.'

They suffered nothing at the affliction of Joseph, but bore it without feeling, while daring so many lawless deeds.

For by 'Joseph' he addressed them;

for Ephraim is the son of Joseph;

and by 'Ephraim' he names the ten tribes.

'For the Lord has sworn by Himself, saying, the Lord God of hosts';

for He who has pronounced this sentence against him is unerring and mighty.

He gave sentence against him, abhorring his arrogance and impiety.

'And it shall come to pass, if ten men be left in one house, they shall die, and the remnant shall be left behind.'

'And their kinsfolk shall take them, and shall press hard to carry forth their bones out of the house of the temple; and one shall say to those who preside over the house, Is there yet any with you? And he shall say:'

'Be silent, so as not to name the name of the Lord.' So great, he says, will be the destruction of those who dwell in the city, that some houses will have all their inhabitants dead, and those who are near, or related by kinship, coming from other houses, will hand over the bodies of the deceased for burial;

then they will search and question one another, whether perhaps there might be yet another one unburied.

And when those within answer that there is none;

They come forth, he says, stunned into silence, urging one another to do this, since the God of all has brought forth this verdict.

'Shall horses run upon the rocks? Or shall they keep silence among the mares? For you have turned judgment into wrath, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness.'

'You who rejoice in that which is no good word, who say:'

'Have we not by our own strength taken to ourselves horns?' Horses, he says, cannot run over the rocks, but the enemies shall advance against you, having despised your former eminence because of the lawlessness you dared to commit.

And just as horses neigh at the sight of mares,

so the enemies shall eagerly make their assault upon you, because you have stirred up the Judge to wrath against you and have compelled Him to bring forth a verdict at once bitter and just.

For you take your cheerfulness not in good things, but boasting and swaggering in your own power you ascribe to yourselves your former might.

For this reason I, the Lord of all the host and power, will deliver you over to a mighty nation,

'so that you shall not enter into Hamath, and as far as the winter torrent of the west.' That is to say, I will drive you out of all the land you formerly tilled;

for Jeroboam, in whose reign this prophecy came to pass, restored, it says, the border of Israel from Hamath to the sea toward the west, as the history of the Kingdoms teaches.

He says, then, that 'I will deliver all your borders to the enemies.'

'Thus the Lord showed me, and behold, a swarm of locusts coming at dawn, and behold, one grasshopper, Gog the king.'

'And it came to pass, when it had made an end of devouring the grass of the land,'

'who shall raise up Jacob, for he is very small? Relent, O Lord, concerning this.'

'And this shall not be, says the Lord.' Having beheld, he says, that fearful vision, I entreated God to become merciful and to stay the destruction;

yet He did not consent, as was fitting, on account of the excess of the lawlessness.

By 'the swarm of locusts' He called the Assyrian;

and by 'the grasshopper' the Babylonian;

and the phrase 'one Gog the king' signifies the greatness of the army.

For just as Gog, he says, the king of the Scythian nations, will gather together against Jerusalem a very great multitude,

so the Assyrians and Babylonians shall come with a great army.

And He gave over their fruits to the locust and the grasshopper, and likewise also to the caterpillar;

and by 'fire' He calls the enemies;

and by 'the great deep' the countless nations that had been enslaved by them;

for so also the blessed Moses said:

'And the Lord's portion became His people Jacob.'

'Thus the Lord showed me, and behold, a man standing upon a wall of adamant, and in his hand adamant.'

'What do you see, Amos?' And I said:

'Behold, I am setting adamant in the midst of My people Israel.' A strong, he says, and exceedingly firm blow will I bring upon them, like adamant, which is firmer and mightiest of all substances.

For I will no longer endure to overlook the impiety which they dare to commit, but together with them I will destroy also the altars of the idols, and I will bring their feasts to an end, and in a word I will wholly overthrow their kingdom;

for by 'the house of Jeroboam' He named the kingdom.

For not in his reign, but even after him, and after six other kings, did the prediction receive its fulfillment.

When these things were spoken by the prophet, Amaziah the priest of Bethel, fearing lest the people, terrified by the divine threats and moved to repentance, should abandon the worship of the idols, and lest he himself should lose the occasions of his trade, denounced the prophet before the king, stitching together slanders against his truthful words.

'... shall fall, and the people shall be led away captive from their own land.' But the things concerning the people and the kingdom were true;

but what was said concerning the king was manifestly false;

yet nevertheless this did not in the least drive Jeroboam into outrage against the prophet;

but not even this persuaded Amaziah to keep quiet.

But he himself urged the prophet to withdraw, and to live in Judea, and to foretell things to come there, since Bethel was set apart for the kingdom.

But Amos, with boldness, both declares his own occupation and reveals the grace given him from God.

'For I was neither a prophet,' he says, 'nor a son of a prophet, but I was a herdsman scraping sycamore-figs.' Now the phrase 'scraping sycamore-figs' Aquila rendered 'searching sycamores';

Theodotion, 'notching sycamores';

and Symmachus, 'having sycamores.'

And the blessed evangelist Luke also makes mention of it, when he says that the blessed Zacchaeus climbed up into a sycamore tree.

And I heard someone who described the things of that region, that their fruit does not ripen unless it first receives some slight incision.

This, then, is likely what the Seventy understood, and put 'scraping' in the sense of 'notching' or 'gathering.'

'Being occupied, then,' he says, 'with farming and sheep-keeping, the Lord took me from the flocks and commanded me to prophesy.'

'Know therefore that you shall see the wife who now dwells with you publicly and openly outraged by the enemies;

since you too drove the people into the licentiousness of idolatry.

And you shall see all your offspring being slain;

and you yourself shall meet the end of your life in a foreign land, and all the people shall undergo the same punishment as you;

and when you have suffered these things, the land shall be delivered to others and parcelled out.'

'Thus the Lord showed me, and behold, a fowler's vessel.'

'What do you see, Amos?' And I said:

'A fowler's vessel.' And the vision signifies the swift capture of Israel.

For just as birds are easily caught with birdlime, so the people shall be ensnared by the Assyrians.

'The end has come upon My people Israel;

I will no more pass him by.'

(Ch. 3.) 'And the panels of the temple shall wail.'

'In that day, says the Lord, many shall be the fallen; in every place I will cast down silence.' I will no longer be long-suffering, but I will bring the predictions to their end.

The fire of the enemies shall advance against My temple;

and by 'the wailing of the panels of the temple' He called the cry of those slain within, and the crackling of the burning timbers;

and the phrase, 'Many shall be the fallen; in every place I will cast down silence,' means: a great multitude, he says, shall there be of those slain;

and a great hush and silence shall hold the cities, and the roads, and the villages, by reason of the desolation of their inhabitants.

Give heed, then, to these things, you who oppress those who live in poverty and want, and who watch for the new moons and the sabbaths, and who gather together unlawful gains, using unjust weights and balances, and in various ways enslaving the more lowly, and making profit from every kind of trade.

'The Lord swears by the pride of Jacob:'

'Surely all your works shall be forgotten unto victory.'

'And on account of these things shall not the land be troubled, and everyone that dwells in it mourn, and it rise up like the river of Egypt?' By 'pride' He calls the injustice, done with insolence, which they dared against the poor.

And he said that the Lord swears, showing the truthfulness of what was spoken.

'No longer,' He says, 'will I hand over to any oblivion, as it were, the things you dare to do; but, so to speak, I will stir up the whole earth against you, and I will cover you with the multitude of the enemies, just as the river of Egypt covers the land;'

for this is what He hinted at when He said:

'It shall come down like the river of Egypt.' Then also the sun at midday shall seem to be turned into darkness for those held fast by these calamities, and 'I will turn their feasts into mourning, and their songs into lamentation.'

And all shall assume the garb of mourning, shearing off the comeliness of their hair and putting on sackcloth,

so as to resemble the change of those who lament an only-begotten child.

And in addition to these things I will bring a famine—a want not of grain and water, but of prophecy and divine teaching.

And here and there, leaping and wandering like waters, they shall roam about seeking the divine word, yet failing to obtain the object of their longing.

Yes, and the maidens now adorning themselves, and the young men reared alongside them, wasting away with thirst, shall be delivered over to death.

'They that swear by the propitiation of Samaria.' And teaching who this is, he immediately added:

and Beersheba is the well of the oath, concerning which he also spoke above;

and there too they were worshipping idols.

After these things he said that he saw the Lord standing over the altar and commanding him to strike the mercy-seat in such a way that by the blow even the very gateways were shaken.

'And cut them,' he says, 'upon the heads of all.' This the blessed Ezekiel also beheld;

for there too the invisible powers, wielding axes, were commanded to run throughout the whole city and to strike down all except those who bore the mark.

'None fleeing from among them shall escape, and none saving himself from among them shall be delivered. For if they go down into Hades, I will drag them up,' he says, 'with my hand;'

'if they ascend into heaven—which is among the things impossible—I will bring them down from there and deliver them to their enemies;'

'and if they flee even to Carmel, most easily shall I take them thence also;'

'and even if they attempt to sink down into the very depth of the sea, I will command the beasts there to devour them;'

'and if they attempt even to desert to their enemies, not even so shall they enjoy any sparing from them.'

'He that dwells in the heights and looks upon the lowly things.'—'He that summons the water of the sea and pours it out upon the face of the earth: the Lord God the Almighty is his name.' He speaks of the works of his power, that through these he may confirm his threats.

'Are you not to me as sons of the Ethiopians, O sons of Israel? says the Lord.' Though having the same nature as the Ethiopians and other men, he says, you were counted worthy of greater providence than all.

And demonstrating this, he added:

'Did I not bring up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines out of Cappadocia, and the Syrians out of the pit?' For others too, he says, migrated, and leaving their former homeland came to another;

in the very manner in which the Syrians and the Philistines did.

For no one knows the migration of those peoples, but all men sing of yours.

And those peoples, having migrated, dwell together with others, living according to the laws of those peoples;

you became possessors of a land under your control, since you enjoyed my help.

'For behold,' he says, 'the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will remove it from the face of the earth;'

'except that I will by no means utterly remove the house of Jacob, says the Lord.' For even though they live amid countless transgressions, I will not deliver them over to total destruction;

but now indeed I will scatter them into captivity, and just as a farmer separates the chaff from the wheat, I will preserve those worthy of salvation, but deliver the rest to slaughter—those who would not believe my words, but hoped to escape the experience of the things threatened.

But they were unwilling to understand that Zerubbabel, having ruled for a short time, received the boundary of death;

whereas the prophecy contains the promise of eternal good things, and the knowledge of God among all the nations—none of which we find corresponding to the things accomplished under Zerubbabel.

'And I will establish his seed forever and ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.' And again:

'For ever will I prepare your seed, and I will build up your throne for generation upon generation.' This promise the Lord of all also renews through the blessed Amos;

and he promises to the nations also the gift of the knowledge of God.

'For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.' And to show the trustworthiness of what was said, he added:

'Says the Lord who does all these things;' for he who does the deeds foretold the words.

But since not all were able to attend to the spiritual promises, he necessarily promises also the supply of bodily good things, and foretells that there will be such abundance of these that the harvest will be overtaken by the vintage—on account of the multitude, as is likely, of the fruits, since the husbandmen will be unable to cut and thresh their sheaves.

'But even in the sowing,' he says, 'they shall touch the grape while it is still ripening, and the mountains shall yield fruits of every kind of tree;'

'and none of the hills shall be left bare of plants.'

And the people, delivered from captivity, shall rebuild the cities that had been laid waste, and dwelling in them shall till the land without fear, and planting and sowing shall reap the fruits of their labors;

and for a very long time they shall inhabit the homeland given to them.

For this he intimated when he said:

'And I will plant them in their land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, says the Lord God the Almighty.' But one must know that the Lord of all often promises good things;

yet those who receive the promises, delighting in transgression, hinder the promises from reaching their fulfillment.

And sometimes too he threatens harsh things, and those who by reason of their own transgression have incurred these threats, being changed by the fear of the threats, do not undergo the experience of the grievous things.

May it be granted to us, through the prayers of the holy prophets and apostles, ordering our own life according to the divine laws, and by repentance casting off the filth of our sins, to undergo the experience of nothing painful;

and to attain the good things that have been promised, by the grace of Christ our Savior, with whom to the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

The Idumeans, having Esau as their forefather—from whom they received their appellation (for he was named Edom because he preferred the lentil-dish to the birthright)—became heirs not only of the appellation, but also of the rancor of their ancestor;

and just as he held a most persistent wrath against Jacob, so that he even said outright:

'Let the days of my father draw near, that I may slay my brother;'

so these, continually envying the descendants of Jacob, employed countless plots against them.

And when, having been released from the Egyptian bondage, they desired to come into the promised land, with the great Moses leading and presiding over them, not only did they not receive them kindly, but they did not even permit them to pass through their own country;

and this though the great Moses earnestly entreated this through ambassadors, and promised that they would turn aside neither to the right nor to the left, but would walk by the king's highway, even purchasing the very use of the water.

And after these things too they frequently displayed their peculiar hostility, at one time attempting to make war against them alone, at another eagerly allying themselves with those who fought against them.

And when the Assyrians and Babylonians made their assaults against them, the Idumeans wrought upon them ever so many dreadful things, not only marshalling themselves alongside the enemies, but also setting ambushes, and hunting down those who attempted to flee, and slaying some of them, while delivering others to their bitterest foes.

For this reason the righteous Judge, having filled the admirable Obadiah with the prophetic gift, foretells the evils that were to overtake the Idumeans.

'The vision of Obadiah.' Instead of, 'This is the revelation that came from God to Obadiah.'

'Thus says the Lord God to Idumea.' It is not, he says, using human reasoning that I make these words;

but the God of all has used my tongue as a kind of instrument, and announces to Idumea the things that are to be.

And teaching what sort of things these are, he adds:

'I have heard a report from the Lord, and he has sent forth an encompassing to the nations.' Instead of 'encompassing,' Symmachus said 'message.'

'Arise, and let us rise up against her for war.' For like some general he assembles the campaign against them, teaching that he himself permits them to suffer these things.

'Behold, I have made you very small among the nations;'

'you are utterly despised.' And showing the cause,

'The pride,' he says, 'of your heart has lifted you up.' Then he teaches the occasions of the pride.

'Dwelling in the clefts of the rocks.' Then he also makes his thoughts manifest,

saying in his heart:

'Who shall bring me down to the ground?' Idumea was walled about with exceedingly lofty mountain summits;

occupying these during the incursions of their enemies, they often escaped many assaults.

Since therefore, he says, trusting in these you boast and think great things of yourself as one impregnable, I will render you easily taken and easily subdued by your enemies, and you shall not escape the hands of your foes—not even if you should be raised aloft like an eagle, and make your flight above the very clouds, and take up your dwelling right among the stars.

And signifying with what utter destruction he shall be delivered over, he added:

'If thieves had come in unto thee, or robbers by night, where wouldst thou have been cast away? Would they not have stolen enough for themselves? And if grape-gatherers had come in unto thee, would they not have left a gleaning? How hath Esau been searched out, and his hidden things taken? Thieves, taking what lies ready at hand, depart, fearing to search the whole house;

and likewise those who harvest the vineyards are loath to search all the vines with precision;

wherefore, gathering the larger clusters, they leave behind many grapes upon the many branches.

But the enemies shall so search thee out, that not even the things hidden away for thee in obscure places shall escape their hands.