Amos 5:19

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible

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Contextual Overview

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

As if: They should go from one evil to another. Amos 9:1, Amos 9:2, 1 Kings 20:29, 1 Kings 20:30, Job 20:24, Job 20:25, Isaiah 24:17, Isaiah 24:18, Jeremiah 15:2, Jeremiah 15:3, Jeremiah 48:43, Jeremiah 48:44, Acts 28:4

Reciprocal: Genesis 32:6 - and four Exodus 4:3 - it became Exodus 14:25 - Let us flee Joshua 10:18 - General Judges 4:17 - fled 1 Samuel 5:9 - the hand 1 Samuel 5:12 - died 2 Samuel 13:34 - Absalom fled 1 Kings 13:24 - a lion 1 Kings 19:17 - him that escapeth Job 11:20 - they shall not escape Proverbs 23:32 - biteth Ecclesiastes 10:8 - a serpent Isaiah 5:19 - Let him Isaiah 15:9 - lions Jeremiah 5:6 - a lion Jeremiah 8:17 - I will Jeremiah 11:11 - which Jeremiah 16:16 - every mountain Ezekiel 15:7 - they shall Acts 28:3 - fastened Revelation 13:2 - and his feet

Cross-References

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Gill's Notes on the Bible

As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him,.... That is, should the day of the Lord come as they desired, they would not be the better for it; it would be only going from one trouble to another, like escaping Scylla, and falling into Charybdis: or as if a man, upon the sight of a lion, and at his yell, should take to his heels, and flee "from the face" of him, as the phrase is i, and a bear, a less generous, and more cruel and voracious creature, especially when: bereaved of its whelps, should meet him, and seize him: or should: he get clear of them both,

or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him; should he get into a house, and so escape the lion and the bear, and lean upon the wall of the house to support and ease him, being out of breath in running from these creatures; yet a serpent lurking in the wall of an old house bites him, and the venom and poison of it issues in his death; so he gains nothing by fleeing from the lion, or escaping the bear. These proverbial expressions signify that the Israelites would be no gainers by the day of the Lord, but rather fall into greater evils, and more distressing calamities. Some Jewish writers interpret the lion and the bear of Laban and Esau; the lion (they say k) is Laban, who pursued after Jacob to take away his life; the bear is Esau, who stood in the way to kill all that came, the mother with the children; but are much better interpreted of the Chaldeans, Persians, and Grecians, by Jerom; whose words are,

"fleeing from the face of Nebuchadnezzar the lion, ye will be met by Ahasuerus, under whom, was the history of Esther; or the empire of the Assyrians and Chaldeans being destroyed, the Medes and Persians shall arise; and when upon the reign of Cyrus ye shall have returned, and at the command of, Darius shall have begun to build the house of the Lord, and have confidence in the temple, so as to rest in it, lean your weary hands on its walls; then shall come Alexander king of the Macedonians, or Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes, who shall abide in the temple, and bite likes serpent, not without in Babylon, and in Susa, but within the borders of the holy land; by which it appears that the day ye desire is not a day of light and joy, but of darkness and sorrow.''

The interpretation is pretty and ingenious enough, since the characters of the lion, bear, and serpent, agree with the respective persons and people mentioned; Nebuchadnezzar is often compared to a lion, Jeremiah 4:7; and the Babylonian and Chaldean monarchy is represented by one in Daniel 7:4; and the Persian monarchy by a bear, Daniel 7:5; to which the Persians are compared, the Jews say l, because they eat and drink like a bear, are as fat as bears, and hairy like them, and as restless as they; and so the Persians were noted for their luxury and lust, as well as their cruelty; and, wearing long hair, are called hairy persons in the Delphic oracle, which Herodotus m interprets of them; Daniel 7:5- :; and Antiochus may not unfitly be compared to a serpent; see Daniel 7:5- :;

Daniel 7:5- :;

Daniel 7:5- :;

Daniel 7:5- :; but what is to be objected to this sense is, that the words are spoken to the ten tribes, or Israel, who were carried captive by the Assyrians; and not the two tribes, or the Jews, who fell into the hands, first of the Chaldeans, then the Persians, and then the Grecians, particularly into the hands of Antiochus; see Daniel 7:4.

i מפני "a facie", V. L. Pagninus; "a faciebus", Montanus; "a conspectu", Mercerus. k Pirke Eliezer, c. 37. fol. 41. 1. l T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 72. 1. & Avoda Zara, fol. 2. 2. m Erato, sive l. 6. c. 19. Vid. Calliope, sive l. 9. c. 81.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

As if a man, did flee from a lion - The Day of the Lord is a day of terror on every side. Before and behind, without and within, abroad under the roof of heaven, or under the shelter of his own, everywhere is terror and death. The Syrian bear is said to have been more fierce and savage than the lion. For its fierceness and voracity Daniel 7:5, God made it, in Daniel’s vision, a symbol of the empire of the Medes. From both lion and bear there might be escape by flight. When the man had “leaned his hand” trustfully “on the wall” of his own house, “and the serpent bit him,” there was no escape. He had fled from death to death, from peril to destruction.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 19. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him — They shall go from one evil to another. He who escapes from the lion's mouth shall fall into the bear's paws: -

Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim.

The Israelites, under their king Menahem, wishing to avoid a civil war, called in Pul, king of Assyria, to help them. This led to a series of evils inflicted by the Syrian and Assyrian kings, till at last Israel was ravaged by Shalmaneser, and carried into captivity. Thus, in avoiding one evil they fell into another still more grievous.

Leaned his hand on a wall, and a serpent bit him. — Snakes and venomous animals are fond of taking up their lodging in walls of houses, where they can either find or make holes; and it is dangerous to sit near them or lean against them. In the East Indies they keep the faithful mongose, a species of ichneumon, in their houses, for the purpose of destroying the snakes that infest them.