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Amos 7:12
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Concordances:
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- InternationalBible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
O thou: 1 Samuel 9:9, 2 Chronicles 16:10, Isaiah 30:10
go: Amos 2:12, Matthew 8:34, Luke 8:37, Luke 8:38, Luke 13:31, Acts 16:39
eat: 1 Samuel 2:36, Isaiah 56:11, Ezekiel 13:19, Malachi 1:10, Romans 16:18, 1 Corinthians 2:14, 1 Peter 5:2
Reciprocal: 1 Kings 19:3 - Beersheba 2 Kings 1:9 - Thou man 2 Kings 20:14 - What said 2 Chronicles 33:18 - the seers Proverbs 25:6 - in the presence Isaiah 29:10 - the seers Jeremiah 29:27 - therefore Jeremiah 36:19 - General Amos 2:11 - and Amos 3:8 - who can Acts 4:17 - let Acts 13:50 - and expelled 1 Thessalonians 2:15 - persecuted us
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Also Amaziah said unto Amos,.... Either at the same time; or, it may be, after he had waited for the king's answer, and received none; or what did not come up to his expectations and wishes. We have no account of any answer the king returned; who either gave no heed to the representations of the priest, or had a better opinion of, he prophet, and did not credit the things imputed to him; which the priest observing, took another way to get rid of the prophet, and that by flattery:
O thou seer; that seest visions, and foretells things to come. This title, which of right belonged to him, and is given to the true prophets of God sometimes, is here given to Amos, either seriously or ironically:
go, flee thee away into the land of Judah; to which he belonged, and where the temple stood, and the true worship of God was performed; and where the king, princes, and people, were on his side of the question; and where his prophecies would be received, and he caressed for them, being against the ten tribes, with whom they were at variance, and where also he would be safe; for he suggests, that, in giving this advice, he consulted his good and safety; for, if he stayed here long, King Jeroboam would certainly take away his life; and therefore he advised him to flee with all haste to his own country:
and there eat bread, and prophesy there: he took him for a mercenary man like himself, and that he prophesied for bread; which he intimates he would never be able to get in the land of Israel, but in all probability might in the land of Judea.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Jeroboam apparently took no account of the false priest’s message. Perhaps the memory of the true prophecies of Elisha as to the successes of his father, and of Jonah as to his own, fulfilled in his own person and still recent, inspired him with a reverence for God’s prophets. To know his motive or motives, we must know his whole character, which we do not. Amaziah, failing of his purpose, uses his name as far as he dares. “Seer, go flee thee.” He probably uses the old title for a prophet, in reference to the visions which he had just related. Perhaps, he used it in irony also . “Thou who seest, as thou deemest, what others see not, “visionary! visionist!” flee thee,” that is, for thy good; (he acts the patron and the counselor;) “to the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and there prophesy.” Worldly people always think that those whose profession is religious make “a gain of godliness.” “He is paid for it,” they say. “Whose bread I eat, his song I sing.” Interested people cannot conceive of one disinterested; nor the worldly, of one unworldly; nor the insincere, of one sincere. Amaziah thought then that Amos, coming out of Judah, must he speaking in the interests of Judah; perhaps, that he was in the pay of her king. Anyhow, prophecies, such as his against Israel, would be acceptable there and be well paid. The words are courteous, like so much patronizing language now, as to God or His revelation, His prophets or His Apostles, or His divine word. The words are measured: the meaning blasphemy. Perhaps, like the Scribes and Pharisees afterward, “he feared the people” Matthew 21:26; Acts 5:26. : “Seeing that there were many among the people who beard him gladly, he dared not do him any open wrong, lest he should offend them.”
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Amos 7:12. O thou seer — He pretends kindness to the prophet, and counsels him to go into Judea, and prophesy there and be safe, even in the time that he had accused him of high treason against Jeroboam. Hireling priests of this kind have ever been the great enemies of the true prophets of God; and when they could bring no charge of false doctrine or immorality against them, have accused them of conspiring against the government; and because they have preached against sin, have held them up as exciting insurrection among the people.