Amos 9:1

Heilögum Biblíunni

1 Ég sá Drottin standa við altarið, og hann sagði: Slá þú á súluhöfuðið, svo að þröskuldarnir skjálfi. Brjót þá sundur og kasta í höfuð þeim öllum. Og síðustu leifar þeirra vil ég deyða með sverði, enginn þeirra skal komast undan á flótta og enginn þeirra bjargast.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I saw: 2 Chronicles 18:18, Isaiah 6:1, Ezekiel 1:28, John 1:18, John 1:32, Acts 26:13, Revelation 1:17

upon: Amos 3:14, Ezekiel 9:2, Ezekiel 10:4

Smite: Isaiah 6:3, Isaiah 6:4, Zechariah 11:1, Zechariah 11:2

lintel: or, chapiter, or knop

cut them: or, wound them, in the head. Psalms 68:21, Habakkuk 3:13

shall not flee: Amos 2:14, Amos 2:15, Isaiah 24:17, Isaiah 24:18, Isaiah 30:16, Jeremiah 48:44

Reciprocal: Exodus 14:25 - Let us flee Joshua 10:18 - General 1 Samuel 5:9 - the hand 2 Kings 18:10 - they took it Job 11:20 - they shall not escape Job 20:24 - flee from Job 27:22 - he would fain flee Isaiah 9:14 - will cut Isaiah 17:3 - fortress Jeremiah 4:29 - shall flee Jeremiah 11:11 - which Jeremiah 16:16 - every mountain Jeremiah 25:35 - the shepherds Jeremiah 42:16 - that the sword Jeremiah 46:6 - not Jeremiah 49:8 - dwell Jeremiah 52:8 - General Lamentations 1:3 - all Lamentations 2:22 - my terrors Lamentations 4:19 - they pursued Ezekiel 11:8 - General Ezekiel 15:7 - they shall Ezekiel 17:21 - all his fugitives Ezekiel 21:24 - ye shall Hosea 8:1 - the house Hosea 13:8 - as a Hosea 13:16 - Samaria Amos 4:12 - thus Amos 5:19 - As if Amos 6:11 - the Lord Micah 2:3 - from Micah 6:14 - and thou Zephaniah 1:12 - that I Zephaniah 2:14 - upper lintels Zechariah 5:8 - the weight Matthew 24:28 - General Luke 17:37 - wheresoever

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And I saw the Lord standing upon the altar,.... Either upon the altar of burnt offerings in the temple of Jerusalem, whither he had removed from the cherubim; signifying his being about to depart, and that he was displeased, and would not be appeased by sacrifice: so the Targum,

"said Amos the prophet, I saw the glory of the Lord removing from the cherub, and it dwelt upon the altar;''

and the vision may refer to the destruction of the Jews, their city and temple, either by the Chaldeans, or by the Romans: or rather, since the prophecy in general, and this vision in particular, seems to respect the ten tribes only, it was upon the altar at Bethel the Lord was seen standing, as offended at the sacrifices there offered, and to hinder them from sacrificing them, as well as to take vengeance on those that offered them, 1 Kings 13:1;

and he said; the Lord said, either to the prophet in vision, or to one of the angels, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi; or to the executioners of his vengeance, the enemies of the people of Israel:

smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake; the upper lintel, on which pomegranates and flowers were carved, and therefore called "caphtor", as Kimchi thinks; this was the lintel of the door, either of the temple at Jerusalem, as the Jewish writers generally suppose; or rather of the temple at Bethel, see 1 Kings 12:31; which was to be smitten with such three, that the posts thereof should shake; signifying the destruction of the whole building in a short time, and that none should be able to go in and out thereat:

and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword; which shows that the lintel and doorposts are not to be taken literally, but figuratively; and that the smiting and cutting of them intend the destruction of men; by the "head", the king, and the princes, and nobles, or the priests; and, by "the last of them", the common people, the meanest sort, or those that were left of them, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi:

he that fleeth of them shall not flee away; he that attempts to make his escape, and shall flee for his life, shall not get clear, but either be stopped, or pursued and taken:

and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered; he that does get out of the hands of those that destroy with the sword shall not be delivered from death, but shall die by famine or pestilence. The Targum is,

"and he said, unless the people of the house of Israel return to the law, the candlestick shall be extinguished, King Josiah shall be killed, and the house destroyed, and the courts dissipated, and the vessels of the house of the sanctuary shall go into captivity; and the rest of them I will slay with the sword, &c.''

referring the whole to the Jews, and to the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I saw the Lord - He saw God in vision; yet God no more, as before, asked him what he saw. God no longer shows him emblems of the destruction, but the destruction itself. Since Amos had just been speaking of the idolatry of Samaria, as the ground of its utter destruction, doubtless this vision of such utter destruction of the place of worship, with and upon the worshipers, relates to those same idolaters and idoltries . True, the condenmation of Israel would become the condemnation of Judah, when Judah’s sins, like Israel’s, should become complete. But directly, it can hardly relate to any other than those spoken of before and after, Israel. “The altar,” then, “over” which Amos sees God “stand,” is doubtless the altar on which Jeroboam sacrificed, “the altar” which he set up over-against the altar at Jerusalem, the center of the calf-worship, whose destruction the man of God foretold on the day of its dedication.

There where, in counterfeit of the sacrifices which God had appointed, they offered would-be-atoning sacrifices and sinned in them, God appeared, standing, to behold, to judge, to condemn. “And He said, smite the lintel,” literally, “the chapter,” or “capital,” probably so called from “crowning” the pillar with a globular form, like a pomegranate. This, the spurious outward imitation of the true sanctuary, God commands to be stricken, “that the posts,” or probably “the thresholds, may shake.” The building was struck from above, and reeled to its base. It does not matter, whether any blow on the capital of a pillar would make the whole fabric to shake. For the blow was no blow of man. God gives the command probably to the Angel of the Lord, as, in Ezekiel’s vision of the destruction of Jerusalem, the charge to destroy was given to six men Ezekiel 9:2. So the first-born of Egypt, the army of Sennacherib, were destroyed by an Angel Exodus 12:23; 2 Kings 19:34-35. An Angel stood with his sword over Jerusalem 2 Samuel 24:1, 2 Samuel 24:15-16, when God punished David’s presumption in numbering the people. At one blow of the heavenly Agent the whole building shook, staggered, fell.

And cut them in the head, all of them - ^o This may be either by the direct agency of the Angel, or the temple itself may be represented as falling on the heads of the worshipers. As God, through Jehu, destroyed all the worshipers of Baal in the house of Baal, so here He foretells, under a like image, the destruction of all the idolaters of Israel. He had said, “they that swear by the sin of Samaria - shall fall and never rise up again.” Here he represents the place of that worship the idolaters, as it seems, crowded there, and the command given to destroy them all. All Israel was not to be destroyed. “Not the least grain” was to “fall upon the earth Amos 9:9. Those then here represented as destroyed to the last man, must be a distinct class. Those destroyed in the temple must be the worshipers in the temple. In the Temple of God at Jerusalem, none entered except the priests. Even the space “between the porch and the altar” was set apart for the priests. But heresy is necessarily irreverent, because, not worshiping the One God, it had no Object of reverence. Hence, the temple of Baal was full “from end to end 2 Kings 10:21, and the worshipers of the sun at Jerusalem turned “their backs toward the Temple,” and “worshiped the sun toward the east, at the door of the Temple, between the porch and the altar” Ezekiel 8:16; Ezekiel 11:1. The worshipers of the calves were commanded to “kiss” Hosea 13:2 them, and so must have filled the temple, where they were.

And I will slay the last of them - The Angel is bidden to destroy those gatered in open idolatry in one place. God, by His Omniscience, reserved the rest for His own judgment. All creatures, animate or inanimate, rational or irrational, stand at His command to fulfill His will. The mass of idolaters having perished in their idolatry, the rest, not crushed in the fall of the temple, would fain flee away, but “he that fleeth shall not flee,” God says, to any good “to themselves;” yea, although they should do what for man is impossible, they should not escape God.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER IX

The first part of this chapter contains another vision, in

which God is represented as declaring the final ruin of the

kingdom of Israel, and the general dispersion of the people,

1-10.

The prophet then passes to the great blessedness of the people

of God under the Gospel dispensation, 11-15.

See Acts 15:15-16.

NOTES ON CHAP. IX

Verse Amos 9:1. I saw the Lord standing upon the altar — As this is a continuation of the preceding prophecy, the altar here may be one of those either at Dan or Beer-sheba.

Smite the lintel — Either the piece of timber that binds the wall above the door, or the upper part of the door frame, in which the cheeks, or side posts, are inserted, and which corresponds to the threshold, or lower part of the door frame.

And cut them in the head — Let all the lintels of all the doors of all those temples be thus cut, as a sign that the whole shall be thrown down and totally demolished. Or this may refer to their heads-chief men, who were principals in these transgressions. Mark their temples, their priests, their prophets, and their princes, for destruction.

He that fleeth - shall not flee away — He shall be caught before he can get out of the reach of danger.

And he that escapeth (that makes good his flight) shall not be delivered.] Captivity, famine, or sword, shall reach him even there.