Bible Commentaries
Amos 8

Verse 2

8:2 And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of {a} summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.

(a) Which signified the ripeness of their sins, and the readiness of God’s judgments.

Verse 3

8:3 And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: [there shall be] many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast [them] forth with {b} silence.

(b) There will be none left to mourn for them.

Verse 4

8:4 Hear this, O ye that {c} swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,

(c) By stopping the sale of food and necessary things which you have gotten into your own hands, and so cause the poor to spend quickly that little that they have, and at length because of need to become your slaves.

Verse 5

8:5 Saying, When will the {d} new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making {e} the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

(d) When the scarcity had come they were so greedy for gain, that they thought the holy day to be a hindrance to them.

(e) That is, the measure small, and the price great.

Verse 8

8:8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and {f} drowned, as [by] the flood of Egypt.

(f) That is, the inhabitants of the land will be drowned, as the Nile drowns many when it overflows.

Verse 9

8:9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the {g} sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:

(g) In the midst of their prosperity, I will send great affliction.

Verse 12

8:12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the {h} word of the LORD, and shall not find [it].

(h) By which he shows that they will not only perish in body, but also in soul for lack of God’s word, which is the food of it.

Verse 14

8:14 They that swear by the sin {i} of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, {k} The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

(i) For the idolaters used to swear by their idols, which here he calls their sin: and the papists yet swear by theirs.

(k) That is, the common manner of worshipping, and the service or religion used there.