the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Commentaries
Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary Poor Man's Commentary
Judgment on Surrounding Nations; Prophecy Against Israel.Chapter 2
Judgment on Judah and Israel; Social Injustices.Chapter 3
Israel's Sin and the Certainty of Judgment.Chapter 4
Call to Repentance; Warnings Ignored.Chapter 5
Call to Seek God; Impending Judgment and Hope.Chapter 6
Woe to the Complacent; Israel's Downfall.Chapter 7
Visions of Judgment; Amos's Confrontation with Amaziah.Chapter 8
Vision of the Basket of Summer Fruit; Israel's Fate.Chapter 9
Restoration of Israel; Judgment on Nations.
- Amos
by Robert Hawker
THE PROPHET AMOS
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
THE Prophet Amos hath furnished the Church with a more copious prophecy than that of Joel, but the purport of his writings is much to the same amount.
The name Amos, which signifies Burthen; or as some render it, loading or weighty, from Omas; was not unsuitable to the importance of Amos's writings, which are certainly very weighty and powerful. It is supposed that he was of Tekoah in Judah, about four leagues from Jerusalem: but there is no certainty on this point. And it is supposed that his ministry was immediately after that of Joel. We have the reign indeed in which it took place; but unless we had the very period of the earthquake which he speaks of in the first opening of his prophecy, it is not very easy to ascertain the exact time. Neither is it essential in a work of this kind. The subject matter of his prophecy, and the evident marks of inspiration with which the Book itself is accompanied, become points of much greater importance to regard. The chief scope of Amos, in those Chapters, is directed to the reproof of the nations at large, and Israel in particular. Be speaks directly of judgments that were hanging over the head of both, and from the solemn prospect calls upon them to turn to the Lord. But what I more earnestly desire the Reader to remark with me is, the sweet close of his prophecy, in the bright prospect of the coming of the LORD JESUS to his kingdom. Here Amos seems to rise to a greater degree of beauty and fulness in his prophecy; and as the other Prophets had done, under various figures; in representing the Mediator's advent and reign; so Amos assures Israel, that the Lord would plant them in their own land, and they should never more be plucked up or destroyed. The Lord the SPIRIT, be both with the Writer and Reader of this Commentary, through the whole of Amos's prophecy, that we may find him, like all his contemporaries, bearing testimony to JESUS, and to the word of his grace, that to him give all the Prophets witness, that whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. Amen.
