Amos 5:10-18
Amos 5:10
They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor
him that speaketh uprightly.
Now going back to the leaders and the judges because
sometimes court was held in the gates of the cities where many times the leaders
of the cities would also sit. They
got to the point that they hated the one who brought forth the truth in judgment
and who adjudicated any situation correctly.
Then they also hated the person who spoke in truth about any of the
matters before the court. The prophets also stood in the gates and prophesied at
that point, any prophecy from God would be hated by the corrupt leaders as well
as the corrupted population.
Amos 5:11
Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor,
and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but
ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not
drink wine of them.
The leaders were so oppressive that they tread down the
poor and the word treading may also be understood as “trampling down.”
They forced the poor people to offer them great amounts of wheat so they
can sell it for profit. The wheat
was what the people made bread out of for living.
The burdens were a tribute or collection.
It was like they were required to pay the leaders for the privilege of
living in Israel. God now turns the
tables on them in that they have homes of hewn stone instead of the houses the
poor were living in. We could
compare them as mansions to a Cape Cod house.
They may have had houses of wealth but the LORD is telling them that they
will not live in them because they will be taken captive and another will take
their house. They planted great
vineyards in which they would make much wine from them but they shall not drink
wine because they will be removed to Assyria and another will take them or they
will be completely destroyed.
Amos 5:12
For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty
sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in
the gate from their right.
Woe unto them that
seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark,
and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?
(Isaiah 29:15) Did they
honestly think they could hide their many transgressions from the LORD and then
proclaim some type of outward pious appearance and the LORD would not know?
Many of their sins were manifest in front of the people but many of them
were behind the scenes thinking that they could hide them and never be found
out. They afflict the just, that
is, they distress or trouble the just people for their own gain and because
people normally obey their leaders they would obey.
The magistrates and judges would not hesitate to take a bribe to have the
verdict in their favor no matter how illegal the verdict would be.
The poor people who sought justice through the courts would turn them
aside, that is, to alter a course of action.
Instead of the poor people receiving the truth of the law they would
normally receive a distorted opinion normally in the favor of the wealthier
person.
Amos 5:13
Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time;
for it is an evil time.
Therefore based upon how corrupt the leaders of Israel
were at that time, those who are prudent, that is, those who are wise will keep
silent because they know there is no justice before a corrupt court.
They will keep silent because they know that it is better to give God the
opportunity to deal with them since they would have no chance to defeat them in
their corrupt state. The time they
lived in was an evil time as they cared not for the law of God or the right way
to adjudicate cases in court according to the proper law.
An unjust man is an abomination to the
just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.
(Proverbs 29:27)
Amos 5:14
Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the
LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.
Once again God is counseling them to seek good, that is,
to seek him with true repentance and to eschew evil so they may live and not
come under the judgment of God.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and
his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
(Matthew 6:33) When the Assyrians come to plunder Samaria, then many
will die under their hands since they were a very cruel people.
If they repent and turn from their evil ways then the LORD would be with
them and once again they would garner the favor of the LORD and he would protect
them and turn away the Assyrians from capturing them.
Amos 5:15
Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment
in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the
remnant of Joseph.
Here God continues his counsel to them they need to hate
and turn completely away from the evil of false religions and their rank
idolatry and turn back to the LORD and love the good.
They are to love proper judgment in the courts and let the king reject
all the idolatry and destroy all the high places where the spiritual debauchery
has taken place. Once they do that
and if they do it in sincerity then the LORD God of hosts may be gracious unto
them. He uses the word may because
they need to be held accountable for their past actions of departing from the
LORD but he may choose to pardon their iniquities fully.
The house of Joseph was the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim.
The city of idolatry Beth-el was located in the area allotted to the
tribe of Ephraim.
Amos 5:16
Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith
thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways,
Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are
skilful of lamentation to wailing.
Based upon what was just said and the offers of the
mercies of God if they repent and their rejection of those offers, what is going
to happen is going to be nothing less than catastrophic.
The wailing in the streets means all of Israel will have wailing owing to
those who will be injured and dying in the streets.
Then there is going to be great lamentations being made for the city by
those who have left the city and are on the highways.
They will be lamenting for the city which has now met its doom at the
hand of the LORD. Even the
husbandmen who should be taking care of the fields will be turned into
professional mourners for the land.
Then there will come the mourners who are normally called to be mourners at
every bad event.
{17} Thus saith the LORD of hosts,
Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for
cunning women, that they may come:
{18} And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may
run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
(Jeremiah 9:17-18)
Amos 5:17
And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass
through thee, saith the LORD.
For we know that
the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
(Romans 8:22) The coming
judgement shall be so complete that even the vineyards will wail, that is,
lament in mourning just as it states in Romans 8:22 that the whole creation
groans. This is what will happen
when the Assyrians come through the land and level everything.
Then the LORD tells them that he will pass through the land as a
conqueror to make sure that the destruction of the northern ten tribes is
complete. He will go through every
city, hamlet, vineyard, field as a testimony against their idolatry and worship
of false gods and to finalize the destruction of Samaria as punishment for their
rejection of God and his law.
Amos 5:18
Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end
is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.