Chapter 35

prevailing sin, it is said: "Shall not the earth tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? And it riseth up wholly like the Nile, and is agitated, and sinketh down like the Nile of Egypt." The earthquake is the symbol of great revolutions, by which that which is highest is turned upside down; compare Haggai ii. 21, 22: "I shake the heavens and the earth, and overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and destroy the strength of the kingdom of the heathen;" while the overflowing is emblematical of hostile inundation, of visitation by war, in which the ebb succeeds the flood, and _vice versa_.--In his negligent mode of writing--which frequently occurs in this book--the prophet wrote נשקה instead of נשקעה, corresponding to the שקעה in the verse under consideration, just as in the same verse he wrote כאר instead of כיאר. The Mazorets, who everywhere disregarded the peculiarities of the individual writers, have introduced the common form.

Ver. 6. "_Who buildeth His upper chambers in the heaven, and His vault--over the earth He foundeth it: who calleth the waters_ [Pg 383] _of the sea, and poureth them out over the earth--Jehovah His name._"

That מעלות is here equivalent to עלות, "upper chambers" (compare 1 Chron. xvii. 17, where מעלת occurs with the signification "high place"), is put almost beyond any doubt by the parallel passage, Ps. civ. 3: "Who frameth with the waters His upper chambers." The fundamental passage is Gen. i. 7: "God made the vault, and divided between the waters which are under the vault, and the waters which are above the vault." "The waters, viz., the upper ones"--thus we have remarked in our commentary on that passage from the Psalms--"are the material out of which the structure is reared. To construct, out of the moveable waters, a firm palace, the cloudy sky, firm as a molten looking-glass (Job xxxvii. 18), is a magnificent work of divine omnipotence. The palace of clouds, as the upper part of the fabric of the universe, gets the name _upper chambers_ of God; the lower part is the earth." As all the other manifestations of divine omnipotence in vers. 5, 6, are such as are to be called into existence now, the upper chambers and the vault will here come into consideration, in so far as from thence the torrents of rain are poured forth; compare Ps. civ. 13, according to which the rain cometh from the upper chambers of God; and Gen. vii. 11: "The same day broke forth all the fountains of the great flood (the last member of our verse), and _the windows of heaven were opened_." From the upper chambers of God, whence once, at the time of the deluge, the natural rain came down, the rain of affliction will now descend.--הקורא--שמו already occurred, _verbatim_, in v. 8. הקורא stands in the same relation to וישפכם, as in ver. 5 נוגע does to ותמוג and is equivalent to: "Upon whose mere word the waters of the sea cover the surface of the earth;" compare Gen. vi. 17: "And, behold, I do bring the flood of waters upon the earth." The sea is the common emblem of the heathen world; compare remarks on Ps. xciii., civ. 6-9. In chap. vii. 4, the "great flood" is contrasted with the "lot" in Deut. xxxiii. 9,--the heathen world, with the people of God. The fire of war, which the Lord kindles, devours both in the same way. Here, in contrast with the deluge, the conquering inundation of the earth proceeds from the midst of the heathen world, stirred up by the Lord, and destroys first of all unfaithful Israel, who, had they been [Pg 384] faithful to the Covenant, would have been able to say, as in Ps. xlvi. 2-4, "God is our refuge and strength, a help in trouble He is found very much. Therefore will we not fear when the earth is overturned, and the mountains shake in the midst of the sea; its waters roar and foam, mountains tremble by its swelling."

Ver. 7. "_Are you not as the sons of the Cushites unto Me, O children of Israel? saith the Lord. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and Aram from Kir?_"

The prophet here deprives the people of another prop of false security. They boasted of their election, by which God Himself, as they imagined, had bound His hands. They considered the pledge of it--the deliverance from Egypt--as a charter of security against every calamity, as an obligation to further help in every distress, which God could not retract even if He would. A great truth lay at the foundation of this error,--a truth which has been disregarded by the greater number of interpreter's, who have, in consequence, forced upon the prophet a sense which is altogether false.[4] The election of the people, and their deliverance from Egypt, were actually what they considered them to be. God Himself had in reality thereby bound His hands; He _was obliged_ to deliver the people. He _could_ not cast them off. The election was an act of free grace; the manifestation of it in deeds was an act of His righteousness. The people had a right to remind Him of His duty, when He seemed not to perform it. Their election was then a firm anchorage of hope, a rich source of consolation, the foundation of all their prayers. But the error consisted in this, that the election was usurped by those to whom it did not belong,--an error which is continually repeating itself, and which shows itself in a fearful form, especially in the case of those who believe in the doctrine of Predestination. We need, for example, refer only to _Cromwell_, who, in the hour of death, silenced, by this false consolation, all the accusations of his [Pg 385] conscience. Περιτομὴ μὲν γὰρ ὠφελεῖ, says the Apostle, in Rom. ii. 25, ἐὰν νόμον πράσσῃς· ἐὰν δὲ παραβάτης νόμου ᾕς, ἡ περιτομή σου ἀκροβυστία γέγονεν. The deliverance from Egypt stands on the same footing as circumcision. The former also was profitable; to those who showed themselves to be children of Israel, it afforded the certainty that God would prove Himself to be their God. For those, however, who had become degenerate, it entered altogether into the circle of ordinary events. For them, it became something that had altogether passed away--that did not carry within itself any pledge of renovation. This error is here laid open by the prophet, as he had already done in v. 14: "Seek good and not evil, that ye may live, and _thus_ the Lord, the God of hosts, be with you." He directs their attention to the fact, that, in the Covenant-relation, which rests on reciprocity, the party who broke the Covenant had nothing to ask, nothing to hope for. "_Be not_," etc.; the _tertium comparationis_ is evidently the alienation from God. The "children of Israel" (the appellation expressive of their dignity is intentionally chosen in order to make more striking the contradiction between the appearance and the reality) have become so degenerate, that they are no more any nearer to God than the sons of the Cushites. Those interpreters who regard sin alone as the _tertium comparationis_ (_Cocceius_ says: "Ye are so alienated from Him, and so unfaithful, that every one of you may be called a Cushite"), give too limited a sense to the expression. "You are to Me," is rather equivalent to, "I have not any more concern in you, you stand not to Me in any other relation." But why are the Cushites alone mentioned as an example of a people alienated from God? Their colour, perhaps, is more to be considered in this, than their descent from Ham; the physical blackness is viewed as an emblem of the spiritual. Thus they appear in Jer. xiii. 23: "Will indeed the Cushite change his skin, and the leopard his spots? will you indeed be able to do good, who have been taught to do evil?" But the fundamental passage is the inscription of Ps. vii., where Saul, on account of his black wickedness, appears under the symbolical name of Cush.--The right explanation of these first words furnishes, at the same time, the key to the sound interpretation of the words which [Pg 386] follow: It is only for the Covenant-people that the deliverance from Egypt is a pledge of grace. But you are no longer the Covenant-people; your being brought up out of Egypt, therefore, stands on the same line with the bringing up of the Philistines from their former dwelling-places in Caphtor to their present abodes, and with the bringing up of the Syrians from Kir, in which no one will see a pledge of divine grace, a preservative against every danger, and, especially, an assurance of the impossibility of a new captivity. The geographical inquiries regarding Caphtor and Kir would lead us too far away from the subject which we are here discussing. The view which is now prevalent, and according to which Crete is to be understood by the former, is in contradiction to the old translations, which have Cappadocia, and with Gen. x. 14,--as long as, in that passage, the Colchians are to be understood by the Casluhim. But that point would require a minute investigation, which may be more suitably carried on at some other place.

Ver. 8. "_Behold, the eyes of the Lord Jehovah are upon the sinful kingdom, and I destroy them from off the face of the earth, saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord._"

_The_ sinful kingdom, whether its name be Israel or Judah, or whether it be called Egypt or Edom. The holy God has not by any means, as you in your blindness imagine, given you a privilege to sin. A difference exists between Israel and the others in this respect only, that utter ruin does not take place in the case of the former, as it does in that of the latter. For the distinction between the people of God and other nations consists in this, that in the former, there always remains a holy seed, an ἐκλογή, which the Lord must protect, and make the nursery of His kingdom, according to the same necessity of His nature as that by which He extirpates the sinners of His people. The "sinful kingdom" forms the contrast with the righteous kingdom; the article being here used in a generic sense. Similar are Is. x. 6: "_I send him against impious people, and against the people of My wrath_ (wheresoever there are such) _I give him command_;" and Ps. xxxiii. 12: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He hath chosen for His inheritance;" on which latter passage _Michaelis_ remarks, "Blessed is the nation, whichsoever it may be." The eyes of [Pg 387] the Lord are open upon _the_ sinful kingdom, and hence also upon the house of Jacob; it must be destroyed as all others are, but it cannot be _destroyed like them_,--an idea which is prominently brought out by the prefixed Infinit. השמיד. That is an erroneous interpretation which understands by the sinful nation, Ephraim, and, after the example of _Grotius_ ("I will destroy the kingdom, not the people"), assumes that, by the house, in contrast with the kingdom, the people are intended. Such a contrast betwixt the house and the kingdom would have required a more distinct intimation. The house of Jacob, when referred to the ten tribes, is identical with the kingdom. They were a house only in so far as they were a kingdom. But it is both against the words (in Obad. ver. 17, "house of Jacob" is likewise used of the whole of the nation), and against the connection, to refer it to the ten tribes. When, however, it is referred to the whole, a contrast betwixt people and kingdom can the less have place, as, according to ver. 11, the kingdom also shall be restored.--The first part of the verse is almost literally identical with Deut. vi. 15: "For a jealous God is Jehovah, thy God, in thy midst; lest the anger of Jehovah thy God be kindled against thee, and He destroy thee from off the face of the earth," והשמידך מעל פני האדמה. The prophet says nothing new; he only resumes the threatening of the revered lawgiver.--The construction of עיני יהוה with ב is explained by the circumstance that, according to the context, the eyes of the Lord can mean only His angry eyes--equivalent to the anger of the Lord in the passage quoted from Deuteronomy; and the verbs and nouns expressive of anger are connected by ב with the object on which the anger rests; compare Ps. xxxiv. 17.

Ver. 9. "_For behold I command and shake the house of Israel among all the nations, as one shaketh in a sieve, and not shall anything firm fall to the ground._"

The figure in this verse is, upon the whole, plain; but some of the particulars require to be explained, and to be more accurately determined. The signification "sieve," commonly assigned to כברה, must be conceded to it. We must, however, here understand it of such a sieve as serves similar purposes as a winnowing shovel, in which the corn is violently shaken, and thus purified; and not of a sieve in which, by mere sifting, the corn is freed from the dust which has remained after the first [Pg 388] and proper cleansing. The latter is assumed by _Paulsen_ (_vom Ackerbau der Morgenländer_, S. 144), and, along with him, by the greater number of interpreters. Such a sieve--a kind of fan--is mentioned in Is. xxx. 24, in addition to the winnowing shovel. It occurs likewise in Luke xxii. 31, where συνιάζειν is _vanno agitare_. The LXX. also have here adopted the explanation, not of an ordinary sieve, but of an instrument which serves the same purposes as the winnowing shovel: διότι ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἐντέλλομαι καὶ λικμιῶ (Α. λικμήσω) ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ἔθνεσι τὸν οἶκον τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ, ὃν τρόπον λίκμᾶται ἐν τῷ λικμῷ. _Hesych._ λικμῷ, πτύῳ. To this we are likewise led by the verb הניעותי, which is indicative of a violent procedure, and by the occurrence of the same figure in so many passages of Scripture; compare, _e.g._, Jer. li. 2; "I will send against Babylon fanners that shall fan her, and shall empty her land;" Jer. xv. 7, and Matt. iii. 12; while the use of the ordinary sieve for such a purpose is never mentioned, nor is it ever employed for a figure.--בכל־הגוים is not to be translated, "_by_ all nations," but, as the corresponding בכברה shows, "in," or "among all nations." The many people are the spiritual sieve,--the means of purging. The Lord, whose instruments they are, employs them for the destruction of the ungodly. They are taken away by His secret judgments, for the execution of which He employs the heathen; compare ver. 10. Even the godly are violently shaken; but the hand of the Lord secretly upholds them that they may not sink, but that the temptation may serve for their spiritual growth; compare Luke xxii. 31, 32, where the Lord distinctly alludes to the passage under consideration. The corn is shaken; dust and impurity fall to the ground, the chaff flies into the air. Many interpreters ascribe to צרור the signification, "corn;" others, "little stone." But these significations have been both assumed merely for the sake of the context. צרור, from צרר, _colligavit_, _constrinxit_, means, primarily, "that which is tightly bound together;" then, "bundle," "bag;" but here, as in 2 Sam. xvii. 13, "that which is compact, firm, and solid," as opposed to that which is loose, dissolved, and thin. That which is here meant is the solid, firm corn, as opposed to the loose chaff, and the dust which falls to the ground through the sieve.

Ver. 10. "_By the sword, shall die all the sinners of My people who say, The evil will not come near, nor advance to us._"

[Pg 389]

In order that the preceding mitigation of the threatening of punishment might not be appropriated by those to whom it did not belong, the prophet, before passing on to the further detail of the promise, once more presents the threatening in all its severity. "The sinners who speak," etc., are they who usurped the promises of the Covenant without having truly fulfilled its conditions,--who boasted of, and trusted in, their belonging outwardly to the people of God (compare iii. 2), and their zeal in the external performance of the duties of worship (compare v. 21-23); and who therefore imagined that the judgments of the Lord could not reach them, while, by their sins, they did all in their power to draw them down upon them, v. 18, vi. 3.

Ver. 11. "_In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and wall up its breaches, and raise up its ruins, and build it as the days of eternity._"

The words, "In that day," are to be understood quite generally, viz., as referring to a time after the divine judgments have broken in and have completed their work upon Israel. μετὰ ταῦτα, by which James renders it in Acts xv. 16, completely expresses the sense. The assertion of _Baur_, "That the prophet must have conceived of the restoration of the tabernacle of David as being near at hand, because he recognised the instruments of judgment in the invading Assyrians," falls to the ground along with the supposition on which it rests. The prophet has nothing at all special to do with the invasion of the Assyrians.--The Partic. נפלת, according to the usual signification of the Partic., expresses a permanent condition. The very expression, "tabernacle," suggests the idea of a sunken condition of the house of David. The prophet sees the proud palace of David changed into a humble tabernacle, everywhere in ruins, and perforated. The same idea is expressed by a different image in Is. xi. 1. There the house of David is called the cut off trunk of Jesse, which puts forth a new shoot. _Hofmann_ and others are of opinion that the prophet designates the house of David as a fallen tabernacle, on account of its abasement at the time then present. "At present," he says, "the lofty house of David is a סכה נפלת when compared with the power of Jeroboam; but the latter shall fall, and the former shall raise itself again from its decay." But this designation is certainly not applicable to [Pg 390] the house of David under a king like Uzziah, nor, in general, to the whole time of the existing Davidic kingdom. The fact that Amos foresees the deep fall of Judah, is placed beyond all doubt even by ii. 5. It is impossible that the announcement of the restoration which is to _follow_ only after this fall, should altogether ignore the latter. This is, moreover, proved by the parallel passages. The predictions of all the prophets are pervaded by the foresight of the Messiah's appearing at the time of the deepest debasement of the Davidic dynasty, and after the total loss of the royal dignity; compare the remarks on Mic. iv. 8, vi. (2); Is. xi. 1, liii. 2; Ezek. xvii. 22-24.--It might now appear as though the prophet here only supposed the ruin of the house of David, without having, in the preceding context, expressly mentioned it; but such is not the case. The whole of the preceding threatening of punishment relates to the ruin of the house of David; for when the kingdom suffers, the reigning family cannot but suffer also. This close connection of the two is pointed out by the prophet himself in the subsequent words. The change of the suffixes is there certainly not without a reason. The suffix in פרציהן refers to the two kingdoms; that in הריסתיו to David; and that in בניתיה to the tabernacle, while the subject of יירשו (ver. 12) is the people. By this it is intimated that David, his tabernacle, the kingdoms, and the people, are in substance one--that one stands and falls with the other. They who overlook the co-reference to Judah, in the preceding verses, do not know what to make of the suffix in פרציהן (compare the expression "these kingdoms," used of Judah and Israel in vi. 2), and, in their uncertainty, conjecture sometimes one thing and sometimes another.--ימי is Nominat., not Accusat. The comparison is merely intimated; compare remarks on Hos. ii. 17. The circumstance that the happy days of the times of David and Solomon are here spoken of as "days of eternity"--of the remotest past (compare Mic. vii. 14)--implies that the prophet sees a long interval between the present and the predicted event.--The foundation of this prophecy is the promise to David in 2 Sam. vii.; compare especially ver. 16: "And thine house and thy kingdom shall be sure in eternity before thee, and thy throne shall be firm in eternity." This reference has also been pointed out by _Calvin_, who remarks: "When the prophet says, 'as in the days of old,' he confirms [Pg 391] the doctrine that the dignity of the house would not always flow in an equal current, but that, nevertheless, there would always be such a restoration as would make it easily perceptible that God's promise of an eternal dominion to David had not been in vain." The dominion of David had already suffered a considerable shock by the separation of the two kingdoms, existing at the prophet's time; but it was in future to sink even far more deeply, and the people along with it. But, with all these things, God's promise remains true. The judgments do not shut up the way for His mercy, but rather prepare it. That it was only through the family of David that the promised salvation could be imparted to the people, the prophet plainly declares. If it were not so, how could he have identified the tabernacle of David with the two kingdoms, and with the people? As to the person of the restorer, he does not more particularly designate it. The main thing with him, as with Hosea (compare the remarks on Hos. ii. 2, and iii. 5), is to impress upon the people of Israel the conviction, that salvation could come to them only from a reunion with Judah--from their joining again the house of David; compare Ezek. xxxvii. 22: "And I make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, and they shall be no more divided into two kingdoms." But if this was sure and established, there could then be no more any doubt as to the person. It was at that time generally known that the promise given to David would be finally fulfilled in the Messiah; and it was generally acknowledged by the ancient Jews, that the passages under consideration refer to the Messiah. _Jerome_ remarks: "The Jews refer everything which, in this and the other prophets, is foretold concerning the building up of Jerusalem and the temple, and the happy condition of all things, to themselves, and foolishly expect that all shall be fulfilled in a carnal sense." It is from the passage under review that the Messiah received the name בר נפלים, _filius cadentium_--He who springs forth from the fallen family of David; compare _Sanhedrin_, fol. 96, 2: R. Nachman said to R. Isaac, Hast thou heard when בר נפילים is to come? The latter answered: Who is he? R. Nachman said: The Messiah. R. Isaac: But is the Messiah thus named? R. Nachman: Certainly, in Amos ix. 11: [Pg 392] "In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen." In _Breshith Rabbah_, sec. 88, we read: "Who would have expected that God should raise up again the fallen tabernacle of David? And yet we read in Amos ix. 11, 'In that day,' etc. And who could have hoped that the whole world could yet become one flock? And yet, such is declared in Zeph. iii. 9: 'Then will I turn to the people in pure lips, that they all may call upon the name of the Lord, and serve Him with one lip.' But all that is prophesied only in reference to the Messiah." See _Schöttgen_, p. 70, and other passages, especially from the _Sohar_, ibid. p. 111, 566.

Ver. 12. "_In order that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen upon whom My name is called, saith the Lord that doeth this._"

_Calvin_ remarks on this verse: "This main point is plainly declared to us, that there is here promised an extension of the kingdom under Christ; and it is just as if the prophet had said that the Jews were enclosed within narrow limits, even when the kingdom of David did most flourish, inasmuch as, under Christ, God is to extend their territory, so that they shall rule far and wide." There is here an evident allusion to the times of David, which, in the last words of the preceding verse, formed the subject of discourse. This is quite plain also from the mention of the Edomites. These had been made subject by David; but afterwards, availing themselves of the commencing fall of David's tabernacle, they had again freed themselves. Not only they, however, but all the other heathen nations, shall be again subjected to the raised up tabernacle of David. That former event served as a type and prelude to the latter, and formed moreover a prophecy of it in deeds, inasmuch as both rested on the same foundation, viz., God's protection of His Church, and His care for His kingdom. It is for this reason too, that, with an allusion to the former event, the verb יירשו is chosen. By this verb, expression is given only to the fact of their agreement, and to points in which those events agree; but it gives no indication of _how far_ they agree, or in what respects they differ; this is to be declared in the subsequent words. The prophet, however, in speaking only of the _remnant_ of Edom, looks back to the threatening in chap. i. They only who have been preserved in the judgment which is there announced, are to come [Pg 393] under the blissful dominion of the kingdom of David. As Israel, so also the Gentiles, must be prepared for the coming of the kingdom of Christ by crushing judgments. The judgment upon Israel is only a single portion of a great judgment upon all nations. Into this connection it is brought by the very opening chapters of this book. In chap. v. 8, vii. 7, there is likewise an intimation of great calamities and shakings, which are to come upon the heathen world. The submission of the remnant of the heathen world, however, will not be an abasement, but, on the contrary, an exalting of them; this is shown by the words, "Upon whom My name is called." These words do not allow us to think of such a relation of Edom and the other nations to Israel, as existed at the time of David in the case of the conquered nations. They are never used to designate a form of allegiance to the Lord so low and false, but always denote the relation of close and cordial allegiance. The heathen are in future to be considered and treated as those who are consecrated to the Lord, and who belong to His holy people,--just as Israel is now considered and treated. Compare, as to the use of these words with reference to Israel, Deut. xxviii. 9, 10: "The Lord shall raise thee _an Holy people unto Him_, as He hath sworn unto thee ... and all people of the earth see that the name of the Lord is called upon thee, and are afraid of thee." In this verse, the expression, "The name of the Lord is called upon thee," corresponds with "holy people." Jer.