viii. 17, where he says; "For behold I send against you serpents,

basilisks, against which there is no charm, and they bite you, saith the Lord." It is very probable that to this the prophet also alludes in the passage before us.

[Pg 379]

Ver. 4. "_And if they go into captivity before their enemies, from thence will I command the sword, and it slayeth them; and I set Mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good._"

בשבי means the state of exile. The circumstance of their being carried into captivity might awaken the hope that mercy will be granted to them; for, according to the natural course of things, he who is carried away into captivity may be sure of his life; but nothing can give security before God. The last words are strikingly illustrated by _Calvin_, who says: "There is an antithesis in this sentence, inasmuch as God had promised that He would be the protector of His people. But as hypocrites are always apt to appropriate to themselves the promises of God, without having either repentance or faith, the prophet here declares, that the eye of God would be upon them, not to protect them, as was His custom, but rather to add punishments to punishments. And this sentence is worthy of notice, inasmuch as we are thereby reminded, that although the Lord does by no means spare infidels. He yet observes us more closely in order to punish us the more severely, when He sees that we are utterly hardened and incurable." Under any circumstances, the people of the Lord continue to be the objects of special attention. They are more richly blessed; but they are also more severely punished.

Ver. 5. "_And the Lord, Jehovah, of hosts, who toucheth the earth, and it melteth, and all that dwell therein mourn; and it riseth up wholly like the stream, and it sinketh down as the stream of Egypt._"

The prophet continues to cut off every false hope with which levity flatters itself. How can you think to escape, since you have the Almighty God for your enemy! "The prophet," remarks _Jerome_, "speaks thus, in order to impress them with the greatness of divine power, that they might not imagine that He would perhaps not do what He had threatened, or that His power was not equal to His will." Similar descriptions of the divine omnipotence, as opposed to unbelief and weak faith, are very numerous; _e.g._, iv. 13, v. 8, 27; Is. xl. 22, xlv. 12. We are not at liberty to translate: "And the Lord Jehovah of hosts is He who toucheth." It is rather an abrupt mode of speech; and there must be supplied, either at the beginning, "And who is your enemy?" or at the end, "He is your opponent." [Pg 380] This abruptness of language is quite in accordance with the subject, and belongs, moreover, to the characteristic peculiarities of Amos. Altogether similar is v. 7, 8, where Israel and their God are simply placed beside each other, and every one is left to conclude for himself how such a God would act towards such a people: "They who turn judgment to wormwood, and cast righteousness to the earth. Making the Pleiades and Orion, and turning the shadow of death into the morning, and making the day dark with night, calling," etc. The accumulated appellations. Lord, Jehovah, of hosts, likewise serve to point out the omnipotence of God. The believer accumulates these appellations in his prayer in order to awaken his confidence and hope; compare, _e.g._, Is. xxxvii. 16, where Hezekiah begins his prayer to the Lord thus: "Jehovah, of hosts, God of Israel, Thou who art enthroned on Cherubim, Thou art God alone for all the kingdoms of the earth." But these appellations are held up to the unbelievers, to cast down all their hopes. We have separated, of hosts, from the preceding appellation of God by a comma. Ever since _Gesenius_, in his Commentary on Is. i. 9, has asserted that צבאות when connected with Jehovah, must be considered as a Genitive depending upon it, his view has been pretty generally adopted. But it is certainly erroneous. The instances by which _Gesenius_ endeavours to prove the possibility of such a connection of proper names with appellative names are not to the point. In "Bethlehem Jehudah" it is only by a false interpretation that Jehudah is considered as standing in the _status constr._ with Bethlehem (compare the remarks on Mic. v. 1 [2]); and with regard to ארם נהרים it is to be remarked that, in consequence of its many divisions, ארם loses the nature of a proper name. The two words, Jehovah Zebaoth, can no more be immediately connected with each other than Jehovah (which is as perfect a proper name as ever existed) ever has, or ever can have, the article. Let us only consider the phrase אלהים צבאות in Ps. lxxx. 15, and elsewhere, where a _status constr._ is out of the question; and, _further_, the fact that wherever, as in the case under review, Adonai precedes, the Mazorets have always given to יהוה the points of אֱלֹהִים but never of אֱלֹהֵי; and let us, _finally_, consider the far more frequent, full expression, יהוה אלהי הצבאות (_e.g._, iii. 13, iv. 13, v. 14), and we shall be convinced, that even where the [Pg 381] simple יהוה הצבאות occurs, not indeed אלהי is simply to be supplied (if such were the case, why is it that הצבאות never occurs alone?), but that the notion of the Lord is to be taken from the preceding designations of the sovereignty of God. Compare on צבאות the remarks in my Commentary on Ps. xxiv. 10, where those also are refuted who, like _Maurer_ (in his Comment. on Is. i. 9), maintain that it had simply become a name of God.--The manifestations of God's omnipotence are, after the general intimations of it are given, just such as might now be expected; compare viii. 8. The _Fut. with Vav Conv._ ותמוג does not here denote the Past, "And it melted," but only the consequence of the preceding action, as continuous as that: "Who toucheth the earth, and it melteth." A dissolution of the earth is to be thought of,--similar to that condition in which it was before the days of creation, and similar to its condition during the great flood. Such a condition of dissolution takes place also when the earth is visited by mighty kings desirous of making conquests. "Who toucheth the earth, and it melteth,"--the truth of these words Israel had _first_ to learn by sad experience when the wild hosts of Asshur were poured out over the West of Asia. The passage in Ps. xlvi. 7 is parallel, where it is said: "The heathen rage, kingdoms are shaken; He uttereth His voice (which corresponds with, 'Who toucheth the earth,' in the verse before us), and the earth _melteth_." The מוג, "to melt," "to dissolve," signifies, in that passage, the dissolving effect of the divine judgments, the instruments of which are the conquerors. _Further_,--Ps. lxx. 4: "The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are melted,"--by the success of the conqueror of the world, the earth is, as it were, dissolved, and sunk back into the chaotic state of primitive time.--The words, "And it riseth up," are to be explained from the fact that the earth, changed into a great stream, cannot be distinguished from the water which covers it. The earth rises up, it is overflowed,--the earth sinks down, the water subsides. The last clause of the verse must not be translated--as is done by _Rosenmüller_, _Gesenius_, _Maurer_--"It is overflowed as by the stream of Egypt." This explanation is unphilological, and contrary, at the same time, to the parallelism, which requires that כיאר be, both the times, understood in the same way. The verb שקע means only "to sink," "to sink down," and is used of the subsiding water, Ezek. xxxii. 14; of the subsiding flame, [Pg 382] Num. xi. 2; and of a sinking town, Jer. li. 64. The last words thus rather contain the opposite of the clause immediately preceding. But the sinking does not, by any means, signify a freedom from the waters, nor is it to be conceived of as remaining. All which is expressed is the change only,--the ebb takes the place of the flood, and _vice versa_. This, however, is, on the dry land, a very sad condition. The inundation is here an emblem of hostile overflowing. Water is frequently an emblem of enemies; compare Ps. xviii. 17, cxliv. 7. Overflowing streams are emblematical of the crowds of nations, who, with a view to conquest, overflow the whole earth. Is. viii. 7, 8, xvii. 12; Jer. xlvii. 2, xlvi. 7, 8, where Egypt rises as the Nile, just as, in the case before us, the earth; with this difference, however, that there the rising is an active, while here it is a passive one: "Who is this who riseth like the Nile, whose waters are moved as the rivers? Egypt riseth up like the Nile, and his waters are moved like rivers, and he saith, I will go up and cover the earth, I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof;" Ezek. xxxii. 14: "Then will I make sink their waters, and cause their rivers to run like oil," equivalent to: The conquering power of Egypt shall cease. Amos