---
title: "Clarke"
description: "Verse Amos 5:1. Hear ye this word — Attend to this doleful song which I make for the house of Israel. Verse Amos 5:2. The virgin of Israel — The kingdom o"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/amos/5"
---

Verse [Amos 5:1](../../../kjv/amos/5/1). ***Hear ye this word*** — Attend to this doleful song which I make for the house of Israel.

Verse [Amos 5:2](../../../kjv/amos/5/2). ***The virgin of Israel*** — The kingdom of Israel, or the *ten* tribes, which were carried into captivity; and are now totally lost in the nations of the earth.

Verse [Amos 5:3](../../../kjv/amos/5/3). ***The city that went out by a thousand*** — The city that could easily have furnished, on any emergency, a *thousand* fighting men, can now produce scarcely one *hundred*-*one* in *ten* of the former number; and now of the *hundred* scarcely *ten* remain: so reduced was Israel when Shalmaneser besieged and took Samaria, and carried the residue into captivity.

Verse [Amos 5:4](../../../kjv/amos/5/4). ***Seek ye me, and ye shall live*** — Cease your rebellion against me; return to me with all your heart; and though consigned to *death*, ye shall be rescued and live. Deplorable as your case is, it is not utterly desperate.

Verse [Amos 5:5](../../../kjv/amos/5/5). ***But seek not Beth-el*** — There was one of Jeroboam's *golden calves*, and at *Gilgal* were *carved images*; both were places in which idolatry was triumphant. The prophet shows them that all hope from those quarters is utterly vain; for Gilgal shall go into captivity, and Beth-el be brought to naught. There is a play or paronomasia on the *letters* and *words* in this clause: הגלגל גלה יגלה ובית אל יהיה לאון *haggilgal galoh yigleh, ubeith* *el yiheyeh leaven*. "This Gilgal shall go captive into captivity; and Beth-el (the house of God) shall be for Beth-aven," (the house of iniquity.)

Verse [Amos 5:6](../../../kjv/amos/5/6). ***Seek the Lord, and ye shall live*** — Repeated from [Amos 5:4](../../../kjv/amos/5/4).
***In the house of Joseph*** — The Israelites of the *ten* tribes, of whom Ephraim and Manasseh, sons of Joseph, were the chief.

Verse [Amos 5:7](../../../kjv/amos/5/7). ***Ye who turn judgment to wormwood*** — Who pervert judgment; causing him who obtains his suit to mourn sorely over the *expenses* he has *incurred* in gaining his *right*.

Verse [Amos 5:8](../../../kjv/amos/5/8). ***That maketh the seven stars and Orion*** — Or, *Hyades* and *Arcturus, Kimah* and *Kesil*. [Job 9:9](../../../kjv/job/9/9); *"*[Job 38:32](../../../kjv/job/38/32)*"*, where the subject of this verse is largely considered.
***Turneth the shadow of death into the morning*** — Who makes day and night, light and darkness.
***Calleth for the waters of the sea*** — Raising them up by evaporation, and collecting them into clouds.
***And poureth them out*** — Causing them to drop down in showers upon the face of the earth. Who has done this? *JEHOVAH is his name*.

Verse [Amos 5:9](../../../kjv/amos/5/9). ***That strengtheneth the spoiled*** — Who takes the part of the poor and oppressed against the oppressor; and, in the course of his providence, sets up the former, and depresses the latter.

Verse 10. ***They hate him that rebuketh in the gate*** — They cannot bear an upright *magistrate*, and will not have *righteous laws* executed.

Verse 11. ***Your treading*****is*****upon the poor*** — You tread them under your feet; they form the road on which ye walk; and yet it was by oppressing and improverishing them that ye gained your riches.
***Ye take from him burdens of wheat*** — Ye will have his *bread* for doing him justice.

Verse 12. ***I know your manifold transgressions*** — I have marked the *multitude* of your *smaller crimes*, as well as your *mighty offenses.* Among their *greater offenses* were,
1. Their afflicting the righteous.
2. Taking bribes to blind their eyes in judgment. And,
3. Refusing to hear the poor, who had no money to give them.

Verse 13. ***The prudent shall keep silence*** — A wise man will consider that it is useless to complain. He can have no justice without bribes; and he has no money to give: consequently, in such an *evil time*, it is best to keep silence.

Verse 14. ***Seek good, and not evil*** — Is there a greater mystery in the world, than that a mall, instead of seeking *good*, will seek *evil*, knowing that it is *evil*?
***And so the Lord*** — As God is the Fountain of good, so they who seek the supreme good seek him: and they who seek shall find him; *for the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with him*.

Verse 15. ***Hate the evil, and love the good*** — What *ruins* you, *avoid*; what *helps* you, *cleave* to. And as a proof that you take this advice, purify the *seats of justice*; and then expect God to be gracious to the *remnant of Joseph*-to the posterity of the ten tribes.

Verse 16. ***They shall call the husbandman to mourning*** — Because the crops have failed, and the ground has been tilled in vain.
***Such as are skilful of lamentation*** — [Jeremiah 9:17](../../../kjv/jeremiah/9/17).

Verse 17. ***And in all vineyards*****shall be*****wailing*** — The places where festivity especially used to prevail.
***I will pass through thee*** — As I passed, by the ministry of the destroying angel, through Egypt, not to *spare*, but to *destroy*.

Verse 18. ***Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord*** — The prophet had often denounced the coming of *God's day*, that is, of a *time of judgment*; and the unbelievers had said, "Let his day come, that we may see it." Now the prophet tells them that that day would be to them *darkness*-calamity, and *not light*-not prosperity.

Verse 19. ***As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him*** — They shall go from one evil to another. He who escapes from the *lion's* mouth shall fall into the *bear's* paws: -
Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim.
The Israelites, under their king *Menahem*, wishing to avoid a civil war, called in *Pul*, king of *Assyria*, to help them. This led to a series of evils inflicted by the Syrian and Assyrian kings, till at last Israel was ravaged by *Shalmaneser*, and carried into captivity. Thus, in avoiding one evil they fell into another still more grievous.
***Leaned his hand on a wall, and a serpent bit him.*** — Snakes and venomous animals are fond of taking up their lodging in *walls of* *houses*, where they can either find or make *holes*; and it is dangerous to sit near them or lean against them. In the East Indies they keep the faithful *mongose*, a species of *ichneumon*, in their houses, for the purpose of destroying the snakes that infest them.

Verse [Amos 5:21](../../../kjv/amos/5/21). ***I hate, I despise your feast days*** — I *abominate* those sacrificial festivals where there is no *piety*, and I *despise* them because they *pretend* to be what they are not. This may refer to the *three annual festivals* which were still observed in a certain way among the Israelites.

Verse [Amos 5:22](../../../kjv/amos/5/22). ***The peace-offerings of your fat beasts.*** — מריאיכם *merieychem* probably means *buffaloes*; and so *Bochart*.

Verse [Amos 5:23](../../../kjv/amos/5/23). ***The noise of thy songs - the melody of thy viols.*** — They had both *vocal* and *instrumental music* in those sacrificial festivals; and God hated the *noise* of the *one* and *shut* his *ears* against the *melody* of the *other*. In the *first* there was nothing but *noise*, because their *hearts* were not right with God; and in the *latter* there could be nothing but (זמרת *zimrath*) cutting and scraping, because there was *no heart*-no religious sense in the thing, and nearly as little in them that used it. See on [Amos 6:5](../../../kjv/amos/6/5).

Verse [Amos 5:24](../../../kjv/amos/5/24). ***Let judgment run down*** — Let the execution of justice be everywhere like the *showers* that fall upon the land to render it fertile; and let righteousness in *heart* and *life* be like a mighty river, or the Jordan, that shall wind its course through the whole nation, and carry every abomination into the Dead Sea. Let *justice* and *righteousness* prevail everywhere, and sweep their contraries out of the land.

Verse [Amos 5:24](../../../kjv/amos/5/24). ***Have ye offered unto me sacrifices*** — Some have been led to think that "during the *forty years* which the Israelites spent in the wilderness, between Egypt and the promised land, they did *not offer any sacrifices*, as in their circumstances it was impossible; they offered none because they had none." But such people must have forgotten that when the covenant was made at Sinai, there were *burnt-offerings* and *peace-offerings* of *oxen* sacrificed to the Lord, [Exodus 24:5](../../../kjv/exodus/24/5); and at the setting up of the tabernacle the *twelve princes* of the *twelve tribes* offered each a *young bullock*, a *ram*, and a *lamb*, for a *burnt-offering*; a *kid* for a *sin-offering*; two *oxen*, five *rams*, five *he-goats,* and five *lambs*, for a *peace-offering*, [Numbers 7:12](../../../kjv/numbers/7/12), c. which amounted to an immense number of victims offered in the course of the *twelve* days during which this *feast of the dedication* lasted. At the consecration of priests, *bullocks* and *rams* to a considerable number were offered, see [Leviticus 8:1](../../../kjv/leviticus/8/1), c. but they were not offered so *regularly*, nor in *such abundance*, as they were after the settlement in the promised land. Learned men, therefore, have considered this verse as speaking thus: Did ye offer to me, during forty years in the wilderness, sacrifices in *such a way* as was *pleasing to me*? Ye did not; for your hearts were divided, and ye were generally in a spirit of insurrection or murmuring.

Verse [Amos 5:26](../../../kjv/amos/5/26). ***But ye have borne*** — The preceding verse spoke of their *fathers*; the present verse speaks of the *Israelites then* *existing*, who were so grievously addicted to idolatry, that they not only worshipped at stated public places the *idols* set up by *public authority*, but they *carried their gods about with them* everywhere.
***The tabernacle of your Moloch*** — Probably a small portable shrine, with an image of their god in it, such as *Moloch*; and the *star* or *representative* of their god *Chiun*. For an ample exposition of this verse, [Acts 7:42](../../../kjv/acts/7/42); to which let me add, that from *Picart's* Religious Ceremonies, vol. iii. p. 199, we find that there was an idol named Choun worshipped among the *Peruvians* from the remotest antiquity.

Verse [Amos 5:27](../../../kjv/amos/5/27). ***Will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus*** — That is, into *Assyria*, the way to which, from Judea, was by Damascus.
But St. *Stephen* says, [Acts 7:43](../../../kjv/acts/7/43), *beyond Babylon*; because the Holy Spirit that was in him chose to *extend* the meaning of the original text to that great and final captivity of the Jews in general, when Zedekiah, their last king, and the people of Judea, were carried into Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Media; see [2 Kings 17:7](../../../kjv/2-kings/17/7); [2 Kings 17:24](../../../kjv/2-kings/17/24). This captivity happened after the time of Amos.

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