AMOS. CHAPTER I. Ver. 2. And he said, The Lord will roar from Ver. 5. I will break also the bar of Damascus, Rather more than a century ago, Mr. Maundrell visited the mountains of Lebanon. Having proceeded about half an hour through the olive-yards of Sidon, he and his party came to the foot of Mount Libanus. They had an easy aseent for two hours, after which it grew more steep and difficult; in about an hour and a half more, they came to a fountain of water, where they encamped for the night. Next day, after ascending for three hours, they reached the highest ridge of the mountain, where the snow lay by the side of the road. They began immediately to descend on the other side, and in two hours came to a small village, where a fine brook, gushing at once from the side of the mountain, rushes down into the valley below, and after flowing about two leagues, loses itself in the river Letane. The valley is called Bocat, and seems to be the same with the Bicah-Aven of the prophet: “I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain (rather the vale) of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden." The neighbourhood of Damascus, and particularly a place near it, which, in the time of Maundrell, still bore the name of Eden, render his conjecture extremely probable. It might also have the name of Aven, which signifies vanity, from the idolatrous worship of Baal practised at Balbec or Heliopolis, which is situated in this valley.-PAXTON. ing of the dead. A piece of barbarity resembling this it told by Sir Paul Rycaut, that the wall of the city of Phila delphia was made of the bones of the besieged, by the prince who took it by storm.-BURDER. Ver. 6. Thus saith the LORD, for three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes. The shoes, or rather SANDALS, have the least honour of any thing which is worn by man, because they belong to the feet, and are comparatively of litle value. Nothing is more disgraceful than to be beaten with the sandals; thus when one man intends to exasperate another, he begins to take off a sandal, as if going to strike him. To spit in the face is not a greater indignity than this. When a person wishes to insult another in reference to the price of any article, he says, "I will give you my sandals for it." "That fellow is not worth the value of my sandals." "Who are you, sir? you are not worthy to carry my sandals;" which alludes to the custom of a rich man always having a servant with him to carry his sandals; i. e. when he chooses to walk barefoot. "Over Edom will I cast out my shoe:" so contemptible and so easy was it to be conquered.- ROB ERTS. Ver. 7. That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek; and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name, Who were those that thus oppressed the poor, who sold them for a pair of shoes, and panted "after the dust of the earth?" They were the judges and the princes of the people. The Tamul translation has it, "To the injury of the poor they eagerly took the dust of the earth;" literally, they gnawed the earth as a dog does a bone. "Dust of the earth." What does this mean? I believe it alludes to the lands of the poor, of which they had been deprived by the Ver. 13. Thus saith the LORD, For three trans-judges and princes. Nothing is more common in eastern gressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child, of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border. Margin, for " ripped," ""divided the mountains." It was common in the ancient wars thus to treat women, but in general the Orientals are very kind to their wives in the state alluded to. Nay, even to animals in that condition, they are very tender: a man to beat his cow when with calf, would be called a great sinner; and to kill a goat or a sheep when with young, is altogether out of the question. The Hindoo hunters will not destroy wild animals when in that state. The term in the margin is applied to that condition. "In the tenth moon the child fell from the mountain."-ROBERTS. CHAPTER II. Ver. 1. Thus saith the LORD, For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burnt the bones of the king of Edom into lime. "To plaster the walls of his house with it," as the Chaldee paraphrase explains the ext, which was a cruel insult language than for a man to call his fields and gardens his MAN; i. e. his dust, his earth. "That man has gnawed away my dust or sand." "Ah! the fellow! by degrees he wretch! he is ever trying to take away the dust of the has taken away all that poor man's earth." "The cruel poor." In consequence of there not being fences in the East, landowners often encroach on each other's possessions. On the latter part of the verse and the next to it, I dare not write. The heathenism, the devilism, described by Amos, is still the same. Who did these things? the princes, the judges, and the people of Judah.—Roberts, Ver. 8. And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god. It was found advantageous, both for ease and health, to have a carpet or some soft and thick cloth spread on the ground for those to sit upon who dwelt in tents: subsequently, those who lived in houses used them too. When they held their idolatrous feasts in the temples dedicated to the gods, they sat upon the ground, but not on the bare earth, or the marble pavement of those temples, but upon something soft and dry spread under them, brought for the purpose. The clothes mentioned by the prophet may mean the coverings of the body for the night, as well as or the day. "When it was dark, inree coverlets, richly embroidered, were taken from a press in the room which we occupied, and delivered, one to each of us; the carpet or sofa, and a cushion, serving, with this addition, instead of a bed." (Chandler's Travels in Asia Minor.) Such carpets or embroidered coverlets would neither be an improper pledge for money, (Exod. xxii. 26, 27,) nor disgrace the pomp of a heathen temple. It may not be amiss to consider why the circumstance of clothes being taken to pledge, is mentioned here. Attending an idolatrous feast must have been undoubtedly wrong in these Israelites: but of what consequence was it to remark, that some of them seated themselves on carpets that had been put into their hands by way of pledge? It may be answered, that it might be galling to those that had been obliged to pledge these valuable pieces of furniture secretly, to have them thus publicly exposed; that it may insinuate that these idolatrous zealots detained them, when they ought to have been restored, (Ezek. xviii. 7, 12, 16. xxx. 15;) and that they subjected them to be injured, in the tumult of an extravagant and riotous banquet in a heathen temple; to which may be added, that they might belong to some of their countrymen who abhorred those idols, and might consider them as dishonoured, and even dreadfully polluted, by being so employed. With respect to the last of these circumstances but one, (the being injured in extravagant and riotous banqueting,) I would remark, that they are accustomed, in their common repasts, to take great care that their carpets are not soiled, by spreading something over them; but in public solemnities they affect great carelessness about them, as a mark of their respect and profound regard. (Russel.) Thus De la Valle, describing the reception the Armenians of Ispahan gave the king of Persia, in one of their best houses, when he had a mind to attend at the celebration of their Epiphany, says, after the ceremonies were over, he was conducted to the house of Chogra Sefer, a little before deceased, where his three sons and his brother had prepared every thing for his reception: "All the floor of the house, and all the walks of the garden, from the gate next the street to the most remote apartments, were covered with carpets of brocatel, of cloth of gold, and other precious manufactures, which were for the most part spoiled, by being trampled upon by the feet of those that had been abroad in the rain, and their shoes very dirty: their custom being, not to put them off at the entering into a house, but only at the door of the apartments, and the places where they would sit down."-BUR DER. CHAPTER III. Ver. 2. You only have I known of all the fami tention of the prophet to express how few of his people escaped from the overthrow of their country, and were settled in foreign parts; but it would have been hardly natural to suppose, that a shepherd would exert himself to make a lion quit a piece of an ear, only of a common goat; it must therefore be supposed to refer to the long-eared kind. Rauwolf observed goats on the mountains around Jerusalem, with pendent ears almost two feet long.-PAXTON. Sitting in the corner is a stately attitude, and is expressive of superiority. Russel says, "the divans at Aleppo are formed in the following manner. Across the upper end, and along the sides of the room, is fixed a wooden platform, four feet broad and six inches high; upon this are laid cotton mattresses exactly of the same breadth, and over these a cover of broadcloth, trimmed with gold lace and fringes, hanging over to the ground. A number of large oblong cushions stuffed hard with cotton, and faced with flowered velvet, are then ranged in the platform close to the wall. The two upper corners of the divan are furnished also with softer cushions, half the size of the others, which are laid upon a square fine mattress, spread over those of cloth, both being faced with brocade. The corners in this manner distinguished are held to be the places of honour, and a great man never offers to resign them to persons of inferior rank." Mr. Antes, among other observations made on the manners and customs of the Egyptians, from 1770 to 1782, says, on his being carried before one of the beys of Egypt, in about half an hour the bey arrived, with all his men, and lighted flambeaux before him; he alighted, and went up stairs into a room, sat down in a corner, and all his people placed themselves in a circle round him.-HARMER. An attendant came forward to usher us into the august presence of the ruler of Egypt. We proceeded into a large room, lighted by numerous windows, on every side except that by which we entered. The pacha was standing up, but when he perceived us approach, he hastily took his accustomed seat in the corner with great alertness. Round three sides of the room was a broad scarlet divan, supplied with cushions of gold brocade resting against the walls. The corners were distinguished as places of honour by a square of crimson and gold silk, with a cushion of the same colour and materials at the back of each.-HOGG'S VISIT TO DA MASCUS. Ver. 15. And I will smite the winter-house with the summer-house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD. In the writings of Jeremiah and Amos, a distinction is made between winter and summer-houses. Russel thinks lies of the earth: therefore I will punish you they may refer to different apartments in the same house; for all your iniquities. In eastern language, to say you know a person, means you APPROVE of him. Thus, should a man be well acquainted with two brothers, and should he not approve of one of them, he will say, "I do not know him." But of him he loves, he says, "Ah! I know him well." Jehovah had known, i. e. approved of Israel, but because of their abominations he had determined to punish them.-ROBERTS. Ver. 12. Thus saith the LORD, As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch. Two kinds of goats wander in the pastures of Syria and Canaan; one that differs little from the common sort in Britain; the other remarkable for the largeness of its ears. The size of this variety is somewhat larger than ours; but their ears are often a foot long, and broad in proportion. The Syrians keep them chiefly for their milk, of which they field a considerable quantity. The present race of goats in the vicinity of Jerusalem, are of this broad-eared species. To this kind of goat, so different from the common treed, it is probable the prophet refers: "As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out, that dwell in Samaria and in Damascus." It is indeed the in but if the customs of Barbary resemble those of Palestine in this respect, it is better to understand them of different houses. The hills and valleys round about Algiers, according to Dr. Shaw, are all over beautified with gardens and country-seats, whither the inhabitants of better fashion retire during the heat of the summer season. They are little white houses, shaded with a variety of fruitful trees and evergreens, which, besides the shade and retirement, afford a gay and delightful prospect towards the sea. The gardens are all of them well stocked with melons, fruit, and pot herbs of all kinds; and (what is chiefly regarded in these hot climates) each of them enjoys a great command of water. In Persia most of the summer-houses are slightly constructed and divided into three pavilions at a considerable distance from each other, with canals, fountains, and flower gardens in the intermediate spaces: while the winterhouses, or palaces in cities, are built of strong masonry, and ornamented at great expense; and palaces, villas, and mosques, are often named after their principal embellish ments. Thus at Barocke and Ahmedabad are the ivory and silver mosques. This account furnishes an easy exposition of a passage in the prophecies of Amos: "I will smite the winter-house," the palaces of the great in fortified towns, "with the summer-house," the small houses of pleasure, used in the summer, to which any foe can have access; "and the houses of ivory shall perish; and the great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord," those that are distinguished by their amplitude and richness, built as they are in their strongest places, yet all of them shall perish like 1 their country-seats, by the irresistible stroke of almighty who were swinging together in their cots. When a man power.-PAXTON. affects great delicacy as to the place where he sleeps, it is common to say, "You had better have a swinging cot."ROBERTS. CHAPTER IV. Ver. 2. The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fish-hooks. I am at a loss to know why there is a distinction betwixt "HOOKS" and "FISH-HOOKS." I think it fanciful to explain it by saying it means "two modes of fishing." The Tamul translation has, instead of "HOOKS," kuradi, i. e. pincers, and it ought to be known that these were formerly much used in punishments. In the Hindoo hells this instrument is spoken of as being used to torture the inhabitants. A man in his rage says, "I will tear thee with pincers." "Alas! alas! I have been dragged away with pincers." "Ah! the severity of these troubles-they are like pincers." But it is said that нOOKS also were formerly used to stick into criminals when taken to the place of execution; and there is nothing very doubtful about this, because devotees often have large HOOKS fastened into their flesh, by which they are hoisted up on a long pole. "Your posterity with fishhooks:" this figure is used in the East to show how people DRAW each other to any given place. Thus, does a man wish to have a large party at some feast or ceremony he is going to make, he persuades a man to say he will honour him with his company; and then he says to others, you are invited to meet such an illustrious guest, which causes numbers to come to the occasion. The man of rank in that case is called the fish-hook; because, through him, the guests are CAUGHT.-ROBERTS. Ver. 9. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens, and your vineyards, and your fig-trees, and your olive-trees increased, the palmer-worm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. Abp. Newcome says, that this means the unwholesome effluvia on the subsiding of the Nile, which causes some peculiarly malignant diseases in this country. Maillet says, that "the air is bad in those parts, where, when the inundations of the Nile have been very great, this river, in retiring to its channel, leaves marshy places, which infect the country round about. The dew is also very dangerous in Egypt." -BURDER. CHAPTER VI. Ver. 4. That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall. Amos reckons fat lambs among the delicacies of the Israelites; and it seems these creatures are in the East extremely delicious. Sir John Chardin, in his manuscript note to Amos vi. 4, expresses himself in very strong terms on the deliciousness of these animals in the East. He tells .us, that there, in many places, lambs are spoken of as a sort of food excessively delicious. That one must have eaten of them in several places of Persia, Media, and Mesopotamia, and of their kids, to form a conception of the moisture, taste, delicacy, and fat of this animal; and as the eastern people are no friends of game, nor of fish, nor fowls, their most delicious food is the lamb and the kid. This observation illustrates those passages that speak of kids as used by them for delicious repasts, and presents; as well as those others that speak of the feasting on lambs. It also gives great energy to our apprehensions of what is meant, when the Psalmist talks of marrow and fatness.-HARMER. Ivory is so plentiful in the East, it is no wonder that the sovereigns had their beds made principally of that article. But why is there a distinction made in reference to BEDS and COUCHES? I believe the latter word refers to the swinging cot, as the Tamul translation also implies. In the houses of the voluptuous these cots are always found, and many are the stories in ancient books of kings and queens Ver. 9. And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. 10. And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house, Is there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue; for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD. These verses and the context refer to the mortality which should result from the pestilence and famine, (in consequence of the sins of the people;) and to the BURNING of the bodies. The number "TEN" probably refers to MANY, as that is a common expression in the East to denote many. I believe the whole alludes to the custom of burning human bodies, and to that of gathering up the half-calcined bones, and to the putting them into an earthen vessel, and then to the carrying back these fragments to the house or into some OUT-BUILDING, where they are kept till conveyed relation; but in case there is not one near akin, then an to a sacred place. In India this is done by a son or a near person who is going to the place (as to the Ganges) car. take the fragments of bones, and thus perform the last rites. Dr. Boothroyd takes the same view as to the PLACE where the bones have to be kept till they are removed, because he translates," a side-room of the house." "Hold thy tongue," finds a forcible illustration in chap. viii. 3, where it is mentioned that there were "dead in every place;" and where it is said, they were to "cast them forth with si lence." When the cholera or any other pestilence has carried off MANY of the people, the relations cease to weep or speak; they ask, "What is the use of wailing?" it is over, "hold thy tongue."-ROBERTS. Ver. 11. For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts. See on Ezek. 13. 11. Chardin, speaking concerning the rains, says, "they are the rains which cause the walls to fall, which are built of clay, the mortar-plastering dissolving. This plastering hinders the water form penetrating the bricks; but when the plastering has been soaked with wet, the wind cracks it, and occasions the rain in some succeeding showers to get between and dissolve every thing." This account illustrates the words of the prophet in a very happy manner, as the houses were mostly built of these fragile materials.— HARMER. CHAPTER VII. Ver. 1. Thus hath the Lord GoD showed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings. See on Prov. 27. 25. As they seldom make any hay in the East, the word rendered "mowing," should rather have been, "feedings." There is reason to conjecture, from the following passage of La Roque, that the time of the king's feedings was the month of March, or thereabouts: "The Arabs," he tells us, from the papers of D'Arvieux, "turn their horses out to grass in the month of March, when the grass is pretty well grown; they then take care to have their mares cov ered, and they eat grass at no other time in the whole year, any more than hay: they never give them any straw but to heat them, when they have been some time without dis covering an inclination to drink; they live wholly upon barley.' The Arab horses are all designed for riding and war; so, there is reason to believe, were those of the kings of Israel: and if the present usages of the Arabs prevaile anciently, they were turned out early in the spring, in the month of March, and at other times were nourished with barley. These things seem to determine the time of the king's feedings to March, of the shooting up of the latter growth of April.-BURDER. Ver. 14. Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. The sycamore buds in the latter end of March, and the prolific fruit ripens in the beginning of June. Pliny and other natural historians allege, that it continues immature till it is rubbed with iron combs, after which it ripens in four days. Is it not an operation of this kind to which the prophet Amos refers, in the text which we translate, "I was a gatherer of sycamore fruit?" The Septuagint seems to refer it to something done to the fruit, to hasten its maturity; probably to the action of the iron comb, without an application of which the figs cannot be eaten, because of their intolerable bitterness. Parkhurst renders the phrase, a scraper of sycamore fruit; which he contends, from the united testimony of natural historians, is the true meaning of the original term. The business of Amos, then, before his appointment to the prophetical office, was to scrape or wound the fruit of the sycamore-tree, to hasten its maturity and prepare it for use. Simon renders it a cultivator of sycamore fruit, which is perhaps the preferable meaning; for it appears that the cultivation of this fig required a variety of operations, all of which it is reasonable to suppose, were performed by the same persons. To render the tree fruitful, they scarified the bark, through which a kind of milky liquor continually distilled. This, it is said, causes a little bough to be formed without leaves, having upon it sometimes six or seven figs. They are hollow, without grains, and contain a little yellow matter, which is generally a nest of grubs. At their extremity, a sort of water collects, which, as it prevents them from ripening, must be let out. Amos, it is probable, was employed in these various operations; which has induced Simon and c.hers to render the words, not a gatherer of sycamore fruit, Lut a dresser of the sycamore-tree; which includes all the culture and attendance it requires. The sycamore is a large spreading tree, sometimes shooting up to a considerable height, and so thick, that three men can hardly grasp the trunk; according to Hasselquist, the stem is often fifty feet thick. This unfolds the reason why Zaccheus climbed up into a sycamore-tree, to get a sight of his Redeemer. The incident also furnishes a proot that the sycamore was still common in Palestine; for this tree stood to protect the traveller by the side of the highway.-PAXTON. CHAPTER IX. Ver. 2. Though they dig into hell, thence shall my hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down. 3. And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he hall bite them. Carmel was one of the barriers of the promised land, which Sennacherib boasted he would scale with the multitude of noses and his chariots: "I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel." Ungrateful as the soil of this mountain is, the wild vines and olive-trees that are still found among the brambles which encumber its declivities, prove that the hand of industry has not laboured among the rocks of Carmel in vain. So well adapted were the sides of this mountain to the cultivation of the vine, that the kings of Judah covered every improvable spot with vineyards and plantations of olives. Its deep and entangled forests, its savage rocks and lofty summit, have been in all ages the favourite retreat of the guilty or the oppressed. The fastnesses of this rugged mountain are so difficult of access, that the prophet Amos Plasses them with the deeps of hell, the height of heaven, and the bottom of the sea. The church, in her most affluent state, is compared to a fugitive lurking in the deep recesses of this mountain: "Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thy heritage which dwell solitarily in the midst of Carmel." Lebanon raises to heaven a summit of naked and barren rocks, covered for the greater part of the year with snow; but the top of Carmel, how naked and steril soever its present condition, seems to have been clothed with verdure in the days of Amos, which seldom was known to fade: "And he said, The Lord will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the habitation of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither."-PAXTON, The wind was high when we left Acre, and blew the sand about with such violence that we had great difficulty in making our way. The bay to the southward extends to Mount Carmel, and we were three hours in skirting its shore. We first forded the river Belus, the sand of which has been much used in the making of glass, and then came to "that ancient river, the river KISHON," immortalized in the song of Deborah and Barak, over which we were ferried by a Jewish boatman. The saddles are never taken off the horses in these countries during a journey, either by day or night. They were now taken from the animals that they might not be wet in crossing the river, and the backs of the poor creatures had been so chafed by them, that I felt unwilling to mount mine again. After passing some sepulchres in the rocks we entered the town of Hypha, and were detained some time by the guard, until one of our party waited on the governor, and obtained our release. There were several brass cannon upon the walls, all ready for action. The vessels have here better shelter than at Acre, but the water is shallow. This town is nearly at the foot of Mount Carmel, which extends about 30 miles in a southeastern direction from the sea, in nearly an equal ridge, and at an elevation of about 1600 feet. It is often referred to in scripture, and was once covered with trees, but it is now nearly bare, and "the excellency of Carmel" has withered before the curse of Heaven. It was the usual residence of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. The place where the false prophets of Baal were discomfited and slain was towards the other extremity, nearer Jezreel, to which Ahab retired; and at some point near which it is approached by the Kishon. We may stand at the top of Carmel, as did Gehazi, and look towards the sea, but alas! there is now no "little cloud like a man's hand;" still there is the promise of a shower, and in due time the streams of divine mercy will again fall upon this thirsty land, and men shall again liken themselves in their prosperity to "the excellency of Carmel and Sharon." Near the point that overlooks the sea there is a monastery of Carmelite friars. It was destroyed a few years ago by Abdullah Pacha, that he might convert the materials to his own use, and though he was ordered to rebuild it at his own expense by the sultan, when a proper representation of the circumstances had been made to his court, no attention was ever paid to the mandate. The monks are now rebuilding it themselves in a very splendid manner, and one of the fraternity is the architect. At a lower elevation on the same point, is a palace recently erected by the pacha. There is a small building but as the door was locked we could not gain admittance.— near the sea, said to cover the cave in which Elisha dwell, HARDY. Ver. 6. It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven, and hath founded his troop in the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth The LORD is his name. See on Jer. 22. 13. The chief rooms of the house of Aleppo at this day are those above, the ground-floor being chiefly made use of for their horses and servants. Perhaps the prophet referred to this circumstance, when he spoke of the heavens of God's chambers, the most noble and splendid apartments of the palace of God, where his presence is chiefly manifested, and the collection of its offices, its numerous ättle mean divisions, of this earth.-HARMER. Ver. 3. Behold, the days come, saith the LOR 1, |