Albert Barnes Commentary Amos 4:9

"I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: the multitude of your gardens and your vineyards and your fig-trees and your olive-trees hath the palmer-worm devoured: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah." — Amos 4:9 (ASV)

I have smitten you with blasting—Literally, “an exceeding scorching,” such as the hot east wind produced, and “an exceeding mildew,” a blight in which the ears turn an untimely pale yellow and have no grain. Both words are doubly intensive. They stand together in the prophecy of Moses (Deuteronomy 28:22) among the other scourges of disobedience. The mention of these would awaken in those who heard the memory of a long series of other warnings and other judgments.

When your gardens ... increased—A better rendering, as in the English margin, is “the multitude of your gardens.” The Eastern garden combined the orchard (Job 8:16; Song of Solomon 4:13–14; Song of Solomon 6:11), the herb garden (Deuteronomy 11:10; Song of Solomon 4:14; Song of Solomon 6:2), and the flower garden. It contained what was necessary for use as well as what was fragrant. It provided part of their sustenance (Amos 9:14; Jeremiah 29:5; Jeremiah 29:28).

Its trees (Ecclesiastes 2:6), as well as the garden generally (Song of Solomon 4:15), were mostly watered artificially and thus beyond the reach of ordinary drought. The tree, planted by the channels of waters (Psalms 1:3; Jeremiah 17:8; Jeremiah 31:12; conversely, Isaiah 1:30), was an image of abiding freshness and fertility. Yet these also would not escape God’s sentence.

On these He sent the locusts, so that in a few hours all leaves—of flower, herb, or tree—are as dead (see the note at Joel 1:7).