Albert Barnes Commentary Amos 7:16

"Now therefore hear thou the word of Jehovah: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not [thy word] against the house of Isaac;" — Amos 7:16 (ASV)

Amaziah then was in direct rebellion and contradiction against God. He was in an office forbidden by God; God’s word came to him.

He had his choice; and, as people often do when entangled in evil ways, he chose what he knew to be more wrong. He had to resign his lucrative office and submit to God speaking to him through a shepherd, or stand in direct opposition to God and confront God. In silencing Amos, he would silence God.

But, like one who would arrest the lightning, he draws it on his own head. Amos contrasts the word of Amaziah and the word of God. Rupertus comments: “Hear you the word of the Lord. You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel.’

Therefore thus says the Lord. Not only will I not cease to prophesy against Israel, but I will also prophesy to you. Hear now your own part of the prophecy.”

Drop not - The form of expression (not the word itself) is probably taken from Moses: “My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass” (Deuteronomy 32:2).

Micah speaks of the word “dropping” as used by those who forbade prophesying, as though the prophecy were a continual, wearisome “dropping.” God’s word comes as a gentle dew or soft rain, not beating down but refreshing; not sweeping away like a storm, but sinking in and softening even hard ground—all but the rock—gentle, so that they can bear it.

God’s word was to people according to their attitude toward it: dropping like the dew on those who received it; wearing to those who hardened themselves against it. It drops in measure upon the hearts that it fertilizes, adapted to their capacity to receive it.

And so, conversely, with the judgments with which God’s prophets are charged: “The prophets do not discharge at once the whole wrath of God, but, in their threatenings, denounce little drops of it.”