Albert Barnes Commentary Amos 8:14

"They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, As thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, As the way of Beer-sheba liveth; they shall fall, and never rise up again." — Amos 8:14 (ASV)

Who swear - Literally, “the swearing,” they who habitually swear. He assigns, at the end, the ground of all this misery: the forsaking of God.

God had commanded that all appeals by oath should be made to Himself, who alone governs the world, to whom alone His creatures owe obedience, and who alone avenges. You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him and swear by His Name (Deuteronomy 6:13; Deuteronomy 10:20). On the other hand, Joshua warned them, Neither make mention of the name of their gods nor cause to swear by them nor serve them (Joshua 23:7).

But these swore “by the sin of Samaria,” probably “the calf at Bethel,” which was near Samaria and the center of their idolatry, from where Hosea calls it “your calf”: Your calf, O Samaria, has cast you off. The calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces (Hosea 8:5–6).

He calls it “the guilt of Samaria,” as the source of all their guilt, as it is said of the princes of Judah using this same word: they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served idols, and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass (2 Chronicles 24:18).

And they say, “Your god, O Dan, lives!” that is, “As surely as your god lives! By the life of your god!” just as those who worshiped God said, “As the Lord lives!” This was a direct substitution of the creature for the Creator, an ascribing to it the attribute of God: as the Father has life in Himself (John 5:26). It was an appeal to it as the Avenger of false-swearing, as though it were the moral Governor of the world.

The manner of Beersheba lives! - Literally, “the way.” This may be either the religion and worship of the idol there, as Paul says, I persecuted this way unto the death (Acts 22:4; Acts 19:9; Acts 19:23), from where Muhammed learned to speak of his imposture as “the way of God.” Or it might mean the actual “way to Beersheba,” and it may signify all the idolatrous places of worship on the way there. They seem to have made the way there one long avenue of idols, culminating in it.

For Josiah, in his great destruction of idolatry, gathered all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places, where the priests sacrificed from Gebah to Beersheba (2 Kings 23:8); only, this may perhaps simply describe the whole territory of Judah from north to south. In any case, Beersheba stands for the god worshiped there, just as, our Lord tells us, whoever swore by the Temple, swore by it and by Him that dwelleth therein (Matthew 23:21).