Charles Ellicott Commentary Amos 5:16

"Therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, the Lord: Wailing shall be in all the broad ways; and they shall say in all the streets, Alas! Alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful in lamentation to wailing." — Amos 5:16 (ASV)

Therefore. —Probably a pause occurs here, for once more the words of the prophet assume a more mournful tone. “Therefore” points back to the transgressions condemned in Amos 5:11-13. On the Divine name “Lord of hosts,” see note on Hosea 12:5, and Oehler, Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, §§ 194-8. It is a grand phrase to denote the antithesis between “the Portion of Jacob,” and all heathen deities.

The “streets” are the open wide squares near the gates, and the “highways” are more properly the narrow alleys of the crowded cities of the East. The word for wailing (misped) denotes properly the beating of the breast, the Eastern symptom of grief. The calling of the farmer from his agricultural pursuits to lamentation is an indication that the disaster was universal. Those “skilled in wailing” were generally, and are still, women who tear their hair and dress, throw dust over the head, and utter the monotonous wail and piercing cry of distress. The last clause should properly be inverted, And wailing to such as are skilful of lamentation. (Ecclesiastes 12:5; Jeremiah 9:17–19).

Pass through you.— Properly through the midst of you. Whenever Jehovah is said to pass through a land or a city, heavy punishment is intended. . The reference to the “vineyards” adds to the terror of the picture.