Charles Ellicott Commentary Amos 7:4

"Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me: and, behold, the Lord Jehovah called to content by fire; and it devoured the great deep, and would have eaten up the land." — Amos 7:4 (ASV)

Fire. —The poetical description of a yet more terrible calamity. God announces His intention of judging, i.e., punishing by fire (the word in E.V., “contend,” is to be understood in this sense). For “a portion” read the portion. The image is that of a prairie fire that should eat up the later grass spared by the locusts.

The consuming of the “great deep” is a strong hyperbole, and can scarcely refer to the “heathen world,” as Keil maintains. The meaning rather appears to be that not only the solitary remnant of pasture, but also the deepest springs of moisture, will be scorched up in the blaze. The same word for “deep” (tehôm) is used in Genesis 1:2; Genesis 7:11; Genesis 8:2. (Compare the Assyrian tihamtu.)