Charles Ellicott Commentary Amos 9

The last vision is transferred to the shrine at Bethel, the seat of the calf-worship. The prophet sees Jehovah Himself standing in majesty by the altar of burnt offering, and by His side the angel of His presence, to whom now, as on many other occasions, the mission of destruction has been entrusted. To him the words of Jehovah are addressed (so Aben Ezra, Kimchi).

It is doubtful what is meant by the Hebrew Caphtôr (mistranslated "lintel of the door"). It may mean the wreathed capital of the columns, as in Zephaniah 2:14 (so Hitzig and Keil). The word sippîm (mistranslated "posts") properly signifies "thresholds," but is here understood by the first-mentioned commentator to mean the cornice supported by the columns. This is confirmed by the Septuagint on Isaiah 6:4 (see Delitzsch on this passage).

But as there is no mention of the temple building, only of the altar of burnt offering, it is much safer to adhere to the ordinary and well-established meanings of these terms. We should accordingly follow Ewald in taking Caphtôr as referring to the ornamented horns of the altar. Similarly, in Exodus 25:31; Exodus 37:17, it signifies the richly decorated extremities of the golden candelabra.

The scene is wonderfully vivid. Around the colossal altar of burnt offering, a crowd of eager devotees is gathered. Jehovah gives the word of command to His angel, and with a blow that shakes the very threshold, the ornamented altar horns are shivered to fragments, which are hurled down upon the panic-stricken multitude below.

And cut ...—Rather, and dash them in pieces upon the head of all of them.

Dig. —For this expression break should be substituted. “Hell,” or rather, Hades (Sheôl), the dark abode of the gathered dead, is contrasted with “heaven,” the abode of light. Escape from the universal Lord is impossible.

Serpent.— On this expression, i.e., the “waterserpent,” .

Accumulate in grand imagery the majesty, power, and irresistible resources of the Lord, who has finally become their enemy. The very world itself melts, as Sinai did, at His touch.

The word “is” should be omitted in the rendering. The predicate Jehovah (the Lord) is His name (Amos 9:6) stands at the end of a series of attributive clauses.

Like a flood ...—The sentence should run thus: The whole of it rises like the Nile, and subsides (or sinks) like the Egyptian Nile. The future tenses should be replaced by present tenses. (Compare to Amos 8:8.)

Stories — that is, upper rooms .

The word for “troop” is correctly rendered “arch,” or “vault,” from a root meaning to bind or compact, the sky being regarded as a “firmament,” or solid extension, which rested on the earth as a foundation.

Ethiopians: Israel had presumed on the special favor of Jehovah. The prophet asks them whether, after all, they are better or safer than the Ethiopians, whom they despised. He who led Israel from Egypt also brought the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir.

Caphtor is mentioned in the table of races, Genesis 10:14 (where the clause referring to the Philistines should probably be placed at the end of the verse). The Septuagint followed by the Targums and Peshito interpret Caphtor as Cappadocia, probably from resemblance in form. R. S. Poole, in the article “Caphtor,” in the Dictionary of the Bible, compares the Egyptian Kebtu or Koptos, and places the Caphtorim in Upper Egypt, while Ebers holds that they had their settlements in the Nile delta. But the identification of Caphtor with Crete is most probable. So Rosenmüller, Ewald, Dillmann, etc.

On Kir, probably E. of the Euphrates, see Note on Amos 1:5.