Charles Ellicott Commentary Amos 9:5-6

"For the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, [is] he that toucheth the land and it melteth, and all that dwell therein shall mourn; and it shall rise up wholly like the River, and shall sink again, like the River of Egypt; [it is] he that buildeth his chambers in the heavens, and hath founded his vault upon the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth; Jehovah is his name." — Amos 9:5-6 (ASV)

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.