John Calvin Commentary Amos 1:11-12

"Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Edom, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever: but I will send a fire upon Teman, and it shall devour the palaces of Bozrah." — Amos 1:11-12 (ASV)

The Prophet now turns to the Idumeans themselves. He had denounced ruin upon the uncircumcised nations who delivered the Jews into their hands, but the Idumeans deserved a much heavier punishment because their crime was much more atrocious. The Idumeans derived their origin, as is well known, from their common father Isaac and bore the same symbol of God’s covenant, for they were circumcised. Since nearness of blood and that sacred union could not make them gentle to the Jews, from this we perceive how brutal their inhumanity was.

They were then unworthy of being forgiven by God, when he acted as so severe a judge against heathen nations. But the Prophet now says that the Idumeans had sinned more than their neighbors, that their obstinacy was incurable, and that for this reason they could no longer be tolerated, for they had too long abused God’s forbearance, as he had withheld his vengeance until this time.

He charges them with this crime: they pursued their brother with the sword. There is an anomaly of number here, for he speaks of the whole people. Edom then pursued his brother, that is, the Jews. But the Prophet has intentionally used the singular number to enhance their crime, for he placed here, as it were, two men, Edom and Jacob, who were really brothers, and even twins.

Was it not then a most execrable ferocity in Edom to pursue his own brother Jacob? He then sets before us here two nations as two men, so that he might more fully exhibit the barbarity of the Idumeans in forgetting their kindred and in venting their rage against their own blood. They have then pursued their brother with the sword; that is, they have been avowed enemies, for they had allied themselves with heathen nations.

When the Assyrians came against the Israelites, the Idumeans took up arms; and this, perhaps, happened before that war, for when the Syrians and Israelites conspired against the Jews, it is probable that the Idumeans joined in the same alliance. However this may have been, the Prophet reproaches them with cruelty for arming themselves against their own kindred, without any regard for their own blood.

He afterwards adds, They have destroyed their own compassions. Some render these words as “their own bowels”; and others, in a strained and improper manner, transfer the relative to the sons of Jacob, as if the Prophet had said that Edom had destroyed the compassions which were due from the posterity of Jacob on account of their near relationship.

But the Prophet’s meaning is clearly this: they destroyed their own compassions, which means that they cast off all sense of piety and cast aside natural affections. He then calls those the compassions of Edom—that is, such as Edom ought to have been influenced by. But as Edom had cast aside all regard for humanity, he lacked the compassion that he ought to have had.

He then adds, His anger has perpetually raged. He now compares the cruelty of the Idumeans to that of wild beasts, for they raged like fierce wild animals and did not spare their own blood. They then raged perpetually, even endlessly, and retained their indignation perpetually. The Prophet seems here to allude to Edom or Esau, the father of the nation, for we know he long cherished his wrath against his brother, as he dared not kill his brother during his father’s lifetime.

Therefore he said, I will wait till my father’s death, then I will avenge myself (Genesis 27:41). Since Esau then nourished this cruel hatred against his brother Jacob, the Prophet here charges his posterity with the same crime, as if he had said that they were too much like their father, or too much retained his perverse disposition, as they cherished and always retained revenge in their hearts and were wholly implacable.

There may have been other causes of hatred between the Idumeans and the posterity of Jacob; but notwithstanding whatever displeasure there may have been, they ought to have forgiven their brethren. It was a monstrous thing beyond endurance that a regard for their own blood did not reconcile those connected by sacred bonds. We now perceive the Prophet’s purpose, and we learn here that the Idumeans were more severely condemned than those mentioned before, for this reason: because they raged so cruelly against their own kindred.

He says in the last place, I will send fire on Teman, to consume the palaces of Bozrah. By fire he always means any kind of destruction. But he compares God’s vengeance to a burning fire. We know that when fire has once taken hold, not only of a house but of a whole city, there is no remedy.

So now the Prophet says that God’s vengeance would be dreadful, that it would consume whatever hatred there was among them: I will then send fire on Teman, which, as is well known, was the first city of Idumea.