John Calvin Commentary Amos 1:2

"And he said, Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the pastures of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither." — Amos 1:2 (ASV)

He employs here the same words that we explained yesterday in the lecture on Joel, but for another purpose. By saying, Jehovah from Zion shall roar, Joel intended to set forth the power of God, who had been for a time silent, as though he could not repel his enemies.

As God was then despised by the ungodly, Joel declares that he had power by which he could instantly break down and destroy all his enemies and defend his Church and chosen people.

But now Amos, as he addresses the Israelites, here defends the pure worship of God from all contempt. He declares to the Israelites that however much they wearied themselves in their superstitions, they still worshipped their own devices, for God repudiated all the religion they thought they had.

An implied or indirect contrast, then, is to be understood between Mount Zion and the temples that the first Jeroboam built in Dan and Bethel. The Israelites imagined that they worshipped the God of their father Abraham; and there were in those places greater displays (pompae—pomps) than at Jerusalem.

But the Prophet Amos pours contempt on all these fictitious forms of worship, as though he said, “You indeed boast that the God of Abraham is honored and worshipped by you; but you are degenerate, you are covenant breakers, you are treacherous towards God. He does not dwell with you, for the sanctuaries that you have made for yourselves are nothing but brothels. God has chosen no habitation for himself except Mount Zion; there is his perpetual rest: Roar then will Jehovah from Zion.”

We now see what the Prophet had in view. He not only shows here that God was the author of his doctrine, but he also distinguishes between the true God and the idols that the first Jeroboam made. Jeroboam, by this artifice, intended to withdraw the ten tribes from the house of David and wholly to alienate them from the tribe of Judah; it was then that he set up the calves in Dan and Bethel.

The Prophet now shows that all these superstitions are condemned by the true God: Jehovah then shall roar from Zion, he will utter his voice from Jerusalem. He no doubt wished here to terrify the Israelites, who thought they had peace with God.

Since, then, they abused his long-suffering, Amos now says that they would eventually find that he was not asleep. “When God then shall long bear with your iniquities, he will at last rise up for judgment.”

Roaring signifies, as we said yesterday, the terrible voice of God. But the Prophet here speaks of God’s voice, rather than of actual judgments executed, so that the Israelites might learn that the examples of punishments that God executes in the world do not happen by chance or at random, but proceed from his threats.

In short, the Prophet implies that all punishments that God inflicts on the ungodly and the despisers of his word are only the executions of what the Prophets proclaimed. This is so that people, if there is any hope of their repentance, might anticipate the destruction that they hear to be near.

The Prophet then highly commends here the truth of what God teaches, saying that it is not something that vanishes, but something that is accomplished. For when he destroys nations and kingdoms, it happens according to prophecies: God then shall utter his voice from Jerusalem.

Then it follows, And mourn shall the habitations of shepherds. אבל, abel, means to mourn, and also to be laid waste, and to perish. Either sense will well suit this place. If we read, mourn, etc., then we must render the following thus: and ashamed shall be the head, or top, of Carmel. But if we read, perish, etc., then the verb בש, besh, must be translated, wither; and as we know that there were rich pastures on Carmel, I prefer this second rendering: wither then shall the top of Carmel; and the first clause must be taken thus: and perish shall the habitations of shepherds.

As to what is intended, we understand the Prophet’s meaning to be that whatever was pleasant and valuable in the kingdom of Israel would soon perish, because God would utter his voice from Zion.

The meaning then is this: “You now lie secure, but God will soon, and even suddenly, put forth his power to destroy you. This he will do because he denounces on you destruction now by me, and will raise up other Prophets to be heralds of his vengeance. This God will execute by foreign and heathen nations. Yet your destruction will be according to these threats that you now count as nothing. You indeed think them to be empty words, but God will at last show that what he declares will be fully accomplished.”

With respect to Carmel, there were two mountains of this name; but as they were both very fertile, there is no need to take much trouble to inquire of which Carmel the Prophet speaks. What has been said is sufficient: that such a judgment is denounced on the kingdom of Israel as would consume all its fatness. For as we shall see later, and the same thing has been already stated by the Prophet Hosea, there was great fertility of pastures in that kingdom.

We must, at the same time, observe that the Prophet, who was a shepherd, speaks according to his own character and the manner of life that he followed. Another might have said, ‘Mourn shall the whole country, tremble shall the palaces,’ or something like this; but the Prophet speaks of Mount Carmel and of the habitations of shepherds, for he was a shepherd.

His doctrine no doubt was despised, and many profane men probably said, “What! he thinks that he is still with his cows and with his sheep; he boasts that he is God’s prophet, and yet he is ever engrossed by his stalls and his sheepfolds.” It is then by no means improbable that he was thus derided by scornful men. But he purposely intended to blunt their petulance by mingling with what he said as a Prophet those kinds of expressions that savored of his occupation as a shepherd.