John Calvin Commentary Amos 1:9-10

"Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Tyre, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole people to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant: but I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, and it shall devour the palaces thereof." — Amos 1:9-10 (ASV)

He uses nearly the same words concerning Tyrus as he did concerning Gaza, and charges it with the same sin: that of removing the Jews from their country as refugees and exiles into Idumea, and of selling them as captives to the Idumeans. Just as with the others, he declares the same concerning Tyrus: that they had not sinned lightly, and therefore no moderate chastisement was sufficient, for they had for a long time abused God’s forbearance and had become stubborn in their wickedness.

But when he says, they had not been mindful of the covenant of brethren, some refer this to Hiram and David, for we know that they had a brotherly relationship and called each other brothers; so great was the kindness between them. Some, therefore, think that the Tyrians are condemned here for having forgotten this covenant, for there ought to have remained among them some regard for the friendship that had existed between the two kings.

But I do not know whether this is too strained a view. I rather incline to another: that the Syrians delivered up the Jews and the Israelites to the Idumeans, even though they knew them to be brethren. And those who implicate themselves in a matter of this kind are by no means excusable.

When I see one conspiring for the ruin of his own brother, I see a detestable and monstrous thing; if I do not abhor participation in the same crime, I am involved in the same guilt. Therefore, when the Syrians saw the Idumeans raging cruelly against their brethren (for they were descended from the same family), they certainly ought to have shown the Idumeans how alienated they were from all humanity and how perfidious they were against their own brethren and relatives. Now the Prophet says that they had been unmindful of the covenant of brethren, because they made themselves accomplices in such a great and execrable crime: carrying away Jews into Idumea and shutting them up there, when they knew that the Idumeans sought nothing else but the entire ruin of their own brethren. This seems to be the true meaning of the Prophet.

But he adds that God would send a fire on the wall of Tyrus to consume its palaces.

When this happened cannot be known with certainty. For though Tyrus was demolished by Alexander, as Gaza also was, I do not doubt that these cities suffered this calamity long before the coming of Alexander of Macedon. And it is probable, as I have already reminded you, that the Assyrians laid waste these countries and also took possession of Tyrus, though they did not demolish that city.

For in Alexander’s time there was no king there; it had been changed into a republic, and the people were free and held the chief authority. There must, then, have been no small changes there, for the state of the city and its government were wholly different from what they had been. We may then conclude that Tyrus was laid waste by the Assyrians but afterwards recovered its strength and was a free city in the time of Alexander the Great.

Let us now proceed, for I will not dwell on every word, as we see that the Prophet repeats the same expressions.