John Calvin Commentary Amos 2:4-5

"Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Judah, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have rejected the law of Jehovah, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have caused them to err, after which their fathers did walk: but I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem." — Amos 2:4-5 (ASV)

Amos now turns his discourse to the tribe of Judah, and to that kingdom, which still continued in the family of David. He has until now spoken of heathen and uncircumcised nations: what he said of them was a prelude to the destruction which was near the chosen people; for when God did not spare others who had sinned through ignorance, what was to become of the people of Israel, who had been taught in the law?

For a servant, knowing his master’s will, and not doing it, is worthy of many stripes (Luke 12:47). God could not, then, forgive the children of Abraham, whom he had adopted as his special people, when he inflicted such grievous punishments on heathen nations, whose ignorance, as it is commonly thought by men, was excusable.

It is indeed true, that all who sin without law will justly perish, as Paul says in Romans 2, but when a comparison is made between the children of Israel and the wretched heathens, who were immersed in errors, the latter were doubtless worthy of being pardoned, when compared with that people who had betrayed their perverseness and, as it were, intentionally resolved to bring on themselves the vengeance of God.

The Prophet then, having until now spoken of the Gentiles, now turns his discourse to the chosen people, the children of Abraham. But he speaks of the tribe of Judah, from which he sprang, as I said at the beginning; and he did this, lest anyone should charge him with favoring his own countrymen: he had, indeed, migrated into the kingdom of Israel, but he was there a stranger.

We shall now see how severely he reproved them.

Had he, then, been silent regarding the tribe of Judah, he might have been subject to slander. Many might have said that there was collusion between him and his own countrymen, that he concealed their vices, and that he fiercely denounced their neighbors through wicked rivalry, in order to transfer the kingdom back to the family of David.

Therefore, so that no such suspicion might tarnish his doctrine, the Prophet here summons the tribe of Judah to judgment and speaks in no milder language of the Jews than of other nations. For he says that they, through their stubbornness, had so provoked God’s wrath that there was no hope of pardon. Indeed, such was the mass of their vices that God would now justly execute extreme vengeance, as moderate chastisement would not be sufficient.

We now understand then the Prophet’s design.

I come now to the words: he says, For they have despised the law of Jehovah. Here he charges the Jews with apostasy, for they had cast aside the worship of God and the pure doctrine of religion. This was a most grievous crime. Thus we see that the Prophet here condemns freely and honestly, as was fitting for him, the vices of his own people, so that there was no room for slander when he afterwards became a severe censor and reprover of the Israelites. For he does not lightly touch on something wrong in the tribe of Judah, but says that they were apostates and faithless, having cast aside the law of God.

But it may be asked, why the Prophet charges the Jews with such an atrocious crime, since religion, as we have seen in the Prophecies of Hosea, still existed among them? But to this there is a ready answer: the worship of God had become corrupt among them, though they had not so openly departed from it as the Israelites. Circumcision indeed remained among the Israelites, but their sacrifices were pollutions, their temples were brothels. They thought that they worshipped God; but as a temple had been built at Bethel contrary to God’s command, the whole worship was a profanation. The Jews were somewhat purer; but they, we know, had also degenerated from the genuine worship of God. Therefore, the Prophet does not unjustly say here that they had despised the law of God.

But we must notice the explanation which immediately follows—that they kept not his statutes. The way, then, by which Amos proves that the Jews were covenant-breakers, and that having repudiated God’s law, they had fallen into wicked superstitions, is by saying that they did not keep the precepts of God.

It may, however, appear that he treats them here with too much severity; for one might not altogether keep God’s commands—either through ignorance, carelessness, or some other fault—and yet not be a covenant-breaker or an apostate. I answer that in these words of the Prophet, mere negligence is not what is blamed in the Jews; rather, they are condemned for intentionally, that is, knowingly and willfully departing from the commandments of God and devising for themselves various modes of worship.

It is not, then, keeping the precepts of God when men do not continue under his law but audaciously contrive new forms of worship for themselves; they do not regard what God commands but seize upon anything pleasing that comes to their minds. This crime the Prophet now condemns in the Jews, and this is why they had despised the law of God.

For men should never presume to change anything in the worship of God; rather, due reverence for God ought to influence them. If they were persuaded of this—that there is no wisdom but what comes from God—they would surely confine themselves within his commands. Whenever, then, they invent new and fictitious forms of worship, they sufficiently show that they do not regard what the Lord wills, what he enjoins, or what he forbids. Thus, then, they despise his law and even cast it away.

This is a remarkable passage. For we see, first, that a most grievous sin is condemned by the Prophet: that the Jews did not confine themselves to God’s law but took the liberty of innovating. This is one thing. We also learn how much God values obedience, which, as it is said in another place, is better than all sacrifices (1 Samuel 15:22). And so that we may not think this a light or trifling sin, let us notice the expression—that they despised the law of God. Everyone ought to dread this as a most monstrous thing, for we cannot despise the law of God without insulting his majesty. And yet the Holy Spirit declares here that we repudiate and reject the law of God unless we wholly follow what it commands and continue within the limits prescribed by it. We now perceive what the Prophet means.

But he also adds that their own lies deceived them or caused them to go astray. He here confirms his preceding doctrine, for the Jews always had a defense ready at hand: that they did with good intent what the Prophet condemned in them. They, to be sure, diligently worshipped God, though they mixed their own leaven, by which their sacrifices were corrupted. It was not their purpose to spend their substance in vain, to undergo great expenses in sacrifices, and to undertake much labor, if they had not thought that it was service acceptable to God.

As, then, the pretense of good intention (as they say) always deceives the unbelieving, the Prophet condemns this pretense and shows it to be wholly fallacious and to no avail. “It is nothing,” he says, “that they pretend before God some good intention; their own lies deceive them.” And Amos, no doubt, mentions here these lies in opposition to the commands of God.

As soon, then, as men swerve from God’s word, they involve themselves in many delusions and cannot help but go astray; and this deserves special notice. We indeed see how much wisdom the world claims for itself, for as soon as we invent anything, we are greatly delighted with it; and the ape, according to the old proverb, is always pleased with its own offspring. But this vice especially prevails when by our devices we corrupt and adulterate the worship of God.

Therefore, the Prophet here declares that whatever is added to God’s word, and whatever men invent in their own minds, is a lie: “All this,” he says, “is nothing but imposture.” We now see what use good intention is: by this, indeed, men harden themselves, but they cannot make the Lord retract what he has once declared by the mouth of his Prophet.

Let us then be careful to continue within the boundaries of God’s word and never to leap over to one side or the other; for when we turn aside even a little from the pure word of God, we immediately become involved in many deceptions.

It then follows, After which their fathers have walked; literally it is, Which their fathers have walked after them: but we have given the sense. The Prophet here exaggerates their sin, the insatiable rage of the people, for the children now followed their fathers. This vice, we know, prevailed in all ages among the Jews; leaving the word of God, they always followed their own dreams and the delusions of Satan. Since God had now often tried to correct this vice by his Prophets, and no fruit followed, the Prophet charges them here with stubbornness, and by this circumstance enhances the sin of the Jews: “It is nothing new,” he says, “for children to imitate their fathers and to be wholly like them: they are then the bad eggs of bad ravens.” So also said Stephen,

You are hard and uncircumcised in heart, and resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers also did formerly (Acts 7:51).

We now understand the intention of the Prophet.

But we thus learn how useless is the subterfuge resorted to by the Papists when they boast of antiquity. For they set up this shield against the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel: that theirs is the old religion, that they were not its first founders, but that they follow what has been handed down to them from early times and observed for many ages. When the Papists boastingly declare all this, they think that they say enough to put God to silence and wholly to reject his Word. But we see how frivolous this sort of quibbling is, and how worthless before God. For the Prophet does not concede to the Jews the example of their fathers as an excuse, but rather sets forth their sin as being greater because they followed their faithless fathers, who had forsaken the Law of the Lord. The same thing is also said by Ezekiel,

After the precepts of your fathers walk not (Ezekiel 20:18).

We now see what sort of crime it is of which the Prophet speaks. At last a threatening follows: The Lord says, Fire will I send on Judah, which shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem. But all this we have already explained.