John Calvin Commentary Amos 3:13-14

"Hear ye, and testify against the house of Jacob, saith the Lord Jehovah, the God of hosts. For in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, I will also visit the altars of Beth-el; and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground." — Amos 3:13-14 (ASV)

Amos, I have no doubt, added this passage to show that the superstitions in which he knew the Israelites falsely trusted would be so far from helping them that they would, on the contrary, lead them to ruin, because the people were, by these superstitions, provoking God’s wrath even more against themselves.

When the Israelites heard that God was offended with them, they looked to their sacrifices and other superstitions as their shield and cover, for this is how hypocrites mock God. But we know that the sacrifices offered at Bethel were mere profanations, for the whole worship was spurious. God had indeed chosen for Himself a place where He designed sacrifices to be offered.

The Israelites built a temple without any command, indeed, against the manifest prohibition of God. Since they had thus violated and corrupted the whole worship of God, it was strange madness for them to dare to impose their superstitions on God, as if they could thereby pacify His displeasure! The Prophet then rebukes this stupidity and says, In the day when God shall visit the sins of Israel, He will inflict punishment on the altars of Bethel. By the sins the Prophet mentions, he means plunder, unjust exactions, robbery, and similar crimes, for, as we have seen, unbridled cruelty, avarice, and perfidiousness then prevailed among the people.

Therefore, he now says, when God shall visit the sins of Israel—that is, when He shall punish avarice, pride, and cruelty, when He shall execute vengeance on pillaging and robberies—He shall then also visit the altars of Bethel. The Israelites thought that God would be favorable to them while they sacrificed, even though their lives were wholly depraved; they indeed thought that every impurity was purified by their expiations, and they thought that God was satisfied while they performed an external worship.

Hence, when they offered sacrifices, they imagined that they thereby made a pact with God and presented such compensation that He dared not punish their sins. “Their own imagination greatly deceives them,” says Amos. For, as we know, this was, at the same time, their principal sin—that they rashly dared to change the worship of God, that they dared to build a temple without His command; in short, that they had violated the whole law.

God then will begin with these superstitions when executing judgment for the sins of the people. We now understand the Prophet’s design in saying that God would visit the altars of Bethel when inflicting punishment on the sins of Israel.

But as it was difficult to convince them of this subject, the Prophet here invites attention, Hear ye, and testify, he says, in the house of Jacob. Having commanded them to hear, he introduces God as the speaker, for the Israelites, as we know they were accustomed to do, might have pretended that Amos had, without authority, threatened such a punishment.

“Nothing is mine,” he says. We then see the design of this address when he says, Hear: he shows God to be the author of this prophecy, and that nothing was his own but the ministry. Hear ye, then, and testify in the house of Jacob. By the word testify, he seals his prophecy that it might have more weight, so that they might not think it was a mere mockery, but might know that God was dealing seriously with them. Then testify in the house of Jacob.

And for the same purpose are the titles which he ascribes to God, The Lord Jehovah, he says, the God of hosts. He might have used only one word, “Thus says Jehovah,” as the prophets mostly do. But he ascribes dominion to Him and also brings His power before them—for what end? To strike the Israelites with terror, so that vain flatteries might no longer, as before, take possession of them, but that they might understand that they were so far from doing anything to pacify God’s wrath by their superstitions, that they thereby provoked Him all the more.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that since we so provoke You daily by our sins that we are worthy of eternal destruction, and no good remains in us, and though we are severely chastised with temporal punishments, You do not yet take from us the hope of that mercy which You have promised in Your Son to those who truly and from the heart repent and call on You as their Father—O grant that, being touched with the sense of our evils, we may, in true humility and with the genuine feeling of penitence, offer ourselves as a sacrifice to You, and seek pardon with such groaning, that having undergone temporal punishments, we may finally enjoy that grace which is laid up for all sinners who truly and from the heart turn to You and implore that mercy which has been prepared for all those who really prove themselves to be the members of Your only begotten Son. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

One thing escaped me yesterday: pain in my head prevented me from looking at the book. The Prophet says in the twelfth verse (Amos 3:12), that the children of Israel would be delivered as when a shepherd rescues only an ear, or some part of a sheep. He adds, So the children of Israel shall be rescued who dwell in Samaria in a corner of a bed, and at Damascus on a couch. I did not explain this similitude.

Some think that Damascus is here compared with Samaria as the more opulent city, for Jeroboam the Second had extended the limits of his kingdom to that city and subdued some portion of the kingdom of Syria. They then suppose that Samaria is called a corner of a bed on account of its confined state, and Damascus a couch; but there is no reason for this.

He might have better called Damascus a bed. Others give this exposition: “Those who shall escape among the people of Israel shall not be the valiant and the brave, who will oppose the attack of the enemy or defend themselves with arms in hand; but those shall be safe who will hide themselves and flee to their beds.”

But the Prophet seems here to compare Damascus and Samaria to beds for this reason: because the Israelites thought that they would find in them a safe refuge. He implies, “Though you then dwell at Samaria and Damascus as in a safe nest, it will still be a miracle if a few of you escape; it will be as when a shepherd carries away the ear of a sheep after the lion has satiated itself.”

This seems to be the genuine meaning of the Prophet, for I do not doubt that he derides the foolish confidence in which the Israelites indulged, thinking that they were secure from all danger when shut up within the gates of Samaria or Damascus.

“You think that these nests will be safe for you; but lions shall break through, and hardly one in a hundred, or in a thousand, shall escape in a corner of a bed; it will be as when a lion leaves an ear or part of a leg.”