John Calvin Commentary Amos 4:2

"The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that they shall take you away with hooks, and your residue with fish-hooks." — Amos 4:2 (ASV)

Here Amos declares what sort of punishment awaited those fat cattle, who, being well-fed, despised God and were sluggish in their fatness. He therefore says that the days were near when they would be taken away together with all that they had, and all their posterity, as by a hook of a fisherman.

But to give more effect to his pronouncement, he says that God had sworn by His sanctuary. The simple word of God should indeed have been sufficient; but as we do not easily embrace the promises of God, so also hypocrites and the reprobate are not easily terrified by His threats, but they scoff at, or at least regard as empty, what God's servants declare. It was then necessary that God should interpose this oath, so that complacent people might be more effectually aroused.

“The Lord then has sworn by His sanctuary.” It is singular that God should swear by His temple rather than by Himself; and this seems strange, for the Lord is accustomed to swear by Himself for this reason—because there is none greater by whom He can swear, as the Apostle says (Hebrews 6:13). God then seems to transfer the honor due to Himself to stones and wood, which appears by no means consistent.

But the name of the temple amounts to the same thing as the name of God. God then says that He had sworn by the sanctuary because He Himself is invisible, and the temple was His visible representation, by which He revealed Himself as visible; it was also a sign and symbol of religion, where the face of God shone forth.

God did not then divest Himself of His own glory so that He might adorn the temple with it; but He rather accommodated Himself here to the simple understanding of people, for He could not be known in Himself, but in a certain way appeared to them in the temple. Hence, He swore by the temple.

But the special reason, which interpreters have not pointed out, should be noted: that God, by swearing by His sanctuary, repudiated all the false forms of worship in which the Israelites gloried, as we have already seen.

The meaning is this—“God, who is rightly worshipped on Mount Zion and who seeks to be invoked there only, swears by Himself; and though holiness dwells in Him alone, He yet sets before you the symbol of His holiness, the sanctuary at Jerusalem. He therefore repudiates all your forms of worship and regards your temples as brothels.”

Thus, we see that this expression includes a contrast between the sanctuary, where the Jews rightly and legitimately worshipped God, and the false temples which Jeroboam built, as well as the high places where the Israelites imagined that they worshipped Him. Now we understand what is meant by the words that God swore by His sanctuary.

And He swore by His sanctuary that the days would come, indeed, were near, in which they would be taken away with hooks, or with shields. צנה, tsane, means in Hebrew 'to be cold'; but צנות, tsanut, denotes shields in that language, and sometimes fishing hooks. Some still think that the instrument by which the flesh is pulled off is intended, as though the Prophet were still alluding to his former comparison.

However, something entirely different seems to be meant here: namely, that these fat cows would be drawn out like a small fish by a hook, for afterwards he again mentions a thorn or a hook.

It is as though he had said, “You are indeed of great weight, and you are very heavy because of your fatness; but this your bulk will not prevent God from quickly taking you away, just as one draws out a fish with a hook.”

We see how well these two different comparisons harmonize: “You are now trusting in your own fatness, but God will draw you out as if you were of no weight at all. You shall therefore be dragged away by your enemies, not as fat cows but as small fish, and a hook will be sufficient to draw you away into remote lands.”

This change should have seriously affected the Israelites when they understood that they would be stripped of their fatness and wealth, and then taken away as though they were small fish—that a hook would be enough, and there would be no need for large wagons.