John Calvin Commentary Amos 4:3

"And ye shall go out at the breaches, every one straight before her; and ye shall cast [yourselves] into Harmon, saith Jehovah." — Amos 4:3 (ASV)

The Prophet now expresses, in different words, what the future calamity of that kingdom would be; but he still speaks of the rich and the chief men. For though he also threatened the common people and the multitude, it was not yet necessary to name them explicitly, since when God thunders against the chief men, terror surely ought to seize the humbler classes as well.

The Prophet then intentionally directs his discourse still to the judges and the king's counselors: You shall go forth at the breaches, every one of you. We see that he still continues the same mode of speaking, for he does not count those pompous and arrogant masters as men, but still represents them as cows. “Every one,” that is, every cow, he says, shall go forth through the breaches directly in front of it. We know how strictly the rich maintain their own ranks and also how difficult it is to approach them.

But the Prophet says here that their situation would be far different: “There will not be,” he says, “a triple wall or a triple gate to keep away all disturbances, as when you live in peace and quietness; but there will be breaches on every side, and every cow shall go forth through these breaches; indeed, she shall throw herself down from the very palace; neither the pleasures nor the indulgence in which you now live will exist among you any longer; no, by no means, but you will consider it enough to seek safety by flight.

Each of you will therefore rush headlong, as when a cow, stung by the gadfly or pricked by goads, runs madly away. And we know how impetuous is the flight of cows. So also it will happen to you, says the Prophet. We now perceive the meaning of the words.

Some take הרמונה, ermune, for Armenia, because the Israelites were led away into that distant country; and others take it for Mount Amanus; but there is no reason for this. I do not take it as some do, as meaning, “In the palace,” but, on the contrary, “From the palace,” or, from the high place. You shall then throw yourselves down from the palace; that is, “You shall no longer care for your pomp and your pleasures, but will think it enough to escape the danger of death, even with an impetuosity like that of beasts, as when cows run headlong without any thought about their course.”

It was not without reason that he repeated the name of God so often, for he intended to shake the Israelites out of their complacency, since the king's counselors and the judges, as we have already stated, were extremely secure and careless, for they were, in a manner, stupefied by their own fatness.