John Calvin Commentary Amos 6:14

"For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith Jehovah, the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entrance of Hamath unto the brook of the Arabah." — Amos 6:14 (ASV)

At last, a denunciation follows, and this is the close of the chapter. God then, after having seriously exposed the vices which prevailed among the people of Israel, again declares that vengeance of which He had shortly before reminded them, but with this difference only: that God now points out the kind of punishment He would inflict on the Israelites.

He had said before, ‘Behold God commands;’ and then He had spoken of calamity, but did not express from where that calamity would come. But He now points it out in a special manner: Behold, He says, I am raising up against you, O house of Israel, a nation, who will straiten you from the entrance into Hemath to the river, etc.

The Prophet no doubt speaks here of the Assyrians and expresses in strong terms how dreadful the war with the Assyrians would be, which was now near at hand. For though their land and country was large (and being large and spacious, it had many outlets), yet the Prophet shows that there would be straits everywhere when the Lord would raise up on high that nation. I am, then, stirring up a nation against you.

He again calls the Lord, the God of hosts, for the same reason as before: that they might understand that all the Assyrians were at God’s disposal, and that they would stir up war whenever He gave them a signal. The Lord, then, will raise up a nation, who will straiten you. In what place? He speaks not here of strait places, but of a spacious country, which, as has been stated, had many outlets. But after the Lord had armed the Assyrians against them, all the most spacious places were made strait to them. “You shall be everywhere confined, so that there will be no open escape from death.”

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that since we are extremely deaf to those many holy warnings by which You continue to recall us to Yourself, and since we ever harden ourselves against those threats by which You terrify us, that You may break or at least correct our hardness. O grant, that we may, though late, yet in time, before final vengeance comes, attend to Your word and submit ourselves to You, and in a teachable spirit undertake Your yoke, that You might receive us into favor, and vouchsafe to us Your paternal kindness. And being at length reconciled to us, may You grant us Your blessings, which You have promised to all Your children, who are the members of Your only begotten Son our Lord. Amen.