John Calvin Commentary Amos 9:10

"All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, The evil shall not overtake nor meet us." — Amos 9:10 (ASV)

Amos continues with the same subject: that God, without any cruelty, would execute extreme vengeance on a reprobate people. Die, he says, by the sword all the wicked of my people. In naming the wicked of the people, he undoubtedly meant to include the whole people. However, if anyone thinks that the elect, who were mixed with the ungodly, are by implication excluded, I do not object; this is probable. But still, the Prophet speaks here of the people as a whole.

He says that the wicked of the people would perish by the sword, for it was not the sin of a few that Amos here refers to, but the sin which prevailed among the whole nation. Then all the wicked of my people shall die by the sword. He points out what sort of people they were, or at least he mentions the chief mark by which their impiety could be recognized: they obstinately despised all the judgments of God. They say, It will not draw near; nor lay hold on our account, the evil.

Security, then, which in itself always generates a contempt of God, is here mentioned as the principal mark of impiety. And undoubtedly, the vices of men reach a point that is beyond hope when they are touched neither by fear nor shame, but await God’s judgments without any concern or anxiety.

Since, then, they thus drove all threats far away from themselves—while at the same time they were ill at ease with themselves and, as it were, burying themselves in deep caverns and seeking false peace for their consciences—they were in a torpor, or rather stupor, incapable of any remedy.

It is, therefore, no wonder that the Prophet sets forth this mark of security here, when he is showing that there was no remnant of a sound mind in this people. Then all the wicked shall die by the sword, even those who say, 'It will not draw near; nor anticipate us, on our account, the evil.' For we cannot explain the word הקדים, ekodim, in any other way than by referring it to the threat.

For the Prophets, we know, commonly declared that the day of the Lord was at hand, that his hand was already armed, that it had already seized the sword. Just as, then, the Prophets, in order to strike despisers with fear, were accustomed to threaten an imminent punishment, so this Prophet does here. Wishing to expose the impious stupor of the people, he says, “You think that there will not be such haste as is foretold to you by the Prophets; but this sheer perverseness will be the cause of your ruin.”

Regarding the expression "It will not come on our account," (that is, from a regard to us), this deserves attention. Although hypocrites confess in general that they cannot escape the hand of God, they still separate themselves from the common class, as if they are secured by some peculiar privilege. They therefore set up something in opposition to God, so that they may not be blended with others. This folly the Prophet indirectly condemns by saying that hypocrites are in a quiet and tranquil state because they think that no evil will befall them in common with the rest, as they also say in Isaiah 28:15, The scourge, if it passes, will not yet reach us. So now we see what the Prophet has taught up to this point, and the meaning of these four verses which we have just explained. Now follows the promise—