John Calvin Commentary Amos 9:5

"For the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, [is] he that toucheth the land and it melteth, and all that dwell therein shall mourn; and it shall rise up wholly like the River, and shall sink again, like the River of Egypt;" — Amos 9:5 (ASV)

The Prophet repeats here nearly the same words as those we explained yesterday: he then used the similitude of a flood, which he mentions here again. But as the first clause is capable of various explanations, I will refer to what others think, and then to what I consider the most correct view. This sentence, that the earth trembles when it is smitten by God, is usually regarded as a general declaration; and the Prophets often exalt the power of God in order to fill us with fear, and we will see an instance of this in the next verse. Yet I have no doubt that this is a special threatening. The Lord Jehovah, then, he says, will smite the land, and it will tremble.

Then follows the similitude of which we spoke yesterday: Mourn shall all who dwell in it; and then, It will altogether ascend as a river. Here he intimates that there would be a deluge, so that the face of the earth would not appear. The land will then ascend as a river.

The ascent of the earth would be nothing other than inundation, which would cover its surface. He afterwards adds, and it shall be sunk; that is, every convenience for dwelling. This is not to be understood strictly, as I have said, of the land, but is rather to be referred to people, or to the use which people make of the earth. Sunk then shall it be as by the river of Egypt. We have said that Egypt loses its surface yearly when the Nile inundates it. But just as the inundation of the river is given to the Egyptians for fertilizing the land and rendering its produce more abundant, so the Prophet here declares that the land would be like the sea, so that there would no longer be any habitation.