John Gill Commentary Amos 4

Hear this word, you kine of Bashan
Or "cows of Bashan" {n}; a country beyond Jordan, inhabited by the tribes of Gad and Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh, very fruitful of pasturage, and where abundance of fat cattle were brought up; to whom persons of distinction, and of the first rank, are here compared. Aben Ezra, Jarchi, and Kimchi, interpret them of the wives of the king, princes, ministers of state, and great men; and so it may be thought that Amos, a herdsman, in his rustic manner, compliments the court ladies with this epithet, for their plumpness, wantonness, and petulancy. Though it may be the princes and great men themselves may be rather intended, and be so called for their effeminacy, and perhaps with some regard to the calves they worshipped; and chiefly because being fat and flourishing, and abounding with wealth and riches, they became wanton and mischievous; like fat cattle, broke down their fences, and would be under no restraint of the laws of God and man; entered into their neighbours' fields, seized on their property, and spoiled them of it. So the Targum paraphrases it, ``you rich of substance.'' In like manner the principal men among the Jews, in the times of Christ, are called bulls of Bashan, (Psalms 22:12) ;

that [are] in the mountains of Samaria;
like cattle grazing on a mountain; the metaphor is still continued: Samaria was the principal city of Ephraim, the metropolis of the ten tribes, (Isaiah 7:9) ; situated on a mountain; Mr. Maundrell ^F15 says, upon a long mount, of an oval figure, having first a fruitful valley, and then a ring of hills running about it. Here the kings of Israel had their palace, and kept their court, and where their princes and nobles resided. Ahab is said to be king of Samaria, (1 Kings 21:1) ;

which oppress the poor, which crush the needy ;
by laying heavy taxes upon them; exacting more of them than they are able to pay; lessening their wages for work done, or withholding it from them; or by taking from them that little they have, and so reducing them to the utmost extremity, and refusing to do them justice in courts of judicature:

which say to their masters, bring, and let us drink ;
Kimchi, who interprets these words of the wives of great men, supposes their husbands are here addressed, who are, and acknowledged to be, their masters or lords; see (1 Peter 3:6) ; whom they call upon to bring them money taken from the poor, or for which they have sold them, that they may have wherewith to eat and drink, fare sumptuously, and live in a grand manner, feasting themselves and their visitors:

or these are the words of inferior officers to superior ones, desiring they might have leave to pillage the poor, that so they might live in a more gay and splendid manner, and in rioting and drunkenness, in chambering and wantonness. So the Targum, ``give us power, that we may spoil it.'' Or rather these words are directed to the masters of the poor, who had power over them, had them in their clutches, in whose debt they were; or they had something against them, and therefore these corrupt judges, and wicked magistrates, desire they might be brought before them; who for a bribe would give the cause against them, right or wrong, so long as they got something to feast themselves with; or they are spoken by the rich, to the masters of the poor, to whom they had sold them, to bring them the purchase money, that they might indulge and gratify their sensual appetites; see (Amos 2:6Amos 2:7) (Micah 3:1–3) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F15: Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 59. Ed. 7.

The Lord God has sworn by his holiness
That is, by himself, holiness being his nature, and an essential attribute of his; this is done to ascertain the truth of what is after said, and that men may be assured of the certain performance of it. Some render it, "by his holy place"; and interpret it of heaven; so Aben Ezra and Kimchi; which is not likely; see (Matthew 5:34) (James 5:12) . The Targum is,

``the Lord God has sworn by his word in his holiness;'' that, lo, the days shall come upon you ;
speedily, swiftly, and at unawares: that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fish
hooks ;

the enemy, the king of Assyria, or God by him, would take them out of their own land, as fish out of water, out of their own element, and carry them captive into a strange land, both them and their posterity; and which should be as easily done as fish are taken with the hook, even though they were as the kine of Bashan. The word for fish hooks signify "thorns" ^F16 , and is by some so rendered; these perhaps being used in angling, before iron hooks were invented. The Targum is, ``that people shall take you away on their shields, and your daughters in fishermen's ^F17 boats;'' see (Jeremiah 16:16) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F16: (twryob) "spinis", Mercerus, Liveleus, Drusius, Grotius.
• F17: So it is interpreted by R. Sol Urbin Ohel Moed, fol. 65. 2. likewise Elias says the word signifies a small ship, or a boat that is in a large ship, Tishbi, p. 59. So Vatablus interprets it, "scaphas piscatorias, [sive] cymbas"; and some in Munster.

And you shall go out at the breaches
Not at the gates of the city, as they had used to do at pleasure; but at the breaches of the walls of it, made by the enemy, in order to make their escape, if possible; they who had broke down the fences of law and justice, and injured the poor and needy, shall now have the walls of their city broken down and they themselves exposed to the most imminent danger, and glad to get out of them to save their lives:

every [cow] at that [which is] before her ;
every woman, as Jarchi and Kimchi; or every great person, compared to the kine of Bashan, shall make up as fast as he can to the breach before him, to get out; shall follow one another as quick as they can, and clamber on one another's backs, as such cattle do, to get out first; which shows the hurry and confusion they should be in, upon the taking of their city Samaria:

and you shall cast [them] into the palace, saith the Lord ;
either their children, or their substance, which they shall cast into the royal palace, or fort, or citadel, for safety. Some render it, "you shall cast yourselves"; so Abarbinel; that is, such as could not get out at the breaches should betake themselves to the palace or fort for their security. The Targum of the whole is, ``and they shall break down the wall upon you, and bring you out, gathered everyone before him, and carry you beyond the mountains of Armenia.'' And so some others, taking it to be the name of a place, render it, "you shall be cast into Armon", or Mona; which Bochart ^F18 suspects to be the same with Minni, mentioned with Ararat, a mountain in Armenia, (Jeremiah 51:27) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F18: Geograph. Sacr. l. 1. c. 3. col. 20.

Come to Bethel and transgress and what follows, are ironic and sarcastic speeches, not giving liberty to sin, but in this way reproving for it: Bethel was one of the places where the calves were placed and worshipped: and here they are bid to go thither, and go on with and continue in their idolatrous worship, by which they transgressed the law of God, and mark what would be the issue of it. The sense is the same with (Ecclesiastes 11:9); see (Ezekiel 20:29); at Gilgal multiply transgression; that is, multiply acts of idolatry: Gilgal was a place where high places and altars were erected, and idols worshipped; as it had formerly been a place of religious worship of the true God, the ten tribes made use of it in the times of their apostasy for idolatrous worship; see (Hosea 4:15) (9:15) (12:11);

and bring your sacrifices every morning; and offer them to your idols, as you were used formerly to offer them unto the true God, according to the law of Moses, (Exodus 29:38Exodus 29:39); [and] your tithes after three years; the third year after the sabbatical year was the year of tithing; and after the tithe of the increase of the fruits of the earth, there was "maaser sheni", the second tithe, the same with "maaser ani", the poor's tithe, which was given to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless; and the widow, to eat with them, (Deuteronomy 14:22–28) (26:12); and this they are sarcastically bid to observe in their idolatrous way.

It is, in the Hebrew text, "after three days"; and so the Targum, "your tithes in three days;" days being put for years, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe. It may be rendered, "after three years of days"^F19; three complete years.

FOOTNOTES:

• F19: (Mymy tvlvl) "post tres [annos] dierum", Piscator.

And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven
Which some observe was contrary to the law, which forbids all leaven in a meat offering; or "burning" it in any offering, (Leviticus 2:11) ; which the word ^F20 here used suggests was done by these idolaters, as well as eaten by them, their priests not liking to eat unleavened bread; but, though it was forbidden in the meat offering, was allowed, yes, ordered, with the sacrifice of thanksgiving, (Leviticus 7:13) . So Abarbinel understands it here, as what was according to law, but ironically commanded to be offered to idols:

and proclaim [and] publish the free offerings ;
let all know of them when you make your freewill offerings, and invite them to partake of them:

for this likes you, O you children of Israel, says the Lord God ;
or you love to offer such sacrifices to your idols, rather than to the Lord God; preferring these to him, and delighting more in the worship of them than of him.

FOOTNOTES:

• F20: (rjq) "incendendo", Munster, Tigurine version; "incendito incensum", Vatablus.