Amos 3:11

3:9-15 That power which is an instrument of unrighteousness, will justly be brought down and broken. What is got and kept wrongfully, will not be kept long. Some are at ease, but there will come a day of visitation, and in that day, all they are proud of, and put confidence in, shall fail them. God will inquire into the sins of which they have been guilty in their houses, the robbery they have stored up, and the luxury in which they lived. The pomp and pleasantness of men's houses, do not fortify against God's judgments, but make sufferings the more grievous and vexatious. Yet a remnant, according to the election of grace, will be secured by our great and good Shepherd, as from the jaws of destruction, in the worst times.

Therefore thus saith the Lord God,.... Because of these tumults and riots, oppression and injustice, violence and robbery: an adversary there shall be even round about the land: not Tyre, as Theodoret renders the word; but the king of Assyria, who invaded the land of Israel in the days of Hoshea, took Samaria, and carried Israel captive, and placed them in foreign countries, 2 Kings 17:6; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee; take away their riches, demolish their fortresses, and strip them of everything in which they put their confidence: and thy palaces shall be spoiled; plundered of the treasures laid up in them, and pulled down to the ground; and a just retaliation this for their being the repositories of ill gotten substance and wealth.

(11) An adversary.— This rendering is to be preferred to “affliction” (Chald., Syr.). It is the subject of the following verb “bring down,” Assyria being referred to, though not in express terms. The reading of LXX., “O Tyre, thy land round about thee is desolate,” is incoherent, and confounds Tzăr with tzôr. Thy strength points mainly to the stronghold of Samaria, which the enemy was to bring down or reduce to ruins, but it may likewise include the chief warriors who were to be led away captive.

Therefore; because of all the violence and rapine, with other crying sins, multiplied against God in the midst of them. An adversary, the Assyrian with united forces, shall be even round about the land, on all sides shall beset thee; the whole land shall be but as one besieged city, out of which none, or so few as next to none, shall escape. He shall bring down thy strength from thee; lay low all thy fortresses, break all thy power, kill thy valiant men, destroy thy armies, and by force take thy strong holds. Thy palaces shall be spoiled; where thou laidst up thy spoils gotten by violence and oppression, there thy enemy shall find them, and take them away as lawful plunder; and when thy riches are carried out, they shall burn the palaces themselves too.

11. Translate, "An adversary (the abruptness produces a startling effect)! and that too, from every side of the land." So in the fulfilment, 2Ki 17:5: "The king of Assyria (Shalmaneser) came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years." bring down thy strength from thee—that is, bring thee down from thy strength (the strength on which thou didst boast thyself): all thy resources (Pr 10:15). palaces shall be spoiled—a just retribution in kind (Am 3:10). The palaces in which spoils of robbery were stored up, "shall be spoiled."

Verse 11. - An adversary. The Hebrew is forcible, the Lord speaking as though he saw the fee present: "an enemy and around the land." Ewald and Hitzig take tsar as an abstract noun, "distress;" the LXX. and Aquila, pointing it differently, read, Τύρος , but the continuation of the sentence is scarcely to be deemed a translation, κυκλόθεν ἡ γῆ σου ἐρημωθήσεται "Thy land shall be made desolate round about thee" The adversary meant is Shalmaneser, who attacked Israel more than once and besieged Samaria; or his successor, Sargon, who claims to have reduced the city and removed the inhabitants ( 2 Kings 17 and 2 Kings 18:9, etc.; see Introduction to Micah). Thy strength. All wherein thou trustedst shall be brought down to the ground ( Obadiah 1:3 ). Palaces , in which were stored the fruits of injustice and rapine (ver. 10). Amos 3:11

11–15 . The sentence. An adversary ] or Distress , a rendering which most moderns prefer. there shall be even round about ] The Hebrew is harsh: a very slight change, supported by Pesh. ( יְסֹבֵב for וּסְבִב ), yields shall surround (or encircle ), which is to be preferred. he shall bring down thy strength ] or, thy strength shall be brought down , as the same Hebrew may be rendered (Ges.-Kautzsch, § 144. 3a), though Wellh. would read hûrad for hôrîd . The foe will encircle the land; the strong ‘crown’ of Samaria will be ‘brought down’ to the ground (cf. Deuteronomy 28:52 ; Ezekiel 30:6 ; Isaiah 28:2 b ); and its palaces ( Amos 3:10 ) will be plundered.

Therefore thus saith the Lord God - There was no human redress. The oppressor was mighty, but mightier the Avenger of the poor. Man would not help; therefore God would. "An adversary" there shall be, "even round about the land;" literally, "An enemy, and around the land!" The prophets speaks, as seeing him. The abruptness tells how suddenly that enemy should come, and hem in the whole land on all sides. What an unity in their destruction! He sees one "enemy, and" him everywhere, all "around," encircling, encompassing, as with a net, their whole land, narrowing in, as he advanced, until it closed around and upon them. The corruption was universal, so should be the requital. And he shall bring down thy strength from - (that is, away from) thee The word "bring down" implies a loftiness of pride which was to be brought low, as in Obadiah, "thence will I bring thee down" Obadiah 1:4; and in Isaiah, "I will bring down their strength to the earth" Isaiah 63:6. But further, their strength was not only, as in former oppressions, to be "brought down," but "forth from thee. Thy palaces shall be spoiled;" those palaces, in which they had heaped up the spoils of the oppressed. Man's sins are, in God's Providence, the means of their punishment. "Woe to thee that spoilest and" Isaiah 33:1 (that is, whereas) thou wert "not spoiled, and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherowsly with thee!

when thou perfectest, spoiling, thou shalt be spoiled; when thou accomplihest dealing treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee." Their spoiling should invite the spoiler, their oppressions should attract the oppressor and they, with all which they held to be their strength, should go "forth" into captivity. Rib.: "The Lord will be justified in His sayings, and in His works, when He executeth judgment on 'us and shall be cleared,' even by the most unjust judges, 'when He is judged.' Psalm 51:4. He cites the Ashdodites and Egyptians as judges, who were witnesses of His benefits to this people, that they might see how justly He punished them. And now the hardened Jews themselves, Turks and all Hagarenes, might be called to behold at once our iniquities, and 'the mercies of the Lord, that we are not consumed' Lamentations 3:22. If these were gathered on the mountains of Samaria, and surveyed from aloft our sins, who worship Mammon and Vain-glory and Venus for God, doubtless the Name of God would through us be blasphemed among the pagan. 'Imagine yourselves withdrawn for a while to the summit of some lofty mountain,' says the blessed martyr Cyprian , 'view thence the face of things, as they lie beneath you, yourself free from contact of earth, cast your eyes hither and thither, and mark the turmoils of this billowy world.