Amos 9:13

9:11-15 Christ died to gather together the children of God that were scattered abroad, here said to be those who were called by his name. The Lord saith this, who doeth this, who can do it, who has determined to do it, the power of whose grace is engaged for doing it. Verses 13-15 may refer to the early times of Christianity, but will receive a more glorious fulfilment in the events which all the prophets more or less foretold, and may be understood of the happy state when the fulness both of the Jews and the Gentiles come into the church. Let us continue earnest in prayer for the fulfilment of these prophecies, in the peace, purity, and the beauty of the church. God marvellously preserves his elect amidst the most fearful confusions and miseries. When all seems desperate, he wonderfully revives his church, and blesses her with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. And great shall be the glory of that period, in which not one good thing promised shall remain unfulfilled.

Amos 9:13 . Behold the days come — Here we have another promise, literally to be understood of the abundant plenty which God would bestow on the returned captives, and mystically of the abundant grace given and blessings conferred in gospel days. That the ploughman shall overtake the reaper — He who breaks up the ground, and prepares it for the seed, shall be ready to tread on the heels of the reaper; who shall have a harvest so large, that before he can gather it all in, it shall be time to plough the ground again. And the treader of grapes him that soweth seed — This is to be understood in the same sense as the foregoing clause: so great shall their vintage be, that before the treaders of grapes can have finished their work, the seedsman shall be sowing his seed against the next season. And the mountains shall drop sweet wine — The vineyards shall be so fruitful, and shall produce such abundance of grapes, that wine shall appear to be as plentiful as if it ran down from the mountains. And all the hills shall melt — Hebrew, shall flow. The meaning is, that they should afford such plenty of rich feeding to the cattle, that they should in consequence thereof give a large quantity of milk. The parallel expression to this, in the prophecy of Joel, is, The hills shall flow with milk.

As these predictions were not fulfilled in their literal sense between the time of the return of the Jews from Babylon and the coming of Christ, it is evident they are either to be figuratively understood of gospel blessings, or, if taken in their literal sense, they respect the happy state of things during the millennium, which may be supposed to begin after the future restoration of the Jews to their own country. See notes on Joel 3:18 . The prophets, it may be observed, frequently describe the days of the Messiah in terms similar to those which the poets used in describing the golden age.

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall {l} overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall {m} drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. (l) Signifying, that there will be great abundance of all things, so that when one type of fruit is ripe, another would follow, and every one in order; Le 26:5. (m) Read Joe 3:18.

Here is another promise made literally for assurance of abundant plenty to the returned captives, and mystically, of abundant grace poured forth in gospel days. But of the letter and history. Behold, mark well, ye poor captived Jews, the days come; the time will certainly come, nay, it hasteth, and whoso lives to return shall see this word performed. The ploughman, who breaks up the ground, and prepares it for sowing, shall overtake the reaper; shall be ready to tread on the heels of the reaper, who shall have a harvest so large, that before he can gather it all in it shall be time to plough the ground and prepare it for the seed for next year’s crop. So God will take away the reproach of famine (in Ezekiel’s phrase) from the mountains of Israel. And the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; so great shall their vintage be, that ere the treaders of grapes can have finished their work, the seedsman shall be sowing his seed against next harvest season. The mountains: the Jews did plant the mountains and hills of Canaan with vines, Isaiah 5:1 , there were their vineyards. Shall drop sweet wine; the vineyards shall be so fruitful, and new wine so plentiful, as if it did, like trickling streams, run down from the mountains; and all the hills shall melt; or as if whole hills were melted into such liquors. See Joel 3:18 . It is a lofty strain, and very elegantly expresseth the abundance of outward blessings promised to this people here spoken of.

13. the days come—at the future restoration of the Jews to their own land. ploughman shall overtake … reaper … treader of grapes him that soweth—fulfilling Le 26:5. Such shall be the abundance that the harvest and vintage can hardly be gathered before the time for preparing for the next crop shall come. Instead of the greater part of the year being spent in war, the whole shall be spent in sowing and reaping the fruits of earth. Compare Isa 65:21-23, as to the same period. soweth seed—literally, "draweth it forth," namely, from the sack in order to sow it. mountains … drop sweet wine—an appropriate image, as the vines in Palestine were trained on terraces at the sides of the hills.

Verse 13. - The prophet expatiates upon the rich blessings which shall follow the establishment of the kingdom. Under the figure of a supernatural fertility are represented the victories of grace (comp. Isaiah 11:6 ; Ezekiel 26:10 , etc.; Ezekiel 34:25, etc.). The blessing is founded on the Mosaic promise ( Leviticus 26:5 ). The ploughman shall overtake the reaper. Ploughing and harvest shall be continuous, without sensible interval. The treader of grapes him that soweth seed. The vintage should be so abundant that it should last till sowing time. The mountains shall drop sweet wine. This is from Joel 3:18 . And all the hills shall melt. As Joel says, "shall flow with milk," in this promised land "flowing with milk and honey." Septuagint, πάντες οἱ βουνοὶ σύμφυτοι ἔσονται , "all the hills shall be planted" with vines and olives. For, as Corn. a Lapide quotes, "Bacchus amat colles" (Virg., 'Georg.,' 2:113). The hyperbolical expressions in the text are not to be taken literally; they depict in bright colours the blessings of the kingdom of Messiah. Material and temporal blessings are generally represented as closely connected with spiritual, and as figurative of them. Such predictions, understood literally, are common in the so called Sibylline Books; see e.g. lib. 3:743, etc., where, among other prodigies, we have - Πηγάς τε ῤήξει γλυκερὰς λευκοῖο γάλακτος One is reminded of the golden age depicted by Virgil in his fourth eclogue.

13 . A hyperbolical description of the fertility of the soil. So rapid will be the growth of the crops, that the ploughman will hardly have finished breaking up the ground for seed, when the corn will be ready for the reaper; so abundant will be the vintage, that before the grapes are all trodden out, the time will have arrived for sowing seed for the following year: mountains and hills, also, will flow with sweet wine. The time for ploughing would correspond to our October; seed was sown in November: barley and wheat would be ripe in April–May; the vintage was gathered in Aug.–Sept. There is a similar promise in Leviticus 26:5 “your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing-time”—so abundant, namely, will be the crops. Behold , days are coming ] See on Amos 4:2 . the treader of grapes ] The freshly gathered grapes were thrown into the “wine-press” ( gath )—usually a trough excavated in the natural rock—where they were “trodden” ( דרך ) by the feet of men, and the expressed juice, as it ran down, was received into the “wine-fat” (i.e. the “wine- vat ”: Heb. yéḳeb ), generally another trough excavated similarly in the rock at a somewhat lower level (see O.C. Whitehouse, A Primer of Hebrew Antiquities , p. 99 f.).

There are many allusions in the O.T. to this process of treading the grapes (as Jdg 9:27 ; Isaiah 63:2-3 ; Nehemiah 13:15 ): it was an occasion of rejoicing, and the shouts or huzzahs ( hêdâd ), with which those engaged at it enlivened their toil, supply the prophets with suggestive imagery ( Isaiah 16:9-10 ; Jeremiah 25:30 ; Jeremiah 48:33 ; Jeremiah 51:14 ). him that soweth the seed ] Lit. that draweth out , or traileth , the seed: cf. (in the Heb.) Psalm 126:6 . shall cause sweet wine to drop down ] sweet wine , as Joel 1:5 ; Joel 3:18 , Isaiah 49:26 [204]; Heb. ‘âsîs , from ‘âsas , to tread or press down ( Malachi 4:3 ). LXX., here and Joel 3:18 , γλυκασμός ; in Isaiah 49:26 οἶνος νέος . The reference is probably to some kind of sweet wine ( γλυκὺς οἶνος or vinum dulce ), such as was made by the ancients, by partially drying the grapes in the sun, and afterwards allowing the process of fermentation to continue in the juice only 5–7 days, instead of 9 (which was the usual time). See Pliny H.N. xiv. 9; and the Dict. of Classical Antiquities , s.v. Vinum. [204] Also Song of Solomon 8:2 ; but here it denotes a wine made from pomegranates (see D.B. s.v. Pomegranate). shall melt ] more lit. dissolve themselves: so abundant will be the produce of the vineyards, that it will be “as though the hills dissolved themselves in the rich streams which they poured down.” Comp.