Amos 9:5

9:1-10 The prophet, in vision, saw the Lord standing upon the idolatrous altar at Bethel. Wherever sinners flee from God's justice, it will overtake them. Those whom God brings to heaven by his grace, shall never be cast down; but those who seek to climb thither by vain confidence in themselves, will be cast down and filled with shame. That which makes escape impossible and ruin sure, is, that God will set his eyes upon them for evil, not for good. Wretched must those be on whom the Lord looks for evil, and not for good. The Lord would scatter the Jews, and visit them with calamities, as the corn is shaken in a sieve; but he would save some from among them. The astonishing preservation of the Jews as a distinct people, seems here foretold. If professors make themselves like the world, God will level them with the world. The sinners who thus flatter themselves, shall find that their profession will not protect them.

And the Lord God of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt,.... Which is another reason why it is impossible to escape the hands of a sin revenging God, because he is omnipotent as well as omniscient; he is the Lord of all the armies above and below; and if he but touch the land, any particular country, as the land of Israel, it shakes and trembles, and falls into a flow of water, or melts like wax; as when he toucheth the hills and mountains they smoke, being like fuel to fire; see Psalm 104:32 ; and all that dwell therein shall mourn; their houses destroyed, their substance consumed, and all that is near and dear to them swallowed up: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood, and shall be drowned as by the flood of Egypt; See Gill on Amos 8:8.

Amos 9:5-6 . And — Or, for, the Lord toucheth the land, and it shall melt — The least token of God’s displeasure is sufficient to put the whole frame of nature out of order. See the margin. And when God’s hand is visibly stretched out against a people, they become altogether dispirited; the stoutest men lose their courage, their hearts failing them for fear, and out of a dreadful expectation of the miseries which are coming upon them. See the explanation of the next clause, Amos 8:8 . He that buildeth his stories in the heavens — This is an awful description of God’s power, discovering itself in the works of the creation, particularly in his making several regions of the air as so many apartments which lead to the highest heavens, the seat of his glory. Archbishop Newcome renders it, He buildeth his upper chambers in the heavens; alluding to the circumstance of the chief and most ornamented apartments in the East being upper rooms. And hath founded his troop in the earth — Or, as the old English translation renders the clause, And hath laid the foundation of his globe of elements in the earth; the word rendered troop being taken to signify the collection of elements and other creatures, which furnish the earth, expressed by the word צבא , host, Genesis 2:1 . Many learned interpreters, however, render the word his storehouses, supposing that there is an allusion to repositories in the lower parts of houses, or to such as were sometimes dug in the fields.

Thus Capellus: The heaven is, as it were, God’s place of dwelling, his principal apartment; the earth is that to him which the cellars are in a large house. He that calleth for the waters, &c. — See on chap. Amos 5:8 . “The power and sure vengeance of the Deity,” says Bishop Newcome, “are very sublimely described in this and the four preceding verses.”

(5, 6) Accumulate in grand imagery the majesty, power, and irresistible resources of the Lord, who has at length become their enemy. The very world itself melts, as Sinai did, at His touch. The word “is” should be omitted in the rendering. The predicate “Jehovah (the Lord) is His name” (Amos 9:6) stands at the end of a series of attributive clauses. Like a flood . . .—The sentence should run thus: The whole of it rises like the Nile, and subsides (or sinks) like the Egyptian Nile. The future tenses should be replaced by presents. (Comp. Amos 8:8.) Stories—i.e., upper rooms (comp. Psalm 104:3). The word for “troop” is rightly rendered “arch,” or “vault,” from a root signifying to bind or compact together, the sky being regarded as a “firmament,” or solid extension, which rested on the earth as a foundation.

The prophet having foretold such sad, universal desolations, miseries beyond what this secure people could think possible, and such as the atheists among them censured, and derided as impossibilities, as Amos 9:10 ; now in this and the following verses to the 10th the prophet confirms his word, and the certainty of these future judgments. The Lord; Adonai, the sovereign Lord. God; Jehovah, who speaks and doth, and need no more than will to work and accomplish; so he made, sustaineth, and disposeth of all. Of hosts; all the creatures are his army, and do what he commands them to do against his enemies. Is he that toucheth: a light touch of his hand, he needs not as man to take great pains to break and dissolve hard metals, a touch of his finger will do this. The land; either the inhabitants, or rather the land itself in which they dwelt, the land of Canaan; or more likely the whole earth, how firm and hard soever it seem to be. And it shall melt, as snow before the sun in its hottest influences, or as wax before a mighty fire. He who can do this, can do all that I have denounced against you, O Israel. The rest of the verse, see Amos 8:8 .

5. As Amos had threatened that nowhere should the Israelites be safe from the divine judgments, he here shows God's omnipotent ability to execute His threats. So in the case of the threat in Am 8:8, God is here stated to be the first cause of the mourning of "all that dwell" in the land, and of its rising "like a flood, and of its being "drowned, as by the flood of Egypt."

Verse 5. - To confirm the threats just uttered, the prophet dwells upon God's omnipotence, of which he gives instances. He who will do this is the Lord God of hosts , There is no copula in the Hebrew here. (So Amos 4:13 ; Amos 5:8 .) This title, Jehovah Elohim Zebaoth , represents God not only as Ruler of the heavenly bodies, but as the Monarch of a multitude of heavenly spirits who execute his will, worship him in his abiding place, and are attendants and witnesses of his glory (see note on Haggai 1:2). Shall melt; σαλεύων (Septuagint); comp. Psalm 46:6 ; Psalm 97:5 ; Micah 1:4 ; Nahum 1:5 . The expression denotes the destructive effects of the judgments of God. Shall mourn. The last clauses of the verse are a repetition of Amos 8:8 , with some slight variation. Amos 9:5

5 . And the Lord , Jehovah of hosts, is he that toucheth the land, and it melteth , and all that dwell therein mourn ] In a thunderstorm, a cyclone, or an earthquake, for instance, spreading devastation upon the earth, and causing terror among its inhabitants. Cf. Psalm 104:32 (“he toucheth the mountains and they smoke”); Psalm 46:6 (“He uttereth his voice [viz. in thunder], the earth melteth”); Nahum 1:5 ; also Psalm 97:4-5 . The last clause as in Amos 8:8 . and it riseth up, all of it, as the Nile , and sinketh (again), as the Nile of Egypt ] A hyperbolical description of an earthquake, repeated almost verbatim from Amos 8:8 b . 5–6 . Such a terrible announcement of judgement might seem to need confirmation: Amos therefore pauses, to describe, in two majestic verses, the power of the God who has been provoked, and who thus threatens His vengeance: all great movements in nature are due to Him ( Amos 9:5 ); He sits on high and can control the elements ( Amos 9:6 ).

And who is He who should do this? God, at whose command are all creatures. This is the hope of His servants; from where Hezekiah begins his prayer, "Lord of hosts, God of Israel" Isaiah 37:16 . This is the hopelessness of His enemies. "That toucheth the land" or "earth, and it shall melt," rather, "hath melted." His Will and its fulfillment are one. "He spake, and it was; He commanded and it stood fast" Psalm 33:9 . His Will is first, as the cause of what is done; in time they co-exist. He hath no need to put forth His strength; a touch, the slightest indication of His Will, sufficeth. If the solid earth, how much more its inhabitants! So the Psalmist says, "The pagan raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted" Psalm 46:6 . The hearts of men melt when they are afraid of His presence; human armies melt away, dispersed; the great globe itself shall dissolve into its ancient chaos at His Will.

To strengthen this threat, Amos proceeds, in Amos 9:5 , Amos 9:6 , to describe Jehovah as the Lord of heaven and earth, who sends judgments upon the earth with omnipotent power. Amos 9:5 . "And the Lord Jehovah of hosts, who toucheth the earth, and it melteth, and all the inhabitants of thereupon mourn; and the whole of it riseth like the Nile, and sinketh like the Nile of Egypt. Amos 9:6 . Who buildeth His stories in heaven, and His vault, over the earth hath He founded it; who calleth to the waters of the sea, and poureth them out over the earth: Jehovah is His name." This description of God, who rules with omnipotence, is appended, as in Amos 4:13 and Amos 5:8 , without any link of connection whatever. We must not render it, "The Lord Jehovah of hosts is He who toucheth the earth;" but we must supply the connecting thought, "And He who thus directeth His eye upon you is the Lord Jehovah of hosts, who toucheth the earth, and it melteth." The melting or dissolving of the earth is, according to Psalm 46:7 , an effect produced by the Lord, who makes His voice heard in judgments, or "the destructive effect of the judgments of God, whose instruments the conquerors are" (Hengstenberg), when nations reel and kingdoms totter. The Lord therefore touches the earth, so that it melts, when He dissolves the stability of the earth by great judgments (cf.