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Selected Verse: Amos 4:3 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Am 4:3 |
King James |
And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her; and ye shall cast them into the palace, saith the LORD. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
go out at the breaches--namely, of the city walls broken by the enemy.
every cow at that which is before her--figurative for the once luxurious nobles (compare "kine of Bashan," Amo 4:1) shall go out each one right before her; not through the gates, but each at the breach before him, not turning to the right or left, apart from one another.
ye shall cast them into the palace--"them," that is, "your posterity," from Amo 4:2. You yourselves shall escape through the breaches, after having cast your little children into the palace, so as not to see their destruction, and to escape the more quickly. Rather, "ye shall cast yourselves into the palace," so as to escape from it out of the city [CALVIN]. The palace, the scene of the princes riots (Amo 3:10, Amo 3:15; Amo 4:1), is to be the scene of their ignominious flight. Compare in the similar case of Jerusalem's capture, the king's escape by way of the palace, through a breach in the wall (Eze 12:5, Eze 12:12). GESENIUS translates, "Ye shall be cast (as captives) into the (enemy's) stronghold"; in this view, the enemy's stronghold is called "palace," in retributive contrast to the "palaces" of Israel's nobles, the store houses of their robberies (Amo 3:10). |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Ye shall go out through the breaches - Samaria, the place of their ease and confidence, being broken through, they should go forth one by one, "each straight before her," looking neither to the right nor to the left, as a herd of cows go one after the other through a gap in a fence. Help and hope have vanished, and they hurry pell-mell after one another, reckless and desperate, as the animals whose life of sense they had chosen.
And ye shall cast them into the palace - Or, better, (since nothing has been named which they could cast) "cast yourselves." The word may describe the headlong motion of the animal, and the desperate gestures of the hopeless. They should cast themselves from palace to palace, from the palace of their luxuries to the palace of their enemies, from a self-chosen life of sensuousness to he concubines in the harem. If the rulers are still included, it was reserved for the rich and noble to become eunuchs in the palace of their Assyrian or Babylonian conquerors, as Isaiah foretold to Hezekiah Isa 39:7. It is another instance of that great law of God, "wherewithal a man sinneth, by the same shall he be tormented" (Wisdom Isa 11:16). They had lived in luxury and wantonness; in luxury and wantonness they should live, but amid the jealousies of an Eastern harem, and at the caprice of their sensual conquerors.
The word however rendered, "to the palace," occurring only here, is obscure. The other most probable conjecture is, that it is a name of a country, "the mountains of Monah," that is, perhaps Armenia. This would describe accurately enough the country to which they were to be carried; "beyond Damascus; the cities of the Medes." The main sense is the same. They should be cast forth from the scene of their pleasures and oppression, to be themselves oppressed. The whole image is one, which an inspired prophet alone could use. The reproof was not from man, but from God, unveiling their sins to them in their true hideousness. Man thinks nothing of being more degraded than the brutes, so that he can hide from himself, that he is so. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Ye - Kine of Bashan. Go out - Ye shall endeavour to make your escape. The breaches - Which the besieging enemy make in your walls, when Samaria is besieged. Before her - Taking the readiest way. The things - All the riches and ornaments of your palaces. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| And ye shall go out at the breaches - Probably the metaphor is here kept up. They shall be caught by the hooks, or by the nets; and though they may make breaches in the latter by their flouncing when caught, they shall be taken out at these very breaches; and cast, not in the palace, but into a reservoir, to be kept awhile, and afterwards be taken out to be destroyed. Samaria itself is the net; your adversaries shall besiege it, and make breaches in its walls. At those breaches ye shall endeavor to make your escape, but ye shall be caught and led into captivity, where most of you shall be destroyed. See Houbigant on this passage. |
10 For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.
12 And the prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the twilight, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, that he see not the ground with his eyes.
5 Dig thou through the wall in their sight, and carry out thereby.
1 Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.
15 And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD.
10 For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.
2 The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.
1 Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.
16 And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
7 And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.