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Selected Verse: Amos 9:3 - Amplified Bible©
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Am 9:3 |
Amplified Bible© |
And though they hide themselves on the top of [Mount] Carmel, from there I will search out and take them; and though they [try to] hide from My sight at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent and it shall bite them. |
| |
King James |
And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them: |
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] |
Carmel--where the forests, and, on the west side, the caves, furnished hiding-places (Amo 1:2; Jdg 6:2; Sa1 13:6).
the sea--the Mediterranean, which flows at the foot of Mount Carmel; forming a strong antithesis to it.
command the serpent--the sea-serpent, a term used for any great water monster (Isa 27:1). The symbol of cruel and oppressive kings (Psa 74:13-14). |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
He had contrasted heaven and hell, as places impossible for man to reach; as I David says, "If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there: If l make my bed in hell, behold Thee" Psa 139:8. Now, of places in a manner accessible, he contrasts Mount Carmel, which rises abruptly out of the sea, with depths of that ocean which it overhangs. Carmel was in two ways a hiding place.
1) Through its caves (some say 1,000 , some 2,000) with which it is perforated, whose entrance sometimes scarcely admits a single man; so close to each other, that a pursuer would not discern into which the fugitive had vanished; so serpentine within, that, "10 steps apart," says a traveler , "we could hear each others' voices, but could not see each other." : "Carmel is perforated by a hundredfold greater or lesser clefts. Even in the garb of loveliness and richness, the majestic Mount, by its clefts, caves, and rocky battlements, excites in the wanderer who sees them for the first time, a feeling of mingled wonder and fear. A whole army of enemies, as of nature's terrors, could hide themselves in these rock-clefts."
2) Its summit, about 1800 feet above the sea , "is covered with pines and oaks, and lower down with olive and laurel trees" . These forests furnished hiding places to robberhordes at the time of our Lord. In those caves, Elijah probably at times was hidden from the persecution of Ahab and Jezebel. It seems to be spoken of as his abode Kg1 18:19, as also one resort of Elishas Kg2 2:25; Kg2 4:25. Carmel, as the western extremity of the land, projecting into the sea, was the last place which a fugitive would reach. If he found no safety there, there was none in his whole land. Nor was there by sea;
And though they be hid - (rather, "hide themselves") from My sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent The sea too has its deadly serpents. Their classes are few; the individuals in those classes are much more numerous than those of the land-serpents . Their shoals have furnished to sailors tokens of approaching land . Their chief abode, as traced in modern times, is between the Tropics .
The ancients knew of them perhaps in the Persian gulf or perhaps the Red Sea . All are "highly venomous" and "very ferocious." : "The virulence of their venom is equal to that of the "most" pernicious land-serpents." All things, with their will or without it through animal instinct, as the serpent, or their savage passions, as the Assyrian, fulfill the will of God. As, at His command, the fish whom He had prepared, swallowed Jonah, for his preservation, so, at His "command, the serpent" should come forth from the recesses of the sea to the sinner's greater suffering. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| The serpent - The crocodile or shark. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| Though they hide themselves - All these are metaphorical expressions, to show the impossibility of escape. |
13 You did divide the [Red] Sea by Your might; You broke the heads of the [Egyptian] dragons in the waters. Cross reference(s) provided by the translation: [Exod. 14:21.]
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan (Egypt); You did give him as food for the creatures inhabiting the wilderness.
1 IN THAT day [the Lord will deliver Israel from her enemies and also from the rebel powers of evil and darkness] His sharp and unrelenting, great, and strong sword will visit and punish Leviathan the swiftly fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting and winding serpent; and He will slay the monster that is in the sea.
6 When the men of Israel saw that they were in a tight situation--for their troops were hard pressed--they hid in caves, holes, rocks, tombs, and pits or cisterns.
2 And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the Israelites made themselves the dens which are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.
2 And he said, The Lord roars out of Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem; then the pastures of the shepherds mourn and the top of [Mount] Carmel dries up. Cross reference(s) provided by the translation: [Isa. 42:13; Jer. 25:30; Joel 3:16.]
25 So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her afar off, he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite.
25 Elisha went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.
19 Therefore send and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of [the goddess] Asherah, who eat at [Queen] Jezebel's table.
8 If I ascend up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol (the place of the dead), behold, You are there. Cross reference(s) provided by the translation: [Rom. 11:33.]