In the visitations of others, it was to read its own; and that, the more, the nearer God was to them. Eshton fathered Beth-rapha, Paseah, and Tehinnah, the father of Ir-nahash. "O thrice and four times, that is, very often, a finite number for an infinite." Damascus was already the chief city, through its relation to which alone Hobah was known. Frequently threshing sledges (28:27) made of wood (2 Sam. Am). On the west and north the city was far and wide fenced by orchards, like thick dense woods, which stretched four or live miles toward Libanus. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! Y No wonder Jesus talked so much about farming. As a result of God breaking the gate bar of Damascus, the people of Aram would go exiled to Kir. Joel 3:4-8). Every day, just like the farmer, we must show up and do the work. It was at that time probably a subordinate power, whether on the ground of the personal eminence of Hadadezer king of Zobah, or any other. These things - Job says, worketh God twice and thrice with man, to bring back his soul from the pit Job 33:29. v., ver. "They have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron." Gilead was a part of Israel on the eastern side of the Jordan river. B The inclusion of the valley of Aven as well as Beth-Eden together with Damascus might indicate the entire kingdom of Aram. 3. They enslaved their inhabitants and sold them to Edom. They enslaved local populationsprobably those located in the lowlands or Shephelah of Judah among others. What Does the Bible Say About A Man Providing For His Family? If this promise was fulfilled, Ramoth-Gilead must have been lost to Syria at an earlier period, since, three years afterward, Ahab perished in an attempt, by aid of Jehoshaphat, against the counsels of God, to recover it 2 Kings 7:6. Israel, having lost the help of Judah, became the easier prey. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.Deuteronomy 28:8 The LORD will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. The consequences, however, are essentially the samefire will burn destroy the cities/citadels (1:7, 10, 12). The identification of the sin becomes the key element of the oracle itself with its subsequent consequence. The community or people to which Amos refers is Judah. Amos 1 contains a brief historical account on the prophetic ministry of Amos, providing the reader with the date of Amoss ministry and how the LORD has called him to minister to Israel. And you shall remember the whole way that theLordyour God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ). And as we are faithful to the Lord our God, He will bless the works of our hands and make them successful. God would cause the one holding the scepter to be cut off from Beth-Eden. TopicalBible Please support us by disabling these ads blocker. Seven is used as a symbol of a whole, since on the seventh day God rested from all which He had made, and therefore the number seven entered so largely into the whole Jewish ritual. 4 So I will send a fire on the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad. at least and that is a COMPARED TO WHAT Deeper sins bring deeper damnation at the last. Kimchi thinks that this respects four particular seasons, in which Damascus, or the Syrians, evilly treated and distressed the people of Israel; first in the times of Baasha; then in the times of Ahab; a third time in the days of Jehoahaz the son of Jehu; and the fourth in the times of Ahaz; and then they were punished for them all: because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron; that is. Likewise, the unexamined life soon becomes useless for service in the kingdom. For the prophet had no mission to them; he only declares to Israel the ground of the visitation which was to come upon them. Thanks John Mark. Where the water of one is diffusing life and verdure over the surface, another branch is collecting a new supply. In former days these extended over the whole plain to the lakes, thus irrigating the fields and gardens in every part of it., Damascus then was, of old, famed for its beauty. So I will send a fire upon the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad. (LogOut/ F Z. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like The words of Amos, who was among the sheep breeders of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and in the days of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years before the earthquake., For three transgressions of Damascus and for four, I will not revoke it; Because they have threshed Gilead with . So each individual sinner, who dies impenitent, will be punished for all which, in his whole life, he did or became, contrary to the law of God. 41:15).The NKJV Study Bible. All is vanity. Others believe the threshing is a metaphor for Israels defeat at the hands of Syria (cf. " (Cf. The course of the prophecy convicted them, as the things written in Holy Scripture for our ensamples convict Christians. Consistently with this, the first mention of the kingdom of Damascus in Scripture is the dynasty of Rezon son of Eliadas, a fugitive servant of Hadadezer, who formed a marauding band, then settled and reigned in Damascus 1 Kings 11:23-24. English Standard Version. The cities will be razed to the ground by an invading force. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. . Other Translations of Amos 1:3 King James Version. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. The other things cannot be satisfied; the fourth, fire, grows fiercer by being fed. The Lord says: I will not relent from punishing Damascus for three crimes, even four, because they threshed Gilead with iron sledges. (LogOut/ You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. And he gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, Go out to the cities of Judah and gather from all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and see that you act quickly. But the Levites did not act quickly. Threshing SledgeThe purpose of threshing was to separate usable grain from the waste straw or chaff. Does a snare spring up from the ground, when it has taken nothing? Corn takes anywhere from 90 to 100 days to be ready to be harvested. On the words, O terque quaterque, Servius makes this remark, "Hoc est saepias; finitus numerous pro infinito." For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.Jeremiah 5:24 They do not say in their hearts, Let us fear theLordour God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest., Ezekiel 27:17 Judah and the land of Israel traded with you; they exchanged for your merchandise wheat of Minnith, meal, honey, oil, and balm.Matthew 9:37 Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;Isaiah 30:24 And the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork.Isaiah 28:24 Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? You will be challenged and encouraged to be one who is firmly . Whom hate devoured, and fraud, hard pressing on, And so the ancient oracle quoted by Pausanias Achaic., lib. Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.Matthew 13:1-58 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Salem Media Group. I will not turn away the punishment thereof. It lay on the best route from the interior of Asia to the Mediterranean, to Tyre, and even to Egypt. The smart farmer knows when the moment is ready. Amos 1:3-5 (ESV) Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron. Such atrocities would not be unknown in the ancient world. The moral majesty of a king is obviously greater than the rest. U This likely refers to the entire kingdom of Aram, of which Damascus was the capital. Only one sin is identified even though many others are presumed (three, even four). If Amoss preaching bears witness to his insistence that nations need to acknowledge their sin, should not our preaching do the same? This should not be too surprising because most of Jesus listeners were farmers themselves or, at least, very familiar with farming. In all that he does, he prospers.Hosea 6:3 Let us know; let us press on to know theLord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.Isaiah 5:24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of theLordof hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel., Luke 12:18 And he said, I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.Hosea 12:11 If there is iniquity in Gilead, they shall surely come to nothing: in Gilgal they sacrifice bulls; their altars also are like stone heaps on the furrows of the field.2 Corinthians 9:6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.Isaiah 32:2 Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land., Ruth 2:15 When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her.Jeremiah 4:11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A hot wind from the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow or cleanse,Jeremiah 9:22 Speak: Thus declares theLord, The dead bodies of men shall fall like dung upon the open field, like sheaves after the reaper, and none shall gather them.Isaiah 30:25 And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall., Job 29:23 They waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.Leviticus 25:1-7 TheLordspoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to theLord. Many people were farmers or at least very familiar with farming. So Seneca in Hippolyt., Act. The city of Gilead was an Israelite region located on the eastern side of the Jordan River, just south of Damascus. American Standard Version Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Damascus, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron. Theme: Contempt by Vault9. K Sin and punishment are by a great law of God bound together. Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. Animals have to be fed, crops have to be watered and fertilized, and it doesnt matter how the farmer feels on that particular day. This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Damascus, even for four, I will not relent. Deuteronomy 4:24 says that God is a consuming fire. Does he continually open and harrow his ground?Ecclesiastes 5:9 But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields., Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek theLord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.Micah 4:1-4 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of theLordshall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall come, and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of theLord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of theLordfrom Jerusalem. Amos specifically notes one defining cultural sin. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. And as such, it was easier and more effective, to point to a farmer in the field, the numerous plants growing around them, or the shepherds tending nearby flocks and reference the heart of God or another gospel truth about Gods kingdom. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 10 million Ukrainians without power because of Russia. As the sledge was pulled over the threshing floor the stones or iron teeth would separate the grain from the stalks. W Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 2007. Amos condemns violent aggression (perhaps even torture and wanton killing), enslavement of populations, and the slave trade. Will the sun really be turned to darkness and the moon to blood (Joel 2:31). Before this, Scripture speaks of the people only of Damascus, not of their kings. It lay in the midst of its plain, a high table-land of rich cultivation, whose breadth, from Anti-libanus eastward, was about half a degree. Get Your Bible Minute in Your Inbox Every Morning. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. This handy resource allows the reader to quickly summarize or review all the pertinent details about any Old Testament book. (LogOut/ Gilead is here doubtless to be taken in its widest sense, including all the possessions of Israel, east of Jordan, as, in the account of Hazaels conquests, all the land of Gilead 2 Kings 10:32-33 is explained to mean, all which was ever given to the two tribes and a half, and to include Gilead proper, as distinct from Basan. 3 Thus says the Lord,For three transgressions of Damascus and for fourI will not revoke its punishment,Because they threshed Gilead with implements of sharp iron.4So I will send fire upon the house of HazaelAnd it will consume the citadels of Ben-hadad.5 I will also break the gate bar of Damascus,And cut off the inhabitant from the valley of Aven,And him who holds the scepter, from Beth-eden;So the people of Aram will go exiled to Kir,Says the LORD. January 9, 2013 at 8:31 am and is filed under Biblical Texts. It had then doubtless, beside the population of its plain, large nomadic hordes dependent upon it. Some believe that the Syrians used threshing tools with iron teeth to torture or kill prisoners, pregnant women and children. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.. What was the significance of the horns of the altar (Amos 3:14)? Adam, the first human in the Bible, is also the first farmer. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. In like way Joshua relates, that the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the ha! Of the three on the south side, one is led to the populous village Daraya, five miles distant; the other two supply the city, its suburbs, and gardens., The like use was made of every fountain in every larger or lesser plain. Are you seeking him? And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. Assyrian chronicles relate only Assyrian victories. Rather, they were guilty of a huge quantity of sins, which the prophet described as three transgressions even four.. Meonothai fathered Ophrah; and Seraiah fathered Joab, the father of Ge-harashim, so-called because they were craftsmen. Then follow Edom, Ammon, Moab, who burst the bonds of blood also. Seldom, said pagan experience, hath punishment with lingering foot parted with the miscreant, advancing before.. Thus the Church and members of the community of the Father sotra kinda Dont relate to the Process of the Hardened Hart and the compounded consequences of the deceitfulness of being habitually unfaithful in the little ways which bring about the cruelty of Amoss day. , Job 24:10 They go about naked, without clothing; hungry, they carry the sheaves;Psalm 35:5 Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of theLorddriving them away!Job 21:18 That they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?1 Chronicles 21:23 Then Ornan said to David, Take it, and let my lord the king do what seems good to him. because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron. It is possible that Syrians ran over peoplemen, women, and childrenwith these boards. THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL Many factors can control the time it takes for the crop to ripen. Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. john mark "Thrice happy Greeks! For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four. Why does Amos keep repeating for three sins . It is worth noting that each of the oracles begins with the formula For three transgressions of [name of city or state], even for four, though Amos only listed one transgression for each nation, except for Israel which received all four of them (Amos 2:616). In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good., Isaiah 32:20 Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free.Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Such a pronouncement of judgment continues throughout the second chapter, which begins with Moab and culminates with Gods chosen people, namely, Judah and Israel. Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The white wool Ezekiel 27:18, in which it traded with Tyre, implies the possession of a large outlying tract in the desert, where the sheep yield the whitest wool. The punishment is first denounced upon their enemies, and that, for their sins, directly or indirectly, against themselves, and God in them. He, having carried war against David, king of Judaea, and disputed with him in many battles, and that finally at the Euaphrates where he was defeated, had the character of a most eminent king for prowess and valor. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Thus says the Lord: "For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron. This historical account is followed by a description of Gods pronouncement of judgment on five pagan nationsSyria, Philistia, Phoenicia, Edom, and Ammon. Hazael extended his conquests to Gath 2 Kings 12:17, intending probably to open a connecting line with Egypt. If God is for us, who can be against us? Article Images Copyright 2023 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. And he told them many things in parables, saying: A sower went out to sow. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, TheLordhas done great things for them. TheLordhas done great things for us; we are glad. In that the prophet says, not, for the fourth, but for three transgressions and for four, he expresses at once, that God did not punish until the last sin, by which the iniquity of the sinful nation became full Genesis 15:16, and that, then, He punished for all, for the whole mass of sin described by the three, and for the fourth also. 4 tn Heb "they threshed [or "trampled down"] Gilead with sharp iron implements" (NASB similar). Why Did Jesus Talk So Much About Agriculture? In this case, God Himself is making the judgement. You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am theLord. Farming, which involves cultivating the land and raising livestock, is a part of agriculture. God also said He will cut off the inhabitant from the valley of Aven. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The authority of Aram will end here as well. Why Did Jesus Talk So Much About Agriculture? However, at some point, Tyrelike Philistia in the southbetrayed this treaty relationship and enslaved whole Israelite communities. An example of Damascuss war against Israel is found in 2 Kings 10 where Hazael [the king of Damascus] defeated them throughout the territory of Israel: from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites and the Reubenites and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan (2 Kgs. . Isaiah 41:15 Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff;Matthew 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.Genesis 1:11-12 And God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth. And it was so. Why Did God Use Adams Rib to Create Eve? Amos 1:3 - Thus says the Lord: "For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron." Leviticus 19:9-10 - " When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the . Help us purchase electrical generators for churches. Their commercial interests included the slave trade, even selling Judeans to Greeks far from their homeland (Joel 3:6). G Here in Amos, we see that the people of Damascus rebelled against the LORD because they threshed Gilead with implements of sharp iron. It was the "metropolis" of Syria, Isaiah 7:8; and so Pliny calls it, "Damascus of Syria". And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. Immediately, it was bounded by the three lakes which receive the surplus of the waters which enrich it. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. They are carried along the precipitous banks of the ravine, being in some places tunnelled in the solid rock. [4] So I will send a fire upon the house of Haz'ael, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-ha'dad. Again, Sowing discord among brethren Proverbs 6:16-19, has a special hatefulness, as not only being sin, but causing widewasting sin, and destroying in others the chief grace, love. This was usually done by spreading the stalks of grain several inches deep on a smooth flat area that was on a high piece of ground open to the wind. The third, having gained the greatest power of all, seeking to repair the defeat of his grandfather, warring against the Jews, wasted what is now callcd Samaritis. They could not brook a defeat, which they had brought upon themselves. We have detected that you are using extensions to block ads. Because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron - The instrument, Jerome relates here, was a sort of wain, rolling on iron wheels beneath, set with teeth; so that it both threshed out the grain and bruised the straw and cut it in pieces, as food for the cattle, for lack of hay. A similar instrument, called by nearly the same name, is still in use in Syria and Egypt. Amos 1:3 - Thus says the Lord: "For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron." Leviticus 19:9-10 - " When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the . Chelub, the brother of Shuhah, fathered Mehir, who fathered Eshton. Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear., 2 Chronicles 24:1-26:23 Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. 1:93. Without the Barada, says Porter, the city could not exist, and the plain would be a parched desert; but now aqueducts intersect every quarter, and fountains sparkle in almost every dwelling, while innumerable canals extend their ramifications over the vast plain, clothing it with verdure and beauty. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.Ecclesiastes 1:1-18 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.