13 In that day the fair virgins and the young men will be feeble from need of water.
For fear that I may take away her robe from her, making her uncovered as in the day of her birth; making her like a waste place and a dry land, causing her death through need of water.
The Lord is upright; for I have gone against his orders: give ear, now, all you peoples, and see my pain, my virgins and my young men have gone away as prisoners.
Outside they will be cut off by the sword, and in the inner rooms by fear; death will take the young man and the virgin, the baby at the breast and the grey-haired man.
<A Psalm. Of David. When he was in the waste land of Judah.> O God, you are my God; early will I make my search for you: my soul is dry for need of you, my flesh is wasted with desire for you, as a dry and burning land where no water is;
Our sons are like tall young plants; and our daughters like the shining stones of a king's house; Our store-houses are full of all good things; and our sheep give birth to thousands and ten thousands in our fields. Our oxen are well weighted down; our cows give birth safely; there is no going out, and there is no cry of sorrow in our open places. Happy is the nation whose ways are so ordered: yes, happy is the nation whose God is the Lord.
Even the young men will become feeble and tired, and the best of them will come to the end of his strength;
The poor and crushed are looking for water where no water is, and their tongue is dry for need of it: I the Lord will give ear to their prayer, I the God of Israel will not give them up. I will make rivers on the dry mountain-tops, and fountains in the valleys: I will make the waste land a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will put in the waste land the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive-tree; and in the lowland will be planted the fir-tree, the plane, and the cypress together: So that they may see and be wise and give their mind to it, and that it may be clear to them all that the hand of the Lord has done this, and that the Holy One of Israel has made it.
The responsible men of the daughter of Zion are seated on the earth without a word; they have put dust on their heads, they are clothed in haircloth: the heads of the virgins of Jerusalem are bent down to the earth.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Amos 8
Commentary on Amos 8 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 8
Sinful times are here attended with sorrowful times, so necessary is the connexion between them; it is threatened here again and again that the laughter shall be turned into mourning.
Amo 8:1-3
The great reason why sinners defer their repentance de die in diem-from day to day, is because they think God thus defers his judgments, and there is no song wherewith they so effectually sing themselves asleep as that, My Lord delays his coming; and therefore God, by his prophets, frequently represents to Israel the day of his wrath not only as just and certain, but as very near and hastening on apace; so he does in these verses.
Amo 8:4-10
God is here contending with proud oppressors, and showing them,
Amo 8:11-14
In these verses is threatened,