13 In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst;
lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her as a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
Jehovah is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment. Hear, I pray you, all ye peoples, and behold my sorrow. My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
From without shall the sword bereave them, and in the chambers, terror -- Both the young man and the virgin, The suckling with the man of gray hairs.
{A Psalm of David; when he was in the wilderness of Judah.} O God, thou art my ùGod; early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh languisheth for thee, in a dry and weary land without water:
That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; our daughters as corner-columns, sculptured after the fashion of a palace: Our granaries full, affording all manner of store; our sheep bringing forth thousands, ten thousands in our pastures; Our kine laden [with young]; no breaking in and no going forth, and no outcry in our streets. Blessed the people that is in such a case! Blessed the people whose God is Jehovah!
Even the youths shall faint and shall tire, and the young men shall stumble and fall;
The afflicted and the needy seek water, and there is none; their tongue faileth for thirst: I, Jehovah, will answer them, [I], the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness into a pool of water, and the dry land into water-springs. I will give in the wilderness the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oleaster; I will set in the desert the cypress, pine, and box-tree together; that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of Jehovah hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.
The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, they keep silence; they have cast dust upon their heads, they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their head to the ground.
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,