Amos 3:5 - Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Bible Comments

Can a bird fall in a snare - Again, the bird taken in the snare is the image of those drawn down from heaven, where ‘our conversation is Philippians 3:20 and the soul may rise free toward its God , “drawn up by the Spirit to high and heavenly things.” Such souls being allured by the things of earth, are entangled and taken by Satan; as, on the other hand, “the soul, escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler Psalms 124:7, is a soul, set free by Christ and restored to heaven.

In the last likeness, the prophet comes nearer to the people themselves, and the trumpet is, at once, the well-known token of alarm among people, and of the loud voice of God, wakening them to repentance Isaiah 58:1; Joel 2:15 and still oftener, warning them of the approach of judgment Isaiah 18:3; Jeremiah 4:5; Jeremiah 6:1; Ezekiel 33:2-6; Hosea 5:8; Hosea 8:1; Revelation 8:1-13, or summoning man before Him 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Rup.: “God’s Voice will not always be ‘a still small voice,’ or whispered only among the Angels, or heard as from the ground. It will be heard terribly in the whole world.” Jerome: “Whatever is said in Holy Scripture is a trumpet threatening, and with loud voice sinking into the hearts of believers. If we are righteous, we are called by the trumpet of Christ to bliss. If we are sinners, we know that we are to suffer torment.”

Amos 3:5

5 Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?