YHWH Will Inexorably Deal In Judgment With His People, Who Have Forgotten Who And What He Really Is, And There Will Therefore Be No Hiding Place For Them (Amos 9:1-10).
There is something genuinely awesome and thrilling about Amos's opening words here as he declares, ‘I saw YHWH' (compare Isaiah 6:1). They stand in stark contrast to ‘thus the Lord YHWH showed me' (Amos 7:1; Amos 7:4; Amos 7:7; Amos 8:1). Amos was no longer involved in what was happening except as a spectator, and was in no position to intervene as he had in Amos 7:2; Amos 7:5. Now YHWH was revealing Himself in all His genuinely awesome power as He personally carried out His judgment alone, and promised that none would escape His purpose for Israel. They had allowed themselves to forget Who and What He was, and so He would now reveal it by His activity. They had considered themselves His special people, but that had only been true while they had obeyed the covenant. Now they must recognise that they were no different than the other nations, apart from the small remnant who were true to Him, not one of whom would be lost.
The unity of the passage is confirmed by the analysis:
Analysis.
a I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said, “Smite the capitals (caphtor), that the thresholds may shake, and break them in pieces on the head of all of them, and I will slay the last of them with the sword. There shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape” (Amos 9:1).
b “Though they dig into Sheol, from there will my hand take them, And though they climb up to heaven, from there will I bring them down. And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out from there, And though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, from there will I command the serpent, and it will bite them. And though they go into captivity before their enemies, from there will I command the sword, and it will slay them, And I will set my eyes on them for evil, and not for good.” (Amos 9:2-4).
c “For the Lord, YHWH of hosts, is he who touches the land and it melts, and all who dwell in it will mourn, and it will rise up wholly like the River, and will sink again, like the River of Egypt” (Amos 9:5).
d “He who builds his chambers in the heavens, and has founded his vault on the earth, he who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth, YHWH is his name” (Amos 9:6).
c “Are you not as the children of the Ethiopians (of Cush) to me, O children of Israel?” says YHWH. “Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?” (Amos 9:7).
b “Behold, the eyes of the Lord YHWH are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” says YHWH. “For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, in the same way as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet will not the least pebble fall on the earth” (Amos 9:8-9).
a “All the sinners of my people will die by the sword, who say, ‘The evil will not overtake or meet us' ” (Amos 9:10).
Note the play on words between Amos 9:1 ‘caphtor' (capitals) and Amos 9:8 ‘caphtor' (Caphtor). In ‘a' the ‘last of them' will be slain with the sword and not one will escape, while in the parallel ‘all the sinners of My people' will die by the sword who claim that evil will not overtake them. In ‘b' He will set His eyes on them, and He will search them out and slay them wherever they flee (including among the nations), and in the parallel His eyes are on them, and they will be fully sifted among the nations. In ‘c' YHWH causes the land to rise and fall like the River of Egypt as He judges His people, and in the parallel the Israelites are declared to have come out of Egypt, but because of His judgment on them not to count for more than Philistia or Aram. Centrally in ‘d' the greatness of YHWH is revealed.