CRITICAL NOTES.]
Amos 1:11-12. Edom] No particular crime, but implacable hatred charged, which broke out into acts of cruelty.
THE JUDGMENT OF EDOM.—Amos 1:11-12
Edom and the two following nations were related to Israel by lineal descent. But they set aside the ties of blood, and perpetrated abominable cruelties.
I. The reason of the judgment. A relentless hatred towards God’s people, breaking out in acts of cruelty, from one generation to another.
1. It was unnatural hatred. “Did cast off all pity.” His better feelings were subdued. Natural pity for a brother in distress was stifled or suppressed as if pity were evil in itself, and to be extinguished within us. This is most sinful and unnatural. It corrupts, deadens a man’s feelings, and “steels him against sympathy with others.” “For pity melts the mind to love.” “Compassion is an emotion of which we ought never to be ashamed,” says Blair. “Graceful is the tear of sympathy, and the heart that melts at the tale of woe; we should not permit ease and indulgence to contract our affections, and wrap us up in a selfish enjoyment. But we should accustom ourselves to think of the distresses of human life, of the solitary cottage, the dying parent, and the weeping orphan.”
2. It was cruel hatred. “He did pursue his brother with the sword.” His malice destroyed his compassion. He cast off the pity of man and indulged in the fierceness of a beast. His anger was insatiable and knew no bounds. “Fierce are the wars of brethren; and they who love exceedingly also hate exceedingly,” says the proverb. No hatred seems so intense as that between relations and brothers. To slay a neighbour is to slay a man, and to pursue a brother is fratricide. “Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?”
3. It was perpetual hatred. “His anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever.” Their enmity was intensified by their kinship, and the murderous thoughts of Esau towards Jacob seemed to be revived in posterity, and become a prominent feature in national character (Ezekiel 35:5; Obadiah 1:1). Wrath was not kept in restraint, but let loose like a raging beast. It was hereditary, full of revenge, which they gratified by outrageous cruelties. “Thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel, by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity.”
II. The character of the judgment. Their cities would be overthrown, and their capital destroyed by tire. God may forbear awhile, even with the worst persecutors, but their cruelty will at length bring vengeance to their own doors. “The fire of our anger against our brethren kindles the fire of God’s anger against us,” says an old writer. “For I have sworn by myself, saith the Lord, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse” (Jeremiah 49:13).
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Amos 1:11. Cast off pity. Bonaparte carried the town of Jaffa by assault, and many of the garrison were put to the sword. But the greater part fled into mosques, implored mercy from their pursuers, and were granted their lives. But Napoleon expressed resentment at the conduct of the troops, lost all pity, and to relieve himself of the care of his prisoners, ordered nearly 4000 to march on rising ground to be shot. When Bonaparte saw the smoke from volleys of musketry and grape, it is said that he could not contain his joy.
Pity is the virtue of the law,
And none but tyrants use it cruelly.