CRITICAL NOTES.]
Amos 1:13-15. Ammon] Ammonites joined the Chaldeans to invade and plunder Judea. Hazael perpetrated the cruelty predicted (2 Kings 8:12). Ripped up] A cruel act, done to leave Israel without heir, so as to secure the inheritance. The punishment is by foreign invasion, swift, sudden, and resistless as a tempest; violent and terrific as a whirlwind. King] “Their Moloch (the idol of Ammon) and his priests” [Grotius and LXX.]. Or, as the English, their king and his princes would go together into captivity. The reigning head and those who shared his counsels were removed. Their idols and their earthly kings were unable either to save themselves, or those who submitted to them. “Hand in hand the wicked shall not be unpunished” (Proverbs 11:21).
THE JUDGMENT ON AMMON.—Amos 1:13-15
In the fifth place the Ammonites are accused of guilt, and their punishment is described.
I. Their crimes, consisted in most atrocious deeds towards the Gileadites.
1. Barbarous cruelty. “They have ripped up the women with child.” Hazael and Ammon were guilty of this barbarity. Probably Syria and Ammon were leagued together for the extermination of Israel. The offspring of the incest of Lot ever retained the stamp of their origin, and were noted for sensuality and ferocity. One would think that human beings could not become so inhuman, but history opens its pages of darkness and blood.
2. Unbounded selfishness. “That they might enlarge their border.” These deeds were not only performed in rage, but in deliberate design to extirpate the people and take possession of the land. Covetousness leads to great cruelty, and those that seek to extend their borders often use unscrupulous means to accomplish their design. Pharaoh killed the Israelites, and Ammon displayed unwonted ferocity towards the women of Gilead. But neither their kings nor their idols could protect them from the coming storm.
II. Their punishment. Their attempts to exterminate others recoiled upon themselves.
1. Their chief city was burned. “I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah.” It was a strong city with a stronger citadel, but it was utterly destroyed. Its ruins still exist, some of which perhaps date back to this prophecy. “I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the Ammonites a couching place for flocks.”
2. War desolated the country. “Shouting in the day of battle.” Foreign invasion would sweep the land like a storm. (a) Swift as a tempest. (b) Violent as a whirlwind. The onset would be irresistible. Like the hurricane carrying the caravans of the desert, so the enemy would carry the walls and fortress of the city.
3. Kings and princes were taken into captivity. There would be no one left to resist and renew the revolt. On every side waste land and ruined cities. All defences, human and religious, were impotent. Inhabitants and gods were carried into a foreign country. Kings and counsellors, priests and people, linked together and driven to one common destruction. “Cry, ye daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth; lament and run to and fro by the hedges, for their king shall go into captivity, and his priests and his princes together” (Jeremiah 49:3).
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Amos 1:13. Heathenism is cruel, and multitudes of victims have been destroyed under the sanction of the gods. But what can we say when kings and enlightened nations commit such deeds as these?
“What will not ambition and revenge descend to?” [Milton.]