I will smite the winter-house, &c.— See Jeremiah 36:22. The Russian princes used to have their winter and summer palaces, that nation having had many of the eastern usages, and even much of their dress, before the new regulations of Peter the Great. But the winter and summer-houses spoken of by the prophets may be supposed hardly to differ so much from each other as those of the Russians. Probably the account which Dr. Shaw gives of the country-seats about Algiers, though not applied by him to the illustration of these texts, may better explain this affair. "The hills and valleys round Algiers are all over beautified with gardens and country-seats, whither the inhabitants of better fashion retire, during the heats of the summer-season. They are little white houses, shaded with a variety of fruit-trees and ever-greens; which, beside the shade and retirement, afford a gay and delightful prospect toward the sea. The gardens are all of them well stocked with melons, fruit and potherbs of all kinds; and (which is chiefly regarded in these hot climates) each of them enjoys a great command of water, &c." These are the houses used for retirement from the heat; they might with the greater propriety, therefore, be called summer-houses. They are built in the open country, and are small, though belonging to people of fashion; and as such, do they not explain in the most simple manner the words of Amos? I will smite the winter-house;—the palaces of the great, in fortified towns: with the summer-house, the small houses of pleasure used in the summer, to which any enemy can have access? And the houses of ivory shall perish; those remarkable for their magnificence; and the great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord; those that are distinguished by their amplitude as well as richness, built as they are in their strongest places, yet shall all perish like their country-seats. See on Nahum 3:17.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, The prophet solemnly awakens the attention of this stupid people, and calls on them to hear and tremble at the word that the Lord had spoken against them.
1. Their ingratitude will provoke him to punish them. Of all families of the earth, they had been distinguished by his peculiar favour: though so few when they went into Egypt, yet he had multiplied them exceedingly; and brought them up thence with a high hand; and therefore their rebellion against him was the more criminal, and would bring a heavier judgment on their heads. Note; None perish under deeper guilt than those who have abused distinguishing means and mercies.
2. In their state of apostacy, no communion can subsist between him and them. Can two walk together, except they be agreed? There must be reconciliation before there could be any renewed fellowship; and as they obstinately rejected every call to repent, the enmity must subsist, and their ruin be the consequence. Note; God is ready to be reconciled to sinners; but if they reject his mercy, they may expect his wrath.
3. The judgments that God threatened were not pretended, but real; nor should they be removed from them till they were effectually humbled by them. Will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey? &c. No: they only roar in sight of their prey, or when they have seized it. Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no gin is for him? No: God hath really spread the snare of affliction for them, nor would take it up fruitless; they would assuredly be snared and taken; nor would the visitation be removed, till the end for which it was sent should be answered. Note; The terrors of the Lord are not phantoms raised to frighten the weak, the ignorant, or superstitious, but awful realities which must shortly come to pass.
4. The warnings that they received ought justly to alarm them; and in the sufferings which they were about to feel, God's hand would visibly appear. Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid of the approaching foe? or not run together, to consider how to avert the storm? Thus God, by his prophets, had spread the alarm; and it was at their peril if they disregarded them. Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? All attention comes from his appointing, permissive, or suffering will; and without it not a hair of our head falls. Surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets, that before he strikes they may give fair warning to the guilty, and exhort them by a speedy humiliation to avert the impending wrath. The lion hath roared; who will not fear? The Lord hath denounced his vengeance against the impenitent; and abundant cause there is that they should tremble before him. The Lord God hath spoken; who can but prophesy? Who, that hath the glory of God and the good of men's souls at heart, can refrain from speaking, when God stirs up his mind with holy zeal, and shews him the dreadful danger about which sinners appear so fearfully unconcerned. Note; (1.) In all our trials and troubles, God's hand is to be acknowledged: it should silence every murmur, when we know that he hath done it or permitted it for our good. (2.) God is very gracious; he never strikes, till, having warned in vain, the sinner proves incorrigible. (3.) Necessity is laid upon those, whose spirit God inwardly moves with affecting views of the miseries of a world that lieth in wickedness, to labour to pluck, if possible, these brands from the burning.
2nd, The neighbouring nations, the princes of Philistia and Egypt, are summoned to hear the trial of Israel, that they may bear witness to the righteousness of the Lord, and in their punishments be themselves admonished. We have,
1. The crimes of which Israel is found guilty. (1.) Behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, the outrages committed in lawless riot, and passed off with impunity. (2.) Behold the oppressed in the midst thereof: injustice, oppression, rapine, and violence fill every street, and the injured groan without redress; for they know not to do right; they had no desire to do it, or by so long a course of wickedness their very judgment was perverted, and their reason blinded: they store up violence and robbery in their palaces, thus heaping up wrath against the day of wrath. Note; Sin is of so bewitching a nature, that by long practice it gains, as it were, a sanction in the mind; and the conscience utterly defiled yields consent and approbation.
2. The sentence pronounced upon Israel is terrible. An adversary, the Assyrian king, shall be raised up, who shall demolish their fortresses, and plunder their palaces of their ill-gotten wealth. The inhabitants shall be massacred and devoured, as a helpless sheep in a lion's mouth; a wretched remnant only shall escape, like the two legs, or a piece of an ear, which the shepherd rescues from his consuming jaws; a few out of Samaria, in the corner of a bed, so poor that they have only part of a bed to lie on, or who ran thither to hide themselves;* and in Damascus in a couch, a mere handful, who fled thither when Samaria was taken; or when this city fell likewise, some few of them narrowly escaped. This sentence God's prophets and priests are called upon faithfully to deliver to the house of Jacob, and to assure them that the day will come when he will visit their transgressions with deserved vengeance; when their idolatrous altars at Beth-el should fall, and the horns of them be cut off, nor afford the least refuge to those who fled thither, their idol-confidences utterly failing them. Their houses filled with oppression shall also be laid in the dust; their winter and summer-houses, many of them curiously adorned with ivory, and the structure superb and magnificent, shall be plundered and demolished by the invading foe. Note; (1.) Great houses afford no protection against God's judgments; rather, when built by unrighteousness, maintained by oppression, or abused by pride and luxury, they provoke them more speedily and fearfully. (2.) They who make any creature their idol, will sooner or later be convinced of the folly and misery of their dependence thereon.
* See the notes for another interpretation of this passage.