Amos 5:8 [Seek him] that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD [is] his name:
Ver. 8. Seek him that maketh the seven stars] Once again, "Seek him"; that is, Return to him by true repentance; and by faith take hold of his strength, that ye may make peace, and ye shall make peace with him, Isaiah 27:5. To stand out it boots not; since it is he that made Bootes and Orion, &c., that is, of infinite power; and doeth whatsoever he will in heaven and earth, "who only doeth wondrous things," Psalms 72:18. See Amos 4:12,13. Chimah and Chesil, that is, Pleiades and Orion, are twice mentioned together in Job. Noted stars they are, and known to shepherds and such like. Amos, likely, was but such an astronomer as herdsmen use to be. Those who write of these stars tell us, that Chimah comes of Chamah, to love ardently; because of the fellowship and working together that appears in them. They be seven stars that have all one name; because they all help one another in their work, which is to bring the spring; and like seven sisters or lovers, so are they joined together in one constellation, and in one company. We see (saith one) that God will have the sweetest works in nature to be performed by mutual help. The best time of the year cometh with these seven stars (hence we read of their sweet influence, Job 38:31), and the best time of our life cometh when we enter into true love and fellowship. As for Orion, it is the star (saith the same author) that brings winter; and his bonds cannot be loosed. It binds the earth with frost and cold, that the fruits thereof might be seasoned and made kindly against the spring: neither can the spring come till Orion have prepared the way. God will have us suffer before we reign. The word Chesil here used signifies, in the Chaldee, to perfect; because by suffering and offering violence to ourselves we enter into perfection, Luke 13:32. If we would have a pleasant spring of graces in our hearts, we must first have a nipping winter: the spirit of mortification must be like the cold star Orion, to nip our quick motions in the head, and to bind all our unclean desires and burning lusts, that they stir not in us; and unless we do thus, the seven stars of comfort shall never appear to us.
And turneth the shadow of death,] that is, the thickest darkness (tenebras ferales et letales, Psa 23:4),
into the morning] Into "the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," Proverbs 4:18. This severing of night from day and day from night, this mutual and orderly succession and course of the night after the day, and the day after the night, the lengthening and shortening of the days in summer and winter, the wonderful eclipses, and other occurrents of that nature, are works of God's power and providence, not to be slighted, but improved to true repentance. We are to mark the countenance of the sky, and to discern the face of heaven; that every day and night winketh at us, and beckoneth to us, to remember the wisdom, power, justice, and mercy of God lined out unto us in the brows of the firmament. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork," Psalms 19:1. The creatures are Regii professores, ministers of the King, saith one; Catholic preachers, saith another; Real apostles of the divinity, saith a third. Clemens Alexandrinus saith, that the world is Dei scriptura, word of God, the first Bible that God made for the instruction of man. Antonius Eremita told a philosopher, who objected to him his want of books, that the universe was to him instead of a well furnished library, everywhere ready at hand. Hugo affirmeth, that everything uttereth these three words, Accipe, Redde, Fuge, Receive mercy, Return duty, Shun sin, together with that hell that it hales at the heels of it. Much a man may learn out of the book of nature, with its three leaves, Heaven, Earth, and Sea; but there he must not rest. For, as where the naturalist ends the physician begins; so, where nature fails and can go no farther, there Scripture succeeds and gives more grace, James 4:6 Psalms 19:1,2; Psalms 19:7,8. The Chaldee paraphrast takes this text allegorically, as if the sense were; God changeth his hand towards the sons of men at his pleasure, prospering them one while, crossing them another; so that they walk in darkness and have no light, Isaiah 50:10, yea, they walk through the vale of the shadow of death, Psalms 23:4. Not through a dark entry or churchyard in the night time, but a valley, a large, long, vast place; not of darkness only, but of death; and not bare death, but the shadow of death, that is, the darkest and most dismal side of death, in its most hideous and horrid representations. And yet if God be with his Davids in this sad condition, no hurt shall befall them, but much good.
“ Flebile principium melior fortuna sequetur. ”
That calleth for the waters of the sea] That is, for great armies, saith the Chaldee. But better take it literally, of the generation of rain, the chief author whereof is God: the material cause is the sea sending up vapours; the instrumental cause is the sun, by the beams whereof God draws the vapour upwards; sends for them, as it were, into the middle region of the air, there thickeneth them into clouds, and then resolveth them into rain. This Kimchi illustrateth by the simile of a boiling pot, whereout vapours and fumes, ascending to the colder pot lid, are turned into drops of water, see Genesis 2:6 .
The waters of the sea] 1 Kings 18:44, a little cloud arose out of the sea like a man's hand. And presently the prophet said to Ahab, "Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not. And it came to pass in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds," &c.
“ Humorem magno tollunt ex aequore ponti
Nubes, qui in tote terrarum spargitur orbe,
Cum pluit in terris ” (Lucret. lib. 6).
The naturalists observe that it snows not in the sea, because it sends up hot vapours, which presently dissolve the snow.
The Lord is his name ] His memorial, Hosea 12:5 . See Trapp on " Hos 12:5 " He is not an idol, to be dallied with and deluded.