Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.
Ver. 10. Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel] Observing that the prophet had foretold a desolation, and not prayed as before that it might be averted; because he saw God was fully resolved, and their destruction determined.
Amos hath conspired against thee in the land] Thus Elijah was the troubler of Israel, Jeremiah a seedsman of sedition, Christ an enemy to Caesar, Luther a trumpet of rebellion; all contra-remonstrants, anti-magistratical. As Athaliah cried, Treason, treason, when herself was the greatest traitor; and as in Nero's days sedition was unicum crimen eorum qui crimine vacabunt (Lipsius), laid ordinarily to the charge of those that were most free from it, so was it here. "Amos hath conspired," &c., whereas Amos might well have said, as Latimer did, As for sedition, for aught that I know, methinks I should not need Christ, if I might so say. Religion is an utter enemy to rebellion; and as there are few conscionable Christians (prophets especially) that have not passed under this calumniation, so he cannot be rightly esteemed such a one that deserveth it. But Amaziah's honour and incomes were now at stake; as he well perceived when he heard Amos say, Go not up to Bethel, &c., the high places of Isaac shall be destroyed; and hence his zeal against the prophet; like as Erasmus told the Elector of Saxony, that the Pope and his shavelings were therefore so sharp set against Luther because he lifted at the triple crown, and sought to bring down the monks' fat paunches.
The land is not able to bear all his words] His burdensome prophecies, Mal 1:1 See Trapp on " Mal 1:1 " much less can I endure them, or any faithful servant of thine, true to his trust. Such a lying accusation we read of, Esther 3:8, made by haughty Haman against the innocent Jews, that they kept not the king's laws, and that therefore it were good policy to weed them out, as not to be longer endured. So Francis, King of France, desiring to excuse to the Protestant princes of Germany his cruel persecution of the Lutherans in his kingdom, wrote to them that he looked upon them all as Anabaptists, and as enemies to civil government; and therefore used such severity against them. This gave occasion to Calvin to write his admirable Institutions, to vindicate our religion from that foul aspersion (Saultet. Annal. 454). The like devilish policy was afterwards used to blanch over that horrid French massacre. For it was given out, that the Protestants had conspired against the king, the queen mother, the king's brethren, the King of Navarre, and the princes of the blood. There was also coin stamped in memory of the matter, in the forepart whereof with the king's picture, was this inscription, Virtus in rebelles; power on rebels, and on the other side, Pietas excitavit iustitiam: Piety hath stirred up justice. Here was a fair glove drawn upon a foul hand; and this they learned from the devil, who was first a slanderer and then a murderer; as those that have a mind to kill another man's dog make the world believe he was mad first, that they may do it with the better pretext.