Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.
Ver. 4. And, behold, the Lord God] Whose asterisk, or starry note, this "behold" is, saith Tarnovius, stirring up to attention. Another compareth it to a hand in the margin of a book, pointing to some notable thing. Another, to the sounding of a trumpet before some proclamation; or to the ringing of a bell before the sermon of some famous preacher.
The Lord God called to contend by fire] That is, by parching heat and drought, causing dearth, as Joel 1:19. For which purpose God called his angels, those ministering spirits, that execute his judgments upon the wicked (as they did once upon Sodom), to contend for him (a metaphor from civil courts), to plead for him by fire, to destroy the perverse Israelites by fire and brimstone, Isa 66:16 Ezekiel 38:22, as they had done Sodom and Gomorrah (so some interpret it according to the letter); or by the woe of war, compared to fire, Isaiah 26:11, as being a misery which all words (however wide) want compass to express; or, by immoderate heat and drought, as before; so great, that
it devoured the great deep] as that fire of the Lord in Elijah's time licked up the water that was in the trench, 1 Kings 18:38. See Isaiah 51:10 .
And did eat up a part] Or, it devoured also the field: not only the waters in and under the earth, that serve to make it fruitful, but a part of the earth itself; which was altogether above and against the common course of nature. Some render it, and did eat up that part, or that field, sc. that mentioned Amos 7:1, the king's field; that as the king had chiefly offended, so he should be principally punished. Others interpret it by Amos 4:7, "One piece was rained upon, and the piece whereon it rained not withered."