And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.
Ver. 2. Amos, what seest thou?] This the Lord asketh, to stir up attention and affection in the prophet; who might haply need as much to be aroused, as Zechariah in like case did, Amos 4:1, with whom it fared as with a drowsy person, who though awaked and set to work, is ready to sleep at it.
And I said, A basket of summer fruit] Apples, saith Jerome; figs, say others; and why not as well grapes ripened in the summer sunshine? Whereby the Holy Ghost in the Revelation, Revelation 14:20; Revelation 19:15, describeth such as are ready ripe for the wine-press of God's wrath? Nahum compareth them to stubble, laid out in the sun drying, that it may burn the better, Nahum 1:10 .
The end is come upon my people] An elegance in the original beyond translation into English: קץ קיץ, the Latin interpreters have (some of them) assayed the like, but they fall far short of it. The Old Testament is full of such surnames; and God seemeth delighted with them. See Jeremiah 1:11,12; Jeremiah 48:2; Jer 49:23-24 Lam 3:47 Amo 5:5 Micah 1:10; Mic 1:14 Zep 2:5 Exo 2:10 Genesis 3:20; Genesis 4:1; Genesis 4:25; Genesis 5:29; Genesis 17:5; Genesis 21:5,6, &c. There is a pedantic style and a majestic; an effeminate eloquence and a manly. This latter is lawful, and may very well become the man of God; who yet must not wit-wanton it in weightiest matters; but shun those more gay and lighter flashes and flourishes, wherewith the emptiest cells affect to be most fraught; as they, who for want of wares in their shops, set up painted blocks to fill up vacant shelves, as one well expresseth it.
The end is come upon my people] Exitus et exitium. As the summer is the end of the year and the time of ripening fruits; so, now that this people are ripe for ruin, "An end is come, is come, is come: it watcheth for them; behold, it is come," Ezekiel 7:6,7, even the precise time and term of their final overthrow.
I will not again pass by them any more] See Amo 7:1-17 Amos 8:1,14. God can pass by, that is, pardon, his people better than any other, Micah 7:18 (like as they that are born of God, and partake of the Divine nature, can bear wrongs best of any; compel them to go a mile they will be content, if it may do good, to go two; yea, as far as the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace will carry them). But as the saints of God may not be therefore injured (which was Julian's jeering cruelty) because they are meek: so must not God be presumed upon and provoked because he is merciful. "There is mercy with him, that he may be feared," saith the Psalmist; for abused mercy turneth into fury, and opportunities of grace are often so headlong, that if once past they are irrecoverable. Woe be to that people or person to whom God shall say, "I will not again pass by you any more."