Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as [by] the flood of Egypt.
Ver. 8. Shall not the land tremble for this] q.d. So great are the oppressions here exercised, that the very axle of the earth is even ready to crack under them. Amaziah, that hedge priest of Bethel, had said of our prophet, that the land was not able to bear all his words, Amos 7:10, but Amos more truly affirmeth, that the land trembled under their many and mighty sins, and could bear them no longer; the earthquake happened about this time, Amos 1:1, and it was a just wonder, that the earth had not opened her wide mouth, and swallowed them all up quickly into hell, as Numbers 16:31,32, and as it did a great part of the city of Antioch, A. D. 527, for their horrible heresies and blasphemies there held and broached by her bishops.
And every one mourn] i.e. smart, till they mourn. National sins bring national plagues. The Hebrews hold that there is not a worse sin than oppression. St James saith, that it cries to heaven, and entereth into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth, James 5:4, who will not fail to hear, for he is gracious, Exodus 22:27 .
And it shall rise up wholly as a flood] i.e. the land shall rise up, shall seem to do so, when it is floated and flooded with water; as the sluggard's field is said to rise up or ascend with thorns, that is, to be overgrown therewith. Here then is threatened an overflowing scourge, a universal destruction covering the face of the country, as Nile doth a great part of the land of Egypt every year, leaving much mud behind it; whereof see Pliny and other authors. Mercer thinks the words would be best read by interrogation, as the former, thus, And shall it not rise up wholly as a flood? q.d. shall it not be turned into a large lake, as once Sodom and her sisters were for like cruelties to the poor? Ezekiel 16:46 .