Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD [are] upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the LORD.
Ver. 8. Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom] Be it Ethiopia, Palestina, Syria, or Israel, but especially Israel, Amos 3:2, not his eye only, his εκδικον ομμα, his jealous eye, as Amos 9:4, for evil, and not for good; but both his eyes, yea, his seven eyes, for he is ολοφθαλμος, all eye, to look through and through the sinful kingdom, to judge and punish, to inflict "tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first," because of his privileges, "and also of the Gentile," Romans 2:9. "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with the point of a diamond," Jeremiah 17:1, and Israel is therefore worse than others, because he ought to have been better. His whole kingdom is a kingdom of sin, a merum seclus, from pure wickedness, a very Poneropolis, as that place in Thraeia was called whither Philip had assembled all the infamous persons and men of evil demeanour. "What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria?" Micah 1:5; their capital sins were most in their capital cities; and thence overflowed the whole kingdom; called therefore here a sinful kingdom, wholly given to idolatry (as Athens was, Acts 17:16, κατειδωλος), which is that sin with an accent, that wickedness with a witness, Exodus 32:21 1 Kings 12:30; 1Ki 15:3; 1 Kings 15:30, that land desolating sin, Jeremiah 22:7,9 Psalms 78:58,62 .
And I will destroy it] See here the venomous nature of sin, and shun it, else we shall prove traitors to the state, and have our hands, if not upon the great cart ropes, yet upon the lesser cords, that draw down vengeance upon the land. And here some one sinner may destroy much good, Ecclesiastes 9:18, how much more a rabble of rebels, conspiring to provoke the eyes of God's glory!
Saying that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob] A remnant shall be left for royal use, reliquas faciam reliquias, and so make a manifest difference, see Jeremiah 30:11, remembering my promise, Leviticus 26:40, which is a special text touching the rejecting and conversion of the Jews, as is also this in some men's judgments. For here (say they) is a threatening of extreme desolation with some comfort interlaced of a remnant to be reserved; among whom it is further promised, 1. That the kingdom of David through Christ shall be set up as glorious as ever it was before, in the most flourishing times of David or Solomon, Amos 9:11 Amos 9:2. Next, other nations shall join with them and be made partakers of one common inheritance, Amos 9:12. So doth James, Acts 15:16,17, expound it. 3. Thirdly, there is promised the fruitfulness of their land, Amos 9:13, the inhabiting in their own country, Amos 9:14, and the perpetuity of their abode there, Amos 9:15. But all this others think to be, optabile magis quam opinabile, little better than a golden dream.