And their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, saith the LORD.
Their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes - or else, 'their Moloch (the idol of Ammon) and his priests,' (Grotius and the Septuagint) Isaiah 43:28 - "the princes (holy princes, margin) of the sanctuary" - so uses "princes" for priests. So Amos 5:26, "your Moloch;" and Jeremiah 49:3, "their king (Melcom, margin) shall go into captivity." The English version, however, is perhaps preferable both here and in Jeremiah 49:3; see notes there. Though there is probably a secondary allusion to the idol-king Moloch. Thus the prophet implies that their earthly king and their idol should both alike be unavailing to save them, or even to save themselves.
Remarks:
(1) God often uses "the weak things of the world to confound the mighty:" and so He chose a simple shepherd, Amos, as His prophet, to reprove Israel and her king, Jeroboam II, in the height of their prosperity. The words which Amos spake as a burden falling heavily upon Israel (so the Hebrew expresses), were the embodiment in divinely-taught speech of a divinely-sent vision. A warning, and two years' time for repentance, were given before the terrible earthquake came, which, with still more awful impressiveness, foreshadowed the coming upheaval and overturn of the whole state.
(2) No seeming prosperity of a nation is a guarantee for its permanence where the moral basis of the fear of God is wanting. Alike the populous city, and the peaceful "habitations" of the country, and the fruitful hills, shall suffer when the mighty voice of God from His holy hill speaks in His wrath.
(3) The nations threatened are seven, besides Israel herself. From her oppressive enemy, Syria, the denunciation of judgment passes to Philistia, her ancient and continual antagonist. Then the merchant city, Tyre, is threatened for her selfish disregard to the brotherly covenant which formerly subsisted between the Tyrian and the Israelite kings. Then Edom, Ammon, and Moab are denounced for that they set aside the tie of blood, and perpetrated abominable cruelties. Then come last Judah and Israel themselves. If the less favoured Gentile nations were to be punished for sin, how could the people of God hope to escape, seeing that their transgressions were committed in the face of greater light and higher spiritual privileges? This is an eternal principle with God, that the greater the light, the greater is the responsibility. As higher privileges, when used aright, give a greater capacity for heavenly blessedness, so the same, when abused, give a greater capacity for misery, and prepare a man for heavier punishment.
(4) The last sin in each case is that whereby the measure of men's sins, whenever all but already full, is made to overflow. God then no longer suspends the judgment which had been long since deserved, and which nothing but His long suffering had withheld from descending. A space for repentance was given to each of the doomed nations after the first, the second, and even the third offence (Amos 1:3). But when the fourth was added, the sinner's doom was fixed, and henceforth there could be no more reversal of the sentence. Sin and punishment are indissolubly connected. Hazael had a knowledge of the God of Israel, whose prophet, Elisha, had foretold his usurpation of the Syrian throne. But Hazael abused his knowledge of futurity thus obtained, as though it gave him a divine license to perpetrate odious cruelties. Tyrants and successful usurpers have often cloaked their wickedness under the pretext of a heavenly mission. But God's foreordinance of events does not excuse the sin of those by whom He executes His vengeance upon other transgressors. In due time He will reckon severely with the former, as He has with the latter already. Syri a and Israel alone of the nations here denounced were to be carried away by a complete captivity. Having tried to uproot the Lord's people, the Syrians were to be uprooted themselves.
(5) As the first man was turned out of the garden of Eden through sin, so doth ungodliness sooner or later put a sudden end to every pleasure. Such was the portion of "him that held the sceptre" of Syria-unexpectedly "cut off from the house of Eden," his abode of pleasure (Amos 1:5). Truly "the pleasures of sin are but for a season" (Hebrews 11:25).
(6) Special judgments are inflicted upon those who show no mercy. As the Philistines had again and again turned their hands against Israel, and not only smitten them, but had given them up to their bitterest foe, Edom, so the Lord would "turn his hand against" them (Amos 1:8). "He shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy" (James 2:13).
(7) God is the avenger of broken covenants (Amos 1:9). Brotherly love, when once begun, should continue. It was the selfish violation of this brotherly covenant, on the part of Tyre, which provoked the vengeance of God on her, for her having, through mercantile covetousness, delivered up the whole captivity of the Israelites to their bitter enemy, Edom.
(8) The aggression of Edom's offence was manifold (Amos 1:11). It was against his own brother by birth. Tyre was Israel's brother only by covenant. But Edom was so by blood. Jacob and Esau, the respective ancestors of the two nations, were twin brothers: and little as we think of the tie of relationship after a few generations, in the sight of God a quarrel between those so related is peculiarly revolting. At the same time God would have us also to enlarge our view, and to regard all men as our brothers in a common parentage, and, above all, in a common redemption.
(9) Edom, moreover, "pursued" the object of his hatred with unrelenting violence. The natural "yearnings" of a brother's "pity" were stifled in him; and Edom only remembered the relationship to hate Israel the more. To be "without natural affection" is one of the marks given of the Gentiles in their past apostasy (Romans 1:31), and also of the same in their coming anti-Christian apostasy (2 Timothy 3:3). No wars are so fierce as those between brethren (Aristotle, 'Politics,' 7: 7). How zealously, therefore, ought brethren to cultivate love, and to keep alive by exercise the natural affections! Israel was forbidden to do any act of unkindness toward Edom. And it was only when perpetual "anger," that like a wild beast "did tear perpetually," required to be curbed, the Israelite kings were constrained to take up the sword against Edom in self-defense. In Israel's day of calamity especially did Edom maliciously triumph and trample upon his fallen brother. But God was Israel's avenger: and in Edom's case we learn the eternal principle, "He that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished" (Proverbs 17:5).
(10) Ammon and Moab, the offspring of the incestuous sin of Lot, ever retained the stamp of their origin. Ferocity and sensuality characterized them and their idols, Moloch and Baal-peor, which were but the reflection of themselves. Again and again they "crushed" Israel as in the days of Jephthah (Judges 10:8). They ripped up the pregnant women of Gilead (Amos 1:13), on a deliberate system, in order to exterminate Israel from that region, and so enlarge their own border. Therefore destruction from the Lord should come swift, sudden, and irresistible as "the whirlwind" on Ammon, its capital, its king, and its princes (Amos 1:14-15). Thus the Prophets are the inspired commentary on the Sacred History. They illustrate for us, and for all generations, the righteous principles of God's government, and show that though much for the present seems confused in the world's politics, yet "verily He is a God that judgeth in the earth" (Psalms 58:11), giving an earnest of the full and perfect judgment which shall vindicate all His ways at the last.