Thus saith the LORD; As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch.
As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs - a pastoral image, appropriately used by Amos, a shepherd himself. "Taketh," i:e., rescueth. The "two legs" are properly the shank below the knee, the dry and worthless part, being only skin and bone.
Or a piece of an ear - brought by the shepherd to the owner of the sheep, so as not to have to pay for the loss (Genesis 31:39, where Jacob says to Laban, "That which was torn of beast I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night;" Exodus 22:13).
So shall the children of Israel be taken out - rather, 'shall be rescued.' So if aught of Israel escapes, it shall be a miracle of God's goodness. It shall be but a scanty remnant. There is a kind of goat in the East, the ears of which are a foot long and proportionally broad. Perhaps the reference is to this. Compare on the image, David's delivering the lamb "out of the mouth of the lion" (1 Samuel 17:34-35); and Paul says of his escape at Rome, "I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion" (2 Timothy 4:17).
So shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed - i:e., that live luxuriously in Samaria (cf. Amos 6:1; Amos 6:4, "That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock"). In allusion to this last clause, it is threatened that, in righteous retribution, they themselves shall be as the lambs devoured by the lion, so that but "two legs or a piece of an ear" shall be rescued. "A bed" means here the Oriental divan, a raised part of the room, covered with cushions.
And in Damascus in a couch. Jeroboam II had lately "recovered Damascus" to Israel, and "restored the coast of Israel, from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain" (2 Kings 14:25; 2 Kings 14:28). So the Israelites are represented as not merely in "the corner of a bed," as in Samaria, but "in a (whole) couch," at Damascus, living in luxurious ease. The "corner" that they occupy of "the bed" or divan is, however, according to Pusey, the inner corner, where the two sides meet; that place which is still the place of dignity. Of these, now so luxurious, soon but a remnant shall be left by the foe. The destruction of Damascus and that of Samaria shall be conjoined; as here, their luxurious lives, and, subsequently, Israel under Pekah and Syria under Rezin, their inroads on Judah, were combined (Isaiah 7:1-8; Isaiah 8:4; Isaiah 8:9; Isaiah 17:3). The parallelism of "Samaria" to "Damascus" and the Septuagint favour the English version rather than Gesenius: 'on a damask couch.' The Hebrew pointing х Dªmesheq (H1833)], though generally expressing damask, may express the city "Damascus;" and many manuscripts point it so [dªmeseq]. Pusey denies that the word can mean damask at all; because Ezekiel 27:18 speaks of wine and white wool (the raw material) as the exports of Damascus: so that the city was not then as yet the manufacturer of damask, for which it is famed in modern times.
Moreover, damask is not so called in Arabic. Compare for Israel's overthrow, under King Hoshea, by the Assyrian Shalmaneser, and the final deportation by Esar-haddon (Ezra 4:2; 2 Kings 17:5-6; 2 Kings 18:9-12).