They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
They that swear by the sin of Samaria - namely, the calves, made in imitation of the golden calf made by Aaron at the people's request, and afterward burnt, stamped upon, and ground small as dust, and east into the brook out of the mount, by Moses (Deuteronomy 9:21; Hosea 4:15). "Swear by" means to worship (Psalms 63:11, "Every one that sweareth by Him shall glory").
Thy God, O Dan, liveth - the other golden calf at Dan (1 Kings 12:26-30).
Liveth ... liveth - rather, 'May thy god. O Dan, live ... may the manner of Beer-sheba live.' Or, 'As (surely as) thy god, O Dan, liveth.' This is their formula when they swear; not 'May Yahweh live!' or 'As Yahweh liveth!'
The manner - i:e., as "the way" is used, Psalms 139:24; Acts 9:2; the mode of worship.
Remarks:
(1) Amos resumes the thread of his prophecy just at the point where it was broken off by the interruption of Amaziah. To contend with God is vain, and only reveals the impotence of the puny rebel that lifts himself up against his Almighty King. As the last vision-namely, that of the plumb-line (Amos 7:7-8) - declared the certainty of the coming end, so the vision here of the basket of summer fruit declares its nearness. The fruit gathering closed the whole harvest. So the whole course of God's mercies, chastisements, and providential warnings were now completed in the case of Israel: as He saith respecting the sister kingdom of Judah, "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?" (Isaiah 5:4.) As in holiness so in sin, there is a sowing, a growth, and a maturity. After the appointed cycle of heavenly influences has acted for the due time, the harvest time comes. As believers are then ripe for glory (Mark 4:27-29), so are unbelievers ripe for shame and punishment. The long period of God's patience and forbearance toward sinners at last terminates, and judgment ensues.
(2) "The songs" of the idol temple at Bethel were to be turned into "howlings," as if the mirthful song of sinners were suddenly to change into a shriek of agony and death. Such shall be the abrupt transition from the world's present mirthfulness and levity, amidst its manifold virtual idolatries, to the "weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth," and the everlasting death which await all that live without God in the world.
(3) Oppression of the poor, and especially of those that are poor in spirit (Amos 8:4), is one of God's leading charges against His people. Riches gained by the ruin of the poor will bring sure ruin on those who got them. Such oppressors of their fellow-men, and pursuers of gain at all costs, have little care for the ordinances of God. They keep the Sabbath in a kind of outward form, in order to lull conscience; their heart is not in it, but in their covetousness or pleasures. Impatient for its close, their inward feeling, if they would confess the truth to themselves, is, "When will the sabbath be gone, that we may sell wheat," and our other wares? (Amos 8:5;) when will church-service be over, that we may be our own masters again? "Behold, what a weariness is it!" (Malachi 1:13.) They "pant after" the goods of others, and therefore long for the end of holy ordinances. How different from the feeling of the true worshipper, "My soul thirsteth for God, the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" (Psalms 42:2.)
(4) False weights and measures are an abomination to the Lord, and utterly vitiate all words of prayer. They who have not common honesty have no particle of true piety. Such sins perpetuate themselves, the sin of today necessitating that of tomorrow, in order to escape detection. What a host of frauds cry out to God against us as a nation! At how little worth, for the most part, with a few honourable exceptions, is the poor labourer estimated, while the competition of trade makes gain at any cost the sole ruling principle, without regard to the soul of man, made in the image of God! Our adulterations of every article or food far exceed anything practiced in Israel. They sold, indeed, "the refuse of the wheat," which, although void of much nutriment, was still wholesome (Amos 8:6). Many modern adulterations are even poisonous.
(5) Darkness is gloomiest when it comes suddenly in the middle of daylight (Amos 8:9). Such was to be the sudden doom of Israel in the midst of its prosperity. Pekah, their king, after a peaceful and prosperous reign of seventeen years, in an evil hour for him, joined with Rezin of Damascus in an attempt to extirpate the line of David, by setting up over Judah a Syrian, the son of Tabeal (Isaiah 7:6). Ahaz, in his conscious weakness, called in the Assyrian king to his aid: so Tiglath-pileser came against Israel, and carried off the tribes beyond Jordan. And in the reign of the following king of Israel, Hoshea, the Assyrian Shalmaneser completed the work of destruction, and Israel's 'sun went down at noon.'
(6) During the last three hours of our Saviour's agony on the cross, the same thing took place as in the case of Israel, His type. 'The sun went down at noon, and in the clear day,' while the antitypical Israel (Isaiah 49:3) hung on the cross. Thus the Passover feast, then being held, was clouded over with darkness, a foreshadowing of the "mourning" into which all the Jewish feasts were "turned," when shortly afterward their temple was destroyed and their nation dispersed. Then the "mourning" was indeed as that for "an only son" (Amos 8:10). As at Israel's deliverance out of Egypt, in every Egyptian house there was bitter mourning for the first-born son of each family, so in Israel herself, now that for her Egyptian-like sins she was to be delivered up to the enemy, there was to be "as the mourning of," or for, "an only son," in whom the parents themselves seemed anew to live (Pusey). So, as was their mourning at their national overthrow, such shall be their mourning also for the sin which caused it, at the eve of their spiritual and national restoration, "They shall mourn for the Lord, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one is in bitterness for his first-born" (Zechariah 12:10).
(7) Men virtually say in their hearts as to the Gospel bread of life, as Israel of old said of the manna (Numbers 21:5) "Our soul loatheth this light bread." The Sabbath day and Sabbath work are now a burden to them; and they are weary of both as dull, because thereby for a brief time their worldly pursuits are brought to a stand-still. But such men are blind to their own interests all the time. The day is fast coming when "God will send ... not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord" (Amos 8:11); and then they shall feel, too late, how much sorer a judgment the want of the bread and water of life is than the curtailment of earthly gains, luxuries, and necessaries for the body. 'He that will not when he may, when he will shall have nay.' Let us value our religious privileges, strive to profit by them, and fear lest we sin them away.
(8) How graphically the state of Israel now and for ages past is described in Amos 8:12, "They shall wander (or reel as men at their wit's end) from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." If, instead of going southward to Judah to seek its subdual, Pekah and Israel had gone there to seek God in the temple at Jerusalem, where He had appointed His worship to be, they would have escaped the calamity inflicted by the Assyrian Tiglath-pileser. The source of all their misery was their abandonment of God (Amos 8:14). Even the strength of the young must "faint" if they will not wait on God, the sole Renewer of all strength (Amos 8:13). Let us then wait on Him continually, and "seek the word of the Lord" while we have it (Amos 8:12); so shall we go on from strength to strength; until we reach the abode of everlasting security and bliss!