Amos 1:1-2:3--Judgment on Israel's Neighbors

Amos 1:1-2:3
English Standard Version

1 The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

Judgment on Israel's Neighbors
2 And he said:

“The LORD roars from Zion
    and utters his voice from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds mourn,
    and the top of Carmel withers.”

3 Thus says the LORD:

“For three transgressions of Damascus,
    and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they have threshed Gilead
    with threshing sledges of iron.
4 So I will send a fire upon the house of Hazael,
    and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.
5 I will break the gate-bar of Damascus,
    and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven,
and him who holds the scepter from Beth-eden;
    and the people of Syria shall go into exile to Kir,”
says the LORD.

6 Thus says the LORD:

“For three transgressions of Gaza,
    and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they carried into exile a whole people
    to deliver them up to Edom.
7 So I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza,
    and it shall devour her strongholds.
8 I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod,
    and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon;
I will turn my hand against Ekron,
    and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,”
says the LORD God.

9 Thus says the LORD:

“For three transgressions of Tyre,
    and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they delivered up a whole people to Edom,
    and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood.
10 So I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre,
    and it shall devour her strongholds.”

11 Thus says the LORD:

“For three transgressions of Edom,
    and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because he pursued his brother with the sword
    and cast off all pity,
and his anger tore perpetually,
    and he kept his wrath forever.
12 So I will send a fire upon Teman,
    and it shall devour the strongholds of Bozrah.”

13 Thus says the LORD:

“For three transgressions of the Ammonites,
    and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead,
    that they might enlarge their border.
14 So I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah,
    and it shall devour her strongholds,
with shouting on the day of battle,
    with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind;
15 and their king shall go into exile,
    he and his princes together,”
says the LORD.

2 Thus says the LORD:

“For three transgressions of Moab,
    and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because he burned to lime
    the bones of the king of Edom.
2 So I will send a fire upon Moab,
    and it shall devour the strongholds of Kerioth,
and Moab shall die amid uproar,
    amid shouting and the sound of the trumpet;
3 I will cut off the ruler from its midst,
    and will kill all its princes with him,”
says the LORD.

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The first verse tells us when the ministry of Amos happened and a little bit about who Amos is.  First, he is ministering concurrent with Isaiah's early ministry (during the time of King Uzziah in the southern kingdom and King  Jeroboam the son of Joash (as opposed to King Jeroboam that was the first king of the northern tribes after Solomon).  I will call this king Jeroboam II even though his father was not Jeroboam I.

The LORD calls Amos to declare judgment on the nations surrounding Israel.  Starting with Syria whose capital city was Damascus (everything up to and including Damascus was part of the Promised Land that the LORD gave to Israel, so the Syrians are living on stolen land).  The Syrians have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron.  This may sound at first like they farmed land that did not belong to them, but this is probably metaphor for beating the people of God and mistreating them in way that the grain was beaten when it was threshed to separate the kernels of grain from the chaff.  They have probably invaded the land of the Trans-Jordan tribes and abused and mistreated them and the LORD is going to judge the Syrians by allowing the Assyrians (who brutally torture those those they take captive) to come against them when the king of Israel pays the king of Assyria to attack the Syrians for him (see 2 Kings 16 where these prophecies given here in Amos are fulfilled).

Gaza was one of the capital cities of the Philistines and it was as much trouble for the people of Israel and Judah as it is today.  They came against the people of God in an alliance with the people of Edom (the descendants of Esau).  For this, the LORD promises to bring judgment against all the Philistine city-states including Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Ekron.  There would be a complete and total destruction of the Philistines so that no remnant is left.  For this reason we cannot believe that people of Gaza today are descendants of the people of Gaza in the Bible, nor are the "Palestinians" in any way related to the ancient Philistines (though that was the purpose in naming the land Palestine under the Romans because the Romans thought it would infuriate the Jews to be told that the Romans were not going to acknowledge that the Holy Land belonged to God's people Israel and instead claimed it belonged to a dead people group).

We have already discussed Tyre and Sidon and the way in which they were richly blessed, but they became proud and mistreated Israel.  The LORD will completely destroy Tyre for its allegiance with Edom against Israel.  The walls of Tyre will be burned with fire and its strongholds destroyed.

It seems like Edom is in the middle of all of this and stirring up other nations to do its dirty work.  They are still fighting a family feud that is as old as Jacob and Esau.  They have sought to kill their brothers--the people of Israel and have given themselves forever over to anger and wrath.  They refuse to forgive or forget the sins of the past, and so, their sins will not be forgiven.  Their cities will be destroyed by fire and their strongholds destroyed.  Much more is prophesied about the judgment of Edom in the other prophets, and they still have a place in the prophecy of the end times (possibly just about the piece of real-estate that was called Edom, but it seems like the people of Edom survive and continue their attempts to exterminate God's people through acts of war and genocide until the final Day of Judgment).

Judgment is also coming on the Ammonites, children of Lot who the people of Israel were not to destroy during the Exodus and Conquest because they were close family with them.  The LORD will use other nations to judge and destroy them.  They too have savagely treated the Trans-Jordan tribes in the Land of Gilead.  They believed that they could conquer the LORD's people and take the Promised Land away from them by force, not realizing that the LORD had already given their land to Israel as part of His eternal covenant with them.  The land of Ammonites will also have their walled cities burned with fire and their strongholds destroyed.  The king of the Ammonites and all of his princes will be taken into exile, just like they wanted to do to Israel and Judah.

The last group Amos prophesies against in this passage is the other people that came from lot--the people of Moab.  They also have been trouble for the LORD's people, though Ruth the Moabite woman was chosen to be in the lineage of Jesus, the Messiah.  It appears the LORD is going to use them to judge Edom and to burn the bones of the king of Edom so that they turn into lime, but the LORD is still going to punish them for the way in which they chose to carry out the judgment against the Edomites (they are still responsible for the sin that they committed, even though it was the LORD's plan to use them to punish Edom).  Their walled cities will be burned with fire and their strongholds destroyed, and it will be a day of great celebration when this happens.  The king of Moab and all its princes who might take his place will be killed (not taken into exile like the Ammonites).  No longer will Moab plague the people of Israel and Judah.

No exact dates are given to us on when these events will happen, but Israel and Judah are to look at all of these things happening and realize they could (and should) be next.  That is the tone of the next two passage we'll study in Amos 2--the coming judgment on Israel and Judah.  They should see these judgments on their enemies and repent for the day of reckoning is at hand for them and their children and their children's children.