Verse 2. - The end (kets). This is very like the word for "fruit" (kaits). Pass by (see note on Amos 7:8). Ver. 3 - The songs of the temple; Septuagint, τὰ φατνώματα τοῦ ναοῦ, "the pannels of the temple;" Vulgate, cardines templi. These versions point to a different reading. It is better rendered, "the songs of the palace," referring to the songs of the revellers mentioned already (Amos 6:5). These shall be changed into howlings of lamentation for the dead which lie around (comp. ver. 10). There shall be many dead bodies. The Hebrew is more forcible: "Many the corpses: in every place he hath cast them forth. Hush!" The Lord is represented as casting dead bodies to the ground, so that death is everywhere; and the interjection "hush!" (comp. Amos 6:10) is an admonition to bend beneath the hand of an avenging God (comp. Zephaniah 1:7). Orelli takes it as an expression of the apathy that accompanies severe and irremediable suffering - suffering too deep for words. The Greek and Latin versions take this onomatopoetic word has! "hush!" as a substantive. Thus the Septuagint, ἐπιῥῤίψωσιωπήν, "I will cast upon them silence;" Vulgate, projicietur silentium - an expressive rendering, but one not supported by grammatical considerations.
8:1-3 Amos saw a basket of summer fruit gathered, and ready to be eaten; which signified, that the people were ripe for destruction, that the year of God's patience was drawing towards a conclusion. Such summer fruits will not keep till winter, but must be used at once. Yet these judgments shall not draw from them any acknowledgement, either of God's righteousness or their own unrighteousness. Sinners put off repentance from day to day, because they think the Lord thus delays his judgments.
And he said, Amos, what seest thou?.... To quicken his attention, who might disregard it as a common thing; and in order to lead him into the design of it, and show him what it was an emblem of:
and I said, a basket of summer fruit; some render it "a hook" (w), such as they pull down branches with to gather the fruit; and the word so signifies in the Arabic language (x); but the other is the more received sense of the word:
then said the Lord unto me; by way of explanation of the vision: the end is come upon my people Israel: the end of the kingdom of Israel; of their commonwealth and church state; of all their outward happiness and glory; their "summer was ended", and they "not saved", Jeremiah 8:20; all their prosperity was over; and, as the Targum, their
"final punishment was come,''
the last destruction threatened them (y):
I will not again pass by them any more; pass by their offences, and forgive their sins; or pass by their persons, without taking notice of them, so as to afflict and punish them for their iniquities: or, "pass through them and more" (z) now making an utter end of them; See Gill on Amos 7:8.
(w) "unicuus", V. L. (x) "ferramentum incurvum, seu uncus ex quo de sella commeatum suspendit viator", Giggeius apud Golium, col. 2055. (y) There is an elegant play on words in the words "summer", and "the end". (z) So Mercerus, Grotius.
and I said, a basket of summer fruit; some render it "a hook" (w), such as they pull down branches with to gather the fruit; and the word so signifies in the Arabic language (x); but the other is the more received sense of the word:
then said the Lord unto me; by way of explanation of the vision: the end is come upon my people Israel: the end of the kingdom of Israel; of their commonwealth and church state; of all their outward happiness and glory; their "summer was ended", and they "not saved", Jeremiah 8:20; all their prosperity was over; and, as the Targum, their
"final punishment was come,''
the last destruction threatened them (y):
I will not again pass by them any more; pass by their offences, and forgive their sins; or pass by their persons, without taking notice of them, so as to afflict and punish them for their iniquities: or, "pass through them and more" (z) now making an utter end of them; See Gill on Amos 7:8.
(w) "unicuus", V. L. (x) "ferramentum incurvum, seu uncus ex quo de sella commeatum suspendit viator", Giggeius apud Golium, col. 2055. (y) There is an elegant play on words in the words "summer", and "the end". (z) So Mercerus, Grotius.