(10) The gods of the Amorites.--See Joshua 24:15; 1 Kings 21:26. As the Amorites seem to have been the highlanders of Palestine, and the most powerful of all the Canaanitish tribes, their name is sometimes used for that of all the Canaanites (Joshua 24:15). Thus Heber says:--
"As when five monarchs led to Gibeon's fight
In rude array the harnessed Amorite."
No deliverance can be promised till repentance has begun. When the warnings of the prophet are heeded the mission of the deliverer begins.
6:7-10 They cried to God for a deliverer, and he sent them a prophet to teach them. When God furnishes a land with faithful ministers, it is a token that he has mercy in store for it. He charges them with rebellion against the Lord; he intends to bring them to repentance. Repentance is real when the sinfulness of sin, as disobedience to God, is chiefly lamented.
And I said unto you, I am the Lord your God, The covenant God of them and their fathers, and they ought not to have owned and acknowledged any other besides him:
fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; meaning not a fear of being hurt by them, but such a fear and reverence of them as to worship them, which was only to be given to the Lord. The Amorites are here put for all the Canaanites, they being a principal people among them:
but ye have not obeyed my voice; to cleave to him, fear and worship him; they had been guilty of idolatry, and this is the sin the prophet was sent to reprove them for, and bring them to a sense of.
"As when five monarchs led to Gibeon's fight
In rude array the harnessed Amorite."
No deliverance can be promised till repentance has begun. When the warnings of the prophet are heeded the mission of the deliverer begins.
fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; meaning not a fear of being hurt by them, but such a fear and reverence of them as to worship them, which was only to be given to the Lord. The Amorites are here put for all the Canaanites, they being a principal people among them:
but ye have not obeyed my voice; to cleave to him, fear and worship him; they had been guilty of idolatry, and this is the sin the prophet was sent to reprove them for, and bring them to a sense of.