Amos 9:5

A divine confession

5 The LORD, God of heavenly forces, touches the earth and it melts, and all who live in it are sick to death. All of it rises up like the Nile and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt.

Amos 9:5 Meaning and Commentary

Amos 9:5

And the Lord God of hosts [is] he that toucheth the land, and
it shall melt
Which is another reason why it is impossible to escape the hands of a sin revenging God, because he is omnipotent as well as omniscient; he is the Lord of all the armies above and below; and if he but touch the land, any particular country, as the land of Israel, it shakes and trembles, and falls into a flow of water, or melts like wax; as when he toucheth the hills and mountains they smoke, being like fuel to fire; see ( Psalms 104:32 ) ( 144:5 ) ; and all that dwell therein shall mourn;
their houses destroyed, their substance consumed, and all that is near and dear to them swallowed up: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood, and shall be drowned as [by]
the flood of Egypt; (See Gill on Amos 8:8).

Amos 9:5 In-Context

3 If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, I will search for them there and remove them. If they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, I will give an order to the sea serpent, and it will bite them.

4 If they are forced from their homes before their enemies, there I will give an order to the sword, and it will kill them. I will fix my eyes on them for harm and not for good.

5 The LORD, God of heavenly forces, touches the earth and it melts, and all who live in it are sick to death. All of it rises up like the Nile and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt.

6 It is the LORD who builds his upper rooms in the heavens and establishes his residence upon the earth; who summons the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth— the LORD is his name.

7 Aren't you like the Cushites to me, people of Israel? says the LORD. Haven't I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?

Footnotes

• [a]. Or the earth