Amos 4:9

9 "I struck your crops with hot winds and blight, your many gardens and vineyards; the cutter-worms devoured your fig and olive trees; still you haven't returned to me," says ADONAI.

Amos 4:9 Meaning and Commentary

Amos 4:9

I have smitten you with blasting and mildew
"Blasting" is what we commonly call "blights", generally occasioned by an east wind; and so Kimchi interprets the word here used; and the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "a burning wind"; which causes the buds and leaves of trees to shrivel up as if they were burnt with fire. "Mildew" is a kind of clammy dew, which falling upon corn corrupts and destroys by its moisture; and is a kind of jaundice to the fruits of the earth; and has its name as that, from yellowness, in the Hebrew language: when the Lord is said to smite them with these the sense is, that he sent these upon the fruits of their gardens, fields and vineyards, which consumed them: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive
trees increased, the palmer worm devoured [them];
just when they were budding and blossoming, and bringing forth fruit; and so what the blasting and mildew did not consume, that the palmer worm, a kind of locust, did; which has its name from its biting and cutting off the leaves and branches of trees, as of those mentioned vines, olives and fig trees, with which the land of Canaan abounded, the cutting off which was a great calamity. The Targum is,

``the multitude of your gardens the palmer worm hath eaten:''

yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord;
this dispensation of Providence was also without its desired fruit and effect; (See Gill on Amos 4:6).

Amos 4:9 In-Context

7 "I withheld the rain from you three months before the harvest. I made it rain on one city and not on another - one field had rain, while another with no rain dried up;

8 from two or three cities they would stagger to one city for water to drink, but there wasn't enough; still you haven't returned to me," says ADONAI.

9 "I struck your crops with hot winds and blight, your many gardens and vineyards; the cutter-worms devoured your fig and olive trees; still you haven't returned to me," says ADONAI.

10 "I sent a plague on you like that of Egypt, put your young men to death with the sword; let your horses be captured; and filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps; still you haven't returned to me," says ADONAI.

11 "I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew S'dom and 'Amora; you were like a burning stick snatched from the fire; still you haven't returned to me," says ADONAI.