Amos 2:11

11 I chose some of your sons to be prophets and some of your young men to be nazirites. Isn't this true, people of Israel? I, the Lord, have spoken. ¹

Amos 2:11 Meaning and Commentary

Amos 2:11

And I raised up of your sons for prophets
Such as Moses, Joshua, and the seventy elders, and others; not only to foretell things to come, but to teach and instruct the people in the doctrines and duties of religion, and to warn them of their sins, and the danger of them: and of your young men for Nazarites:
as Samson, Samuel, and others; whose vow not only obliged them from shaving their hair, but to abstain from drinking wine, and eating grapes, which the youthful age is inclined unto; but such grace was given them, as enabled them to deny themselves sensual gratifications, and to be examples of piety and constant attendance on the service of God, and instructing the people. The Targum is,

``of your young men for teachers;''

these were the spiritual mercies, as the former were the temporal ones, the Lord bestowed on these people, for the truth of which he appeals to them: [is it] not even thus, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord?
can ye deny it? the thing was too notorious to be contradicted.

Amos 2:11 In-Context

9 "And yet, my people, it was for your sake that I totally destroyed the Amorites, who were as tall as cedar trees and as strong as oaks.

10 I brought you out of Egypt, led you through the desert for forty years, and gave you the land of the Amorites to be your own.

11 I chose some of your sons to be prophets and some of your young men to be nazirites. Isn't this true, people of Israel? I, the Lord, have spoken.

12 But you made the nazirites drink wine, and ordered the prophets not to speak my message.

13 And now I will crush you to the ground, and you will groan like a cart loaded with grain.

Cross References

• 1. 2.11Numbers 6.1-8.

Footnotes

• [a]. nazirites: [Israelites who showed their devotion to God by taking vows not to drink wine or beer or cut their hair or touch corpses (see Nu 6.1-8).]