Amos 9:1-4

God's Judgment Unavoidable

1 I saw the Lord standing beside the ¹altar, and He said, "Smite the capitals so that the ²thresholds will shake, And ³break them on the heads of them all! Then I will ⁴slay the rest of them with the sword; They will ⁵not have a fugitive who will flee, Or a refugee who will escape.

2 "Though they dig into ⁶Sheol, From there will My hand take them; And though they ⁷ascend to heaven, From there will I bring them down.

3 "Though they hide on the summit of Carmel, I will ⁸search them out and take them from there; And though they ⁹conceal themselves from My sight on the floor of the sea, From there I will command the ¹⁰serpent and it will bite them.

4 "And though they go into ¹¹captivity before their enemies, From there I will command the sword that it slay them, And I will ¹²set My eyes against them for evil and not for good."

Amos 9:1-4 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO AMOS 9

This chapter contains the fifth and last vision the prophet saw; which represents the certain desolation of the land, city, and temple, and the slaughter of all sorts of persons, high and low, none should escape it, Am 9:1; be they where they would, they should be found out, whether in hell or heaven, on the tops of the highest mountains, or in the bottom of the sea, or in a foreign land, since the eyes of the Lord were upon them for evil, Am 9:2-4; nor could they hope to escape, when they considered his greatness and his power, and what he could do, and had done; and how they had behaved towards him, even though they were the people he had brought out of Egypt, Am 9:5-7; but though the sinful kingdom should be destroyed, yet not utterly, a remnant should be saved, Am 9:8-10; and the chapter is concluded with gracious promises of raising up the tabernacle of David fallen down, and of the return of the people of Israel to their own land; and of their settlement and continuance in it, never more to depart from it, Am 9:11-15.

Cross References

• 1. Amos 3:14
• 2. Zephaniah 2:14
• 3. Psalms 68:21; Habakkuk 3:13
• 4. Amos 7:17
• 5. Jeremiah 11:11
• 6. Psalms 139:8
• 7. Jeremiah 51:53; Obadiah 4
• 8. Jeremiah 16:16
• 9. Job 34:22; Psalms 139:9, 10
• 10. Isaiah 27:1
• 11. Leviticus 26:33
• 12. Leviticus 17:10; Jeremiah 21:10; Jeremiah 39:16; Jeremiah 44:11