Amos 4:9

9 "Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards. I sent hot winds to dry them up completely. Locusts ate up your fig and olive trees. In spite of that, you still have not returned to me," announces the Lord.

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 also held rain back from you. The time to harvest crops was still three months away. I sent rain on one town. But I held it back from another. One field had rain. Another did not. So it dried up.
8 People wandered from town to town to look for water. But they did not get enough to drink. In spite of that, you still have not returned to me," announces the Lord.
9 "Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards. I sent hot winds to dry them up completely. Locusts ate up your fig and olive trees. In spite of that, you still have not returned to me," announces the Lord.
10 "I sent plagues on you, just as I did on Egypt. I killed your young men with swords. I also let the horses you had captured be killed. I filled your noses with the bad smell of your camps. In spite of that, you still have not returned to me," announces the Lord.
11 "I destroyed some of you, just as I did Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick that was pulled out of the fire. In spite of that, you still have not returned to me," announces the Lord.
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