Amos 4:9

9 percussi vos in vento urente et in aurugine multitudinem hortorum vestrorum et vinearum vestrarum oliveta vestra et ficeta vestra comedit eruca et non redistis ad me dicit Dominus

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 ego quoque prohibui a vobis imbrem cum adhuc tres menses superessent usque ad messem et plui super civitatem unam et super civitatem alteram non plui pars una conpluta est et pars super quam non plui aruit
8 et venerunt duae et tres civitates ad civitatem unam ut biberent aquam et non sunt satiatae et non redistis ad me dicit Dominus
9 percussi vos in vento urente et in aurugine multitudinem hortorum vestrorum et vinearum vestrarum oliveta vestra et ficeta vestra comedit eruca et non redistis ad me dicit Dominus
10 misi in vos mortem in via Aegypti percussi in gladio iuvenes vestros usque ad captivitatem equorum vestrorum et ascendere feci putredinem castrorum vestrorum in nares vestras et non redistis ad me dicit Dominus
11 subverti vos sicut subvertit Deus Sodomam et Gomorram et facti estis quasi torris raptus de incendio et non redistis ad me dicit Dominus
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.