Amos 2:11

11 I raised up some of your sons to be prophets, other young men of yours to be n'zirim. People of Isra'el! Isn't that true?" asks ADONAI.

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 "I destroyed the Emori before them; though tall as cedars and strong as oaks, I destroyed their fruit above and their root below.

10 More than that, I brought you up from Egypt, led you forty years in the desert, so that you could have the Emori's land.

11 I raised up some of your sons to be prophets, other young men of yours to be n'zirim. People of Isra'el! Isn't that true?" asks ADONAI.

12 But you gave the n'zirim wine to drink and ordered the prophets, 'Don't prophesy!'

13 "Enough! I will make all this crush you, just as a cart overloaded with grain crushes what's under it.