Amos 9:4

4 If they are captured and taken away by their enemies, I will command the sword to kill them. I will keep watch over them, but I will keep watch to give them trouble, not to do them good."

Amos 9:4 Meaning and Commentary

Amos 9:4

And though they go into captivity before their enemies
Alluding to the manner in which captives are led, being put before their enemies, and so carried in triumph; see ( Lamentations 1:5 ) ; though some think this refers to their going voluntarily into a foreign country, in order to escape danger, as Johanan the son of Kareah with the Jews went into Egypt, ( Jeremiah 43:5-7 ) ; in whom Kimchi instances: thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them;
or them that kill with the sword, as the Targum; so that though they thought by going into another country, or into an enemy's country of their own accord, to escape the sword of the enemy, or to curry favour with them, yet should not escape: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good:
this is the true reason, why, let them be where they will, they cannot be safe, because the eyes of the omniscient God, which are everywhere, in heaven, earth, hell, and the sea, are set upon them, for their ruin and destruction; and there is no fleeing from his presence, or getting out of his sight, or escaping his hand. The Targum is,

``my Word shall be against them.''

Amos 9:4 In-Context

2 If they dig down as deep as the place of the dead, I will pull them up from there. If they climb up into heaven, I will bring them down from there.

3 If they hide at the top of Mount Carmel, I will find them and take them away. If they try to hide from me at the bottom of the sea, I will command a snake to bite them.

4 If they are captured and taken away by their enemies, I will command the sword to kill them. I will keep watch over them, but I will keep watch to give them trouble, not to do them good."

5 The Lord God All-Powerful touches the land, and the land shakes. Then everyone who lives in the land cries for the dead. and falls like the river of Egypt.

6 The Lord builds his upper rooms above the skies; he sets their foundations on the earth. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the land. The Lord is his name.