Amos 2:11

11 I raised up prophets from among your children. I also set some of your young people apart to me as Nazirites. Isn't that true, people of Israel?" announces the Lord.

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 Amorites to make room for my people in the land. The Amorites were as tall as cedar trees. They were as strong as oak trees. But I cut off their fruit above the ground and their roots below it.

10 "People of Israel, I brought you up out of Egypt. I led you in the desert for 40 years. I gave you the land of the Amorites.

11 I raised up prophets from among your children. I also set some of your young people apart to me as Nazirites. Isn't that true, people of Israel?" announces the Lord.

12 "But you made the Nazirites drink wine. You commanded the prophets not to prophesy.

13 "A cart that is loaded with grain crushes anything it runs over. In the same way, I will crush you.