refuted by the assertions of _Hitzig_,
_Baur_, and others, who make Amos the owner of a plantation of
sycamores, which, according to them, made him a wealthy man. [Hebrew:
bls] can be understood only of the plucking, or gathering of the fruits
of the sycamores. The "cutting of the bark" is by no means obvious, and
is too much the language of natural history. That the prophet's real
vocation is designated by [Hebrew: bvqr], and that [Hebrew: bvls wqmim]
is not, by any means, something independent of, and co-ordinate with
that, appears from ver. 15, where the [Hebrew: bvqr] is resumed. The
fruits of the sycamores may, occasionally, not have a disagreeable
taste, for him who eats them only as a dainty; but they are at all
events very poor ordinary food; compare _Warnekros_ in _Eichhorn's
Repert._ 11. 256.

Footnote 2: The groundlessness of such a mode of viewing things is
shown by the prophecy of events such as that mentioned in i. 15: "The
people of Aram are carried away to Kir, saith the Lord;" compare the
fulfilment in 2 Kings xvi. 9. They had originally come from Kir, Amos
ix. 7. This circumstance furnished the natural foundation for the
prophecy, and it was certainly this circumstance also which induced the
conqueror to adopt his measures. But the supernatural character of the
definite prophecy remains, nevertheless, unshaken.

Footnote 3: _Caspari_ in his commentary on Micah, S. 69, is wrong in
remarking: "Joel beholds the instruments of punitive justice upon
Israel, as numberless hosts only; Amos, already, as a single nation."
In Amos vi. 14 the [Hebrew: gvi] as little means a single nation, as it
does in the fundamental passage, Deut. xxviii. 49 ff., beyond the
definiteness of which Amos does not go.

Footnote 4: Scarcely any doubt can, however, be entertained that we
have here before us a _consequence_ of the war mentioned in 2 Kings
iii., viz., the vengeance which the Moabites took for what they
suffered on that occasion.

[Pg 363]

CHAPTER IX.

The chapter opens with a vision. The temple, shaken by the Angel of the
Lord in its very foundations, falls down, and buries Judah and Israel
under its ruins. Without a figure,--the breach of the Covenant by the
Covenant-people brings destruction upon them. The prophet endeavours to
strengthen the impression of this threatening upon their mind, by
breaking down the supports of false security by which they sought to
evade it. There