prophet continues to cut off every false hope with which levity
flatters itself. How can you think to escape, since you have the
Almighty God for your enemy! "The prophet," remarks _Jerome_, "speaks
thus, in order to impress them with the greatness of divine power, that
they might not imagine that He would perhaps not do what He had
threatened, or that His power was not equal to His will." Similar
descriptions of the divine omnipotence, as opposed to unbelief and weak
faith, are very numerous; _e.g._, iv. 13, v. 8, 27; Is. xl. 22, xlv.
12. We are not at liberty to translate: "And the Lord Jehovah of hosts
is He who toucheth." It is rather an abrupt mode of speech; and there
must be supplied, either at the beginning, "And who is your enemy?" or
at the end, "He is your opponent." [Pg 380] This abruptness of language
is quite in accordance with the subject, and belongs, moreover, to the
characteristic peculiarities of Amos. Altogether similar is v. 7, 8,
where Israel and their God are simply placed beside each other, and
every one is left to conclude for himself how such a God would act
towards such a people: "They who turn judgment to wormwood, and cast
righteousness to the earth. Making the Pleiades and Orion, and turning
the shadow of death into the morning, and making the day dark with
night, calling," etc. The accumulated appellations. Lord, Jehovah, of
hosts, likewise serve to point out the omnipotence of God. The believer
accumulates these appellations in his prayer in order to awaken his
confidence and hope; compare, _e.g._, Is. xxxvii. 16, where Hezekiah
begins his prayer to the Lord thus: "Jehovah, of hosts, God of Israel,
Thou who art enthroned on Cherubim, Thou art God alone for all the
kingdoms of the earth." But these appellations are held up to the
unbelievers, to cast down all their hopes. We have separated, of
hosts, from the preceding appellation of God by a comma. Ever since
_Gesenius_, in his Commentary on Is. i. 9, has asserted that [Hebrew:
cbavt] when connected with Jehovah, must be considered as a Genitive
depending upon it, his view has been pretty generally adopted. But it
is certainly erroneous. The instances by which _Gesenius_ endeavours to
prove the possibility of such a connection of proper names with
appellative names are not to the point. In "Bethlehem Jehudah" it is
only by a false interpretation that Jehudah is considered as standing
in the _status constr._ with Bethlehem (compare the remar