Matthew Henry on Amos 1:3–end
What the Lord says here may be explained by what he says Jer 12:14, Thus said the Lord, against all my evil neighbours that touch the inheritance of my people Israel, Behold, I will pluck them out. Damascus was a near neighbour to Israel on the north, Tyre and Gaza on the west, Edom on the south, Ammon and (in the next chapter) Moab on the east; and all of them had been, one time, one way, or other, pricking briers and grieving thorns to Israel, evil neighbours to them; and, because God espouses his people's cause, he there calls them his evil neighbours, and here comes forth to reckon with them. The method is taken in dealing with each of them is, in part, the same, and therefore we put the…
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Teman--a city of Edom, called from a grandson of Esau (Gen 36:11, Gen 36:15; Oba 1:8-9); situated five miles from Petra; south of the present Wady Musa. Its people were famed for wisdom (Jer 49:7).
Bozrah--a city of Edom (Isa 63:1). Selah or Petra is not mentioned, as it had been overthrown by Amaziah (Kg2 14:7).
Adam Clarke on Amos 1:12
Teman - Bozrah - Principal cities of Idumea.
John Gill on Amos 1:12
But I will send a fire upon Teman,.... A principal city of Edom or Idumea, so called from Teman a grandson of Esau, Genesis 36:11. Jerom (x) says there was in his time a village called Theman, five miles distant from the city Petra, and had a Roman garrison; and so says Eusebius (y); who places it in Arabia Petraea; it is put for the whole country; it signifies the south. So the Targum renders it,
"a fire in the south.''
The "fire" signifies an enemy that should be sent into it, and destroy it: this was Nebuchadnezzar, who, as Josephus (z) says, five years after the destruction of Jerusalem led his army into Coelesyria, and took it; and fought against the Ammonites and Moabites, and very p…
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