to send away · conjunction + verb, piel sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
fire
אֵ֖שׁ'esh
H784
fire (literally or figuratively) · noun, common both genders singular absolute
house
בְּבֵ֣יתbe.Veit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Hazael
חֲזָאֵ֑לcha.za.'El
H2371
Chazael · proper noun, a man's name
devour
וְאָכְלָ֖הve.'a.khe.Lah
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
palaces
אַרְמְנ֥וֹת'ar.me.Not
H759
a citadel (from its height) · noun, common feminine plural construct
Ben-hadad
בֶּןben-
H1130
Ben-Hadad · proper noun, a man's name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Kings 8:7-15 And Elisha came to Damascus; and Ben-hadad the king of Syria was sick; and it was told him, saying, The man of God is come hither.
2 Kings 13:3 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Ben-…
2 Kings 13:25 And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael the cities, which he had taken out of the hand of…
Jeremiah 49:27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Ben-hadad.
2 Kings 6:24 And it came to pass after this, that Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.
Jeremiah 17:27 But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sa…
Judges 9:19-20 If ye then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice…
Judges 9:57 And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
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…
Hazael . . . Ben-hadad--A black marble obelisk found in the central palace of Nimroud, and now in the British Museum, is inscribed with the names of Hazael and Ben-hadad of Syria, as well as Jehu of Israel, mentioned as tributaries of "Shalmanubar," king of Assyria. The kind of tribute from Jehu is mentioned: gold, pearls, precious oil, &c. [G. V. SMITH]. The Ben-hadad here is the son of Hazael (Kg2 13:3), not the Ben-hadad supplanted and slain by Hazael (Kg2 8:7, Kg2 8:15). The phrase, "I will send a fire," that is, the flame of war (Psa 78:63), occurs also in Amo 1:7, Amo 1:10, Amo 1:12, Amo 1:14, and Amo 2:2, Amo 2:5; Jer 49:27; Hos 8:14.
Adam Clarke on Amos 1:4
Ben-hadad - He was son and successor of Hazael. See the cruelties which they exercised upon the Israelites, Kg2 10:32; Kg2 13:7, etc., and see especially Kg2 8:12, where these cruelties are predicted. The fire threatened here is the war so successfully carried on against the Syrians by Jeroboam II., in which he took Damascus and Hamath, and reconquered all the ancient possessions of Israel. See Kg2 14:25, Kg2 14:26, Kg2 14:28.
John Gill on Amos 1:4
But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael,.... For so doing; into his family, his sons' sons, one of whom perhaps was Rezin, that Tiglathpileser king of Assyria slew, as Aben Ezra observes. This denotes the judgments of God upon his posterity for his cruel usage of the Israelites; and designs an enemy that should come into his country, and war made in the midst of it, by which it should be depopulated; and this being by the permission and providence of God, and according to his will, is said to be sent by him:
which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad; a name frequently given to the kings of Syria; there was one of this name the immediate predecessor of Hazael, whose servant he was;…
The Church Fathers
(Ver. 4.) And I will send fire into the house of Azael, and it shall devour the houses of Benadad. And I will break the bars of Damascus, and I will destroy the inhabitants from the plain of idols. LXX: And I will send fire into the house of Azael, and it shall devour the foundations of the son of Ader, and I will break the bars of Damascus, and I will destroy the inhabitants from the plain, being. Give understanding, that Azael, when Ozia and Jeroboam reigned, was already dead in Syria, and his son Benadad succeeded him in the kingdom, from whom all the later kings of Aram, that is, Syria and Damascus, took the name Benadad. He did not say beautifully, I will send fire into Azazel, but into the house of Azazel, that is, into his royal house, over which Ben-hadad, his son, was ruling at that time. And I will break down, he said, the bars of Damascus, and I will destroy the inhabitants of the idolatrous field. Namely, all the strength (or multitude) of the Syrians, which, like a kind of cart and bars, repelled the attacks of their enemies. Now the idolatrous field, which is called Aven in Hebrew, is interpreted by the Septuagint and Theodotion as meaning "iniquity"; Symmachus and the fifth edition translated it as "useless," in order to show the useless help of idols, since the people of Damascus will be captured when the Assyrians come. For we read that Theglathphalasar, king of Assyria, after killing King Rezin of Damascus, of whom Isaiah speaks, transferred all the people of Syria, who were called Aram, to Cyrene, and for this reason it is said now (2 Kings 16).
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Damascus — Activity, the most ancient of Oriental cities; the capital of Syria (Isa. 7:8; 17:3); situated about 133 miles to the north of Jerusalem. Its modern name is Esh-Sham; i.e., “the East.” The situation…
Ben-Hadad · 3. — 3.
Syria · Prophecies respecting: Burning of Damascus — Prophecies respecting: Burning of Damascus
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Amos 1:3-5
3. Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron:
3. Sic dixit Jehova, Super tribus sceleribus Damasci et super quatuor non ero propitius ei; quia trituraverunt serris (vel, tribulis ferreis) Gilead.
4. But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad.
4. Et mittam ignem in domum Chasael, et vorabit palatia Ben-Adad.
5. I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall g…
Aram-Damascus. - Amo 1:3. "Thus saith Jehovah, For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I shall not reverse it, because they have threshed Gilead with iron rollers, Amo 1:4. I send fire into the house of Hazael, and it will eat the palaces of Ben-hadad, Amo 1:5. And break in pieces the bolt of Damascus, and root out the inhabitant from the valley of Aven, and the sceptre-holder out of Beth-eden: and the people of Aram will wander into captivity to Kir, saith Jehovah." In the formula, which is repeated in the case of every people, "for three transgressions, and for four," the numbers merely serve to denote the multiplicity of the sins, the exact number of which has no bearing upon…
I will send down fire: In ancient times conquered cities were burned by invading armies (see also 1:7, 10, 12, 14; 2:2, 5). The conquest of Damascus would be God’s judgment on them. • Hazael reigned as king of Damascus (about 843–802 BC) after he seized the throne by assassination. Ben-hadad was Hazael’s son and successor (about 802–792 BC).
Rashi on Amos 1:4
Hazael etc. Ben Hadad—The kings of Aram, and the head of Aram is Damascus.
