Amos 1:9 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Amos 1:9
Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Tyrus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant:
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD
יְהוָ֔הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
three
שְׁלֹשָׁה֙she.lo.Shah
H7969
three · noun, common both genders singular absolute
transgressions
פִּשְׁעֵיpish.'ei-
H6588
a revolt (national · noun, common masculine plural construct
Tyrus
צֹ֔רTzor
H6865
Tsor · proper noun, a place name
four
אַרְבָּעָ֖ה'ar.ba.'Ah
H702
four · noun, common both genders singular absolute
away
אֲשִׁיבֶ֑נּוּ'a.shi.Ve.nu
H7725
to turn back (hence · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
up
הַסְגִּירָ֞םhas.gi.Ram
H5462
to shut up · verb, hiphil infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
whole
שְׁלֵמָה֙she.le.Mah
H8003
complete (literally or figuratively) · adjective, feminine singular absolute
captivity
גָּל֤וּתga.Lut
H1546
captivity · noun, common feminine singular absolute
Edom
לֶאֱד֔וֹםle.'e.Dom
H123
Edom · preposition + proper noun, a man's name
remembered
זָכְר֖וּza.khe.Ru
H2142
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
brotherly
אַחִֽים'a.Chim
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · noun, common masculine plural absolute
covenant
בְּרִ֥יתbe.Rit
H1285
a compact (because made by passing between pieces of fl… · noun, common feminine singular construct
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
1 Kings 9:11-14 (Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,) that then kin…
Isaiah 23:1-18 The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it…
Joel 3:4-8 Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompens…
Zechariah 9:2-4 And Hamath also shall border thereby; Tyrus, and Zidon, though it be very wise.
2 Samuel 5:11 And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons: and they built David an house.
2 Chronicles 2:8-16 Send me also cedar trees, fir trees, and algum trees, out of Lebanon: for I know that thy servants can skill to cut timber in Lebanon; and,…
Ezekiel 26:1-21 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
1 Kings 5:1-11 And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father: for Hiram…
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…
Tyrus . . . delivered up the . . . captivity to Edom--the same charge as against the Philistines (Amo 1:6).
remembered not the brotherly covenant--the league of Hiram of Tyre with David and Solomon, the former supplying cedars for the building of the temple and king's house in return for oil and corn (Sa2 5:11; Kg1 5:2-6; Kg1 9:11-14, Kg1 9:27; Kg1 9:10-22; Ch1 14:1; Ch2 8:18; Ch2 9:10).
Adam Clarke on Amos 1:9
Tyrus - See an ample description of this place, and of its desolation and final ruin, in the notes on Ezekiel 26-28 (note).
The brotherly covenant - This possibly refers to the very friendly league made between Solomon and Hiram, king of Tyre, Kg1 5:12; but some contend that the brotherly covenant refers to the consanguinity between the Jews and Edomites. The Tyrians, in exercising cruelties upon these, did it, in effect, on the Jews, with whom they were connected by the most intimate ties of kindred; the two people having descended from the two brothers, Jacob and Esau. See Calmet.
John Gill on Amos 1:9
Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Tyrus,.... Or Tyre, a very ancient city in Palestine; of which See Gill on Isaiah 23:1;
and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; See Gill on Amos 1:3;
because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom: such of the Israelites that fell into their hands, or fled to them for shelter, they delivered up to the Edomites, their implacable adversaries, or sold them to them, as they did to the Grecians, Joel 3:6;
and remembered not the brotherly covenant; either the covenant and agreement that should be among brethren, as the Jews and Edomites were which the Tyrians should have remembered, and persuaded them to live peaceably;…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 9, 10.) Thus says the Lord: Because of three crimes of Tyre, and because of four, I will not revoke my decision, because they delivered up a complete captivity to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood, I will send fire upon the wall of Tyre, and it will consume its palaces. LXX: Thus says the Lord: Because of three acts of impiety of Tyre, and because of four, I will not turn away from it, because they delivered up the captivity of Solomon to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood. And I will send fire upon the walls of Tyre, and it will devour its foundations. The same three or four acts of impiety or crimes that he had charged to Damascus, Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ashdod, and to the other cities of the Philistines, he also assigns to Tyre and reproaches it for having brought to completion and perfection the captivity in Edom, of which we have spoken above: And they have not (or were not) mindful of the covenant of their brothers. We seek to know how the Tyrian brothers are related to the Jews. These brothers call them friends and connected by a bond, because Hiram, the prince of Tyre, had friendships with David and Solomon, to the extent that Hiram sent cedar wood for the construction of the Temple and palace, all the way from Joppa. And these brothers would provide grain and oil to the Tyrians, and give twenty cities in Bashan as a gift, which he refused to accept because they were full of grass (1 Kings 5, 2 Chronicles 2). He says, therefore, that he will hurl fire onto its walls and devour its buildings or foundations, which the Prophet Ezekiel mentions that King Nebuchadnezzar of the Chaldeans did in a vision of Tyre, where he says: 'He will surround you with siege works and build a siege ramp against you' (Ezek. 29:6). And again: 'King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was shaved bald, and every shoulder rubbed bare, yet he and his army got no wages from Tyre for the labor he had spent against it' (ibid., 29:18), because his army built a siege ramp to capture Tyre, which was once an island. The history tells that Alexander the Great did the same thing to make a peninsula out of an island, which the Greeks call a chersonese. Tyrus interprets as tribulation or confinement: and all perverse doctrine tries to grasp the truth and conclude it in earthly senses, and does not…
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
Alliance — A treaty between nations, or between individuals, for their mutual advantage. Abraham formed an alliance with some of the Canaanitish princes (Gen. 14:13), also with Abimelech (21:22-32). Joshua and…
Brother — (1.) In the natural and common sense (Matt. 1:2; Luke 3:1, 19). (2.) A near relation, a cousin (Gen. 13:8; 14:16; Matt. 12:46; John 7:3; Acts 1:14; Gal. 1:19). (3.) Simply a fellow-countryman (Matt.…
Poetry — Has been well defined as “the measured language of emotion.” Hebrew poetry deals almost exclusively with the great question of man’s relation to God. “Guilt, condemnation, punishment, pardon,…
Tyre — A rock, now es-Sur; an ancient Phoenician city, about 23 miles, in a direct line, north of Acre, and 20 south of Sidon. Sidon was the oldest Phoenician city, but Tyre had a longer and more…
Tyrus — This form is employed in the Authorized Version of the books of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea (Joel has “Tyre”), Amos and Zechariah, as follows: (Jeremiah 25:22; 27:3; 47:4; Ezekiel 26:2,3,4,7,15;…
Alliances · . — .
Edomites · Join Babylon in war against the Israelites — Join Babylon in war against the Israelites
Tyre · Often confederated against the Jews and rejoiced in their calamities — Often confederated against the Jews and rejoiced in their calamities
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 1:9-10
9. Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Tyrus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant:
9. Sic dicit Jehova, Super tribus sceleribus Tyri et super quatuor non ero ei propitius, quia concluserunt captivitatem perfectam in Edom, et non recordati sunt foederis fratrum:
10. But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, which shall devour the palaces thereof.
10. Et mittam ignem in murum Tyri, qui comedet palatia ejus.
He uses nearly the same words respecting Tyrus which he did respecting Gaza, and charges it with the same sin, which was that of removing…
Tyre or Phoenicia. - Amo 1:9. "Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I shall not reverse it, because they have delivered up prisoners in full number to Edom, and have not remembered the brotherly covenant, Amo 1:10. I send fire into the wall of Tyrus, and it will devour their palaces." In the case of Phoenicia, the capital only (Tzōr, i.e., Tyrus; see at Jos 19:29) is mentioned. The crime with which it is charged is similar to the one for which the Philistines were blamed, with this exception, that instead of על־הגלותם להסגּיר (Amo 1:6) we have simply על־הסגּירם. If, therefore, Tyre is only charged with delivering up the captives to Edom, and not with having ca…
Tyre and Sidon were the principal seaports of Phoenicia. • Tyre’s crime, like Philistia’s (1:6-8), was selling whole villages of Israelite captives to the Edomites as slaves, a captivity made more bitter by a sense of betrayal (see 2 Sam 5:11; 1 Kgs 5:1, 11; 16:30-31). Tyre’s reputation was “anything is for sale”; Isaiah portrayed the city as a prostitute peddling her wares (Isa 23:15-17).
Rashi on Amos 1:9
and did not remember the brotherly covenant—which existed between Hiram and Solomon, as it is said: (I Kings 5:26) “And they both made a league together.” And they called each other brothers, as it is said: (ibid. 9:13) “And he said: ‘What are these cities that you have given me, my brother?’”
