Amos 4:10 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Amos 4:10
I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
to send away · verb, piel perfect, 1st person common singular
pestilence
דֶּ֙בֶר֙de.ver
H1698
a pestilence · noun, common masculine singular absolute
manner
בְּדֶ֣רֶךְbe.De.rekh
H1870
a road (as trodden) · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
Egypt
מִצְרַ֔יִםmitz.Ra.yim
H4714
Mitsrajim · proper noun, a place name
men
בַּח֣וּרֵיכֶ֔םba.Chu.rei.Khem
H970
properly · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
slain
הָרַ֤גְתִּיha.Rag.ti
H2026
to smite with deadly intent · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
sword
בַחֶ֙רֶב֙va.Che.rev
H2719
drought · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
away
שְׁבִ֣יshe.Vi
H7628
exiled · noun, common masculine singular construct
horses
סֽוּסֵיכֶ֑םsu.sei.Khem
H5483
a horse (as leaping) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
stink
בְּאֹ֤שׁbe.'Osh
H889
a stench · noun, common masculine singular construct
camps
מַחֲנֵיכֶם֙ma.cha.nei.Khem
H4264
an encampment (of travellers or troops) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
up
וָאַעֲלֶ֞הva.'a.'a.Leh
H5927
to ascend · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
nostrils
וּֽבְאַפְּכֶ֔םu.ve.'a.pe.Khem
H639
properly · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
returned
שַׁבְתֶּ֥םshav.Tem
H7725
to turn back (hence · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
saith
נְאֻםne.'um-
H5002
an oracle · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָֽהYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
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
Deuteronomy 28:60 Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.
Leviticus 26:25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I wil…
2 Kings 13:7 Neither did he leave of the people to Jehoahaz but fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria had des…
Joel 2:20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea,…
Exodus 9:3-6 Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and…
Deuteronomy 7:15 And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will…
Deuteronomy 28:26-27 And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.
Psalms 78:49-50 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Amos 4:6–end
Here, I. God complains of his people's incorrigibleness under the judgments which he had brought upon them in order to their humiliation and reformation. He had by several tokens intimated to them his displeasure, with this design, that they might by repentance make their peace with him; but it had not that effect.
1. It is five times repeated in these verses, as the burden of the charge, "Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord; you have been several times corrected, but in vain; you are not reclaimed, there is no sign of amendment. You have been sent for by one messenger after another, but you have not come back, you have not come home." (1.) This intimates that that which God de…
pestilence after the manner of Egypt--such as I formerly sent on the Egyptians (Exo 9:3, Exo 9:8, &c.; Exo 12:29; Deu 28:27, Deu 28:60). Compare the same phrase, Isa 10:24.
have taken away your horses--literally, "accompanied with the captivity of your horses"; I have given up your young men to be slain, and their horses to be taken by the foe (compare Kg2 13:7).
stink of your camps--that is, of your slain men (compare Isa 34:3; Joe 2:20).
to come up unto your nostrils--The Hebrew is more emphatic, "to come up, and that unto your nostrils."
Adam Clarke on Amos 4:10
I have sent - the pestilence - After the blasting and the mildew, the pestilence came; and it acted among them as one of the plagues of Egypt. Besides this, he had suffered their enemies to attack and prevail against them; alluding to the time in which the Syrians besieged Samaria, and reduced it to the most extreme necessity, when the head of an ass was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five; and mothers ate the flesh of their children that had died through hunger, Kg2 6:25. And the people were miraculously relieved by the total slaughter of the Syrians by the unseen hand of God, Kg2 7:1, etc. And yet, after all those signal judgments, and sin…
I sent death upon you on the way of Egypt, I killed your young men with the captivity of your horses. And I made the stench of your camps go up into your nostrils, and you did not return to me, says the Lord. LXX: I sent death upon you on the way of Egypt, and I killed your young men with the captivity of your horses. And I led your camps in fire in my anger, and yet you did not return to me, says the Lord. Through all the whips and tortures Israel is educated: and at that time when they asked for help from the Egyptians, death was sent upon them, and their young men were struck down by the sword, and the captivity cruelly confined those horses which they had multiplied against God's commandment, so that the rottenness of the camps and the stench of the dying army would fill the nostrils of the living. And even after doing all this, to seize the wrongdoers and correct those who went astray, they did not return to Him, says the Lord. Not only at that time, but every day, he puts to death on the way of Egypt, so that one who treads the path of Egypt may hear, dying, the teaching of the Apostle: For the sin I am dead, I am dead; but in what I live, I live in God (Galatians II). And in another place: If we have died with Christ, we will also live with him (Romans VI, 8). And again: I always carry about in my body the dying of Jesus (II Corinthians IV, 10). And again: It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Galatians II, 20). The Lord wants to give us life through this death, so that, dying to sin, we may live for God. But we die to sin when we mortify our earthly members, that is, fornication, impurity, sensuality, idolatry and so on. We read in Isaiah, according to the Septuagint translators: otherwise in Hebrew it is expressed differently: 'I have sent death unto Jacob, and it has come upon Israel' (Isa. IX). Jacob is the name of the body that is being born; Israel is the name of blessing. For he wrestled all night and prevailed in the struggle (Gen. XXXII), and when the morning star arose, he could say with the Apostle: The night is far gone; the day is at hand (Rom. XIII, 12), therefore Israel, seeing God, received his name. Therefore death is sent first to Jacob, so that we may mortify our members upon the earth, and through the mortification of our bodily members, we may come to the death of Israel, so that all incentives of disturbances may…
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
Afflictions Of The Wicked, The · Impenitence is a cause of — Impenitence is a cause of
Judgments · Different kinds of: Pestilence — Different kinds of: Pestilence
Plague Or Pestilence, The · Egypt often afflicted with — Egypt often afflicted with
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).
John Gill on Amos 4:10
I have sent among you the pestilence, after the manner of Egypt,.... Like that which was sent among the firstborn of Egypt, and cut them off in one night; or when in the way of Egypt, as the Targum; either as in the wilderness, when they came out of Egypt, so Jarchi interprets it; see Numbers 16:46; or the Lord sent the pestilence as they went in the way to Egypt for help and assistence, or for shelter, for food in time of famine; for they went thither, as Kimchi says, because of the famine, to fetch food, from thence; and this was displeasing to the Lord, and he sent the plague among them, which cut them off in the way:
your young men have I slain with the sword; of the enemy in battle; or…
Amos 4:10
10. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
10. Misi in vos pestem secundum rationem Aegypti; percussi gladio robustos vestros, cum captivitate equorum vestrorump; ascendere feci foetorem castrorum vestrorum et ad nares vestras (vel, usque ad nares vestras, ut copula supervacua sit;) et non reversi estis usque ad me, dicit Jehova.
God now expostulates with the people, because their perverseness had not been subdued even by additional punishments; for he had in…
But as Israel would not desist from its idolatrous worship, Jehovah would also continue to visit the people with judgments, as He had already done, though without effecting any conversion to their God. This last thought is explained in Amo 4:6-11 in a series of instances, in which the expression ולא שׁבתּם עדי (and ye have not returned to me), which is repeated five times, depicts in the most thorough manner the unwearied love of the Lord to His rebellious children.
Amo 4:6
"And I have also given you cleanness of teeth in all your towns, and want of bread in all your places: and ye have not returned to me, is the saying of Jehovah." The strongly adversative וגם אני forms the antithesis to כן…
God had used plagues to convince Egypt to let Israel go (Exod 7:14–12:30; 9:2-3; Ps 91:6; Hab 3:5); he promised to bring the plagues of Egypt on Israel if they continued to turn away from him to worship pagan gods (Deut 28:27, 60).
Rashi on Amos 4:10
after the manner of Egypt—Just as I sent upon you in the desert when you left Egypt.
with the captivity of your horses—For they slay the horses as well.
and I caused the stench of your camps to rise—The smell of your corpses would raise a stench, and I caused it to rise into your nostrils.
