to do or make · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֑לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
because
עֵ֚קֶב'E.kev
H6118
a heel · noun, common masculine singular absolute
do
אֶֽעֱשֶׂה'e.'e.seh-
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
prepare
הִכּ֥וֹןhi.Kon
H3559
properly · verb, niphal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
meet
קִרְאָהqirʼâh
H7125
an encountering
God
אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ'e.lo.Hei.kha
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵֽלYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place 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
1 Thessalonians 5:2-4 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
James 4:1-10 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Amos 9:1-4 I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all o…
Mark 13:32-37 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Ezekiel 13:5 Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD.
Isaiah 47:3 Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.
Amos 5:4-15 For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
Luke 21:3-36 And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:
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…
Therefore--as all chastisements have failed to make thee "return unto Me."
thus will I do unto thee--as I have threatened (Amo 4:2-3).
prepare to meet thy God--God is about to inflict the last and worst judgment on thee, the extinction of thy nationality; consider then what preparation thou canst make for encountering Him as thy foe (Jer 46:14; Luk 14:31-32). But as that would be madness to think of (Isa 27:4; Eze 22:14; Heb 10:31), see what can be done towards mitigating the severity of the coming judgment, by penitence (Isa 27:5; Co1 11:31). This latter exhortation is followed up in Amo 5:4, Amo 5:6, Amo 5:8, Amo 5:14-15.
Adam Clarke on Amos 4:12
Therefore thus will I do unto thee - I will continue my judgments, I will fight against you; and, because I am thus determined: -
Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel - This is a military phrase, and is to be understood as a challenge to come out to battle. As if the Lord had said, I will attack you immediately. Throw yourselves into a posture of defense, summon your idols to your help: and try how far your strength, and that of your gods, will avail you against the unconquerable arm of the Lord of hosts! This verse has been often painfully misapplied by public teachers; it has no particular relation to the day of judgment, nor to the hour of death. These constructions are impositions on the t…
Since initial measures did not suffice, He proceeded to an overthrow similar to the Sodomites; this was the kind of thing, as he said, that was inflicted on them by divine wrath. Therefore prepare to call upon your God, O Israel: Since he did not benefit from being chastised, let him prepare himself for an encounter with God, accepting repentance and adopting a lifestyle calculated to appease Him.
(Verse 12, 13.) Therefore, I will do these things to you, Israel: but after I have done these things to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel. For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth - the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name. LXX: Therefore, I will do these things to you, Israel: but because I will do these things to you, prepare to call upon your God, O Israel. For behold, He who strengthens the thunder, and creates the spirit, and proclaims His Christ among men, making morning, and mist, and ascending above the heights of the earth: The Lord God Almighty is His name. Because we have interpreted, after it is written in Hebrew 'Eceb', and Aquila interpreted it as 'afterwards', and Theodotion as 'finally', and the Septuagint yet 'in Hebrew it can be read as: Therefore I will do these things to you, Israel, afterwards, that is, much later, and in the last times, so that it may begin again from another beginning: And when I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.' And again, in that place where the Septuagint translated, prepare to invoke your God, and we have set it according to Theodotion, prepare to encounter your God, Symmachus and the Fifth Edition have translated, prepare to oppose your God: which is said in Hebrew, Hechin Lacerath Eloica (). Also, for the mountains which are called Arim in Hebrew, the Seventy alone translated it as thunder. But the reason why they said 'spirit' and we said 'wind', which is called Rua in Hebrew, is clear, because both wind and spirit are referred to by this word. And what follows, proclaiming his message to humanity, which we translate as interpreters, only the Seventy translated it, proclaiming his Christ to humanity: deceived by the similarity and ambiguity of words. For if we read his Christ, which in Hebrew is called Messiah (מָשִׁיחַ), it is written with the letters Mem, Sin, Yod, Het, and Vav, which the Seventy presumed. But if, as in Hebrew, it is according to Aquila 'his speech', according to Symmachus 'his voice', according to Theodotion 'his word', according to the fifth edition 'his eloquence', all of which can be interpreted as 'his speech', it will be written with these letters: Mem, He, which is called Ma (מָה), which means 'what' or 'something'. Then Sin,…
Dictionary and topics
Afflictions Of The Wicked, The · Impenitence is a cause of — Impenitence is a cause of
Judgment · THE GENERAL — THE GENERAL
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 4:12
Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel,.... What he would do is not expressly and particularly said; it is commonly understood to be something in a way of judgment, and worse than what he had done, since they had no effect upon them; or these things should be done over again, until an utter end was made of them; or the reference is to Amos 3:11; and the following words are usually interpreted, either, ironically, since the Lord was coming forth as an enemy to issue the controversy with them; they are called upon to meet, him in a hostile way, and muster up all their forces, exert all their power and strength, and make use of their best weapons and military skill, and see what would be…
Amos 4:12-13
12. Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
12. Propterea sic faciam tibi Israel; et quia hoc faciam tibi, praepara te in occursum Dei tui Israel.
13. For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.
13. Quia ecce formans montes, creans spiritum (aut, ventum,) annuntians homini quae sit cogitatio ejus, faciens auroram, tenebras (et tenebras, subaudienda est copula,) ambulans super excelsa loca terrae, Jehova, Deus exerc…
"Therefore thus will I do to thee, O Israel; because I will do this to thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. Amo 4:13. For, behold, He that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and maketh known to man what is his thought; who maketh dawn, darkness, and goeth over the high places of the earth, Jehovah God of hosts is His name." The punishment which God is now about to inflict is introduced with lâkhēn (therefore). כּה אעשׁה cannot point back to the punishment threatened in Amo 4:2, Amo 4:3, and still less to the chastisements mentioned in Amo 4:6-11; for lâkhēn kōh is always used by Amos to introduce what is about to ensue, and any retrospective allusion to Amo 4:6-11 is prec…
This is one of the two great thematic verses in Amos (the second is 5:24). Since Israel would not repent, it must meet . . . God in judgment.
Rashi on Amos 4:12
Therefore—Since you did not return to Me.
because I will do this to you—as all these evils.
because—Since you hear from the mouth of My prophets that I will do this to you.
prepare to meet Me—to repent of your wickedness.
