Amos 4:13 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Amos 4:13
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.
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
thought
שֵּׂח֔וֹse.Cho
H7808
communion · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
maketh
עֹשֵׂ֥ה'o.Seh
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct
morning
שַׁ֙חַר֙sha.char
H7837
dawn (literal · noun, common masculine singular absolute
darkness
עֵיפָ֔ה'ei.Fah
H5890
obscurity (as if from covering) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
treadeth
וְדֹרֵ֖ךְve.do.Rekh
H1869
to tread · conjunction + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
places
בָּ֣מֳתֵיBo.mo.tei
H1116
an elevation · noun, common feminine plural construct
earth
אָ֑רֶץ'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute
LORD
יְהוָ֥הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
God
אֱלֹהֵֽי'e.lo.hei-
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct
hosts
צְבָא֖וֹתtze.va.'ot
H6635
a mass of persons (or figuratively · noun, common feminine plural absolute
name
שְׁמֽוֹshe.Mo
H8034
an appellation · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Amos 5:8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that c…
Micah 1:3 For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.
Amos 9:6 It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven, and hath founded his troop in the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and po…
Isaiah 47:4 As for our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
Psalms 65:6 Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being girded with power:
Deuteronomy 33:29 Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency!…
Daniel 2:28 But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream…
Isaiah 40:12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a meas…
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…
The God whom Israel is to "prepare to meet" (Amo 4:12) is here described in sublime terms.
wind--not as the Margin, "spirit." The God with whom thou hast to do is the Omnipotent Maker of things seen, such as the stupendous mountains, and of things too subtle to be seen, though of powerful agency, as the "wind."
declareth unto man . . . his thought-- (Psa 139:2). Ye think that your secret thoughts escape My cognizance, but I am the searcher of hearts.
maketh . . . morning darkness-- (Amo 5:8; Amo 8:9). Both literally turning the sunshine into darkness, and figuratively turning the prosperity of the ungodly into sudden adversity (Psa 73:12, Psa 73:18-19; compare Jer 13:16).
treadeth up…
He that formeth the mountains - Here is a powerful description of the majesty of God. He formed the earth; he created the wind; he knows the inmost thoughts of the heart; he is the Creator of darkness and light; he steps from mountain to mountain, and has all things under his feet! Who is he who hath done and can do all these things? Jehovah Elohim Tsebaoth, that is his name.
1. The self-existing, eternal, and independent Being.
2. The God who is in covenant with mankind.
3. The universal Commander of all the hosts of earth and heaven. This name is farther illustrated in the following chapter. These words are full of instruction, and may be a subject of profitable meditation to every serious…
The Church Fathers
This is Amos the third in order, who also was privileged to tell of the coming of the Lord Christ and in these words: Lo! I am he that confirms the thunder and that creates the wind and that announces to men his Anointed.
Nor does it escape my notice that heretics have been prone to object that the Holy Spirit appears to be a creature, because many of them use as an argument for establishing their impiety that passage of Amos, where he spoke of the blowing of the wind, as the words of the prophet made clear. For you read thus: "Behold, I am he that establishes the thunder and creates the wind and declare unto man his Christ, that make light and mist, and ascend upon high places, the Lord God Almighty is his name."
When Christ came, the people of the old covenant denied him, but the devils confessed him. His forefather David was not ignorant of him when he said, "I will place a lamp for my anointed." Some have interpreted "lamp" as the splendor of prophecy; others have understood by the lamp the flesh he assumed of the Virgin, according to the words of the apostle: "But we carry this treasure in vessels of clay." The prophet was not ignorant of him when he said, "And declaring his Christ to men." Moses also knew him, and Isaiah and Jeremiah as well. None of the prophets was ignorant of him. Even the devils acknowledged him, for he rebuked them, and Scripture adds, "Because they knew that he was the Christ."
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
Darkness · .Of — .Of
Mountains · God: Formed — God: Formed
Wind, The · God: Created — God: Created
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).
For, lo, he that formeth the mountains,.... These words are a description of the glorious Person, "thy God" and Saviour, to be met; he is the Creator of all things, that formed the mountains, and so was before them, as in Proverbs 8:25; and able to surmount and remove all mountains of difficulties that lay in his way of working out salvation for his people:
and createth the wind; or "spirit"; not the Holy Spirit, which is uncreated; but either angels, whom he makes spirits; or the spirit and soul of man he is the Creator of; or rather the natural wind is meant, which is his creature, he holds in his fists, restrains and commands, at his pleasure, Matthew 8:26;
and declareth unto man what i…
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 verse appears to be a hymn fragment, possibly sung by the worshipers at Bethel (for other hymn fragments, see 5:8-9; 9:5-6). Israel had been treating God as a baal—a local god with limited power. But the God they professed to worship and whom they would face in judgment is all-powerful.
Rashi on Amos 4:13
what his speech is—All his deeds are related in detail before him at the time of his death.
He makes dawn—for the righteous like a bright light.
darkness—He turns the brightness of the wicked into darkness. Cf. (Isa. 8:22) “And behold, distress and darkness, darkness (מְעוּף) of oppression.” Similarly, (Job 10:22) “Land of darkness (עֵפָתָה)”; (ibid. 11:17) “Darkness (תָּעֻפָה) shall be like morning.” Your darkness shall shine like the morning.
and treads upon the high places of the earth—He humbles the high and haughty.
