Amos 4:9 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Amos 4:9
I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
to strike (lightly or severely · verb, hiphil perfect, 1st person common singular
blasting
בַּשִּׁדָּפ֣וֹןba.shi.da.Fon
H7711
blight · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
mildew
וּבַיֵּרָקוֹן֒u.vai.ye.ra.kOn
H3420
paleness · conjunction + preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
gardens
גַּנּוֹתֵיכֶ֧םga.no.tei.Khem
H1593
a garden · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
vineyards
וְכַרְמֵיכֶ֛םve.khar.mei.Khem
H3754
a garden or vineyard · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
trees
וּתְאֵנֵיכֶ֥םu.te.'e.nei.Khem
H8384
the fig (tree or fruit) · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
trees
וְזֵיתֵיכֶ֖םve.zei.tei.Khem
H2132
an olive (as yielding illuminating oil) · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
increased
הַרְבּ֨וֹתhar.Bot
H7235
to increase (in whatever respect) · verb, hiphil infinitive construct
palmerworm
הַגָּזָ֑םha.ga.Zam
H1501
a kind of locust · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
devoured
יֹאכַ֣לyo.Khal
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
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 28:22 The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, a…
Haggai 2:17 I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD.
Joel 1:4 That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the…
Amos 4:6 And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, sai…
Amos 7:1-2 Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo…
Deuteronomy 28:42 All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.
1 Kings 8:37 If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in…
2 Chronicles 6:28 If there be dearth in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting, or mildew, locusts, or caterpillers; if their enemies besiege…
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…
blasting--the blighting influence of the east wind on the corn (Gen 41:6).
when . . . gardens . . . increased--In vain ye multiplied your gardens, &c., for I destroyed their produce. BOCHART supports Margin, "the multitude of your gardens."
palmer worm--A species of locust is here meant, hurtful to fruits of trees, not to herbage or corn. The same east wind which brought the drought, blasting, and mildew, brought also the locusts into Judea [BOCHART], (Exo 10:13).
Adam Clarke on Amos 4:9
I have smitten you with blasting and mildew - He sent blasting and mildew on the crops, and the locust on the gardens, vineyards, and fields; and this in such a way as to show it was a Divine judgment. They saw this; "yet they did not return to the Lord!"
John Gill on Amos 4:9
I have smitten you with blasting and mildew,.... "Blasting" is what we commonly call "blights", generally occasioned by an east wind; and so Kimchi interprets the word here used; and the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "a burning wind"; which causes the buds and leaves of trees to shrivel up as if they were burnt with fire. "Mildew" is a kind of clammy dew, which falling upon corn, &c. corrupts and destroys by its moisture; and is a kind of jaundice to the fruits of the earth; and has its name as that, from yellowness, in the Hebrew language: when the Lord is said to smite them with these the sense is, that he sent these upon the fruits of their gardens, fields and vineyards, which consume…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 9) I struck you with scorching wind and with blight. The abundance of your gardens, vineyards, olive groves, and fig trees were eaten by the locusts, yet you did not return to me, says the Lord. LXX: I struck you with burning heat and with blight. You multiplied your gardens, vineyards, fig trees, and olive groves, yet you did not even turn to me, says the Lord. It was not only the past that I did to correct you; but whatever remained of the drought, I struck with scorching wind and blight. For vento urente, Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion are interpreted as 'Septuaginta πύρωσιν,' which we can translate as 'combustion.' All of them translated 'Auruginem' as 'ἴκτερον,' except Theodotion, who translated it as 'ὠχρίασιν,' which means 'pallor.' And when they multiplied against the anger of the Lord, they consumed all the gardens, vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees with 'eruca,' which is further explained in Joel (Joel. I). And not even by means of wounds did they want to come to God, burdened as they were by the weight of evils. With this saying, let the heretics be confounded, who interpret the discipline of the Creator, and, so to speak, medicine, as cruelty. But the Lord spiritually strikes the heretics with the burning fire, about which the Apostle Paul said: It is better to marry than to be burned (1 Corinthians 7:9). And the prince of the apostles: Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that comes upon you for your testing (1 Peter 4:12), and like rust that, with bile poured out, changes the redness of blood into paleness, and allows nothing healthy in the body, so much so that even the sweetest honey seems bitter. And those who recently heard in the Church: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet: and they said: How sweet are your words to my throat, more than honey to my mouth (Ps. CXVIII)! Let them be called bitter, and their waters and rains not drip sweetness: let them not be from the promised land, which we read flows with milk and honey: but let them be called Mara, that is, bitterness. These multiplied gardens for themselves, into which Naboth (( Al. Nabutha)) did not want his vineyard to be changed, and so he wanted to die (III Kings XXI). For the one who is weak, let him eat vegetables (Rom. XIV). And because heretics are always swollen with pride, and falling into the judgment of the devil, they promise great things to…
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
Palmerworm — (Heb. gazam) occurs (Joel 1:4; 2:25; Amos 4:9) It is maintained by many that gazam denotes some species of locust. but it is more probably a caterpillar.
Afflictions Of The Wicked, The · Impenitence is a cause of — Impenitence is a cause of
Famine · Sent as a — Sent as a
Fig Tree, The · Propagated by the Jews — Propagated by the Jews
Gardens · Blasting of, a punishment — Blasting of, a punishment
Insects · Mentioned in scripture: Palmer-worm — Mentioned in scripture: Palmer-worm
Judgments · Different kinds of: Famine — Different kinds of: Famine
Mildew · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Olive Tree, The · Often suffered from caterpillars — Often suffered from caterpillars
Palmer-Worm · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Vineyards · The whole produce of, often destroyed by insects, &c — The whole produce of, often destroyed by insects, &c
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 4:9
9. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord
9. Percussi vos Orientali vento et rubigine; magnos [27] hortos vestros et vites vestros et ficulneas vestras et oliveta vestra voravit bruchus (vel, eruca;) et non reversi estis usque ad me, dicit Jehova.
Though one kind of punishment may not convince men, they are yet thereby proved with sufficient clearness to be guilty before God. But when in various ways he urges them, and after having tried in vain to correct them in one way, he has recourse to another, and still…
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 sent natural disasters to bring his people to repentance, but each time they failed to respond in any sincere manner. Amos ends the account of each disaster with the refrain, “But still you would not return to me,” says the Lord.
Rashi on Amos 4:9
the increase of your gardens—That you are engaged in increasing your gardens.
the shearing locust has devoured Heb. יֹאכַל, lit., shall devour. Has devoured.
