Matthew Henry on Amos 6:8–end
In the former part of the chapter we had these secure Israelites loading themselves with pleasures, as if they could never be made merry enough; here we have God loading them with punishments, as if they could never be made miserable enough. And observe,
I. How strongly this burden is bound on, not to be shaken off by their presumption and security; for it is bound by the Lord the God of hosts, by his mighty, his almighty, hand, which none can resist; it is bound with an oath, which puts the sentence past revocation: The Lord God has sworn, and he will not repent, and, since he could swear by no greater, he has sworn by himself. How dreadful, how miserable, is the case of those whose ruin, w…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Amos 6:11
commandeth, and he will smite--His word of command, when once given, cannot but be fulfilled (Isa 55:11). His mere word is enough to smite with destruction.
great house . . . little house--He will spare none, great or small (Amo 3:15). JEROME interprets "the great house" as Israel, and "the small house" as Judah: the former being reduced to branches or ruins, literally, "small drops"; the latter, though injured with "clefts" or rents, which threaten its fall, yet still permitted to stand.
Adam Clarke on Amos 6:11
He will smote the great house with breaches - The great and small shall equally suffer; no distinction shall be made; rich and poor shall fall together; death has received his commission, and he will spare none. Horace has a sentiment precisely like this, Carm. Lib. i., Od. iv., 5:13.
Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum
Tabernas, Regumque Turres.
With equal pace impartial fate
Knocks at the palace as the cottage gate.
But this may refer particularly to the houses of the poor in Eastern countries; their mud walls being frequently full of clefts; the earth of which they are built seldom adhering together because of its sandiness.
John Gill on Amos 6:11
For, behold, the Lord commandeth,.... Hath determined and ordered the judgment before, and what follows: Kimchi paraphrases it, hath decreed the earthquake, as in Amos 3:15; of which he understands the following:
and he will smite the great house with breaches; or "droppings" (h); so that the rain shall drop through:
and the little house with clefts; so that it shall fall to ruin; that is, he shall smite the houses both of great and small, of the princes, and of the common people, either with an earthquake, so that they shall part asunder and fall; or, being left without inhabitants, shall of course become desolate, there being none to repair their breaches. Some understand, by the "great…
